DISCOURSES Volume II - Avatar Meher Baba Trust

THE TYPES OF MEDITATION: IV 143The homeward journey of the soul consists in freeing itselffrom the illusion of being identical with its bodies—gross, subtleand mental. When the attention of the soul turns towards self-The Pathknowledge and self-realisation, there is agradual loosening and disappearance of thesanskaras which keep consciousness turned towards thephenomenal world. Disappearance of the sanskaras proceeds sideby side with piercing through the veil of cosmic illusion, and thesoul not only begins to transcend the different states of thephenomenal world, but also to know itself as different from itsbodies. The Path begins when the soul tries to find itself and turnsits full consciousness towards Truth (God).At the first stage the soul becomes totally unconscious ofits gross body and of the gross world, and experiences the subtleworld through the medium of its subtle body, with which itidentifies itself. In the second stage the soul is totally unconsciousof its gross and subtle bodies, and also of the gross and subtleworlds, and experiences the mental world through the medium ofits mental body with which it now identifies itself. At this stage thesoul may be said to be face to face with God or the Oversoul,which it recognises as Infinite. But though it recognises the Infinityof the Oversoul, which it objectifies, it looks upon itself as beingfinite because of its identification with the mind or mental body.Thus we have the paradox that the soul, which in reality isinfinite, sees its infinite state but still continues to regard itself asfinite, because while seeing its infinite state, it looks upon itself asthe mind. It imagines itself to be the mind and looks upon theobject of the mind as the Oversoul. Further, it not only longs to beone with the objectified Oversoul but also tries hard to fulfill that