If the soul continued to exist only in the highest state, it would never experience hunger and thirst. This comes through the separation, its departure from its home, whence it passes through the phases of hunger and thirst. This is the theme of the opening of the "Masnavi," the allegory of the flute.
After the soul has suffered thoroughly in the pain of separation, it recovers step by step its lost province. As it throws off the deceiving desires, as it abandons the fruits of action, as it surrenders all the thoughts and attachments of incarnate and disincarnate experience, it comes again to the full satisfaction of love and the end of hunger and thirst in its reunion with God. This reunion, however, is only apparent; it has always existed but the soul has not realized it during its journey away from home.