What do dreams mean?

ONE man, a Zen master, woke up and started weeping. Zen masters are unpredictable. Their ways of teaching are mysterious, untraditional. One disciple asked the master: why are you weeping? Master said last night I dreamt that I was a butterfly and flying in the garden. Disciple asked: it was just a dream, why are you crying? Master said: I do not know whether I dreamt that I became a butterfly or whether the butterfly is dreaming now that it is a master with so many disciples.

Both thoughts were transient, not permanent. But do we understand? We always think that whatever we are is permanent. We try to possess it, identify with it.

We have four states: waking, dreaming, deep sleep and one more. There are two states of thoughts and two states of consciousness, which overlap. In waking state we are with thoughts and ‘I consciousness’. In deep sleep we’ve neither thoughts nor ‘I consciousness’. In the dream state, we’ve only thoughts but no ‘I consciousness’. Once we think of I, we come out of the dream. There is a fourth state where there are no thoughts but we know who we are. This state is called turiya, and is unknown to western psychology.

Every student of spirituality needs to understand these states. These are different layers of our Being. In the waking state you use the physical body. In dream state you see your subtle body. The third body is karana sarira that is used in deep sleep. It is conscious, sub-conscious and unconscious states in these three states. Whatever is unfulfilled in conscious state, anything you suppress is brought back in your dream or sub-conscious state. If you fast while waking, you dream of feasting at night. If you are afraid of snakes, and suppress thoughts of them in the conscious state, you will dream of snakes.

If your boss mistreats you and you can not deal with him consciously you will seek revenge in your dreams. Your suppressed anger, hidden fears, violence or sexual desires will come out in dreams.

In the unconscious deep sleep or karana sarira state your mind processes all information you have collected. If you see hundred things you look at only two things, you observe and take in only two things consciously. The rest goes into your unconscious and the subconscious states and come back to you in your dreams.

Do not postpone living. Celebrate!

ONE man after having lost his wealth prayed to God and got a boon that from dawn to dusk on the following day, whatever land he covers by running, can be owned by him. The man started running at dawn and kept running even after he covered more than what he lost. He refused to heed his body’s pleas for rest and food. His mind was filled with thoughts of the land owned by his neighbours and relatives. By evening he felt dizzy and weak. In the distance, he saw a burial ground and a river flowing beyond it. He was very happy at the thought of owning a river and a place where he and his progeny could be buried and decided that he would stop after he reached the river. Just as the sun was about to set, he reached the river.

He bent down to sip some water. The moment his lips touched the water, he dropped dead of exhaustion. They buried him in the burial ground he had crossed!

This is how we all live our lives. We run the race without even stopping to think why we are running. We travel in the horizontal dimension of thinking ‘what next’ all the time. This is what causes us to run. As long as we are moving in this horizontal line, we will run till we drop dead in our grave. Travelling from more to more is only travelling towards our grave. It is just slow death! It can never be life.

It is possible to satisfy our needs, but it becomes impossible to satisfy our wants because, they are changing and unclear all the time. Every time one want is fulfilled, a hundred more come up.

Always, as long as we are chasing something, it seems that it is worth the whole world; but after we get it, somehow it is not important any longer! If we become aware of ourselves and understand what exactly we want, and try to do that alone, we will never find ourselves in this kind of a self-contradictory and fragmented situation.

Never think, let me work now, I can enjoy later! I tell you, it will never happen. Every tomorrow comes in the form of today only. Doing should lead to being every moment, only then we are on the right track. It is now or never. We all run throughout our lives thinking that we can enjoy later, but we land up running into the graveyard. So don’t postpone living. Celebrate! It is now or never.

Be Blissful!

The Message of Super Conscious Krishna

Nithyananda, Discourse on Bhagavad Gita, Chapter 10:

Scriptures, especially Hindu scriptures, are the outcome of the experience of enlightened Masters. They are never wrong. But it is not easy to understand them because you live in another time, another space. You need a dictionary. I am your dictionary!

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Meditation is the art of listening to Existence with deep obedience, with such totality that between us and the song of the bird, there is no barrier. Then the song of the bird becomes the message of the Buddha. Then in every silence there is a scripture; then every moment of life is a contact with the Divine. Then on every leaf is God's signature, and in every stone a beautiful song is asleep, is hidden.

When we become silent, what is hidden starts becoming manifest. We start hearing things which are not heard ordinarily and we start seeing things which are not seen ordinarily, as if new eyes have grown in us, new ears have grown in us.

The definition of meditation is also the definition of the disciple: the art of listening to the Master.

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When the Master says drop 'I and mine,' people are afraid that the Master may pick that up and take it. He may take it away. What to do? They think he is in need of it, which is why he asks them to drop it. They think, 'He is asking us to drop it, so he can take it.' People are suspicious. That's why Masters sometimes say, 'This is the way, do as you want.'

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'One who has fixed his mind and intellect upon me,' says Krishna. It is difficult for the devotee and disciple to have this attitude of surrender to the Master or the universe. As long as things go the way the person wants, as long as the Master allows the devotee to do what he wishes, the Master is a great Master and worthy of celebration. But once the Master turns serious and takes up his responsibility of spiritual surgery on the disciple, the disciple wants to run.

I tell people, 'Decide well in advance whether I am your right Master.' A Master takes his responsibilities seriously. His major responsibility is surgery; it is the surgery of the cancer of ego. Once the disciple makes a commitment, Master makes his commitment, too. It is dangerous to run away from the operating table. One loses one's whole life by running away. One may have to wait many births before one gets another chance.

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I tell my disciples: Do not sit in front of me, gazing at me in adoration. Your chasing me does not work. Work for my Mission, serve my Mission, and then I shall chase you. I shall be in your hearts. That is the message of the Super Conscious Krishna.

To Trust the Master

Nithyananda, Discourse on Bhagavad Gita, Chapter 9:

Q: How can we create trust in the Master? How can we drop doubts about doing what we want to do with our hearts when our heads keep asking questions?

A: This is a wonderful question and very honest. Your problem is shared by many people.

First of all, you cannot create trust. Trust has to happen. Trust is not the same as faith. It is a higher level in understanding. Faith and belief are our conditioning. It is stuff we are fed from childhood. Children are suggestible. We know now that up until adolescence the brain wave patterns of children are in the alpha state and they can be easily influenced by opinion and guidance of older people. We are taught from a young age whom we should believe and whom we should distrust.

The trust we are talking about is different from conditioned faith and trust. Those arise from our head, logic and so-called knowledge inputs. Yet, deep within us, from our being, there is a constant nagging of dissatisfaction with our conditioning. Many ignore this nagging and occupy themselves with the outer world.

However, some find it impossible to ignore this inner call. They listen and move in a direction that is in tune with this voice. They turn to religion, to scriptures and finally they turn to Masters when they find themselves deeply dissatisfied with whatever they have experienced in the outer world.

The doubts that we have of the outer world carry over into our search of the inner world too. For every answer we receive, we have a dozen new questions. That is natural and as it should be. Then there comes a point where logic is exhausted. It may happen through a sudden revelation, reading something, witnessing something, listening to someone, or for no reason at all. It is as if all questions have been answered and all doubts have been cleared. I term this experience a 'click'. This click initiates a churning inside us. It starts a psychological revolution in our system.

This is when trust begins, true trust, trust that leads us to surrendering our logic to a higher state of intelligence.

Many followers remember the exact point when this happened to them: as they listened to me, looked at me, read my books or watched a DVD. A chemical reaction within them says, 'wake up, your time is up, no more questions.' Your brain issues a command that overrides logic.

We cannot force this. This happens by itself. We must be ready. I should be your Master. It must be a convergence.

People ask, 'How do we remember you once we leave your presence?' I say, 'When I am your Master and you accept me as your Master, the problem will be trying to forget me. Your Master will occupy your entire inner space - head, heart and being.'

Let your head and logic exhaust themselves with questions. They will eventually get tired, because logic has an end and spirituality is endless.