When I say that God is a state, I mean of course a state of consciousness: the ultimate state of consciousness in which all duality vanishes and there is only the experience of an indivisible Oneness. It is certainly preferable to view God in this way and to abandon these silly anthropomorphic conceptions of God. Having done this, God no longer punishes us for our sins. We punish ourselves thanks to the impartial workings of karma. The hurt and suffering we cause others rebounds upon us, either in this life or the next. If we hurl a ball against a wall, it rebounds under the laws of physics. God has nothing to do with the rebounding ball or our so-called sins.
The notion that I'm espousing does not bring us any closer to God but it can save a lot of wasted energy. How many prayers are offered up to God, asking for this or that, in the mistaken belief that these prayers are being heard and assessed by some divine being? Consciousness develops in physical organisms to the point where, in the human species, it is capable of realising Oneness but rarely does because of the karmic knots accumulated during countless lifetimes, the most recent in human form but before that in animal form. Because of this the majority of us identify with our ego, that sense of self that arises around three years of age and that we cling to throughout the remainder of our lives. Only very few can abandon that identification with the ego.
At the instant of illumination, the limited ego dissolves and consciousness experiences the infinite bliss of union. There is no awareness of the creation. The physical world disappears and in most cases the body is discarded after a few days. In some cases, the body is retained and functions more or less automatically while consciousness remains divinely absorbed and oblivious of the body's continued existence in illusion. A very, very few are destined for whatever reason to return to the physical world to become Perfect Masters. They are God in the sense that they retain their awareness of Oneness after their return. The very first human to realise Oneness is unique however, and is referred to as the Avatar. The Avatar feels a sense of responsibility for ignorant and suffering humanity and returns to Earth every 700 or 1400 years in order to lend us a helping hand as it were.
These incarnations of the Avatar are very special, each one having a unique flavour. Zoroaster, Ram, Krishna, the Buddha, Jesus Christ and Mohammed are some of his incarnations, with Meher Baba being the most recent. The Avatar always returns in male form. That is not to say that God is a male. Before Realisation, the Avatar was a male and remains so in subsequent incarnations. God is of course neither male nor female but a state that transcends all opposites. Both males and females can realise this state but the ego must be extinguished before this is possible. Extinguishing the ego of course is all but impossible and definitely so without the direct help of a Perfect Master. In a sense the aspirant never achieves illumination because he or she must die in the process, not physically (although this is often a side-effect) but mentally. The illusion of a separative ego must vanish.
Religions cause a great deal of confusion in our attempts to understand God. While inspired by the Avatar, religions continue to develop following the death of the Avatar, taking the form of Zoroastrianism, Hinduism, Buddhism, Christianity and Islam. Some of course would argue that Buddhism, in its essence, is not a religion but there's no point debating that here. Religions were intended to help us realise our essential Oneness but often serve to highlight Duality. This is the fault of the religion's adherents who lose touch with the originating spirit of the religion. The problems caused by religions have come to outweigh their benefits and that is why Meher Baba, the latest incarnation of the Avatar, chose not to establish a new religion. If someone is following a religion, Baba didn't recommend that he or she abandon it. Instead, he recommended that the adherent be true to the spirit of the religion and not become absorbed in empty rituals.
What I've written here is only a very brief summary of my interpretation of what Meher Baba has said. The reader is advised to go the source if there is desire to understand more about what I've written. Many books, in electronic format, by or about Meher Baba are available for free download at
https://www.ambppct.org/library.php.
