The Liberation Within
Shri Mataji started her work of spiritual transformation only after she had first participated in the freedom movement of her native India. It was her belief that a people cannot benefit from Self-Realization without some degree of political freedom and sufficient civil rights.
In many of her public programs, Shri Mataji commenced her talk by informing seekers that it is their birthright to attain the state of true Selfhood through their in-born spiritual potential energy, the Kundalini. Kundalini is best understood as the pure desire within a person for union with the Universal Self.
Self-Realization, through Kundalini awakening, liberates a person from the constriction of ego and superego - the illusory "I" consciousness and the accumulated chains of conditionings and habits. In Buddhist, Hindu and Jain philosophy this liberation from ego is accompanied by freedom from suffering, a state of joy. But the Kundalini respects the free will of a person, and will only rise if they desire it.
Shri Mataji warned that the pursuit of freedom, without the guidance of innate wisdom, can lead to the very oppression and suffering the individual hopes to escape from.
In a radio interview in California Shri Mataji said – "Human beings should not take freedom as abandonment, but freedom to enjoy completely and fully. The freedom that takes you to destruction is not freedom. The right idea of freedom must be taken. And, people should know that freedom, ultimate freedom, is when you become your own master, when there are no habits, when you cannot be dominated by anything. You are above everything. That's the freedom you have to achieve."
To the people attending a public program in Bulgaria, not long after its transition to Western capitalism, Shri Mataji said – "Through totalitarian regimes you are oppressed from outside, but this so-called freedom, this freedom of abandonment, destroys you from within...without Self Realization, one cannot understand the power of freedom."