AVG 11.5

Chapter 11 (Coherence on a choiceless witnessing of happenings) Verse 5
चिन्तया जायते दुःखं नान्यथेहेति निश्चयी ।
तया हीनः सुखी शान्तः सर्वत्र गलितस्पृहः ॥ ११-५॥

PURPORT:
The one who has realized that by thoughts
and worries alone is suffering and misery
perceived and manifested thus becomes free
from the same and attains a tranquil state
devoid of thoughts and worries; their minds
are extinguished of clinging and longing
and they are happy wherever they go.

TRANSLITERATION:
चिन्तया जायते दुःखम् न अन्यथा इह इति निश्चयी ।
cintayā jāyate duḥkham na anyathā iha iti niścayī ।
तया हीनः सुखी शान्तः सर्वत्र गलितस्पृहः ॥ ११-५॥
tayā hīnaḥ sukhī śāntaḥ sarvatra galitaspṛhaḥ ॥ 11-5॥

MEANING:
cintayā (चिन्तया) = by thoughts and by worried apprehension
jāyate (जायते) = is produced/is manifested
duḥkham (दुःखम्) = suffering
na (न) = not
anyathā (अन्यथा) = otherwise (other than by thoughts and worry, by nothing else is suffering produced)
iha (इह) = here
iti (इति) = thus
niścayī (निश्चयी) = one who has known for certain ।
tayā (तया) = from that ('that' as in thoughts and worries)
hīnaḥ (हीनः) = vacant of/devoid (vacant of thoughts and worries)
sukhī (सुखी) = placid/happy
śāntaḥ (शान्तः) = tranquil
sarvatra (सर्वत्र) = everywhere
galitaspṛhaḥ (गलितस्पृहः) = rid of clinging and longing (compound of galita (गलित) meaning 'desires/longing/covetousness' and spṛhaḥ (स्पृहः) meaning 'waning/decayed/perished/rid of') ॥ 11-5॥

COMMENT:
In this verse, Ashtavakra points to the fact that the sense of elation and sorrow that cycle through our being, the alternating rhythms of arising and cessation that we witness around us are ultimately given solid footing within the thought fluctuations of the mind. In the context of this verse, the underlying message seems to be that the seeker strives to find ways to gradually tamp down the fluctuations within themselves at will. The erstwhile term for this from Zen practice is the 'monkey mind' - thoughts within us supposedly dancing and prancing and moving and stopping without apparent volition nor plan.

As children, we are born with a field of conscious bearing that is impressionably blank - a field of childish being that lives within the fullness offered by that very moment and participating and reaching to the environment in a manner that comes naturally from within the instinctual core. The process of growing up impinges upon the young-being all of the desires, likes, dislikes, concepts and other forms of choices that society consciously or unconsciously imparts upon the young. This impingement results in the non-volitional invoking of evolutionary processes within our brains that aid planning for the future based upon the past and current impressions on the child. The onset of planning for the future produces within the child a sense of identity and that identity 'wants' and 'identifies' with some of the choices presented and decision-making is initiated based upon past conditioning. In parallel, the identity is constantly soliciting acceptance and/or rejection of norms, values, ethics, practices and mores from the immediate environment to strengthen the ego and build the sense of I am 'this/that/or_other' and starts the dualistic process of separation where the 'I am this/I am that/I am some other' is apart from the 'this/that/the_other'.

The sense of otherness and planning and fostering of this aspect of separation results in the creation of various scenarios within their minds that plays out elaborate what/if options that lead the now mature seeker down multiple rabbit holes of fancy and fear. The seeker seems to constantly end up with an inner dialogue that starts with mild chatter, then morphs to form a conversation and, in some cases, becomes a cacophony of multiple points of view within their heads.
Ashtavakra cautions us of the depth of this particular rabbit hole and implies that the first step is in the seekers' understanding of this process of discursive thought that goes on within their minds and start to see the thoughts for what they are - random biologically generated fluctuations that are generated autonomously and mediated by conditioned feedback on a continual basis - and then begin the process of stilling them.

The natural flow of thoughts unimpeded has an evolutionary purpose insofar as it relates to long term planning, but understand that we are not performing planning for the long term every waking moment. Managing and actually starting to see and witness the flow of thoughts allows for the seeker to slowly understand that there is a space of stillness between two autonomous thoughts - what might seem like a continuous flow of thoughts starts to look like a discrete process of arising, enduring and cessation - thoughts also seem to follow the same patterns of rising and ceasing that all other natural phenomena within our natural worlds follow - we are no different. Looking for that discrete space of stillness between the ceasing of one and the arising of the next and building upon the space is what many seekers look to experience - this space of stillness or a state of flow where time comes to a standstill and 'you just are' can be characterized by many names - meditation, orgasm, peak states of physical activity - ultimately, all these states realize a condition where the sense of self and the sense of ego is diminished and muted - a space where there is peace within the present moment - just like the child that you began.

In retrospect, the objective of poems like Ashtavakra and the words herein (or spiritual traditions for that matter) are not to teach concepts nor designations nor doctrinal injunctions - the objective is for the seeking reader to reach a space where there is peace within. The use of elaborate classifications, designations, exalted rituals, elaborate liturgies and hierarchies ultimately are creations that culture devised whose aims must have been well meant at the time of their creation - aims whose  explicit goals were for the seeker to reach that inner stillness and cultivate that sense of tranquility - of course, like all of our well meant creations, the spiritual traditions managed to adapt and envelop these to the very structure that they were trying to extinguish - the ego and the power structures and the patriarchs who guarded the same - Ashtavakra in this verse only asks us to remember these fundamental understandings that allow the seekers to get back to their basic roots.