4.1. The Nature of Bondage

The Vacanāmṛta teaches us that by its essential nature and form, the jīva is pure (Vacanāmṛta Sārangpur 1, Loyā. 10), and without any defects (Vacanāmṛta Gadhadā I/64, Loyā. 10) from the influence of māyā (Vacanāmṛta Sārangpur 9, Gadh. 2/57), beyond the three guṇas (Vacanāmṛta Sārangpur 9), and brahmarūpa (Vacanāmṛta Gadhadā I/77, Loyā. 10, Gadh. 2/8).

Yet, the jīva is innately bound to its causal body in the form of ignorance and māyā. Svāminārāyaṇa explains:

“The kāraṇa (causal) body is the māyā of the jīva. That same kāraṇa body develops into the sthūla and sūkṣma bodies. Therefore, all three -the sthūla, sūkṣma and kāraṇa bodies -can be said to be the māyā of the jīva. In the same manner, virāt, sutrātman and avyakta can be said to be the māyā of īśvaras.” (Vacanāmṛta Kāriyānī 12, p.275)

Svāminārāyaṇa further explains that these three bodies of jīva and īśvaras cause the tight bondage.

“This māyā of the jīva, i.e., the kāraṇa body, is enclosed so strongly to the jīva that they cannot be split by any means whatsoever.” (Vacanāmṛta Kāriyānī 12, P.275)

In fact, the fundamental reason for the jīva to be bound in this manner is its kāraṇa-causal—body. Since the kāraṇa body is real, the bondage of the jīva is also real. In the Svāminārāyaṇa Darśana,

bandhaḥ satyastathā muktiḥ sarvajīveśvarā''tmanām |
anādyajñānato baddhāḥ sādhanānmuktimāpnuyuḥ ||^[1]

“The bondage and liberation of jīvas and īśvaras are real. They are bound by eternal ignorance and will be liberated through the spiritual endeavor.”

In reality, the elemental form and nature of the jīva is totally detached and distinct from the sthūla, sūkṣma and kāraṇa (gross, subtle, and causal). Despite this, due to ignorance, the jīva believes that the deficiencies, traits, and natures of these three bodies are a part of its essential original form. This ignorance is due to not having the knowledge of its own pure form, which is characterized by eternal existence, consciousness and bliss (Gadh. 1/20). Due to this lack of knowledge of its pure form, the jīva identifies itself with the nature of the kāraṇa body and other bodies to which it becomes firmly attached and believes this to be its real form instead (Gadh. 1/44, Gadh. 2/2). Believing oneself to be the body and attachment towards one’s body is itself the root cause of all defects (Loyā. 6). This is the prominent reason for one’s pain and misery in this life and thereafter.

The Brhadāraṇyaka-upaniṣad provokes this matter:

anandā nāma te lokā andhena tamasā''vṛtāḥ tānste pretyabhigacchanti vidvāso'budho janāḥ || Brhadāraṇyaka-upaniṣad 4/4/11 ||

“There are indeed those unblessed worlds, covered with blind darkness. Those who are ignorant and not enlightened go after death to those worlds.”

Bhadreśadāsa explains it while commenting on this verse:

“brahmavidyāvirahitā ye janāste sarve'pi anandā nāma tadākhyā ānandaghanavidhurāḥ andhena tamasāvṛtāḥ gāḍhamāyāndhakārāviṣṭāḥ te ye duḥkhaikalakṣaṇāḥ lokāstān pretya mṛtvā abhi gacchati abhito muhurmuhur gacchati |” (Brhadāraṇyaka-upaniṣad 4/4/11, p.276)

“Those who have not attained brahmavidyā will invariably go to the realms which are sorrowful and covered with the blind and dense darkness of māyā.”

Here the Bhāṣyakāra explicitly mentions that māyā is the cause of bondage for an aspirant. In other words, this māyā binds the aspirant due to his attachment to his body. Bhadreśadāsa tactfully adds it in the Īśa-upaniṣad while explaining ‘ātmahano janāḥ’ firstly, he launches the pūrvapakṣa’s question that if the ātman is immortal then how can it be destroyed? Bhadreśadāsa argues that because of the perpetual attachment of the three bodies an aspirant flop to realize his true self atman, with Brahman and Parabrahman. Due to this deficiency, he falls in the cycle of deaths and births. Consequently, it becomes a fundamental characteristic of bondage.

Bhadreśadāsa further explains it by quoting the Īśāvāsyopaniṣad verse:

‘hiraṇmayena pātreṇa satyasyāpihitaṃ mukham’ (Īśa-upaniṣad 15)

“Due to the golden vessel, the sat is hidden.”

He elucidates that just as gold attracts and increases desire, so does māyā. That is why, here, māyā 343

has been called a golden vessel. The word satya implies ātman, Akṣarabrahman, and Parabrahman as they are the forms of truth. Therefore, true knowledge is hidden due to ignorance in the form of māyā. (Īśa-upaniṣad 15, pp.22-23)

This ignorance, Svāminārāyaṇa identifies:

“Is of the form of māyā. With the ātman’s causal body makes the connection even more clear. The jīva also holds the causal body, which is the embodiment of eternal ignorance.^[2] Connecting this ignorance back to māyā, defines māyā as nothing but the sense of I-ness towards the body and my-ness towards anything related to the body.”^[3] (Vacanāmṛta Kāriyānī 12)

To begin with, any actions performed while in a state of ignorance (i.e. self-identification with the bodies) accrue kārmas which are then stored in the causal body. These kārmas that the jīva has performed with such attachment during past lives have become integrated with the jīva. Just as fire enters iron and turns it into a fire-like entity, similarly these kārmas fully ripen, they cling to the ātman, as if becoming a part of it.

The Bhāṣyakāra explains:

“anādita eva saṃcitatāṃ prāpya jīveśvarātmanuliptāni kāraṇāvyākṛtākhyānādyavidyāśarīrarūpāṇi karmāṇi pralīnabhāvagatāni vidyanta eva tadanuguṇatayā sṛṣṭimudbhāvayati paramātmā |” (Brahmasūtra 2/1/36, p.186)

“The storage of the kārmas in which the causal bodies of jīvas and īśvaras in the form of avidyā or māyā remain latent since time immemorial. Parabrahman creates the universe according to their kārmas.”

Svāminārāyaṇa explains:

“This māyā of the jīva, i.e. the causal body, is attached so firmly to the jīva that they cannot be separated by any means whatsoever... just as the shell of a tamarind seed is extremely firmly attached to the seed.” (Vacanāmṛta Kāriyānī 12, p.275) Those grown and matured karmas become the cause of the cycle of birth and death.

Therefore, desires { vāsanā), born of ignorance, become the root cause of more and more lives in the perpetual transmigratory cycle. Due to vāsanā being born out of ignorance, the jīva roams in the cycle of 8.4 million life forms and experiences pain and pang. As long as the māyā that binds the jīva is not uprooted, the jīva has to take birth and die uncountable times. At the time of creation, the jīvas arise from within māyā (Gadh. 3/10), and at the time of dissolution, the jīvas are absorbed back into māyā along with their kāraṇa body (Gadh. 1/12).

Albeit, māyā/ ignorance/the causal body still conceals the ātman, obstructing and objecting to a full realization of its conscious, pure, blissful self and of the limitlessly blissful Parabrahman who resides therein and all around. Instead, that ignorance holds the ātman captive to the body’s never-ending needs and the voracious desires of the mind, entrapping it ever more into a transmigratory existence with all its limitations and sufferings of birth, decay, disease, disappointment, and death. As far as the bondage of jīva is concerned, the three guṇas of māyā also cause bondage for the jīvas and īśvaras.

The Bhagavad-Gītā mentions:

sattvaṃ rajastama iti guṇāḥ prakṛtisambhavāḥ |
nibadhnanti mahābāho dehe dehinamavyayam ||^[4]

“Sattva or goodness, rajas or activity, and tamas or inertia; these three guṇas (states, moods) of māyā bind the eternal self to the body.”

The Bhāṣyakāra elucidates:

“sattvaṃ rajastama iti trayo guṇāḥ dehe triguṇamayaprakṛtikāryārabdhesmin śarīrevasthitaṃ dehinaṃ dehāt svarūpato vilakṣaṇamapyanādyajñānād dehādhyāsavantamātmānaṃ nibadhnanti saṃsārabandhanamāpādayanti | devamanuṣyāditattaccharīrayogamāpādayanti iti bhāvaḥ |” (Bhagavad-Gītā 14/5, p.295)

“Although this māyic body which is composed of three guṇas; sattva, rajas and tama, is distinct from the ātman yet, due to the constant association with the body, it becomes bound and subject to attain the various births as deva, human, etc.”

The Bhagavad-Gītā goes further and illustrates the matter one by one.^[5] In this manner, we discussed the nature of the bondage of jīva, which is essential to understand the nature of liberation. This is what the Vedanta texts promise liberation from, and what aspirers of liberation (mumukṣu) earnestly endeavor towards.

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

Svāminārāyaṇa Siddhāntasudhā Kārikā 426

[2]:

Vacanāmṛta Gadhadā II/66

[3]:

Vacanāmṛta Gadhadā III/39

[4]:

Bhagavad-Gītā 14/5

[5]:

“Of these, Sattva, being calm, is enlightening and ethical. It binds human beings (or Jivātmā) by attachment to happiness and knowledge. (Bhagavad-Gītā 14/6) Rajas is characterized by intense selfish activity and is born of desire and attachment. It binds the Jīva by attachment to the fruits of work. (Bhagavad-Gītā 14/7) Tamas, born of inertia, confuses jīva. It binds by ignorance, laziness, and excessive sleep.” (Bhagavad-Gītā 14/8)