On Ashtavakra Gita: Wise dumbness, Sharp stupidity, Creative laziness

The following is an excerpt from a samvaad (dialogue) session with Acharya Prashant.

वाग्मिप्राज्ञामहोद्योगं जनं मूकजडालसं।

करोति तत्त्वबोधोऽयम-तस्त्यक्तो बुभुक्षभिः॥ 15.३ ॥

vāgmiprājñānamahodyogaṁ janaṁ mūkajaḍālasam karoti

tattvabodho’yamatastyakto bubhukṣabhiḥ || 15.3 ||

This awareness of the Truth makes an eloquent, clever and energetic man dumb, stupid and lazy, so it is avoided by those whose aim is enjoyment.

~ Ashatavakra Gita, Chapter 15, Verse 3

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Questioner (Q): Sir, Ashtavakra is pointing at what kind of dullness, stupidity, and laziness? Will the knower of Truth become dull, stupid, lazy? Surely, it has to be something else. Is it not so that rather the people seeking enjoyment are dull and stupid?

Acharya Prashant (AP): When Ashtavakra says ‘dumb’, that has to be read as an absence of the tendency to be verbose. Ashtavakra says that Truth turns the eloquent man…