DISCOURSES Volume II - Avatar Meher Baba Trust

28 DISCOURSESwell as through the moments of confusion and conflict. These arethe manifestations of the diverse sanskaras which he has broughtfrom the past, and the aspirant forges his way towards selfknowledgethrough the tangles of these sanskaras like the travellerthreading his way through a wild and thick forest.Human consciousness might be compared to the flash-lightwhich reveals the existence and the nature of things. The provinceilluminated by this flashlight is defined by the medium throughScope of consciousnessand its workingwhich it works, just as a person who isconfined to a boat can wander anywhere onthe surface of water but can have no accessto the remote places on land or in the air. The actual working of theflashlight is determined by the accumulated sanskaras, just as thecourse of the rivulets flowing from a mountain is given by thechannels created by the natural contours of the mountain.In the case of an average man, the sphere of life and thestage of action are restricted to the gross world because in him theflashlight of consciousness falls on the physical body and worksAverage man onlyconscious of grossworldthrough it. Being restricted to the medium ofthe gross body he can be conscious ofanything within the gross world but is unableto establish conscious contact with subtle ormental realities. The gross sphere thus constitutes the arena of theaverage man, and all his activities and thoughts have a tendency tobe directed towards the gross objects which are accessible to him.But all the time he remains unconscious of the subtle and themental spheres of existence since the flashlight of hisconsciousness cannot be focussed through the medium of thesubtle or the mental body.