Ashtavakra Gita

A man is bound when his mind desires or grieves over anything; he is free the moment the mind rests unmoved

Gives a working, observable test for bondage and freedom that requires no belief system — just attention to whether the mind is currently grasping or resisting something.

Chapter 15 is one of the longest in the text and opens by restating, more precisely, the bondage-liberation distinction first raised in chapter 8. Bondage is defined operationally: it occurs whenever the mind desires or grieves over something, meaning it has attached itself to an outcome. Freedom is defined just as operationally, as the state where the mind rests unmoved regardless of what is occurring. Because both states are described in terms of observable mental activity rather than doctrine, the teaching functions almost like a diagnostic a person could apply to themselves in any given moment, checking whether the mind is currently grasping or simply resting.

Ashtavakra Gita