Man seeks freedom and pursues captivity. There is not one single person whom the word "freedom" does not touch; and there is not one person who does not long for freedom. At the same time, if we look closely at human life we see that man pursues captivity in some form or other, whether he seeks freedom or not.

The soul of man is a dweller in heaven.

it is able to see more than the eyes can see;
it is able to hear more than the ears can hear.
The soul is able to expand further than man can journey;
the soul is able to dive deeper than any depths that man can ever touch;
the soul is able to reach higher than man can reach by any means.
Its life is freedom, it knows nothing but joy and sees nothing but beauty.
Its own nature is peace, and its being is life itself.
It is not intelligent; it is intelligence itself.
It is spirit; its nature is not human but divine.

It is for this reason that the soul feels a limitation, continually all through life, as a fish would feel when it is out of water and a bird when its wings are clipped.

If someone asked, what is the reason of pain, the answer would be that if we were to summarize in one word the reason of all the pain we see in the world, it is limitation. And where does this limitation come from? From a heavenly being turning into an earthly being. There is nothing to be surprised at, when we see that hardly anyone seems to be perfectly happy in life. A rich man has his tale to tell, a poor man has his story; a wise man has his complaint to make, a foolish man has his own legend. And so everyone has something to say; and what they all have to say is the same thing and that is: limitation.

What one pursues, what one seeks after, is a feeling of freedom; and yet nearly everyone pursues freedom wrongly. The nature of life is such that whenever a person thinks, "that will make me free", that in itself makes him more captive, though he cannot realize this until he gets it. As long as he has not got it he believes it will make him free. And so life goes on. Man goes on in the pursuit of freedom and what he gets is captivity. With all the talk about freedom today life is more a life of captivity than ever before. Man lives in captivity because he does not think enough about the real meaning of freedom. The more he thinks the more he will find that as he pursues the path of freedom, every step brings him closer to captivity.