Bandha Moksha

Lesson 8 BANDHA—MOKSHA

Born in free nature, for whatever reason caught by someone a parrot is put in a cage. Just like that, being the form of Iswara, the Lord of Cosmos, ‘akhilanda koti brahmanda nayaka’ we are restricted to this small skeleton with flesh and skin. The parrot is caged by someone else, but we are caged by ourselves. If the parrot is released from the cage, its form will still be the same as before. For us the form before being bonded and after release will be different. Our original form is all powerful, has no beginning and end, pure, that cannot be described, the form of chaitanya ie; universal spirit or ’paramatma’. Now to sustain this body with our limited energy, being bound in the life and death cycle, ignorance, impurities, joys and sorrows, one is bonded in the samsara. What ever the reason, we lost our natural state and took this corrupted ‘vikruta’ form. If we know the reason we can destroy this jvatva. Mahopanishat 4-21 states that human being is getting bound because, he is going around thinking “I am deteriorating, I am bound by sorrows, I am the one with hands and legs” . He gets liberated if ignorance is destroyed and develop ‘jnana’ that “I am not the bundle of flesh and bones, I am something other than this body”.

The cause of all bondage is thinking that I am this lump of flesh ‘mamsa pinda’, inspite of being the form of ‘chaitanya shakti’. This kind of thought process is due to knowledge going in the opposite direction. This is called inverted knowledge, ‘viparita jnana’. The lamp flickering in the wind loses its brightness, making the rope look like a snake and a lamp post look like a person. If there are no air movements the lamp shines brighter.

When there is no movement of ‘prana vayu’ in the body he is able to realize his true self. Manusmriti says Air is causing the cloud to obstruct the brightness of the sun. It is evident that, if we remove the cloud with the same air the sun shines in its original brightness again. Just like that moksha can be attained by removing the bondage that is created by the mind, with the same mind. ‘mana eva manushyanam karanam bhandha moksha yo:, bandhaya vishayasaktam mukti: nirvishayagam smrutam.’ Amrutabindupanishat— 2

Mind is the cause of bondage and liberation. Mind absorbed in worldly sense objects leads to bondage, detached from sense objects is the cause of liberation. The mind becoming external due to respirations ‘ vayu’ is binding us in the sense objects of hearing, touch, sight, taste, smell etc.
According to Skandopanishat –2 Due to the mind, intellect, chitta, and ego ie; inner sense organ ‘antahkarana’ going wild one is unable to see ‘as is’ causing inverted knowledge that the non existing world is real and the true braham is not real.

If the antahkaran is eliminated one is getting liberated from bondage and realizing that Hari is the embodiment of knowledge, the one with no beginning or end and that there is no difference between Hari and himself. According to Vishnuyamala just like the humongous mountain is seen small in a mirror, in the mirror of ’antahkarana’ the universal spirit is reflecting small as individual soul. As long as the mirror of antahkarana is there the reflected jivatma goes thru the cycle of births and deaths bounded by ’shadurmi’.

Shadurmi is the group of six emotional and physical feelings ie; sorrow, delusion, hunger, thirst, birth and death. Antahkarana gets destroyed by using air ,one of panchabhutas, the five primordial elements. Trishikhi Brahmanopanishat states only via pranayama one can be relived of the bondage.

Therefore moksha can be attained only by continuous sadhana, not by talks, sthula discussions, para dharma and other external sadhana.

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