AVG 12.4

Chapter 12 (The Seekers Understanding of Abiding in Awareness): Verse 4
हेयोपादेयविरहादेवं हर्षविषादयोः ।
अभावादद्य हे ब्रह्मन्नेवमेवाहमास्थितः ॥ १२-४॥

PURPORT:
From the casting away of the acceptable
and the rejectable and thus repudiating
distinctions, I do not display excitement
nor misery and am hence impassive to
internal and external turbulence.
Thus, here and now, I rest easy; within
the stillness of the true nature of reality
as experienced and felt by me.
Truly, thus, do I abide in calm tranquility.

TRANSLITERATION:
हेयोपादेयविरहात् एवम् हर्षविषादयोः ।
heyopādeyavirahāt evam harṣaviṣādayoḥ ।
अभावात् अद्य हे ब्रह्मन् एवम् एव अहम् आस्थितः॥ १२-४॥
abhāvāt adya he brahman evam eva aham āsthitaḥ॥ 12-4॥

MEANING:
heyopādeyavirahāt (हेयोपादेयविरहात्) = from the casting away of the sense of the acceptable and the rejectable (compound of heyo (हेयो) meaning 'to be avoided/to be subtracted' and upādeya (उपादेय) meaning 'to be accepted/to be included/not to be refused' and virahāt (विरहात्) meaning 'from the abandonment/from the casting away of')
evam (एवम्) = thus
harṣaviṣādayoḥ (हर्षविषादयोः) = of excitement and sorrow (compound of harṣa (हर्ष) meaning 'happiness/excitement' and viṣādayoḥ (विषादयोः) meaning 'sorrow/dejection/misery')।
abhāvāt (अभावात्) = from not happening/from not taking place
adya (अद्य) = now/today
he (हे) = oh! (as in an exclamation of veneration)
brahman (ब्रह्मन्) = nature of reality of the universe (please see verse 1.20 for a more expansive interpretation)
evam (एवम्) = thus
eva (एव) = indeed
aham (अहम्) = I
āsthitaḥ (आस्थितः) = abide/exist ॥ 12-4॥

COMMENT:
The phrase harṣaviṣādayoḥ abhāvāt (हर्षविषादयोः अभावात्) translated as ‘not entertaining any feelings of joy or sorrow’ has the potential for a narrow reading where the import can be construed as playing down that manifestation of our conscious being that is both useful and exceptional. Feelings of joy and sorrow are truly an expression of the creative forces of our intelligent being and Janaka does not in any way want to negate these extraordinary expressive outputs of our being. Awareness is sometimes deduced (on narrower reading) as the passive observance of thoughts and emotions in the form of an ‘unflappable witnesser of the flow of thoughts without the essential being involved in the manner’, where all of the activities and action around is deemed irrelevant when viewed through a dispassionate, impersonal lens. This is far from what Janaka has in mind with this verse.

Life before becoming aware and holding oneself onto the peaceable nature of being aware should have been one of participating, cooperating, engaging and sharing and it remains that life after understanding and realizing awareness must also continue to be one of participating, cooperating, engaging and sharing. Nothing has changed. Nothing should change.

It is just that with awareness, the presence of mind  in the present moment and time spent within the moment becomes the center of one’s attention, actions and understanding. Thought fluctuations are observed and let go, they happen on the peripheries of such awareness. In this sense, awareness and our personableness (our personalities without any indication or interference of an ego component) that ideally manifest as choicelessly conscious entities merge into one. Put simply, they complement each other. Without awareness, the self-conscious aspects of being personable has the potential for being raw, befuddled and ego-centric. Without aspects of personableness and the attendant intelligence, organic awareness ipso facto would have been akin to just plentiful rain falling into the middle of the ocean - neither helping nor hurting nor filling nor draining.

Awareness and the sense of personableness that mindfully channels the joy, grief, anguish, hurt, cheer, elation and glee into a unified elemental whole without the imparting of self-imposed and self-constructed biases nor choices is key and it is this aspect that needs to be borne in mind when reading the verse.