Bondage

Bondage (Skt. बंधन, Bandhan) is a state of the mind.

Bondage is lack of freedom.

Bondage can take many forms, and necessarily leads to suffering. The biggest cause of bondage is ignorance.

Kinds of Bondage

Physical

Anything that can limit the freedom of the body is a bondage. It can be a disability, disease or deformation. A body free from such afflictions can be called free, unbounded.

The body (or any other physical object), by its nature cannot be totally free. It is bound by laws that maintain its structure. Absolute freedom would be absence of these laws, but then there will not be any structure, there will be no body.

Social

Other people, society, governments, relatives and jobs etc. can become a bondage. These are necessary for survival of the individual in a group or society, and therefore one is never free from them.

Emotional

Emotional states, such as sadness, depression, anger, fear, jealousy etc. can become bondages. They restrict our choices to a minimum. Actions become impulsive and mechanical.

Intellectual

Lack of intelligence leads to severe degradation of mental faculties, such as decision making, logical thought, acquisition of skills etc. These shortcomings lead to a bound and limited life.

Spiritual

Lack of spiritual knowledge and wisdom, which is essential knowledge, leads to supreme bondage. The individual is bound, even though the above mentioned bonds may not be present.

The ultimate reason for any bondage is ignorance. The cure is knowledge.

What is bound?

That which has a form will be bound, that which is formless is free. That which has limits will be bound, that which is limitless is free. That which is changing is bound, that which is changeless is free.

The ignorance is identification with that which is bound.

Liberation

Knowledge brings the realisation that all that is bound is illusory. It is also unbounded, but appears as bound momentarily. That which is bound is not my essence. My essence, and also the essence of the whole existence is unbounded. It is infinite potential. This realisation is liberation.

There is no other liberation. That which is apparently bound will remain bound, that which is free will remain free.

Nothing becomes bound, as there was nothing real which was apparently bound. Nothing becomes free, as there was never any bondage.

Mokshya, Mukti and Nirvana

These words often have many interpretations, depending on the author, tradition, culture, time and place. But largely, they mean the same. The meaning is closely relation to that of liberation, as discussed above. There can be some details, that are often pointed out, but they are insignificant.

However, there is complete agreement on this being the ultimate goal of any path.

On the path of knowledge, liberation, mokshya, mukti and nirvana are equivalent to realisation that I was never bound, and never will be. This is a result of disidentification with that which was apparently bound. The liberation is instantaneous and complete, on this path. No effort is needed, it does not take time.

A very good way is to investigate the reality of the so called individual, which is found to be illusory, and it thus leads to disidentification.

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