Q&A – Day 1
Volunteers collect the questions from the participants.
Q: Swamiji, you say there is no scale to find out whether the state in which we are is reality or not. But every day when I come back to the waking state, I see the same house, the same world. But every day when I go back to the dream state, I don't see the same world. So, can this be used as a scale? With this can we say that this world is real?
Very intelligent question! This is a wonderful question which we need to understand and internalize.
Let us analyze one night's dream. For example, let us say that you go to sleep on the 14th night and on 15th morning you wake up. You sleep for around 10 hours. I am sure many of you have had experiences of having lived around 10 to 20 years of your life in one night's dream, in just 10 hours time.
From your college days the dream will start and move slowly step by step and go up to your marriage, you having a son, your son's marriage etc. In this way, you live even 10 or 20 years of your life in just one night's dream, am I right? If you have experienced this at least once, you can follow very closely what I am going to present now.
One more thing: scientists are now saying that you don't continuously sleep at night time. You sleep for a maximum of 30 minutes in the deep sleep state. The rest of the time, you move between the dream state, the deep sleep state, and the waking state. In the East, the maximum deep sleep time is 30 minutes, but in the West they say that it is only 16 minutes.
You see, while sleeping, we go through the dream state and the deep sleep state. Maybe for half an hour, you fall into the deep sleep state. Then you go to the dream state and go through some dreams. Again you fall asleep, spend about half an hour in the deep sleep state; then again you come back to the dream state. In this way you keep moving from the dream state to the deep sleep state and back.
Understand: in one night, you dream as if you lived ten years of your life. It is like in the first episode, you see in your dream you are in college. In the second episode, when you come back to the dream state after your spell of deep sleep, you see you are getting married. In the third episode, again when you enter the dream state, you see you have a son. Maybe in the fourth episode, in the next spell of dream state, you see your son getting married.
An important thing you need to understand: when you fall asleep into the deep sleep state and then come back to the dream state and then repeat the same, in these different episodes, you do see the same world even in the dream state. Am I right? You do see the same world in the dream state.
Understand, it is a very subtle point, very subtle understanding; if you can catch this, it will really lead to a very big clarity, which can really revolutionize the way in which you think about your life, the way in which you try to solve the problems of your life.
There is a beautiful story:
A person was dreaming. In the dream he saw a tiger chasing him and he was shouting, 'Oh, a tiger is chasing me! Save me, save me!' His friend was sleeping next to him. He woke up and he saw
that his friend was shouting, 'A tiger is chasing me, save me, save me!' The friend was confused, 'What am I supposed to do?' The friend just needed to tell him, 'Hey, wake up!' Instead of that, if he tried to supply some weapon to kill the tiger in the dream, what will happen? He may kill himself or he may kill his friend!
If you understand these basic things, suddenly you will see the decision-making will be revolutionized. The cognitive shift will happen in you. The way in which you think and the way in which you make decisions, the way in which you try to find out solutions for your problems will be different. You will start working towards the right solutions.
In the case of the man having a nightmare of a tiger chasing him, the right solution at that moment is just to tell him, 'Wake up!' That's the right solution; instead, if you try to find any other solution it will only lead to more and more problems, more and more difficulties.
Here, all I want to tell you is: when you are dreaming, in a span of ten hours, you live ten years. You fall into deep sleep and come back to the dream state many times. Whenever you come back to the dream state from the state of deep sleep, even though there was a break from the last dream, you see the same world. Just seeing the same world after the break in the dream state cannot be the quality to define it as reality.
Please understand: after a break, if you see the same world, it cannot be the scale to define or say that world is reality. This happens even in the dream state. Even in the dream state, after the break, when you come back you see the same world. Just you coming back from the deep sleep state and seeing the same world cannot be the reason to say that it is a reality.
Only when you wake up from sleep, you realize you have dreamt ten years of your life in just ten hours. In the same way, only when you wake up from this dream in which you are living now, suddenly you realize you have dreamt maybe 90 years of your life in a few hours! Who knows, this life in the waking state can be another long dream!
I can say, that is the first step in spirituality. That is the first step for psychological revolution. Realizing and
Again and again, our sufferings are giving a clear statement: we are holding on to emptiness. Our suffering is nothing else but a clear statement from reality: you are not living with the reality.
understanding that there is a possibility this can be one more long dream will turn much of your attention and awareness to the center, to the consciousness.
The first chapter of the Bhagavad Gita is called Arjuna Vishaada Yoga, the depression or confusion of Arjuna. We also face the depression and confusion in our lives. I call this 'depression of success'. This depression induced by success comes from achieving what we want to achieve, but realizing that what for we want to achieve has not happened. There are very few, rare, intelligent people who understand, 'I am facing this suffering or depression because I am not living with reality.'
Here, all I am trying to say is that just because you are seeing, do not think you are living with reality.
Usually I face another one question on the same lines: 'Swamiji, not only am I seeing this world, even the people who are living around me are seeing this world in the same way. How can you say it is a dream?'
Understand: in a dream if you are seeing a particular city, if you are dreaming that you are going to that city with your whole family, not only you, the family which is with you inside your dream also will see the same city because they are also projections of your mind.
So, just because the people who are around you see the same scene does not mean the scene is reality. Even the people around you whom you are seeing can be the projection of the same scene.
If your attention is centered on the stuff, naturally the inner healing cannot happen.
If your attention is equally distributed on the consciousness and the stuff, that is what The ultimate truth is: the stuff out of which your dream world is made, is the same as the stuff out of which this waking world is also made.
I call healthy life, balanced life. You will have physical health, mental health, and a vibrant life.
If your attention is totally centered on the consciousness, not on the stuff with which these worlds are made, that is what I call 'living enlightenment' or jeevan mukti.
Whether you want jeevan mukti or not, whether you want enlightenment or not, is secondary. But if you can turn a little bit of your attention towards the 'I' consciousness, towards the truth, towards the center, suddenly you will see that a tremendous inner healing happens.
I always tell people, realizing this whole world is one more dream brings a tremendous healing effect in you.
Understand, for example, if you are facing some very big difficulty or depression, if you realize very clearly, consciously that this whole thing is a dream, you will experience such a relaxed feeling or the inner healing happening in you. That inner healing is what I call meditation. That restful awareness which happens in you is what I call satori, the first glimpse of samadhi.
A basic cognitive shift or a basic psychological revolution with the simple understanding that what you are seeing may not be reality as you think, can bring tremendous inner healing inside you, a great restful awareness inside you.
More and more restful awareness being added to you is what I call inner healing, or health, or raising the quality of consciousness.
Instead of the dream state penetrating the waking state while you are, for instance, driving, the blissful state can penetrate your waking state during the driving. Even when you are out of your bed and seemingly in the waking state, so much of your time is occupied by your dream state because of your low awareness.
People come and tell me, 'If I start meditating, I will not have time to do my business.' No! Meditation has nothing to do with a separate time; it is something to do with inner understanding.
As of now, so much of your time and energy is being spent in the dream state which possesses you. Instead of that, you can allow the turiya state, the blissful state to possess you.
You can just change the attitude; you can just shift the energy; you can just simply go through a big transformation. That is what I call 'psychological revolution.'
Here is one more question.
Q. How can we select our god and goddess?
The person is confused because we have more than one deity in our tradition. I always tell people, you will suddenly feel a very deep connection towards some god, some technique. That is what I call 'falling in tune', 'feeling connected'.
If you don't feel connected to any one particularly, do not choose anything, continue your seeking. Continue your seeking and let the seeking become your god. Seeking can become your god. Let the seeking become your ishta devata (desired god). No need for a particular devata.
One more question: