Great is the man who neither exerts himself to act nor exerts himself to remain still, but simply rests in what he is
Identifies effort itself, even the effort to be peaceful or motionless, as the last obstacle the chapter wants removed.
This teaching sharpens the previous one by targeting a subtler trap: a person might stop striving to act, only to start striving to stay still, mistaking a new kind of exertion for the peace being sought. Chapter 12 calls the greater achievement the one where neither kind of effort operates — not busy exertion toward activity, and not tense exertion toward quietude. What replaces both is simply resting in what one already is, which by definition requires no maintenance, since it was never produced by effort to begin with. It is a fine but important distinction in a text repeatedly concerned with the difference between manufactured calm and calm that was never actually absent.
Ashtavakra Gita
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- Does the Ashtavakra Gita reject spiritual practice?
A subtler trap is named. A person stops straining to act and begins straining to stay still; both are exertion, and the chapter praises whoever does neither.