Life is a dream
We think our life is real. That is because we are immersed in it, not able to step out of the experience of the love affair called life. All that we are experiencing in this life is not real but the experience of a dream. However, we don’t realise this until we wake up from this life-dream. Waking up from this dream means the soul waking up in “the space”, finding itself all alone after the dissolution of the physical body.
Every night we get into a state of dream, not aware that we are dreaming. The experiences in the dream state are real experiences to us until we come out of it. Similarly, this life is also a dream though it does not appear to be so. One realises this when the soul leaves the body upon death.
Our night’s dream is deemed to be a dream only after we wake up in the morning and that too because the subconscious mind is aware that the person who slept at night is the same person who woke up. Therefore, a continuity of the person’s existence is established. In the same way, when we die and leave the body, it (the soul) suddenly finds itself all alone in space without its physical body, spouse, parents, children, family members, house, car, friends, society and the material world, which existed before death. This state of the soul, being alone in “the space”, is same as it was before taking human form and hence the continuity of its lonely existence in the absence of the physical body gets established and memories of life’s incidents appear as dreams.
The soul laughs at itself when life’s incidents are recollected and when it realises that one’s parents, spouse, children and the house, car, job etc which it owned were all part of a dream and did not exist in reality. It (soul) knows that nobody exists other than it and no gross body nor any gross world exists in reality.
Since nothing is real and permanent about this universe, why should we fear, worry and be anxious of anything? Why should we repent for the past and worry for the future? All is going to pass one day. In fact, in retrospect, everything does look like a dream — our childhood, school days, marriage, death of family members, job, retirement, loss, profit, sickness, cordial and strained relationships and entertainment.
Eventually, one day, when we attain enlightenment, we will realise that we were bound to dreams and got liberated from dreams. Nothing was real and nothing is real. Reality is only one and that is our existence as Pure Self — formless and eternal Consciousness.
One can achieve enlightenment by constantly remaining aware, of being in a dream state — witnessing everything as though it’s taking place in a dream and not reacting negatively to any situation, reminding oneself that nothing is permanent and nothing needs to be taken seriously. Even if one does not achieve enlightenment, at least one can make this life a good dream to be remembered and relished in retrospect.
Sri Rameshji Jain is a modern age spiritual guru and founder of Poorna Ananda, a Centre for Spiritual Evolution and Joyful Living. visit www.poornaananda.org
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