Ashtavakra Gita · Verse 8.2 · Ashtavakra speaks

Liberation is attained when the mind does not desire or grieve, reject or accept, feel happy or angry.

तदा मुक्तिर्यदा चित्तं न वाञ्छति न शोचति ।न मुञ्चति न गृह्णाति न हृष्यति न कुप्यति ॥ ८-२॥

tadā muktir yadā cittaṃ na vāñchati na śocati |na muñcati na gṛhṇāti na hṛṣyati na kupyati || 8-2||

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तदा

tadā

then, at that time

adverb of time

मुक्तिः

muktiḥ

liberation, release

noun, feminine, nominative singular

Mukti (also mokṣa) is liberation from saṃsāra — the cycle of conditioned existence. Ashtavakra's radical teaching is that mukti is not a distant attainment but the natural state of the Self revealed when citta-vṛttis (mental modifications) cease. As long as we identify with these modifications, we are in bondage; when the identification dissolves, what remains is already free. Cf. Patañjali's Yoga Sūtras I.2.

यदा

yadā

when

adverb, correlative conjunction

चित्तम्

cittam

mind, mind-stuff

noun, neuter, nominative singular

The same citta that constitutes bondage in 8.1 is the site of liberation in 8.2. The difference is not in a new object but in the cessation of its modifications — a still mind reveals the Self like still water reveals the lake's bottom.

न

not

negative particle

वाञ्छति

vāñchati

desires, craves