Only the desire for liberation is refuge for the wise

The Mumukṣu Prakaraṇa opens with an affirmation that is both gate and path: the desire for liberation is not one desire among others, but the only desire that does not bind. Vasiṣṭha does not ask Rāma to renounce desire — he asks him to redirect it. Where ordinary desires project outward and generate further projection, mumukṣutva turns inward and consumes itself. It is the spark that ignites inquiry, and the combustion that sustains it.