How Seriously can Your take a Dream?

All our lives, we laugh, cry, wonder, wail, dream, despair...because of the myriad variety of our experiences. World teaches us to handle these experiences at best by being strong and courageous. But spirituality makes us question the very reality of these experiences. It can be a stunning moment for many to even think that everything which we react and respond to, is indeed unreal.
Like a dream, it appears, it enchants, it inspires, it entangles...and it ends.
When we think deeply, we realise how silly our pursuits in life are. Everything we do, say, think, feel is based on an unquestioned assumption that this realm of our experiences, called Samsara, is real.
Bhaja Govindam says: Question that assumption.
Why after all do we believe it is real?

BECAUSE WE PERCEIVE IT, WE EXPERIENCE IT EVERY MOMENT! Our parents, teachers, elders, text-books, encyclopaedias, newspapers, television shows, movies and social surroundings have all taught us ever since we remember that “seeing is believing, experiencing is being.” And we have comfortably slumbered in this belief for all our lives. 

Well, if you stand on a non-digital weighing machine inside a moving elevator, you will “see” the meter scale reading your weight as 0 Oz. But your weight is no less than what it was yesterday! When we travel in a flight, we “experience” no movement. But we travel thousands of miles! Sometimes, when you are viewing a movie on your laptop, the angle of the LCD is not set right for viewing, and you “see” only a black screen. But, the hero in the movie has already finished wooing the heroine, and neither of them is wearing anything black! When you are on the treadmill, you “experience” so much movement as if you have really walked up 10miles. But in reality, you are where you were!

So, what we are trying to say here is that only seeing is NOT believing and experience alone is NOT being. Sometimes, what we see is not and what we do not experience is!

Therefore, just because we see the world, we cannot for sure say it is real. In our dream, we see the dream too! And at that time, we experience it as very real. 

Funny Story: One day, Mrs.Gurbaxani woke up from her mid-night dream in a state of great misery. She was weeping away to glory, as Mr.Gurbaxani was trying hard to understand what was wrong. Finally, sniffing away her tears, Mrs.Gurbaxani said, “You slapped me in my dream!” Mr.Gurbaxani smiled and said, “But sweetheart, it was just a dream!” To this Mrs.Gurbaxani snapped back, “Yes, but if you can dare slap me in my own dream, I dread to think what you might be doing to me in your dream!”

The point is that the dream slap hits my dream cheek, the dream fire burns my dream finger, the dream water satiates my dream-thirst. But just as this does not make the dream any more real once i have woken up, in the same way, just because i experience my world as real does not necessarily make it real. Just as the dream wealth can be useful only in my dream, my shares and debentures in the waking state can make me wealthier only in my waking state! So how can we call it any more real than a mere dream...? They all have limited degrees of reality...

THINK!

We now realise the point being made. But, if this world, which we always thought of as real, is like a dream, then what is the real REAL? There must be a wake-up from this world-dream. What is that?

Now, Bhaja Govindam relaxes a little and says, “Now you have asked a worthy question. But, i cannot answer this one. Sit quietly and realise!”

We realised the world-dream... So, what is the real REAL? Sit quietly and realise!

Practice: Write 10 things that decide whether you call your day a good day or a bad day. Eg. Bad-hair, waking up with a headache, loss in business, boss in bad mood, son being sick, skipping the morning tea, being praised at work, going shopping, a gift from the spouse, gyming, whatever....

Write it all down. 

Now think: Would all this really matter as much if I knew that it was all unreal?? 

Do this exercise often and you will see your list become shorter over the months, till you reach a point when nothing really matters. That is when, you will become the Master of your day, of your life. 

Quote: We are not lost in a dream, but we are only dreaming that we are lost. - Guruji

TODAY'S REFLECTION IS BASED ON VERSE 23 OF BHAJA GOVINDAM. THIS IS A CONTINUATION.