Meher Baba gave discourses to the children, often using similes and analogies to illustrate his points. On December 18th, (1927) Baba brought out a doll and explained the progression of evolution. Bending the head of the doll downward and folding all its limbs inside, Baba stated, “This is the state of inanimate objects in the world, such as stones, rocks and minerals. Life is there but it is curled up like the doll and you cannot see it. Everything is latent.”
Unfolding the doll’s arms and legs, Baba pointed the legs toward the sky and explained, “This is the state of the soul in the plant form. Its mouth is at the roots and its legs or branches are in the sky.” Baba brought the legs down and placed the doll on all fours, indicating that the doll was now in the animal form. Finally, Baba made the doll stand on its two legs and explained, “The soul has now reached the state of a human being – this is the final and highest form.”
To illustrate the working of sanskaras, Baba one day took a mirror out of his coat pocket and explained:
Suppose this mirror represents the mind’s sanskaras while Chaitanya is Unconscious Consciousness. Now the moment Chaitanya is created in the unconscious mind, it arouses the sound sleep state of God to know its Self. Also at that moment sanskaras begin. The mirror, which was placed aside, now begins to move toward the eyes.
Drawing a diagram on the chalk board to illustrate his point, Baba continued:
One of the first movements of consciousness takes the mirror to the stone form where only a corner of the mirror falls within the boundary of one’s vision. The next movement, to the vegetable form, brings a greater area of the mirror within sight. The next, to the worm, fish, bird and animal kingdoms, brings a still greater area into view. Then the final movement, toward the human form, brings the entire area of the mirror before the eyes and one sees his own reflection therein and believes the reflection – the shadow of the Self – to be the Real Self or I, which is not true.
So the mirror, which was slanted with the evolution of forms, is slowly brought upright with heightened consciousness. But the soul, instead of seeing itself inside and toward its own body, sees into the reflection in the mirror and what it sees is illusion.
So what should it do now to see the Self? It must remove the mirror; not only remove it, but destroy it! That is, one must destroy the sanskaras which create illusion. If you do not destroy them, they remain as they are and present themselves again and again whenever you take birth. For example, the mirror is there, even when you have left bodies after bodies and taken another. Therefore, remove this mirror of sanskaras and see your own Real Self.
Lord Meher, Original ed., Bhau Kalchuri, Vol. 3, pp. 976 – 977.