Śivasaṃhitā 5.208

The question «what is bondage and what is liberation?» is not rhetorical but the collapse of both categories in non-dual vision. When only the One (eka) is perceived, there is no one bound who needs to be liberated. The question self-dissolves when correctly formulated: from the perspective of the One, the bandha-mokṣa dilemma never existed.

Bandha = bondage (bandh = to bind), mokṣa = liberation (muc = to release), eka = one/unique, paśyeta = that sees (optative of paś, seeing with direct perception), mukta = liberated (muc = to release). The implicit answer to the question is that both bondage and liberation are constructions of the dual citta; in the vision of the One, both are fictions.

This verse is perhaps the most directly Advaita in all of the Śiva-saṃhitā. It resonates with the Aṣṭāvakra Gītā, where King Janaka declares his liberation upon understanding that neither bondage nor liberation are real. The text here reaches its highest philosophical point: after all the technical elaboration of cakras, prāṇāyāma and bandhas, liberation turns out to be simply the direct perception of what has always been the only reality.