8.1
Ashtavakra said:
It is in bondage that some mind
feels want or grief for anything –
that mind rejects what it dislikes,
but likes some things and takes them
in.
8.2
It is in freedom that no want
nor any grief is felt by mind.
For then mind does not feel
constrained
by what it likes and must accept,
nor else by what it does not like
and must accordingly reject.
8.3
It is in bondage that some mind
is felt attached to any of
these many things that seem
perceived.
It is in freedom that no mind
is felt attached to anything,
in all these things that seem
perceived.
8.4
When there’s no thought of ‘I’,
attached
to anything that seems perceived,
then liberation is attained.
But when this thought of ‘I’ appears,
it’s felt constrained by
circumstance,
in bondage to an alien world.
Reflecting thus, you come at last
to just that spontaneity
where nothing need be taken in,
nor anything needs pushing out.