Just as beings in space neither adhere nor are liberated, so in Brahman saṃsāra neither adheres nor is liberated.

The analogy of space (nabhas, ākāśa) returns with a twist: not only freedom but also bondage are impossible in Brahman. “Na śliṣyanti na mucyate”—they are not bound, nor are they liberated—because attachment and liberation presuppose two things that can be joined or separated. In space, there are not two things; there is only space, appearing as content without any real content.

Here, saṃsāra is defined not as the world but as the notion of being trapped in the world. That notion requires a trapper and a trapped, a bond and something to be bound. But if everything is Brahman, there is no “other” that can bind, nor any “other” that can be bound. Saṃsāra is self-generated, like a dream; liberation is self-dissolved, like awakening.

The Aṣṭāvakra Gītā (I.11) is direct: “He who considers himself free is free; he who considers himself bound is bound. This is the truth: as one thinks, so one becomes.” There is no magic in this; it is simply the recognition that saṃsāra is a mental projection. The practice of yoga does not produce freedom; it produces the mental disposition that allows one to recognize the freedom that always was. The Haṭha Pradīpikā (IV.80) says: “The body is a house of yoga; samādhi is the house of all yogīs.” The house is already built; one only has to enter.