By Gurudevi Nirmalananda 

I recently watched a video of an eagle being set free. It had been injured, was rescued and spent quite some time in medical treatment and rehab. Then the big day came. 

The whole care team stood back as this huge dog crate was set near the edge of a cliff.  They crouched down behind the crate as someone opened the door, then sprinted around to join the group hiding behind the box.

The eagle poked its head out, stepped out, looked around.  It flexed its wings and hopped a few hops. It flapped a few flaps. And walked around some more. It took its time.

And then it launched – and soared out over the cliff face.  Everyone cheered. Freedom. Not only was the eagle happy, but so was everyone who saw him fly away. Even me, watching the video.

The bliss of freedom.

Freedom is your nature. Freedom is inherent to you. But this is not political freedom, not society or cultural standards. This is a deeper level, inside. Freedom is so important.

This is why our society uses incarceration as a punishment. You lose your freedom. Imprisoned, your hours are regulated. You have no privacy. You can’t make choices nor connect with the people you treasure most fully.

Yet, even if you live free, no prison bars, no ankle bracelet – you can be imprisoned by your mind. You meditate on your limitations. You obsess on your limitations, reviewing them over and over.

OK, you also meditate on other people’s limitations, but your mind returns to your own again and again. With each review, you reinforce them. You shrink day by day. It’s even physical – you shrink as you age.

Ideally, as you age, you’d get wise. And wisdom would help you get free. For that, you’d have to meditate on your essence, your own Divine Essence. Oh Shiva. Thus the goal is inner freedom. 

While you may have some work to do in order to secure outer freedom, it is the inner freedom that matters. As you turn within in meditation, as you develop your ability to settle deeper and deeper within, you discover that the space inside your skin is bigger than the space outside. Even with your mind – you can think yourself to the moon and back much quicker than you could make the trip. 

Your essence is unbounded. The inner infinity of your own being is undeniable. You fly free.

And like the eagle, you still eat. You still look for and enjoy companions in life. You still engage in the process of being alive, in a body, on this earth. But inside, you know. You know something that gives you the ever-arising bliss of freedom – you know your own Self.

But the way you approach your life changes, for you live in a state of freedom. You are free FROM need, greed and fear. Free from desire. Free from obsession, free from limitation. For you know your own Self. This happens gradually. It is a process, bit by bit. 

You are probably a creature of habit. I had a roommate in Baba’s Ashram who habitually tossed her clothes onto her bed. The mound grew day by day. I don’t know if it was things she was…