- Analogy of driver - For a car to move toward its destination, a driver is necessary. However, the driver may be susceptible to strong attractions for things that he encounters on the way; and he might not only halt at intervening places for an indefinite time but also get lost by the wayside in pursuit of things that have only temporary charm. Thus he might keep the car moving all the time but without coming nearer the goal, and he might even get further away from it. Something like this happens when the ego assumes control of human consciousness. The ego may be compared to a driver who has a certain amount of control over a car and a certain capacity to drive it, but who is in complete darkness about its ultimate destination. For a car to reach its ultimate destination, it is not enough merely to have someone who can drive the car. It is equally necessary that this driver should be able to direct the car toward the destination. As long as the movement of consciousness is under the full and exclusive domination of the ego, the spiritual advancement of the person is jeopardized by the natural tendency of the ego to strengthen the separative barriers of false imagination. So, because of ego-centered activities, consciousness remains enclosed by the walls of its own creation and moves within the limits of this illusional prison. If consciousness is to be emancipated from its limitations and rendered adequate to serve the original purpose for which it came into existence, it must draw its directive momentum not from the ego but from some other principle. In other words, the driver who is ignorant of the ultimate destination must be exchanged for another driver who is free from all the allure of accidental things encountered on the way, and who centers his attention not on the rest stations or side attractions but on the ultimate goal of non-duality. The shifting of the center of interest from unimportant things to truly important values is comparable to the transference of power from the ignorant driver to the driver who knows the destination. Concurrent with this gradual shifting of the center of interest, there is progressive dissolution of the ego and motion toward the Truth. - Discourses by Meher Baba
Posted on: Sat, 02 Nov 2013 13:24:05 +0000
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