

According to tantric texts the term pashu comes from the root pash, "to bind." The pashu is the man who is bound by the bonds (the pasha).

Kularnava Tantra enurnerates eight of those– pity, ignorance and delusion, fear, shame, disgust, family, custom, and caste.

So the pashu is a worldly man, seen in ignorance and bondage, as opposed to the yogi and the tattva-jnani. But it is seen that one can move between being binded or to free itself.

Shwetashwatara Upanishad in 1.8 says:

संयुक्तमेतत् क्षरमक्षरं च

      व्यक्ताव्यक्तं भरते विश्वमीशः ।
अनीशश्चात्मा बध्यते भोक्तृ-
      भावाज् ज्ञात्वा देवं मुच्यते सर्वपाशैः ॥ ८॥



To which Kularnava Tantra adds:

