Freed from every hope, from every desire for pleasure and every fear of pain, a man rests at last, simply as he is
Names the three specific attachments — hope, desire for pleasure, and fear of pain — that chapter 16 treats as the last things standing between a person and rest.
Chapter 16 closes its short but dense set of instructions by naming three specific psychological postures that keep a person leaning out of the present moment: hope, which leans toward an imagined future; desire for pleasure, which reaches toward something not yet had; and fear of pain, which recoils from something not yet arrived. All three share a structure — they orient the mind toward what is not currently the case, at the expense of what already is. The rest described here is not a fourth achievement added to a person's life but simply what remains once these three leanings relax, which is why the text calls it resting as he already is rather than becoming something new.
Ashtavakra Gita
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- What the Ashtavakra Gita says about desire
Three specific postures are named as what keeps a person from rest: hope, the wish for pleasure, and the fear of pain. Each leans out of the present moment in its own direction.