If I say I wish to be set free, then it is implied that I am held or tied down by something. Sri Adi Sankaracharya says in the Vivekachoodamani, it is the unwise people who uselessly talk about bondage and liberation.
These are two ideas of the intellect and they superimpose these ideas on the Brahman. Superimposition is a phenomenon that is like projecting light of different shades on a movie screen. It gives the appearance of a motion picture.
To say that a human has bondage and liberation is like saying that the sun is hidden when actually the sun is never hidden, the cloud alone is hiding our vision. In the same way, the non-dual, unattached consciousness, which is the indestructible reality, appears to be covered by the body, mind, and intellect.
Some say there is bondage and so liberation is required. Some say there is no bondage and hence no liberation is required. The two are ideas of the intellect - which are born of its qualities of brilliance, restlessness, and dullness.
Both bondage and liberation are thrown up by the apparent movement in consciousness called Maya. In reality, they are not there. To explain this movement, the closest example in the world outside can be the sky and the cloud. The sky - that is consciousness - always is.
The cloud - thoughts of bondage and liberation - come and go. They shrink and expand in space. Yet they never leave space or disturb it. The sky does not have to make place for yet another cloud to form and expand.
The sky does not worry overnight about how it is going to accommodate the thick black rain-bearing clouds of the monsoon. How can something that has no parts, no action, that is totally calm and cannot be removed from its high office and has no blemish, the non-dual supreme reality, the truth?
Ultimately the reality is not something that can be controlled or stopped. It cannot be produced. It is neither the intellect nor the intelligent person. It is neither the seeker after freedom, nor is it liberated. This is the most supreme truth.
The teacher praises the student as one who is now well-versed in the Vedas. To that student, the teacher has revealed the supreme truth. This state of the intellect that has the attachment of desire has been washed clean of all the evils of a changing world. The teacher said that he has revealed the Vivekachoodamani, the crest jewel of Truth, which others, who do not have such standards of purity of thought, cannot afford to realise.
(The writer is Sevika, Chinmaya Surya, Puducherry and can be reached at sharanya. chaitanya@chinmayamission.com)