यदि जीवजडात्मनो विश्वस्य परमशिवरूपं चैतन्यमेव स्वभावः तत् कथम् अयं बन्ध इत्याशङ्काशान्तये संहितया इतरथा च अकारप्रश्लेषाप्रश्लेषपाठतः सूत्रम् आह -ज्ञानं बन्धः ॥ २ ॥इह उक्तयुक्त्या चित्प्रकाशव्यतिरिक्तं न किञ्चिद् उपपद्यत इति मलस्यापि का सत्ता कीदृग् वा तन्निरोधकत्वं स्यादिति भेदवादोक्तप्रक्रियापरिहारेणमलमज्ञानमिच्छन्ति संसाराङ्कुरकारणम् ॥इति ।अज्ञानाद्बध्यते लोकस्ततः सृष्टिश्च संहृतिः ॥इति श्रीमालिनीविजय-श्रीसर्वाचारोक्तस्थित्या यः परमेश्वरेण स्वस्वातन्त्र्यशक्त्याभासितस्वरूपगोपनारूपया महामायाशक्त्या स्वात्मन्याकाशकल्पेऽनाश्रितात्प्रभृति मायाप्रमात्रन्तं संकोचोऽवभासितः स एव शिवाभेदाख्यात्यात्मकाज्ञानस्वभावोऽपूर्णम्मन्यतात्मकाणवमलसतत्त्वसंकुचितज्ञानात्मा बन्धः ।यथा च व्यतिरिक्तस्य मलस्यानुपपन्नत्वं तथा अस्माभिः श्रीस्वच्छन्दोद्द्योते पञ्चमपटलान्ते दीक्षाविचारे वितत्य दर्शितम् ।एष च सूत्रार्थःनिजाशुद्ध्यासमर्थस्य … ।इति कारिकाभागेन संगृहीतः ।एवमात्मनि अनात्मताभिमानरूपाख्यातिलक्षणाज्ञानात्मकं ज्ञानं न केवलं बन्धो यावद् अनात्मनि शरीरादौ आत्मताभिमानात्मकम् अज्ञानमूलं ज्ञानमपि बन्ध एव ।एतच्चपरामृतरसापाय … ।इति कारिकया संगृहीतम् ।एवं चैतन्यशब्देनोक्तं यत्किञ्चित् स्वातन्त्र्यात्मकं रूपं तत्र चिदात्मन्यपि स्वातन्त्र्याप्रथात्मविज्ञानाकलवद् अपूर्णम्मन्यतामात्रात्मना रूपेण स्वातन्त्र्येऽपि देहादौ अबोधरूपेण अनात्मन्यात्मताभिमानात्मना रूपेण द्विप्रकारमाणवमलम् अनेन सूत्रेण सूत्रितम् ।तदुक्तं श्रीप्रत्यभिज्ञायाम् ।स्वातन्त्र्यहानिर्बोधस्य स्वातन्त्र्यस्याप्यबोधता ।द्विधाणवं मलमिदं स्वस्वरूपापहानितः ॥इति ॥ २ ॥
In plain words
Knowledge is bondage. If the nature of the universe, of living beings and insentient things alike, is consciousness alone, which is Paramaśiva, how is there this bondage? To quiet that doubt he states the sūtra, which is read both in continuous recitation and apart, with the letter a merged into it and without. Here, by the reasoning already given, nothing apart from the light of consciousness can be established; so what existence could mala have, and how could it obstruct that light? Setting aside the procedure the dualists teach, then, and following the position stated in the Mālinīvijaya and the Sarvācāra: "They hold mala to be ignorance, the cause of the sprouting of saṃsāra." and: "By ignorance the world is bound; from it come creation and dissolution." the Supreme Lord, through the power of great māyā, whose form is the hiding of his own nature and which is brought to appearance by the power of his own freedom, makes a contraction appear in his own Self, which is like space, from Anāśrita down to the knower of māyā. That contraction alone is bondage: it is ignorance, whose nature is the non-recognition of oneness with Śiva; it is knowledge contracted, whose reality is āṇava mala, the sense of being incomplete. How a mala separate from the Self is untenable we have shown at length in the Svacchandoddyota, at the end of the fifth chapter, in the discussion of initiation. And this meaning of the sūtra is gathered up in the part of a verse: "Of one who is powerless through his own impurity …" So it is not only knowledge as ignorance, the non-recognition that takes the Self for not-self, that is bondage; knowledge rooted in ignorance, which takes the not-self, the body and the rest, for the Self, is bondage as well. This is gathered up in the verse: "The loss of the taste of the supreme nectar …" In this way, with regard to whatever form, whose nature is freedom, is spoken of by the word "consciousness", this sūtra points to āṇava mala of two kinds: even in the self as cit, a form that is only the sense of being incomplete, as with the vijñānākalas, for whom freedom does not shine; and, where freedom is present, in the body and the rest, a form that is the absence of awareness, the sense of Self in what is not the Self. As the Pratyabhijñā says: "The loss of freedom in awareness, and the absence of awareness in freedom: this āṇava mala is twofold, from the loss of one's own nature."