AVG 12.8

Chapter 12 (The Seekers Understanding of Abiding in Awareness): Verse 8
एवमेव कृतं येन स कृतार्थो भवेदसौ ।
एवमेवस्वभावो यः स कृतार्थो भवेदसौ ॥ १२-८॥

PURPORT:
Whosoever has fulfilled that, has
effected what needed to be effected,
is said to have now come to the
place they seek. Having arrived,
they live there naturally, finding 
awareness within that place they
now call home. Settling into such
awareness, all that was needed to
have been done by them is now done.

TRANSLITERATION:
एवम् एव कृतम् येन सः कृतार्थः भवेत् असौ ।
evam eva kṛtam yena saḥ kṛtārthaḥ bhavet asau ।
एवम् एव स्वभावः यः सः कृतार्थः भवेत् असौ ॥ १२-८॥
evam eva svabhāvaḥ yaḥ saḥ kṛtārthaḥ bhavet asau ॥ 12-8॥

MEANING:
evam (एवम्) = thus
eva (एव) = even/indeed
kṛtam (कृतम्) = done/is accomplished
yena (येन) = by whom
saḥ (सः) = they (literally translates to masculine 'he')
kṛtārthaḥ (कृतार्थः) = one who has fulfilled an end or object or has accomplished a purpose or desire
bhavet (भवेत्) = becomes
asau (असौ) = that ।
evam (एवम्) = thus
eva (एव) = truly
svabhāvaḥ (स्वभावः) = of such nature
yaḥ (यः) = who
saḥ (सः) = they
kṛtārthaḥ (कृतार्थः) = same as above (one who has fulfilled some objective)
bhavet (भवेत्) = becomes
asau (असौ) =  that ॥ 12-8॥

COMMENT:
The final lines of this fascinating chapter ends with a simple message from Janaka - the import being that those who find awareness within themselves attain stillness of mind by engaging in a constant process of observing, witnessing and staying within the present moment in a choiceless manner. They try not to allow for wandering thoughts to linger and for those wandering thoughts to find a home within their minds and therefore discover a sense of stillness.

Variations of this message reinforced throughout this chapter also warrants an understanding that while quelling thoughts leads to stillness, the phenomenon of the wandering mind did have an evolutionary advantage for our kind of sentients. Our species must have evolved the physiology that accommodated for mind wandering to ultimately help us plan and strategize better - in the parlance of neurology, this is also referred to as Random Episodic Silent Thought (REST). In our resting states (states where we think our minds are quiescent), our minds do not rest at all - in fact, the mind is a beehive of activity that plays out multiple scenarios involving past and future timelines even as we go about our lives. These scenarios, the planning and associated preparation around events might have been the only thing that made us different and separate from the other sentients that populate our earth. In short, it is now understood that our minds readily engages in (for lack of  a better phrase) time-travel!.

The arrangement and progression of thoughts that combine imagined futures with hard-wired instinctual responses mixed along with the individuals' experience (from their past) alloyed with appropriate cultural conditioning make for a heady mix within ones mind leading to a situation where we seem to be constantly having an inner chatter within ourselves that take us away from our present tense. This evolved aptitude for what can be termed as 'cognitive time-travel' may be the seat of our intelligence - insofar as intelligence is understood as the contemplation of future scenarios based upon past memory and the instinctual calculations of value and benefits accrued to such what-if scenarios as they play out within our heads.

We seem to be constantly considering our prospects so much so that we always are lost to the current moment and appear befuddled within the thought clouds that engulf our minds. While this aspect of mind-wandering has allowed for numerous advantages including the willingness to forfeit present value benefits in anticipation of a future state that will purportedly hold benefits for the individual (and the community), the disadvantages inherent within this evolutionary makeup include the loss of our presence within the immediate juncture.

Within the context of the present day, the words of Janaka in this chapter ring ever so true - where the rapid advent of technological change and the ready availability of information whose rate of modification and transformation has far outpaced the rate of evolutionary processes our brains are used to over millennia - the anchoring of oneself within the present moment is far more important now than ever. While in the past, mind wandering and REST performed a critical and essential evolutionary function in moving our species forward, the phenomenon of REST has become somewhat akin to a curse. Tamping down and mitigating the fluctuations of the mind and the thoughts therein is really the objective behind most (if not all) of our great spiritual traditions. In that sense, one may use any tradition or method as a way to get to a place where the fluctuations within the mind are stilled - it does not matter which method or technique or practice - all that really matters is the cessation of wandering thoughts and our reaching a state of stillness that leads to the eventual extinguishment of the fluctuations that arise spontaneously within our brains.

NOTE:
On a related note, a thought experiment that comes to mind insofar as it relates to REST can be understood as follows: Imagine for a moment that your mind is akin to a fast food drive-through. A customer who goes by the name of 'Thought' comes by and stops at the drive-through microphone to create an order. One is considered more fortunate if the drive-through ignores all orders from customers named 'Thought' for any of the proffered items on the menu. One instead stays with the stillness and the peace offered by the drive-through building. It is seen that the stillness within the drive-through is enhanced every time such customers with the same name drives up and their orders are summarily ignored. One only pays careful attention to these customers as they drive in, pay attention (but not act on) while these kind of customers tarry at the drive-through line shouting out the order (and demands to be paid attention to) and, of course, notice the eventual departure of the customer when the customer understands that their order had not been heeded to.