At three in the afternoon on December 4th, Meher Baba discoursed about the different religions of the world:
Who gave all these different religions? The Avatars! Why have they done so? To establish principles for people and to bring people to the point where their faces are turned toward God. Muhammad and Buddha both gave different precepts, but each according to the circumstances and mentality of the people of the time.
Baba then drew a diagram of the spiritual path through the planes and described the various Sufi stages leading to union with God: Haqiqat – Realization; marefat – inner knowledge; tariqat – inner sight; shariat – outwardly following religious customs. He elaborated with the following analogies:
Take the example of water, for instance: to think that there is water without ever having seen or tasted it is shariat. To begin digging a well to strike and see water is tariqat. After going sufficiently underground and finding water – this seeing is marefat. Actually drinking water is haqiqat.
–www.lordmeher.org, p990