Bhashya
ग्रहातिग्रहलक्षणं बन्धनमुक्तम्; यस्मात् सप्रयोजकात् मुक्तः मुच्यते, येन वा बद्धः संसरति, स मृत्युः; तस्माच्च मोक्ष उपपद्यते, यस्मात् मृत्योर्मृत्युरास्ति; मुक्तस्य च न गतिः कचित्- सर्वोत्सादः नाममात्रावशेषः प्रदीपनिर्वाणवदिति चावधृतम् ।तत्र संसरतां मुच्यमानानां च कार्यकारणानां स्वकारणसंसर्गे समाने, मुक्तानामत्यन्तमेव पुनरनुपादानम्- संसरतां तु पुनः पुनरुपादानम्-येन प्रयुक्तानां भवति, तत् कर्म- इत्यवधारितं विचारणापूर्वकम्; तत्क्षये च नामावशेषेण सर्वोत्सादो मोक्षः ।तच्च पुण्यपापाख्यं कर्म, 'पुण्यो वै पुण्येन कर्मणा भवति पापः पापेन' इत्यवधारितत्वात्; एतत्कृतः संसारः ।तत्र अपुण्येन स्थावरजङ्गमेषु स्वभावदुःखबहुलेषु नरकतिर्यक्प्रेतादिषु च दुःखम् अनुभवति पुनः पुनर्जायमानः म्रियमाणश्च इत्येतत् राजवर्त्मवत् सर्वलोकप्रसिद्धम् ।यस्तु शास्त्रीयः पुण्यो वै 'पुण्येन कर्मणा भवति, तत्रैव आदरः क्रियत इह श्रुत्या ।पुण्यमेव च कर्म सर्वपुरुषार्थसाधनमिति सर्वे श्रुतिस्मृतिवादाः ।मोक्षस्यापि पुरुषार्थत्वात् तत्साध्यता
In plain words
Bondage, we have said, is marked by the grasping senses and the objects that grasp them in turn. Freedom is release from bondage together with whatever drives it; being bound is simply going round and round, pulled by that same driver. That driver is death. And because there is, in fact, a death that overtakes death itself, liberation follows. For the one who is free, there is no further road at all — everything of the individual dissolves, and only a name is left behind, the way a lamp goes out. That much is settled. Now, both the one still circling and the one being freed start from the same contact between effect and cause, their own root cause. But for the free, that contact is never taken up again — not ever. For the one still circling, it is taken up again and again. Whatever drives that endless taking-up — that is karma, and careful thought has settled this. Once that karma burns out, what is left is only a name, and that total dissolution is liberation. And this karma has a name too: merit and sin. 'One turns good through good deeds, and bad through bad ones' — scripture has fixed that much. Out of this comes the whole wheel of birth and death. Sin drives a person to suffer among plants and animals that already ache by nature, and among hell-beings, animals, and hungry ghosts — born, dying, born again — and everyone knows it, the way everyone knows the king's own road. But the merit scripture actually cares about — 'one turns good through good deeds' — is exactly the merit scripture keeps stressing here. Good action alone, scripture and tradition agree, is the means to every human goal there is. And since liberation counts as a human goal too, it would seem that action can achieve it as well...
Close to the Sanskrit
Bondage characterized by the grahas and the atigrahas has been stated. Because, together with its impeller, the freed one is released — or, by which one is bound and transmigrates — that is death. And therefore liberation is tenable, because there is a death of death. And for the liberated there is no further destination whatsoever — total dissolution, remaining only as a name, like the extinguishing of a lamp — thus it has been ascertained. There, when the contact of effect-and-cause with its own cause is equally present for both those transmigrating and those being liberated, for the liberated there is absolutely no further taking-up of a body again; but for those transmigrating, there is taking-up again and again. That by which this occurs, for those impelled by it, is karma — thus it has been ascertained, on careful inquiry. And upon the destruction of that karma, the total dissolution that remains only as a name is liberation. And that karma is called 'merit and demerit' — 'one becomes meritorious through meritorious action, sinful through sinful action' — because this has been so ascertained; transmigration is caused by this. There, by demerit, one experiences suffering among the immobile and mobile beings that abound in suffering by their own nature, and among hells, animals, ghosts, and so on, being born again and again and dying — this is as well known to the whole world as the king's highway. But as for the scriptural kind — 'one becomes meritorious through meritorious action' — it is precisely there that scripture places its emphasis. And meritorious action alone is the means to all the goals of human life — so say all the declarations of scripture and tradition. And since liberation, too, is a goal of human life, its attainability by that action...