Liberation that we want is an extension of bondage || Acharya Prashant, on Niralamba Upanishad(2020)

केवलमोक्षा-पेक्षासङ्कल्पो बन्धः ।

kēvalamōkṣā-pēkṣāsaṅkalpō bandhaḥ

Bondage is to plan to devote oneself exclusively to liberation.

~ Niralamba Upanishad, Verse 27

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सङ्कल्पमात्रसंभवो बन्धः ।

saṅkalpamātrasaṁbhavō bandhaḥ

Bondage is what springs exclusively from imagination.

~ Niralamba Upanishad, Verse 28

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Acharya Prashant (AP): ‘Bondage is to plan to devote oneself to mokṣa (liberation). Bondage is the exclusive pursuit of mokṣa .’

The student does not know what to say, where to stand, whether to exist at all. The teacher is telling him the very pursuit of mokṣa is bondage. And he says, ‘What have I come to you for, then? I have come to you to gain mokṣa , and you are saying the very pursuit of mokṣa is bondage?’ Yes, it is.

The mokṣa that the ego desires is nothing but an extension of the ego. The liberation that bondage craves for is nothing but another dimension of bondage itself. Bondage has no business, no right asking for liberation. The only honest act permissible to bondage is…