DISCOURSES Volume II - Avatar Meher Baba Trust

THE WAYS OF THE MASTERS 51and dangers with which the spiritual Path is beset. Kabir hascompared the three stages of the Path to the three phases of fire.Just as first there is only smoke and no fire, then there is fireenveloped in smoke, and lastly there is only fire without smoke,the beginnings of the Path are enveloped in thick ignorance,midway there is confused perception of the goal, and finally thereis realisation of Truth without the slightest alloy of illusion. Sincethe Path lies through illusions of many kinds, the aspirant is neversafe without the guidance of the Master who knows all the stagesof the Path and can take him through them.Before the opening of the inner eye the mind conceives ofthe goal as the Infinite, and this conception is based upon somesymbolic image of Infinity such as the sky or the ocean, whichAbode of delusionsuggests the idea of vastness. Although such aconcept of the Infinite is clean-cut and welldefined, it has to be superseded by direct perception of the Infinite.The aspirant sees the Self directly when his inner eye of the spiritis opened. When this happens, the mind is dazed by what it seesand is no longer as clear as it was before the opening of this innereye. Being dazed by the perception of the Self, the mind loses itscapacity to think clearly and mistakes the seeing of the Self with itsbeing actually realised. Hence comes the illusion of being at theend of the Path when one is still traversing it. In Sufi terms thisparticular part of the Path is known as Mukam-e-afasan or theAbode of Delusion. It is in such difficult phases of the Path that theMaster can, through his skillful intervention, give a push to theaspirant so that he keeps on going instead of getting caught up onthe way.In fact, there is danger of the aspirant being detained oneach one of the inner planes, because