The soul in itself alone is no other than consciousness, which is all-pervading. But when the same consciousness is caught in a limitation through being surrounded by elements, in that state of captivity it is called soul.

The Chinese use the simile of a bee when describing the soul. It is symbolical, and really denotes the eye, the pupil of which is like a bee; in other words the nature of the soul may be studied in the nature of the eye. All things exposed to the eye are reflected in it for the moment, and when the eye is turned away the reflection is in it no more, It had received it for the moment only.

Such is the nature of the soul. Youth, age, beauty, ugliness, sin, or virtue, all these are before the soul when they are exposed to it during the physical or mental existence; and the soul, interested in the reflection, may be for the time attracted and bound by the object reflected; but as soon as the soul turns away it is free from it.

Amir Minai, the Hindustani poet, says, "However fast I am bound by earthly ties, it will not take a moment to break them. I shall break them by changing sides."

Every experience on the physical or astral plane is just a dream before the soul. It is ignorance when it takes this experience to be real. It does so because it cannot see itself; as the eye sees all things, but not itself. Therefore the soul identifies itself with all things that it sees, and changes its own identity with the change of its constantly changing vision.

The soul has no birth, no death, no beginning, no end. Sin cannot touch it, nor can virtue exalt it. Wisdom cannot open it up, nor can ignorance darken it. It has been always and always it will be. This is the very being of man, and all else is its cover, like a globe on the light.

The soul's unfoldment comes from its own power, which ends in its breaking through the ties of the lower planes. It is free by nature, and looks for freedom during its captivity. All the holy beings of the world have become so by freeing the soul, its freedom being the only object there is in life.