Glimpses of Reality

[Guest guest]

THE MAHARSHI

September/October 2001Vol. 10 - No. 5

Produced & Edited byDennis HartelDr. Anil K. Sharma

 

 

 

Letters and Comments

Glimpses of Reality

 

Dear Editor,

Thank you for sending me the last issue of the newsletter with my book

order. I noticed that questions and comments were answered and I was

wondering if you could help me understand an experience I had some

months ago.

One morning I woke up with the strange feeling that part of me had not

slept at all but had been a witness to my dreaming. I have to say

"part of me" because the awareness had been inside of me so it had to

be me, but there was something very different from myself in that

presence. I could remember my dream adventures and my own self

participating, and at the same time, could feel that I had been

"observed from within" by that presence. At the time I was only

acquainted with theories about the unconscious and I explained it to

myself as an encounter with my "unconscious". This happened before I

had been aware of Ramana Maharshi's teachings or practiced regular

meditations.

One morning, some weeks later, I had another experience. I became

aware of that presence on waking up, just at the point between

sleeping and dreaming, as if I had "caught it unaware". It was very

intense. It is difficult to find words to describe it. It felt as

being inside and outside of me at the same time, aloof, unemotional,

eternal, unconcerned. It left me with a feeling of awe and I called

the presence for myself (I have never talked about it before today)

"the silent watchman" or "the eternal watchman".

At about the same period I read about the Self and thought there were

many similarities. I have since wondered if it is possible to have

just a glimpse of the Self (apart from Self-Realization) and if this

is what has happened (I feel that these experiences were more than

sleep or dream illusions). I also wonder if the memory of that

impressing presence can be of spiritual help to me.

- An American Seeker

The experiences you had in sleep and during the transition from sleep

to waking are authentic spiritual experiences. It is no coincidence

that these experiences occurred during a period of your life when you

were actively seeking Truth and reading teachings, such as those of

Sri Ramana Maharshi. These 'glimpses' are the incentives, or the

grace, given to us. They are the road signs leading us to the final

destination, and also the destination itself.

The Maharshi explained that when a person wakes up from sleep the head

is raised and there is the light of awareness. The light is already

there in the heart which is later reflected on the brain and appears

as consciousness. Then the individual ego steps in and projects

thoughts, identifying itself with the mind, body and world. There is

a state in the interval between sleeping and waking, or between two

thoughts, which is the undifferentiated Self, the Eternal Being. That

state usually passes off unnoticed. You were fortunate to have been

aware of it and understood that it is the "Eternal Watchman," the

Self. That "Eternal Watchman" is your real nature, not the ego and

multiplicity of thoughts which followed that experience. Hold on to

that 'Watchman' in all the three states of waking, dreaming and

sleeping. That is the ultimate purpose of taking a human

birth. Still the mind and rest in this 'Watchman'. Then the game is

over and you rest in eternal peace and joy - Editor

 

 

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