Our religious texts proclaim that the secular world we live in is but a mere illusion or a dream and reality is simply that you are none other than Him and have created all this to enjoy yourself. This dream is sustained thru the agencies of an energy source called "Maya", with the result you have just forgotten as to who you are.
As if this was not adequately discomforting, thru the agencies of another energy source termed "nidra" the individual further gets into another dream - lives it - till he awakens and gets to that original dream induced by Maya.
And depending on the nature of the dream, either one rejoices over a good one, or prays that any bad dream does not come into play its role. There are even prayers which proclaim that the sad dreams can easily be converted into happy ones by chanting a few names of the Lord.
दुस्वप्न सुखदो भवेत। etc etc......
Before retiring to bed, one often gets a wish from well wishers about sleeping well & having sweet dreams!!
The संकल्पम् part before commencing any act/ritual asking for all kinds of boons, therefore appears to me as a similar kind of wishing ourselves "sweet dreams". While life goes on and if this is indeed a dream, then where is the harm in asking Him to make this dream sweet & happy and fulfilling all our wishes?
As one grows wiser however, it slowly begins to dawn- after getting satiated & bored of these goodies- that there is perhaps something more to life.The first thing that happens then is a "looking inward" process. Slowly there is this reduction of the wishes galore, and things get confined to only asking for His Grace.... (परमेष्वर प्रीथयर्थं) and nothing else.
मन एव संसारः। is a Upanishadic vakhyam. The interpretation is that "it is the mind which determines as to what is "action" in this circuit of mundane existence & not the action itself" In other words भावं is the key.
As you continue to perform your duties/rituals etc with the भावं that your action is only for getting His Grace, your Maya induced dream transforms to a happy re-union with Him (दुःस्वप्न सुखदो भवेत ). It's my belief that this has nothing to do with Nidra induced dreams at all.
Either to continue to live in this dream asking for all kinds of boons in an endless chain of birth-death-rebirth cycle, or to become conscious to the possibility of something more to our lives & to slowly get rid of desires and awaken from this bad dream in Realization is a choice left solely to our individual Free-will.
Do I make sense?
Love
Ekalavya alias Vichu
As if this was not adequately discomforting, thru the agencies of another energy source termed "nidra" the individual further gets into another dream - lives it - till he awakens and gets to that original dream induced by Maya.
And depending on the nature of the dream, either one rejoices over a good one, or prays that any bad dream does not come into play its role. There are even prayers which proclaim that the sad dreams can easily be converted into happy ones by chanting a few names of the Lord.
दुस्वप्न सुखदो भवेत। etc etc......
Before retiring to bed, one often gets a wish from well wishers about sleeping well & having sweet dreams!!
The संकल्पम् part before commencing any act/ritual asking for all kinds of boons, therefore appears to me as a similar kind of wishing ourselves "sweet dreams". While life goes on and if this is indeed a dream, then where is the harm in asking Him to make this dream sweet & happy and fulfilling all our wishes?
As one grows wiser however, it slowly begins to dawn- after getting satiated & bored of these goodies- that there is perhaps something more to life.The first thing that happens then is a "looking inward" process. Slowly there is this reduction of the wishes galore, and things get confined to only asking for His Grace.... (परमेष्वर प्रीथयर्थं) and nothing else.
मन एव संसारः। is a Upanishadic vakhyam. The interpretation is that "it is the mind which determines as to what is "action" in this circuit of mundane existence & not the action itself" In other words भावं is the key.
As you continue to perform your duties/rituals etc with the भावं that your action is only for getting His Grace, your Maya induced dream transforms to a happy re-union with Him (दुःस्वप्न सुखदो भवेत ). It's my belief that this has nothing to do with Nidra induced dreams at all.
Either to continue to live in this dream asking for all kinds of boons in an endless chain of birth-death-rebirth cycle, or to become conscious to the possibility of something more to our lives & to slowly get rid of desires and awaken from this bad dream in Realization is a choice left solely to our individual Free-will.
Do I make sense?
Love
Ekalavya alias Vichu
Athanji,
ReplyDeleteYou make AWESOME sense! Really illuminated by this piece.
Aakhri line ne tho bilkul maar diya!
There are many who have blamed me for being a devotee of 'free-will' but this takes it to another level only!
If the prayers' 'swapna' are not the 'nidra' or sleep wala dream, then there is much to live for; and much to wake up from! If life itself is a dream being lived out, then dreams can be either full circle or just a level of fantasy deeper.
I have heard this from philosophers. And though it may sound banal, the makers of recent movies (Inception?) and video games (virtual reality) may actually have fathomed this much more simply, else the product could not have been so.
My current point of ponder is on another limb (maybe start a new post here for you to illumine), but presently, isme tho maza aa gaya. Thanks & truly Namaskaram!
Anand
The one thing that I just can't cope with in today's world is speed. Before I can even partially immerse into Vichu's brilliant delineation on "dreams", his favourite subject, in comes Anand's response matching the quality of his Guru's exposition. And before I say wow here is the next one from Anand on a challenging subject to which Vichu responds with effortless depth of content, with great speed!!
ReplyDeleteI sincerely believe( "trust" does not fit the sentiment I am about to share) that my agenda in this life time is to experience the joy of being a discerning, very discerning, patron of whatever may manifest in my world of experience. From perfoming musicians to pravachaks, to scholars, to brilliant classmates, to sportsmen, to statesmen, to spiritual leaders and even discerning patrons; I have thus rejoiced being a discerning patron of excellence in whichever form it came and making sure that that is shared generously with comparable "excellence". It needs a lot less effort though to endorse what is already said and merrily joining in the debate. My responses have thus been generally in the nature of applause. My strong expressions at times of my differences with any view point arise more perhaps out of my concern to be noticed as "discerning" than from my conviction about a superior understanding.
The present exchange between Vichu and Anand is so complete that I would rather leave it alone without further additions from my side. I still can't hold back from celebrating Vichu's joining the "individual free will" school of faith and taking that to yet another level in response to Anand's querry on the mind's pre-judices. Long live individualisation, long live separation, long live debates, long live long sankalpaas.
God bless us all.
Gulpa
Please read individualisation in the last line of my earlier comment as individuation. That's a NDW term.
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