DISCOURSES Volume II - Avatar Meher Baba Trust

80 DISCOURSESbut without coming nearer the goal, and he might even get furtheraway from it. Something like this happens when the ego assumescontrol of human consciousness. The ego may be compared to adriver who has a certain amount of control over a car and a certaincapacity to drive it, but who is in complete darkness about itsultimate destination.For a car to reach its ultimate destination, it is not enoughmerely to have a driver who can work and manage the engine. It isequally necessary that this driver should be able to direct the cartowards the destination. As long as the movement of consciousnessis under the full and exclusive domination of the ego, the spiritualadvancement of the person is jeopardised by the natural tendencyof the ego to strengthen the separative barriers of falseimagination. So, in spite of ego-centred activities, consciousnessremains enclosed by the walls of its own creation and moveswithin the limits of this mayavic prison. If consciousness is to beemancipated from its limitations and rendered adequate to servethe original purpose for which it came into existence, it must drawits directive momentum not from the ego but from some otherprinciple. In other words, the driver who is ignorant of the ultimatedestination must be exchanged for another driver who is free fromall the allure of accidental things encountered on the way, and whocentres his attention not on the rest stations or side-attractions buton the ultimate goal of non-duality. The shifting of the centre ofinterest from unimportant things to truly important values iscomparable to the transference of power from the ignorant driverto the driver who knows the destination. Concurrent with thisgradual shifting of the centre of interest there is progressivedissolution of the ego and motion towards the Truth.If the ego had been nothing but a medium for the