It was a Friday and a long day at work. I was looking to have a relaxed evening and a calm weekend. As I was packing up, my wife called me. She said that she was in downtown and asked whether we could have dinner outside. I thought that was a great idea and told her that I would reach the spot in about 30 minutes. I hopped on to my motorcycle and drove to the place. Since it was a busy area, I could not find any parking nearby and drove couple of blocks and found a parking spot. I soon walked up to the restaurant and we had a good dinner. It was about 9 pm and we were ready to leave.
I told her to wait at the restaurant and I would get the bike. I was trusting my absolutely poor sense of direction and luckily found my bike. I tried to kick start it and try as much as I did, it was not starting. I reached into my pocket for my cell phone and realized I had left it behind in a bag with my wife. Cursing the heavy bike, I started wheeling it hoping to find a mechanic. Then, horror of horror, the lights went out and there was pitch darkness barring the occasional headlights of a vehicle. I had no idea where I was going, but just kept on pushing the bike.
I then felt a push on my shoulder and before I could hold my balance, I was falling over the bike and was hitting the ground. I opened my eyes and could see brightness all around. I wondered whether I had died and reached Heaven. Then it slowly dawned on me, I had fallen off the bed in my bedroom. The whole thing was a dream! I chuckled to myself. I had never driven a bike in my life and I had been fooled into believing that I had driven it to downtown.
Then suddenly it struck me. I had been grappling with a spiritual conundrum and suddenly I seemed to have the answer. As per the Indian spiritual thought, the only reality is Brahman or Truth or Consciousness and this entire Universe is an illusion. To explain this, a common example is of the Rope and Snake. In the dark, a rope can appear as a snake. The rope is only the reality and the snake is an illusion. Another example is of the water in a desert. The desert is the only reality and the water in the desert is an illusion. In both these cases, there is a Reality, be it the rope or the desert; there is an illusion, the snake or the water; there is an observer, who is mistaking the rope for the snake and the desert for the water.
When we try to apply the above example to explain Brahman, it goes into a tail spin. We are told that Brahman is the only reality. If this be the case, who is seeing Brahman as the Universe? If I try and say, it is me, then it is fallacious since I am also an illusion. So, it appears as though Brahman itself is getting confused by itself. It is like me seeing my own shadow and getting confused. This was not making sense at all.
This is when the above dream gave me clarity. Now, who was dreaming? I, who was sleeping on my bed in USA was the dreamer. Who created the various characters in the dream including me, my wife, the restaurant, the motor cycle etc? Again, it was me sleeping on my bed in USA. Who enjoyed the meal in the restaurant? Who felt the pain of pushing the motorcycle? It was not me, the sleeper. It was me, the character in the dream created by me that was feeling the pain. Who realized that they were fooled and when did they realize? The character me in the dream never realized that he was being fooled. Was me the sleeper fooled? Not at all. If I the sleeper realized I was being fooled, then obviously I would not be in a dream.
So, I the sleeper who is the reality created an universe, of which I was not aware till I woke up. In my dream, all the emotions felt by my character were true, but meant nothing to the real me. However, if I the sleeper did not exist, the universe would never have existed. Whatever happened to my dream character in the dream, I, the real person who was sleeping had no role nor did that dream experience create any harm to the real me. Did I have to summon any real power to create my dream? Did I the sleeper decide the characters, the content, the start time and end time of my dream? Absolutely not! It was the ignorance of my dream character of the reality that made him experience both the pleasure of the dining and the pain of pushing the motorcycle.
To conclude, Brahman is the only reality. Due to its innate so called feature, called Maya, it appears to create the illusory world. Brahman has just provided the foundation for the illusion and is in no way responsible for the illusion, just as the rope is not responsible for creating the snake or the desert is not responsible for creating the water mirage or I the sleeper is not responsible for the emotions of my character in the dream. It is not Brahman who is fooled in the illusory world. The characters in the illusory world are fooled by the illusion just like my dream character. Now, knowing this about my dream, if I could somehow re-enter the same dream, how would I be? Me, the dream character would enjoy the dinner, but know that the reality is different. Me, the dream character would experience the pain stoically knowing that it is an illusion and will end soon. So, also, for a person with true knowledge of Brahman, it is possible to live through the dualities of life consisting of joys and sorrows stoically knowing all this is an illusion.
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Please buy and read any of these books:
My Humble Understanding Of Spirituality
Attain Infinite Bliss - A Spiritual Guide
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