The Freedom of the Soul

Freedom is the object of every soul; each soul strives after it in its own way. Often not knowing the real way to freedom, man, instead of attaining freedom, falls into a captivity. Many wish to begin life with what they call freedom and arrive at the end to a captivity. It is the path of discipline which leads to freedom in the end, which very few know.

When one sees that for the freedom of one, the freedom of another is robbed, so it is with individuals, races, or nations. Man, striving after freedom, disregards the freedom of another, and so people are busy in the world trying to get freedom, who use it on the contrary.

Life in the world is a gambling of freedom. Few get it and many lose it, and those who get it must lose it someday or the other. There is only one freedom worthwhile, and that is the freedom of the soul. The soul, which is captiva not only in conditions and situations of life, but also in the mind and body, never has a chance to free itself, being caught in the web of life. The way to the soul's freedom is for the soul to realize itself first; the soul realizes itself when it has detached itself not only from conditions and situations, but also from mind and body. To bring about such detachment, meditation is practised by Sufi, who interpret the idea of dying before death as the upliftment of the soul. Resurrection follows crucifixion.

(Hazrat Inayat Khan, December, 1925)