The material self is made up of three parts: the mind, life-force (prana), and body. These together form our mental, vital, and physical existence. The mind, by its nature, cannot fully express the Spirit because it works by dividing, limiting, and separating. Even if the mind were completely free from error and worked only through intuition, it could still grasp only partial truths, not the complete truth. It can present truth only in fragments and symbols, not in its full reality.

Because of this limitation, the mentally developed being has two possible paths. One is to leave the lower levels of existence and merge into the pure Spirit. The other is to return to physical life and help it develop a higher capacity that our present mind and soul do not yet possess.

The Upanishads explain this by saying that the heavens reached by the mental being are accessed through the rays of the sun. These rays represent scattered but powerful reflections of a higher truth. From these levels, the being must return to earthly life. However, those who completely renounce earthly life and pass beyond through the gate of the sun do not return, because they enter a higher plane of existence.

The mental being cannot bring this higher spiritual power down into ordinary life because our present mental, vital, and physical nature is not yet capable of holding it. Our human system is not built to contain this greater consciousness. This limitation exists only as long as human beings remain confined within the boundaries of the mind.