but no consciousness. In Realization, just like sound-sleep, you don't hear, you don't see, you don't feel. But Self exists, and there is consciousness . It is just like the sound-sleep state, the only difference is that you are conscious of it. It is paradoxical; and so difficult, Clear? So meditation leads you not to Me."

Elizabeth Patterson asked: "Where do we go when we go to sleep?"

Baba replied: "Everywhere. You are always everywhere. Even now, though fully conscious, you are not conscious that you are everywhere, because the mind has always the natural tendency of losing its identity.

"Mind always wants to go, so in sleep you go back — and when you wake up you feel fresh, but again after working it once more wants to lose its identity in the Infinite."

Q. "What makes us wake up?"

A. "Impressions, Sanskaras. They prick you — get up! Spend us! Sanskaras are impressions. You become angry. Your mind immediately gets the impression of anger. Now this impression is on the subconscious mind. But it remains stamped deep in your subconscious mind. Unless these impressions go, mind cannot become still. Now, these impressions must be spent or experienced in the gross form.

Q. "What do you mean by sanskaras to be spent? Can they be worked out on the subtle plane?"

A. "No. Some, very rarely, go by themselves. Mostly they have to be experienced in the gross. You think — you act — all these create sanskaras, which you must work out. It is a long process, this working out in innumerable forms.

Q. "What are dreams?"

A. "Dreams are subconscious experiences which are always linked with your gross experiences of the past. Sometimes, in your dreams, you see persons you never saw in this life. This link is from the past. It is all based on illusion and imagination. Now imagination has infinite fields to play in. You can imagine yourself one moment as a king, the next moment as being on Mars, i.e., in infinite fields. But it is imagination. So, everything except Self is based on illusion."

Q. Elizabeth enquired, "But how was it that when I was twelve years old I dreamed of you three different times in succession, and when I first met you, years after, I recognized you as the one I had known in the dream — that was not an illusion!"

A. "What I mean is everything, except your being Infinite, is illusion. I am very ancient. Very, very old and always young. Imagination has seven flights . . . "

Q. "What is imagination?"

A. "Imagination is what you want to be and you are not!"

Message to the Eastern and Western Gopis at Meherbad, Ashrams, January 23, 1937

Baba remarked, when we were all gathered together at table: "Pure Love is the beginning and ending of everything. When only one desire remains, Love manifests in full glory — because only in the Divine Beloved, Love is Infinite Purity.

"When Lover and the Beloved are One, that is the end and the beginning."

Talk at Meher Ashram, Nasik, January 30, 1937

"I feel as attached and detached from my three bodies as you feel attached and detached from your three garments. So you must try to feel as attached and detached as I feel. Whether you feel detached or attached will be decided on how you respond to these three questions. But I want you to be honest, sincere and frank in your answers . . . not to say 'yes' and mean 'no'. Also when I ask you 'Is it clear?' say if it is not.

"Now try to feel detached for twenty-five minutes."