Samnyasa Upanishads: Hindu Scriptures on Asceticism and Renunciation c5.s2.t6.13

c5.s2.t6.13

Happiness in this world and the next, therefore, can be assured only if one is free from debts, for debtors are bound by their debts even after death. To be under debt also implies that one is not free. Later authors associate this lack of freedom when one is indebted with the concepts of bondage and freedom (*mokṣa*) central to the new world, arguing that one can hardly be expected to attain absolute freedom if one is still under the obligation of debts. As a device for legitimation, therefore, "debt" had great potential.