Who Is Bound: Body Or Soul ?

Questioner: Now, is it the body or the soul that is bound?

Dadashri: The body itself is karma, so how can it have any other bondage? He, who feels that he is not free, is bound. Who suffers imprisonment, the prison or the prisoner? So this body is the prison, and the one within, is bound. The one who believes, "I am bound, I am this body, I am Chandubhai*," is the one who is bound.

Questioner: Do you mean to say that the soul binds (charges) and discharges karma through the body?

Dadashri: No, it is not like that. The soul is absolutely not involved in this. In fact the soul is free; it is independent. It is the ego, which has been created through false impositions that binds karma, and it is the ego that experiences the fruits of karma. You are the pure Self and yet you claim that you are Chandubhai. Claiming to something you are not, is called the ego. This is the false imposition of the ego. Egoism is to usurp someone else's space and call it your own. When this ego leaves, you can return to your own place, where there is no bondage.

*Chandubhai =  Whenever Dadashri uses the name 'Chandubhai' or the name of the person Dadashri is addressing, the reader should insert his or her name for exact understanding.