I am free. From karma of all actions — prenatal, past, present — I am free. I forged my own fetters but now I dissolve them with the… torch of wisdom.

I alone, through my own past actions, am the creator of my present habits. If they are good, I will let them guide me to be good. If they are wrong, I will roast them with my fire of self-control.

I am free. Therefore I reject the consciousness of being compelled by any habit, good or evil. My will is no longer instinct-guided but wisdom-guided. I am good, but not because I am compelled to be so. I am good because I choose to be so. I stay away from evil by my own free choice, because it goes against my health, peace, and highest interest.

All my prenatal, hereditary, acquired habit-fetters I have broken. I race ahead on the path of soul progress with the indomitable strength of my unfettered will. I am free!”

This is an extract from the Supplemental Lesson 24 “The Science of Habits and Self-Control” of the Self-Realization Fellowship lessons by Yogananda. Freedom from my habituated self, my specific behavioural patterns and my kleshas (“evil desires” such as anger, greed and delusion) is something I am working on unravelling and willing to let go of more and more each day.