Aren't We All Dreaming?

by Sri P.C. Lahiri

I met a gentleman who is a very quiet person, having a distinctive, unusual style of his own in everything he does. He is slower than the average person in walking, talking, eating, reading, drinking etc. Doctors and others call him a schizophrenic. When all got to talking, he stood up and started pacing the room up and down in his very slow gait and style, absorbed in his thoughts, and with a slight smile on his face. One of the householders said aloud to him, “You have again started dreaming.  Stop it. Come and sit next to us.” He slowly stopped in his steps and mumbled to himself, “Aren’t we all dreaming?”

Prajnanpurush Sri Sri Babathakur (hereinafter referred to as the Master) says, ‘An executive conscious force or power, known as cosmic conscious energy of Infinite Self, shapes all lives and dictates all functions and their results with the consequential movements of cause and effect. In fact nobody thinks, acts and knows anything by himself, but impulses, thoughts, actions, experience and knowledge occur spontaneously in all lives. And the ego sense gathers around itself and refers to itself the flows of all the actions and movements of nature.’  The aforementioned quote appears on page 86 of the book titled 'Knowledge of Knowledge - Volume 2'.

We have to read the above few lines again and again in solitude to understand the real import of it. If we think that we are playing the roles of ‘doers’, ‘enjoyers’, and ‘sufferers’ in this world drama -we are simply dreaming in the waking state!

 Saccidananda Shakti of Saccidananda Satta (cosmic conscious energy of Infinite Self) shapes all lives and is the master of all its functions and results.  And the cardinal law that governs this play of lives of all kinds in this universe is the principle of “cause and effect”.  This principle is again framed and executed every second by the same energy; yet the Infinite Self and Its conscious energy are but One Supreme Reality---the Absolute Self I-Reality. If I fall prey to this apparent game as a player without accepting the underlying Oneness, then the law of “cause and effect” shall be my governing law.  Once this law takes over my being, I start fighting with the variety and 'many-ness' of this universe.  Why? Because all it is really is an imagined dream of my mind!  Imagination varies from mind to mind, time to time, place to place, event to event, so on and so forth. There are innumerable minds in simultaneous operation in the world going through innumerable events, places, thoughts, actions, results etc.  Then all the laws governing this world drama govern me. The whole concept of relative good-bad, right-wrong, proper-improper, day-night, this and that become fully applicable in my life. In this scenario, my trials and tribulations will never end. I will ever remain a struggling agent going through numerous phases of ups and downs - life after life -as per the law of cause and effect.  Debit and credit statement created by my actions shall rule over me, life after life.  As long as my dream of physical existence (accompanied only by inner and outer senses but bereft of central and transcendental nature) continues in this widely divergent world scenario, I shall have no respite. Life in the world whirlpool shall continue. 

On the other hand, if I start solving the world puzzle by accepting myself at the very first step as the Infinite Self and lead my life with this acceptance, then I will gradually become a witness to the ‘sportful dramatic sameside game of Self-Consciousness’.  Self-Consciousness which verily I am (nay, I is) shall be my guiding principle instead of the law of cause and effect.  This will not happen overnight, but as the habit sinks in by constant practice and perfectly settles down as my very nature, pure Self-Consciousness (i.e. my True Nature) shall reveal, instead of the mixed nature that is revealing now due to the admixture of three gunas (qualities).  Individuality refers to itself as ‘I am’, but the Supreme or the Absolute cannot say ‘Supreme am’.  It has to say ‘Supreme is’.  So if I consider (or to start out, even imagine) myself to be the Absolute - then the Absolute that I verily is, shall reveal one day. The dream of imagination or effortful consideration shall also end one day.  Why? Because That verily I am (is).

By constantly being in a dream and making efforts, the superimposition of the dream cannot go - i.e. until and unless a guiding hand or higher knowledge gradually wakes me up and makes me fully aware of the Reality that verily I am (is). 

We have heard an extremely interesting story of ten consecutive dreams narrated by the Master wherein an individual in one sleep goes through ten very divergent life situations by falling off to sleep in one situation and waking up to another situation in another life/place in that very sleep. Master had cautioned the gathering to listen to the whole story very carefully as He would be asking a question based on it at the end of the narration.  We were engulfed by Master’s mesmerizing narration.  He has nothing to prove to anyone, no brownie points to score in this dramatic sameside game.  Each dream was leading to the next one once the dreamer was falling asleep in the previous dream. We all were desperately trying to remember each aspect of each dream story within the whole narration.   After two dreams within dreams were narrated by Him, we divided the load of remembering the next ones amongst us so that nothing was missed.  This is the functioning of ego, the individual I, which wants to score brownie points by answering the end query instead of being calm and cool to really soak in the narration with its implied meaning.  Each story was captivating, sportful, dramatic and comprehensively consumed us. At the end of the narration He asked, “Have you all heard attentively?”  We gladly nodded in assent. In came the question---"Which one of these ten stories is true?"  Each of us frantically started recapitulating the story that she/he was assigned to remember - all in the hope of finding some clue to help us figure out which of the stories was true.  We however found no clue.  In came the Master's answer--- only the dreamer is true, the dreams are false.

We were intoxicated enough by the dreams to not realize that they were merely dreams and hence could not real.  All lives including the one we are presently experiencing are false, the real entity is our True Self without which none of this panorama is possible. Our very Existence is the eternal Truth.  Dream itself is the cause and effect as we see in the ten stories; each story is the cause of the following one.  Similarly, each story is the effect of the previous one.  Since our very alluring dream sequence has gone on for innumerable lives in various forms, we are not only enamored by it but also reluctant to get out of it. It is like the eating of thorny bushes in the barren deserts by the camel.  The thorns cut the gums, blood oozes; the salty taste is enjoyed by the camel, feeling that the thorns are very tasty. We are bleeding due to self-created anxiety, fear, tension, suffering and worries in this dream world, yet do not want to get out of it even if a Man of Wisdom shows us the way to freedom - not only through His talks but also by living with absolute freedom in the same world where we are bleeding to our end.   Consequently, we are taking a long time to wake up.  We can however reduce this time by developing a strong urge to wake up to the Absolute Self I-Reality, our very True Nature - especially since we have been given the science to follow directly by the Man of Supreme Wisdom. 

Shall we still keep on dreaming?