In order to gain spiritual enlightenment one must find a means to liberate or free the consciousness from its restricting and binding force, and the force of nature is to keep us bound. In the process of involution, consciousness became bound to the lower worlds of matter - a world of illusions and constrictions - and we became constricted or bound because of the impact of sensation and base desires. The more we become addicted to the false glamour of matter, the greater becomes the bondage. No two people respond to anything in life to the same degree. So, no two people are attracted to or stuck to matter to the same degree; some more, some less. However, all do become stuck.

After many ages we come to a place in evolution where the issue is to become liberated. So many ways and means and diverse paths are offered as solutions; some good, many, however, not so good. This follows due to the karma and degree of discrimination and enlightenment of the individual. The more we became hung up in matter, the greater was the obscurity of consciousness. The prime cause of this bondage was the newly acquired individuality, or the lower self. The real or higher Self remains infinite and eternally free, but through the mysterious process of involution a part of itself came into the deepest levels of matter and lost its true identity and became bound as a finite creature of time and space, locked into a seemingly endless series of bodies each for a given period of incarnation. This switch from higher consciousness (higher Self) to lower consciousness (lower self) caused us to forge the chain of our own bondage. That chain as we have learned can be of heavy iron or it can be a gold chain as we so desire, but in either case we are not free of the chain.

What has to happen at a point of recognition, we realize, is that there must be some means whereby we can unlock our chains and be made free. The chains are representative of the wheel of birth and death - the wheel that has twelve signs or segments that are also known as the twelve labors of the soul. Each segment or sign has numerous and definite lessons to be learned and mastered, both as a male and as a female. Also, these lessons presented in each sign become more difficult as one continues to grow in consciousness, or as one evolves. However, no human is ever given a lesson in life greater than his ability to master the lesson. So, excuses for failure are not too valid.

Obviously no individual could in one cycle of the wheel master the numerous lessons of the wheel. One turn of the wheel equals 25,000 years. So, around and around we go and this is why it is said that evolution is ever so slow. It takes a long time to learn all that is necessary to be learned, and then through experience and knowledge learn to balance ourselves in the school of life. The ego, or lower self, continues to learn and experience age upon age under all types of circumstances and conditions of life. The lessons learned or virtues gained are then absorbed by the higher Self. If we live a life where no progress is made or no lessons are learned, then the higher Self is unable to absorb anything of any value. So, this becomes a lost or wasted life. Then, in ensuing lives things become much harder because not only are we forced to keep up with our own class, so to speak, we must also make up what we previously failed to learn. This is why all spiritual masters coming to the Earth point out the laws. By living the laws we smoothly progress in our evolution, and by not living the laws we make the way very hard for ourselves.

So, life is hard and life is cruel as so many say, failing to recognize the fact that it is of their own making, for what they live they have created. The general rule in this case is to blame everyone else and everything and not to lay the blame at its true source, our own door.

When we reach a certain point of development we slowly begin to shift our consciousness inward, toward the center of reality. Up to now we have been identifying with that which is external and has no lasting substance. In doing this we have kept ourselves securely bound to the outer limits of the wheel. In order to spin off the wheel we have to reverse ourselves on the wheel.

We have to begin to focus our attention on the internal and gradually phase away from the external. We are now learning that the external aspect of human life is that which is not a part of our real Self. The multiplicity of life is that we have identified with numerous tendencies of the external, such as the physical body, the astral body, the emotions, the senses, the intellect, temporary states of conditions, roles being played, etc. Now we are becoming concerned with the Being, i.e., the essence, the oneness. All tendencies up to this point taken together represent much distortion. This sets up a vicious cycle that has hindered the expression of higher consciousness through the lower physical vehicle.

This abnormal condition is produced by the mind functioning in the gross external aspect of life here on Earth. We have to move from the known toward that which is now unknown and we do this through Transcendental Meditation. In this internal spiritual practice we automatically and totally eliminate all of the delusions and the abnormalities that exist in the mind and then what reflects is pure consciousness. Therefore, through Transcendental Meditation a radical physical wrenching away is not necessary, and it is generally impossible anyway. Instead, the process of subtle infusion of the Being into the mind and the body takes care of everthing because the Being begins to overshadow everthing of the material nature. This does not mean that we cease to live on Earth. It means that our life now has meaning.

Through the continued daily practice of Transcendental Meditation one becomes more and more an instrument through which action is being done - you might say one becomes an agent of the highest power that now works through him. As we express more and more of the Being (the eternal) we find that the ego has now vanished in our daily activity and in its place stands the real and true Self. Not only has the ego gone, but the wheel and chains have also dropped away and our actions in life now no longer bind us. We are now free and we now know that God is both personal and impersonal, and while for so many ages we have believed we were victims of life, we now know that we are masters of life and we have earned our eternal status.