What is stillness of mind? || Acharya Prashant, on Ashtavakra Gita (2016)
सुखे दुःखे नरे नायाॆं संपत्सु विपत्सुच ।
विशेषो नैव धीरस्य सर्वत्र समदर्शिनः।।
अष्टावक्र गीता ।।१७-१५।।
For the one of still mind, for the one of equanimous vision, there is no difference between pleasure and pain, Man and woman, good luck and bad luck, circumstantial happiness and circumstantial sadness.
Ashtavakra Gita, Chapter 17 and Verse 15
Acharya Prashant: For the one of still mind (Sthitpragya), for the one of equanimous vision (Samdarshi), there is no difference between pleasure and pain, man and woman, good luck and bad luck, circumstantial happiness and circumstantial sadness.
What is meant by one of still mind? What is equanimity? The mind is movement. The mind is detected only through change, only in diversity and differences, only in space and time. Hither and thither the mind wanders, object upon object keep appearing in it. There is something that it is searching for in all its wanderings. That which it is searching for, it tries to find it in the entire world around itself and it has numerous options. The world means an infinite variety of objects to be hopeful of, to choose from, to depend upon.
