The game atya-patya is played in a large rectangular field with many parallel horizontal lines and one bisecting vertical line. Once, when the game was being vigorously played, Baba stopped play and called the men under the shade of a nearby tree where he explained its spiritual meaning:
The horizontal lines are the barriers representing pride, anger, greed, jealousy, hatred, envy and egoism, which the traveler on the spiritual path has to overcome before attaining the spiritual goal of God-realization. The bisecting line represents lust which persists to the end, even long after the other undesirable qualities have been subdued and overcome. Once the goal is attained, these very faults are elevated to the level of divine attributes, and nothing but good accrues to others when they are expressed. Those on the Path can and do help others, yet only up to the point or level where they themselves are. But those who have realized the ultimate state of God and reached the goal of Self-Realization can help others stranded at any stage of the inner journey.
Place: Manzil-e-Meem, Mumbai
-www.lordmeher.org, Revised 2014, p275