DISCOURSES Volume II - Avatar Meher Baba Trust

GOD-REALISATION 39although it has forgotten everything including itself; and the latentimpressions in the mind create a veil between the submerged con-Difference betweensleep and Godrealisationsciousness and the Infinite Reality. Thus,during sleep, consciousness is submerged inthe shell of the individual mind, but it has notyet been able to escape from that shell. So,though the soul has forgotten its separateness from God and hasactually attained unity with Him, it is unconscious of this unity. InGod-realisation, however, the mind does not merely forget itselfbut has (with all its impressions) actually lost its identity. Theconsciousness which was hitherto associated with the individualmind is now freed and untrammeled and brought into direct contactand unity with the Ultimate Reality. Since there is now no veilbetween consciousness and the Ultimate Reality, consciousness isfused with the Absolute and eternally abides in It as an inseparableaspect promoting an unending state of infinite knowledge andunlimited bliss.The manifestation of infinite knowledge and unlimited blissin consciousness is, however, strictly confined to the soul whichhas attained God-realisation.God-realisation ispersonalThe infinite Reality in the Godrealisedsoul has explicit knowledge of itsown infinity; but such explicit knowledge isnot had by the unrealized soul, which is stillsubject to the illusion of the universe. Thus if God-realisation werenot a personal attainment of the soul, the entire universe wouldcome to an end as soon as any one soul achieved God-realisation.This does not happen, because God-realisation is a personal stateof consciousness belonging to the soul which has transcended thedomain of the mind. Other souls continue to remain in bondage andthough they also are bound to