Samayasāra presents karmic bondage as arising from a fundamental error of vision: the soul, whose true nature is pure consciousness characterized by knowing and seeing, comes to identify itself with what is other than itself—body, mind, activities, and circumstances. This false identification gives rise to the inner states of attachment (rāga) and aversion (dveṣa), which are treated as the real, inner bondage. Karmic matter is described as a subtle material substance that is drawn to and bound with the soul precisely when these passion-filled modes of consciousness arise. In this way, karmas do not alter the soul’s substance; rather, they obscure the manifestation of its inherent purity, much like dust covering a mirror without changing the mirror’s essential nature.

The mechanism of bondage is thus traced to ignorance of the soul’s true nature and the consequent sense of doership—thinking “I am the body,” “I am acting,” or “I am experiencing pleasure and pain.” Under the sway of this delusion, the soul appropriates non-self as “I” and “mine,” and through this appropriation karmic particles flow in and adhere. The intensity and duration of bondage correspond to the depth of attachment, aversion, and delusion present in these inner states. Among the various karmas, those that delude—especially the mohanīya or deluding karmas—are regarded as particularly grave, because they perpetuate the very ignorance and passion that sustain all other forms of bondage.

Samayasāra repeatedly emphasizes that the decisive factor is not outward action but the inner disposition: it is the passion-laden modification of consciousness, rather than mere physical movement, that truly binds. Knowledge-obscuring, perception-obscuring, and deluding karmas are all understood as obscurations that arise from and reinforce wrong belief about the self. When the soul ceases to identify with body and external conditions, and abides instead in its own nature as pure, detached awareness, the chain of bondage is broken at its root. Through right vision and right knowledge—seeing the soul as utterly distinct from all karmic and material associations—attachment and aversion subside, the influx of new karma is stopped, and existing karmas are gradually shed, allowing the soul’s intrinsic freedom to shine forth unobstructed.