Dhāraṇā 109
न मे बन्धो न मे मोक्षो
जीवस्यैता विभीषिकाः ।
प्रतिबिम्बमिदं बुद्धे-
र्जलेष्विव विवस्वतः ॥१३५॥
na me bandho na me mokṣo
jīvasyaitā vibhīṣikāḥ /365
pratibimbamidaṁ buddher-
jaleṣviva vivasvataḥ // 135 //
“Na me bandho, I have no bondage.” “Na me mokṣo, I am not liberated.” “I am neither bound nor liberated.” This liberation and bondage is just attributed to the jīva, the individual soul, and to him, these two perceptions (being in bondage and being liberated) are vibhīṣikāḥ, they make him terrified–he grumbles, he jumps.
ERNIE: Even the knowledge of liberation?
SWAMIJI: Yes, liberation. “I am liberated. I am liberated!” What is that? It is also bondage. It is also ignorance. Knowledge and liberation is attributed to those who are individuals; and they get change in bondage and in liberation.
Pratibimbam idaṁ buddher jaleṣviva vivasvataḥ. If you are bound in this cycle of the world, that is bondage, and [if] you are liberated from the cycle of the world, you are liberated. You should find out that this knowledge–being elevated and being liberated or being bound in this cycle of the world–this bondage and liberation is just a reflection in the limited intellect. It is a reflection in buddher (“buddher” is the limited intellectual element).
On the contrary, it is not a reflection in unlimited God consciousness. In the mirror of unlimited God consciousness, that reflection is something else–that is śāmbhava. When you find out [that] this whole cycle of one hundred and eighteen worlds is reflected in God consciousness, that is something else. But when you find, when you perceive, this reflection of this world in your intellect, in your limited intellectual state, this terrifies you. Because, e.g., you will ignore Samdu’s son and you won’t ignore Viresh. This is the reflection of that in that limited cycle of buddhi, in the intellect (that is buddhi).
And that is saṁvit. What? Unlimited. The unlimited cycle of jñāna is saṁvit, God consciousness. When you find out it is a reflection in God consciousness, then there is neither attachment nor detachment for Viresh. Then you are muktaḥ, you become jīvan muktaḥ.366
So, pratibimbam idaṁ buddher, this makes you sad when you find out this reflected in your limited intellect, not in unlimited saṁvit (knowledge).
Jaleṣu iva vivasvataḥ, just as in various pools or various streams of water, you find the reflection of the sun in varieties (e.g., somewhere you’ll find the sun being cut if the water is flowing; if the water is stationary, you will find it stationary–the reflection of the sun), in the same way, these things happen in the individual reflection, in the individual cycle of the intellect. When there is the individual cycle of the intellect, it is bondage, it will give you fear. It will give whom fear? Jīvasya. Jīvasya, who is an individual.
So, you have to find out [that], “Na me bandho na me mokṣo, neither I am bound nor I am liberated.”367
So this is śāktopāya.
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365 Swamiji corrected “na me bandho na mokṣo me bhitasyaita vibhiṣikāḥ” to read “na me bandho na me mokṣo jīvasyaitā vibhiṣikāḥ”.
366 Liberated while embodied.
367 “Become divine! Do not put limited shrunken thoughts in yourself. Try to keep your mind broad. That will make you divine!” Vijñāna Bhairava, additional audio (USF archives).
(source: Manual for Self Realization: 112 Meditations of the Vijnana Bhairava Tantra, by Swami Lakshmanjoo)
