The subject of the mind’s false ego came up again when L. Neurgaonkar, an engineer of the Poona municipality, saw Baba that day. He was a learned and religious man, and Baba explained to him:
You have read much of spiritual literature. You are well-known for your lucid expositions. Spiritual understanding takes one nearer the Path. But remember well that the experience of the Path is quite a different subject. The higher states of consciousness can never be imagined through book-knowledge.
As one traverses the spiritual path, one comes across varied experiences such as visions, sweet notes of sounds and delightful scents. In the more advanced state, one can be detached from the physical plane and watch his body moving about.
The many experiences that one has on the Path are not lasting, but the Experience in which one becomes what he really IS is perennial. Then, in whatever thoughts or actions such a one may seem to be engaged, maya cannot touch him. In that state, everything is experienced in its infinite intensity. How can spiritual understanding derived from books imagine this state? Intellect is bound to fail to fathom this Experience.
God is everlasting. God ever was. What does this mean? You may say that billions and trillions of years ago GOD WAS. But how far will you take a backward sweep in the span of time?
-www.lordmeher.org, p4649
April, 1960; Guruprasad