Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 10.14.26
Blended reading (Sanskrit + English inline)
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bhava-bandha-mokṣau
—
bondage in material existence and liberation
Compound: bhava-bandha (material bondage) + mokṣa (liberation). Both are named as ajñāna-saṁjñā — known only by ignorance. Caitanya-caritāmṛta cites this to argue that even mokṣa is a lower category than prema.
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ajñāna-saṁjñau
—
both designated by ignorance
Compound: ajñāna (ignorance) + saṁjñā (designation). Both poles are names assigned by ignorance. For Gauḍīyas this opens space for prayojana beyond mokṣa: kṛṣṇa-prema is not on the ajñāna spectrum at all.
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ajasra-citi-ātmani
—
in the eternal conscious Self
Compound: ajasra (uninterrupted) + cit (consciousness) + ātman. Kṛṣṇa as the unbroken consciousness. Distinct from impersonal cit — Brahmā keeps the ātmā as personal Bhagavān, not as bare awareness.
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taraṇau iva ahanī
—
like day and night in the sun
Phrase: taraṇi (sun) + ahanī (day-and-night, dual). The image is precise: from the sun there is no day, no night; they exist only relative to the rotating earth. Brahmā's analogy locates the entire bandha-mokṣa drama as observer-side.
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kevale
—
in the pure
Locative of kevala. The Lord 'in His isolated purity' — but Brahmā has shown this kevala IS the boy of Vraja. Kevala does not entail formless; it entails uncontaminated.
Material bondage is illusion because the living entity actually has no real relationship with the material world. Because of false ego, the conditioned soul identifies himself with matter. Therefore so-called liberation is simply the giving up of an illusion rather than release from actual bondage. Yet even if we think that the suffering of material illusion is real and that liberation is thus a meaningful release from suffering, the mere absence of material existence is still insignificant compared to the achievement of factual spiritual life, which is the positive eternal reality opposed to the negative illusion of material life. Ultimately, Kṛṣṇa consciousness, or pure love of Godhead, is the only significant, meaningful and permanent status for every living entity. Since the darkness of night is caused by the absence of the sun, one would not experience night within the sun itself, nor would one experience individual days separated by nights. Similarly, within the pure living entity there is no material darkness and thus no experience of liberation from such darkness. When the conditioned soul comes to this platform of pure consciousness, he becomes fit to associate with the supreme pure, the Personality of Godhead Himself, in the Lord’s own abode.
In this verse the fact that acceptance of a false world also makes liberation false is made clear. The words bondage in the world and liberation from the world which both arise from ignorance cease when a person has true knowledge of the jiva, just as the day and night taken separately from the sun have meaning, but when from the point of view of the sun, they have no meaning.
Ṛta-jṣa-bhāvāt means “from a particular object (ātmā) which is the knower of the permanent.” Ajasra-cityātmani has the same meaning, since citi means knowledge. It means consciousness which is revealing like the sun. Bhāva and ātmā also have a similar meaning since bhāva means that which reveals or brings into existence or brings to life. Ātmani in the present verse like ātmānam in the previous verse refers to the jīva. Knowledge of jīva leads to liberation and ignorance of jīva leads to bondage. The words yuṣmad and bhavat (you) are used in reference to the Lord in this section to make distinction from the jīva. Bondage and liberation are different from knowledge of ātmā since they are functions of māyā. They do not exist if one reflects on the conscious ātmā. Reflecting on the relationship of the ātmā having bondage and liberation, one concludes that there is no relationship. Then how can bondage and liberation manifest? Just by ignorance there is a perception of them. An example is given to illustrate. Just as day and night on consideration are different from the sun because of the functions of time (arising from characteristics related to it), so bondage and liberation are different from ātmā. Ahanī stands for day and night.
Realease from saṁsāra has been stated to be insignificant. This verse explains that liberation is not the goal of life. From true knowledge (ṛta-jṣ-bhāvāt), bondage and liberation do not exist. Actually the two are based on falsity. When one reflects on ātmā (ātmani), the eternal form of knowledge (ajasra-citi), which is pure (kevale) and beyond matter (pare), liberation becomes false like bondage. For the sun there is no night, and by thinking that there is no night, there is no day. With no saṁsāra, liberaetion becomes insignificant. Thus it is not the goal of life. Or when one thinks only (kevale) of the supreme Lord (pare) in the mind (ātmani) there is no bondage or liberation. “How can both become false just by deliberation?” The Lord is condensed eternal knowledge (ajastra-citi). By thinking of the Lord, knowledge about the truth of both arises. It is like the sun in the day and night. By having no night, the division that creates day disappears.
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From the sun's vantage point there is no day and no night — those are categories of the observer below, not of the sun itself. To the pure ātmā in its true vision of Kṛṣṇa, bandha and mokṣa are similarly artefacts of ignorance. Day-night, bondage-liberation: both are the rotations of the perceiver around a non-rotating Lord.
My note
Source: vedabase.io