Introduction to the Eight Bonds (Aṣṭa-Pāśa): Understanding What Holds You Back in Sādhana
Dear Seeker,
On the path of sādhana, we often ask, “Why am I not progressing?”, “Why does my mind resist deeper meditation?”, or “Why do I feel stuck despite doing mantra, pūjā, or japa every day?”
The ancient Tantric masters knew this dilemma well. That is why they revealed a profound teaching in the Kulārṇava Tantra—a teaching about the Aṣṭa-Pāśa, the Eight Bonds that bind the soul (jīva) and prevent it from rising to its full potential as Śiva.
These Eight Bonds are not physical chains, but inner psychological, emotional, and social conditionings. They are the invisible ropes that hold you to the ground while your soul longs to fly. Like ropes tied to the wings of a bird, they prevent you from soaring into the light of pure awareness.
🌿 What are these Bonds?
They are:
- Dayā – Misplaced pity
- Moha – Delusion or confusion
- Bhaya – Fear
- Lajjā – Shame
- Ghr̥ṇā – Disgust or aversion
- Kula – Attachment to family identity
- Śīla – Rigid custom or habit
- Varṇa – Caste or social ego
Each of these has a subtle effect on your thoughts, emotions, relationships, and spiritual choices. You may not even realize how much they influence your actions—until you bring awareness to them.
🔍 Why Should You Understand Them?
Because sādhana is not just about doing more practice, but about removing the inner obstacles that block the natural flow of Śakti. These eight pāśa are like knots in your subtle body (nāḍīs) and mind. Unless you see them, face them, and slowly loosen them, your practice may remain superficial.
Once you understand them, you will begin to recognize:
- Why fear stops your chanting…
- Why shame blocks your truth…
- Why custom limits your growth…
- Why misplaced pity leads you into karmic entanglements…
🔓 The Key to Liberation
The goal of sādhana is inner freedom, not mere outer performance. And for freedom to arise, these ropes must be untied—gently, courageously, and consciously.
That’s why the Divine Mother is worshipped as Paśupāśa Vimocinī – the One who unties the knots of the bound soul.
Let us now explore these Eight Bonds one by one—not just intellectually, but as living patterns within ourselves. For every bond you identify, you take one step closer to freedom, one step deeper into Truth.
Let us now look deeply into each of the Eight Bonds (Aṣṭa-Pāśa) as given in the Kulārṇava Tantra, with complete, layered examples across spiritual, psychological, familial, and social dimensions.
These pāśa-s (bonds) are not mere obstacles—they are binding ropes that prevent the soul (paśu) from realizing its true identity as Śiva. Each of these bonds operates in both gross (sthūla) and subtle (sūkṣma) forms.
🔗 1. Dayā (दयाः) – Misplaced Pity or Emotional Over-Sentimentality
⚠️ Not to be confused with genuine compassion (karuṇā), dayā-pāśa is emotional attachment disguised as kindness.
Examples:
| Context | Misplaced Pity (Dayā) |
|---|---|
| Spiritual | You support a spiritually lazy friend out of “kindness,” and avoid your own sādhanā to please them. |
| Family | A parent keeps giving money to a son who wastes it on addictions, out of “love” and “pity.” |
| Society | Defending clearly wrong behavior because the person is “emotionally broken.” |
| Emotional | Crying for everyone’s pain, but unable to do strong action when needed. |
Subtle Danger:
You get trapped in their karma while trying to be their savior. True compassion uplifts, but false pity binds.
🔗 2. Moha (मोहः) – Delusion / Confused Understanding
A veil over one’s inner sight; the confusion between real and unreal; mistaking the rope for a snake.
Examples:
| Context | Delusion (Moha) |
|---|---|
| Spiritual | Believing wearing a specific outfit or ring will automatically grant liberation. |
| Mental | Thinking “I am the body, I am this name, I am my role.” |
| Emotional | Mistaking intense desire or emotional excitement as spiritual awakening. |
| Relational | Thinking someone is your twin flame or destined partner without clarity. |
| Social | Believing fame or success means inner peace. |
Subtle Danger:
Moha makes the false appear true, and the true appear false. It is the very root of Saṁsāra.
🔗 3. Bhaya (भयः) – Fear
The fear of loss, death, rejection, punishment, change, or failure.
Examples:
| Context | Fear (Bhaya) |
|---|---|
| Spiritual | Not meditating deeply due to fear of seeing your own subconscious or facing ego-death. |
| Career | Staying in a job you hate because you’re afraid of the unknown. |
| Family | Obeying toxic elders or in-laws out of fear of disapproval. |
| Society | Fear of being seen as “too different” for pursuing inner awakening. |
| Physical | Fear of death, illness, or pain that keeps you from inner stillness. |
Subtle Danger:
Fear is the lock on the inner door. The soul must pass through bhaya-bhīti-kṛt (destroying fear) to enter the temple of the Self.
🔗 4. Lajjā (लज्जा) – Shame
This is not modesty (lajjā in its higher form), but crippling social shame that blocks inner truth.
Examples:
| Context | Shame (Lajjā) |
|---|---|
| Spiritual | Feeling ashamed to chant or do mudrā in public, even if it helps you. |
| Family | Hiding your path of inner transformation due to family pressure. |
| Culture | Avoiding Tantra or Yogic paths because society labels it as taboo. |
| Body | Ashamed of your own body in ritual or worship contexts. |
| Voice | Afraid to speak truth due to shame of rejection or ridicule. |
Subtle Danger:
Lajjā-pāśa kills authenticity. It keeps you hidden behind masks, far from your real Self.
🔗 5. Ghr̥ṇā (घृणा) – Aversion or Disgust
A sense of superiority, repulsion, or emotional withdrawal from anything that threatens ego.
Examples:
| Context | Aversion (Ghr̥ṇā) |
|---|---|
| Spiritual | Refusing to worship Kali or engage in Tantra because it’s “too intense or dirty.” |
| Caste | Feeling disgust toward other castes, religions, or communities. |
| Body | Disgust toward sexual energy, menstrual blood, or sacred fluids in sādhanā. |
| Food | Refusing prasad because it was touched by someone of lower status. |
| Ritual | Avoiding cremation grounds, skulls, or sacred ash because it’s “gross.” |
Subtle Danger:
Ghr̥ṇā closes the heart’s gateway. The Divine often hides in the ugly, the feared, the untouched.
🔗 6. Kula (कुलम्) – Family Attachment
Not family love, but the prison of familial identity and the inability to grow beyond it.
Examples:
| Context | Kula Attachment |
|---|---|
| Emotional | “I cannot leave this house even though it’s suffocating me spiritually.” |
| Social | “My family will never accept my Guru or sādhanā.” |
| Spiritual | Choosing family rituals over personal transformation. |
| Marriage | Staying in a toxic marriage due to “family name.” |
| Cultural | Giving up your soul’s calling because “no one in our family has ever done that.” |
Subtle Danger:
You were born into a family but not for the family. True dharma begins when your ātman becomes your kula.
🔗 7. Śīla (शीलम्) – Rigid Custom or Habit
Following external codes of conduct without inner awareness.
Examples:
| Context | Custom (Śīla) |
|---|---|
| Spiritual | Repeating mantras mechanically without inner connection. |
| Daily Life | Doing pūjā because “it’s always done that way,” not with love. |
| Religious | Believing only your sect is right because “our ancestors did it.” |
| Mental | Rigid thinking, refusing to change approach even if it fails. |
| Gender Roles | “Women cannot do this; men must always do that.” – based on old customs. |
Subtle Danger:
Śīla becomes a cage when it is not rooted in living Truth. It replaces living dharma with dead imitation.
🔗 8. Varṇa (वर्णः) – Caste or Identity
Not merely caste by birth, but attachment to social identity and hierarchy.
Examples:
| Context | Caste Identity (Varṇa) |
|---|---|
| Spiritual | “Only Brahmins can chant certain mantras.” |
| Temple | Preventing lower caste devotees from entering sanctums. |
| Mindset | Feeling superior due to being “educated,” “elite,” “high-born.” |
| Modern | Even academic or professional identity as ego – “I am a doctor, therefore I know truth.” |
| Political | Using caste for power, control, or division in society. |
Subtle Danger:
Varṇa-pāśa binds you to the shell of form, not the flame of Truth. The Self has no varṇa.
🌺 Final Reflection: How to Cut the Eight Pāśa?
The Sword of Śakti (Viveka + Tapas + Śraddhā) cuts these bonds. But only when we see the bonds clearly.
Invoke Her:
“O Devī, who binds with māyā and liberates through grace, I offer my ego at Your feet. Free me from these eight ropes, so I may rise as Śiva.”