The mind alone is the cause of bondage and of liberation.

This assertion, evocative of the Aṣṭāvakra Gītā (II.21), distills sāṅkhya-yoga into a single line. It is neither the body that binds, nor the world, nor external circumstances. The mind, through its capacity for identification (ahaṅkāra) and differentiation (buddhi-vṛtti), constructs the prison and simultaneously holds the key. Vasiṣṭha, however, introduces a subtlety: the objective is not to replace the mind with a superior one, but to apprehend that “mind” and “world” constitute a singular projection. When the mind ceases