Bondage and Liberation

Sage Vasishtha

When objectivity arises in your consciousness, the latter becomes conditioned and limited: that is bondage. When objectivity is abandoned, you become mind-less: that is liberation. Coming into contact with the qualities of nature is conducive to bondage; abandoning them is the road to liberation. Knowing this do whatever you please. Realizing 'I am not' and 'this is not' remain firm and unmoved, like the infinite space. Abandon the impure thought which creates a duality of self - world. In the middle between the self as the seer and the world as the seen, you are the seeing (sight): always remain in this realization. Between the experiencer and the experience you are the experiencing: knowing this remain in self-knowledge.

When, abandoning this self you think of an object, when you become the mind (subject) and thus become the subject of unhappiness. That intelligence which is other than self-knowledge is what constitutes the mind: that is the root of sorrow. When it is realized that 'all this is but the Self' there is no mind, no subject, no object and no thinking. When you think 'I am the jiva' etc. the mind arises and with it sorrow. When you know 'I am the self, the jiva and such other things do not exist', the mind ceases to be and there is supreme bliss. In the light of the truth that 'All this universe is the Self alone', the mind does not exist. Only so long as this serpent of mind is in the body is there fear; when it is removed by the practice of yoga, where is the cause for fear?
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He is beyond the perceptual and the conceptual, beyond the categories of time and space, name and shape. He is neither the perceived nor the perceiver, but the simple and the universal factor that makes perceiving possible. - Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj, I AM THAT