Annihilating Sanskaras: Two Analogies – 1. The tailor and the coat

You people die a thousand deaths, and despite that, you stay where you are and do not progress. You continue to get caught up in the ceaseless rounds of birth and death, because you continue to mistake the teacup*, which is the sadhan or means, for the tea itself, which is the Real and the Original.

That is, you take this body of yours and this life you lead to be Truth and Real Existence, whereas in actuality this body is only a medium for advancement towards the Goal of Truth. All this mischief is caused by those devilish sanskaras! Get yourself freed from the bindings of these sanskaras and you will find Khuda, you will realize God. All this business of your dying and taking birth again and again is like tearing off old coats while the tailor Waman (a local tailor) sews and prepares new ones for you. “Coat” here signifies the body, and “tailor” represents the sanskaras. No sooner has one coat been torn off the tailor proceeds to prepare a new one. In just the same way, when your body falls to destruction at death, your sanskaras mold and shape a replacement. To bring this process of “sewing and destroying” to an end for once and for all, the belly of the tailor must be split open and cut to pieces. That is, the original source of production, which is the sanskaras, must be sliced up and destroyed, for all this mischief results from these sanskaras, which have, therefore, to be gotten rid of.

– “Meher Baba’s Tiffin lectures”, p26
20-May-1926; Meherabad

*In an earlier Tiffin lecture Baba said:  The proper use of the cup and saucer is for the drinking of tea. That is, the cup and saucer serve merely as the means for drinking tea. The moment the tea is drunk and swallowed into your stomach, the means – the cup and saucer- should be put aside. In just the same way, once you gain the Realization of Self, this body, which is only a means towards that aim, is to be renounced. For what is the use of it then, after the Experience of Truth?

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