DISCOURSES Volume II - Avatar Meher Baba Trust

22 DISCOURSESbeing that he has arrived at his goal, so the aspirant also mistakesthe intermediate stages for the goal itself. But a person who isreally in earnest about climbing the mountain realises after awhilethat the valley has to be crossed, and the aspirant also realisessooner or later that the intermediate stage has to be transcended.The pseudo-sense of realisation which comes at the intermediatestages is like a man's dreaming that he has awakened from sleepalthough he is actually still asleep. After becoming awake herealises that his first feeling of awakening was really a dream.Each definite stage of advancement represents a state ofconsciousness, and advancement from one state of consciousnessto another proceeds side by side with crossing the inner planes.Planes and statesThus six intermediate planes and states ofconsciousness have to be experienced beforereaching the seventh plane which is the end of the journey andwhere there is final realisation of the God-state. A plane iscomparable to a railway station where a train halts for some time,and the state of consciousness is comparable to the movements ofthe passenger after getting down at the station.After entering a new plane of consciousness a personusually takes some time before he can freely function on thatplane. As there is a radical change in the total conditions of mentalNature of Samadhilife, the person experiences a sort of paralysisof mental activity known as Samadhi (Istighraq).When the pilgrim enters a new plane he merges into thatplane before he can experience the state which is characteristic ofthat plane. Just as a pilgrim who is tired by the strain of the journeysometimes goes to sleep, consciousness which has made the effortof ascending to a new plane goes through a period of lowered