AVG 11.7

Chapter 11 (Coherence on a choiceless witnessing of happenings) Verse 7
आब्रह्मस्तम्बपर्यन्तमहमेवेति निश्चयी ।
निर्विकल्पः शुचिः शान्तः प्राप्ताप्राप्तविनिर्वृतः ॥ ११-७॥

PURPORT:
It is my perception alone creates everything
from manifest reality down to the tiniest
tuft of grass - one who knows this for
certain is released of all the ponderous
conflicts of conditioned thought and is
lucid and tranquil; they thus turn away
from what is attained and not attained.

TRANSLITERATION:
आब्रह्मस्तम्बपर्यन्तम् अहम् एव इति निश्चयी ।
ābrahmastambaparyantam aham eva iti niścayī ।
निर्विकल्पः शुचिः शान्तः प्राप्ताप्राप्तविनिर्वृतः ॥ ११-७॥
nirvikalpaḥ śuciḥ śāntaḥ prāptāprāptavinirvṛtaḥ ॥ 11-7॥

MEANING:
ābrahmastambaparyantam (आब्रह्मस्तम्बपर्यन्तम्) = from manifest reality down to a tiny tuft of grass (see verse 2.11 and 1.20 for relevant brief commentary on the designation brahma - here taken to mean as 'manifest reality')
aham (अहम्) = I
eva (एव) = truly
iti (इति) = thus
niścayī (निश्चयी) = one who knows for certain ।
nirvikalpaḥ (निर्विकल्पः) = free from ponderous conflicts and thoughts
śuciḥ (शुचिः) = pure, lucid
śāntaḥ (शान्तः) = peaceful/tranquil
prāptāprāptavinirvṛtaḥ (प्राप्ताप्राप्तविनिर्वृतः) = turned away from what is accomplished and what is unaccomplished (compound of prāpta (प्राप्त) meaning 'accomplished/attained' and aprāpta (अप्राप्त) meaning 'unaccomplished/unattained' and vinirvṛtaḥ (विनिर्वृतः) meaning 'turns away from') ॥ 11-7॥

COMMENT:
The sentiment that bubbles to the surface in this verse is inherent within the phrase used by Ashtavakra in the last line - prāptāprāptavinirvṛtaḥ (प्राप्ताप्राप्तविनिर्वृतः) - or to free oneself of all ideas of attainment and non-attainment. Most seekers live their lives in a state of expectation - an expectation that happiness and satisfaction will come as soon as they attain whatever it is the next thing that they have mentally prepared themselves for 'attainment'. Most seekers seem to live within this state of expectation and attempt to manage and partition their activities and life in general in various way in order that they may attain this vaunted state of satisfaction and happiness. Some try to superimpose an imagined state of happiness upon whatever turmoil they imagine within their minds, others turn to extraneous contrivances and accessories in the hopes that an expedient arrangement of such adornments will give them a measure of peace (little realizing that all such superimpositions and makeshift stratagems are akin to short-lived discrete binary fluctuations whose value rises to a higher level for short intervals only to fall back to the default mode once the interval passes). Seekers try and extend either the interval or the height of attainment not understanding that the nature of attainment and the resultant measure of happiness gained itself is ephemeral.

The provenance of such searching is the assumption that the seekers internal state of happiness or satisfaction is impelled and motivated by the circumstances that the seeker is subject to as a result of external forces. The implicit acceptance of such an assumption becomes a self-fulfilling mindset whose effect is to propel the seeker in the prevailing direction of the external force which by nature is random and whimsical. Owing to the random nature of the forces, there are instances where the seekers desires alongside the chanciness of the world blithely meets and happiness results - albeit fleetingly - and there are other times where the seekers motivations are at odds with the world and suffering results. In many cases, the seekers tries to control the outcomes of the latter and tries to prolong the results of the former - in all cases ultimately unsuccessfully; as the nature of both are fleeting and impermanent.

Clarity results only when one starts to become emotionally impervious to the fluctuations that happen around them - an internal acclimatization where the equanimity flows when one has understood that their prior beliefs and conditioning no longer drive their outlook, mindset and emotional states. This only happens as a result of a meticulous examination of our internal states that begin with our thoughts and end with our thoughts. Examining each thought, its origins, its motivations, its velocity of propagation and its direction allows for one to understand the root conditioning that must have given rise to the particular point of view implicit within the thought. Reorienting and overriding our natural defaults that ride implicit within our thoughts (that have been nurtured through years of conditioning) can take various forms, but fundamental to such reorienting is the understanding that entities and things by their very natures are impermanent and will change, the outlook and the mindset that we bring to bear upon a situation is in reality our own perspective colored and channeled by our past inculcation of culture and lastly the understanding that nothing whatsoever displays a foundational footing that implicates an undying, eternal essence. It can thus be inferred that the only thing that prevents a seeker from seeing that innate sense of awareness is the attachment towards and a hankering for an 'enlightened self' rather than 'selfless enlightenment'.