AVG 10.5

Chapter 10 (A sense of repose through the renunciation of craving) Verse 5
त्वमेकश्चेतनः शुद्धो जडं विश्वमसत्तथा ।
अविद्यापि न किञ्चित्सा का बुभुत्सा तथापि ते ॥ १०-५॥

PURPORT:
You are unified with reality; of pristine awareness
and undifferentiated. The universe as
perceived is inert and passive and only
hallucinatory. In this sense, you are not moved
by those sensations that appear to be real
but are created within your mind. Thus, how can
the curiosity to know the extremes of pleasure
or of discontent be found within you?

TRANSLITERATION:
त्वम् एकः चेतनः शुद्धः जडम् विश्वम् असत् तथा ।
tvam ekaḥ cetanaḥ śuddhaḥ jaḍam viśvam asat tathā ।
अविद्या अपि न किञ्चित् सा का बुभुत्सा तथा अपि ते ॥ १०-५॥
avidyā api na kiñcit sā kā bubhutsā tathā api te ॥ 10-5॥

MEANING:
tvam (त्वम्) = you
ekaḥ (एकः) = one/unified/indissoluble
cetanaḥ (चेतनः) = pure awareness (literal meaning 'consciousness/intelligence')
śuddhaḥ (शुद्धः) = pure/pristine
jaḍam (जडम्)* = inert/passive/sans intelligence*
viśvam (विश्वम्) = universe
asat (असत्) = unreal/hallucinatory (sensations that appear to be real but are created within the mind)
tathā (तथा) = and ।
avidyā (अविद्या) = ignorance (as being in a state of being unaware)
api (अपि) = also
na (न) = not (as in 'not ignorant' and not being taken up by those sensations that appear to be real but are created within the mind)
kiñcit (किञ्चित्) = anything
sā (सा) = that
kā (का) = what
bubhutsā (बुभुत्सा) = curiosity about/desire to know
tathā (तथा) = likewise
api (अपि) = also
te (ते) = your ॥ 10-5॥

COMMENT:
Ashtavakra here asserts two facets of awareness – one subtle and one overt; the subtle aspect is that awareness that allows for the seeker to attain a measure of tranquility is always inherent within the seeker and this awareness can be realized by a process of self-inquiry and by living an examined life that is unbiased. The overt aspect of this verse teaches that ignorance (referred to as avidyā (अविद्या) in the verse) is non-existent within the one who has this measure of tranquility.
The one who is tranquil will have understood the true nature of the objects within the world without the yearning for additional sensory experiences. Within the context of this verse, avidyā refers to a misunderstanding of the nature of reality and more specifically, about the non-discoverability the self. In this sense, it is not lack of information (as is traditionally connoted by the word 'ignorance' or avidyā), but a conditioned perspective of the world intrinsic to the individual that prompts the individual to perceive and assign essence/basis/spirit to phenomena that may be conventionally real but ultimately empty of any such essence or spirit. This does not stem from a willful rejection of the nature of reality, but more from a misperception as a result of past conditioning. One understands that avidyaa (I would term it as 'non-insight' of the true nature of reality) is akin to a seeker mistaking conventional reality as the only conceivable reality and to misidentify entities as fundamentally cloaked within permanence (when impermanence is really the only constant within our lives). Non-insight is also the sense of conferring the notion of 'self' upon objects that are ultimately empty of any underlying stratum that abides forever. One also understands that the idea of avidyaa mentioned here (rather than the traditional concept of sin as speculated in certain spiritual traditions) is the seat for unhappiness within the individual as the individual confers spirit or self within objects that do not have any such abiding nature within themselves.

NOTE:
*In relation to Ashtavakra’s assertion (he uses the word jaḍam (जडम्)) that the universe is potentially devoid of information and by translation inert and non-intelligent, the following is a presumptive speculation (albeit hopeful) about the disparate nature of entropy, the increasing volume of information generated by sentients and my own way of reconciling the two in the far future.
Entropy increases as the universe ages. This means that the total volume of all useful information that has been generated in the far future will be at best be composed of disparate bits of information at very large distances from each other. Therefore, one surmises that while a large amount of information content might be out there, the assembling and assimilation (as in collecting and constructing the bits to make sense) of the same may well-nigh be impossible. Contrast this with the fact that as sentient beings evolve, the sum total of all information created and added to the universe is constantly increasing as sentients go through the process of evolution, adaptation and improvisation - in fact, some people might explain the classical concept of reincarnation this way - where the useful information left behind by sentient beings is added to the ever growing volume of information already amassed and the information generated by us is one way we may be remembered/reincarnated.
Reconciling these two thoughts was hard for me (the futility inherent in the idea that the juggernaut of entropy marches unstoppably and the hope and promise implicit in recovering information generated thus far in the future). This made me think of branes (short for membranes) – the hypothesis that there are other universes out there with differing sets of fundamental physical constants that may either be viable, or, be on the edge of viability or, non-viable; we sentients seem to have made the ‘viability-cut’ due to a nice blend of fundamental constants that interplay well to create structures like you and I.
If we presume that each of many universes (one of which is this particular universe that you and I inhabit where the constants align to permit life) represents a thin slice of a great whole, maybe the disparate information that we sentients have generated will at some point of time in the far future find their way into another brane where the physical constants differ by appropriate degrees that allow for the information to be reconstituted (in part or whole). If this speculative scenario manifests, it then becomes somewhat comforting to think that the information that we create and add onto the universe may have a chance of being assimilated and all of our thoughts and ideas rejuvenated again.