Bondage, freedom and fear of death || Acharya Prashant, on Yogavasishtha (2016)

आज्ञाभयसंशयात्मगुणसङ्कल्पो बन्धः ।

ājñābhayasaṁśayātmaguṇasaṅkalpō bandhaḥ

Bondage is to imagine that Ātman has qualities like doubts, fear, etc.

~ Niralamba Upanishad, Verse 25

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Acharya Prashant (AP): “Bondage is to imagine that Ātman has qualities like doubts or fear etc. Bondage is to imagine that Ātman has doubt or fear.”

We live in doubt, we live in fear, right? And when we live in doubt and when we live in fear, we say, “I am in doubt,” or, “I am fearful.” We feel certain that the state of doubt or fear is really our own internal state. We do not think of doubt, fear, and all mental states as external superpositions; we proudly, and with great certainty, internalize them. We do not even say, “Doubt is coming to me”; we do not even say, “I am experiencing fear.” We simply say, “I am afraid.”

The sage is saying:

When you are experiencing any of these mental states, you must know that the experiencer is not you because the Ātman cannot experience them.

That’s what the verse is saying. “Bondage is to associate Ātman with fear, doubt, etc.”