AVG 3.12

Chapter 3 (Challenging The Seekers Understanding): Verse 12
निःस्पृहं मानसं यस्य नैराश्येऽपि महात्मनः ।
तस्यात्मज्ञ्नानतृप्तस्य तुलना केन जायते ॥३-१२॥

PURPORT:
With whom can we compare that one?
That one with great self-awareness, who,
content in the knowledge that comes with
impartial awareness and choiceless action,
is free of desire even in disappointment.

TRANSLITERATION:
निःस्पृहम् मानसम् यस्य नैराश्ये अपि महात्मनः ।
niḥspṛham mānasam yasya nairāśye api mahātmanaḥ ।
तस्य आत्मज्ञ्नानतृप्तस्य तुलना केन जायते ॥३-१२॥
tasya ātmajñnānatṛptasya tulanā kena jāyate ॥3-12॥

MEANING:
niḥspṛham (निःस्पृहम्) = free of longing and desire/indifferent
mānasam (मानसम्) = mind
yasya (यस्य) = whose
nairāśye (नैराश्ये) = in disappointment/in hopelessness/in non-expectancy
api (अपि) = even
mahātmanaḥ (महात्मनः) = of the one with a great self-awareness (literally mahātmanaḥ is Sanskrit for "Great Soul" (महात्मा mahātmā: महा mahā (great) + आत्मं or आत्मन ātman [soul]). mahātmanaḥ is similar in usage to the modern English term saint and can be translated to "ascended master".)।
tasya (तस्य) = their (translated literally as masculine 'his' in Sanskrit, but I prefer to use their or they)
ātmajñnānatṛptasya (आत्मज्ञ्नानतृप्तस्य) = of them who is satisfied with self-knowledge and awareness (compound of ātmajñnāna (आत्मज्ञ्नान) meaning 'self-knowledge and self-awareness' and tṛptasya (नतृप्तस्य) meaning 'belonging to contentment/fulfillment/satisfaction')
tulanā (तुलना) = comparing/on par with
kena (केन) = with whom
jāyate (जायते) = can be/happen/become ॥3-12॥

COMMENTS:
The key lines here is the idea of being desireless even within disappointment. Those of us who are seekers might have a tendency to further pursue our desires and aspirations with renewed vigor in the face of disappointment as it might serve as a temporary salve to ward off the crushing pessimism of disappointment. Modern culture even encourages the insidious concept of engaging in 'binge consumerism to ward off the blues'. Ashtavakra reasons that the precept understands that gain and loss, praise and blame, pleasure and pain, happiness and unhappiness are only two sides of the same coin. One of these cannot exist without the other - in fact, any one of gain, praise, pleasure, or happiness cannot be characterized as such without implicitly or explicitly referencing the flip side of each of these factors. We tend to cling to our desires for the productive and forward looking while naturally being filled with revulsion to the concomitant pessimism that such positivity accompanies. Despite all of one's efforts, one does not get many of the things that one wants, or, even if one has managed to obtain the things they so desire, they do not continue to offer up the level of happiness that accrued when one first obtained the thing. In this sense, Ashtavakra gently informs that the precept understands these fundamental truths and thus works through their disappointment.