Ashtavakra Gita

The peace of the enlightened is not something achieved through practice, but is simply what remains when every effort has finally ceased

Peace, in this account, isn't the reward earned at the end of a spiritual practice but simply what's left over once the practicer stops trying.

This is one of the more counterintuitive claims in the chapter, because most paths to peace are described as things you build toward through sustained effort — discipline, meditation, ethical training. Ashtavakra instead treats effort itself as the last obstacle: as long as someone is striving to attain peace, they're still operating from the assumption of a separate self with distance yet to close. The verse suggests peace was never actually absent, only obscured by the very seeking meant to find it, so it surfaces the moment the search is dropped rather than completed. This lines up with the chapter's broader picture of enlightenment as recognition rather than achievement.

Ashtavakra Gita

Written about in

• Does the Ashtavakra Gita reject spiritual practice?

  Peace is not the result at the end of a practice. It is described as what remains once the practising stops, which means it cannot be built up.