Exactly the same dream.

theist · May 6, 2007

Fallen means fallen asleep and into a dream state. This dream state is called maya. This is why Mahaprabhu exhorts us "Jiv Jago Jiv Jago," wake up sleeping souls.

Rather we fell into this dream state from Goloka or the Brahmajyoti is irrelevant at this point. It is not worth the effort to strenuously argue in favor of one or the other. To do so takes an interesting philosophical point, the answer of which lies beyond the purview of our minds, and turns the natural questioning of the mind into a prolonged session of mental masturbation. IM (not so humble) O of course.

When we successfully awaken from this illusory dream state the reality will be self apparent. So if we really want the answer to the question of our original position the quickest and indeed only way to realize the answer is to wake up and not to continually rehash it over and over in our heads.

So here is the recommendation. Try to become Krishna conscious. And then you'll not be disturbed with all these external, ephemeral changes of the material world. Not only of this body, practically..., practically one who is advanced in spiritual life, he's not agitated by the so-called political upheavals or social disturbances. No. He knows these are simply external, ephe... Just like in the dream. It is also a dream. The... Our present existence, it is also dream, Exactly like we dream at night. In dreaming, we create so many things. So this material world is also a gross dreaming. Gross dreaming. That is subtle dreaming. And this is gross dreaming. That is the action of the mind, body, intelligence, dreaming. And here, the action of five material elements: earth, water, air, fire... But all of them, these eight, they are simply material. So we are thinking that "I have now built a very nice house, skyscraper building." It is nothing but dream. Nothing but dream. Dream in this sense, that as soon as I give up this body, all my skyscraper building, business, factory—finished. Exactly the same dream. Dream is for few minutes, or few hours. And it is for few years. That's all. It is dream.
So one should not be disturbed by this dreaming condition. That is spiritual life. One should not be disturbed. Just like we are not disturbed. Suppose, in dream, I was put on the throne, and I was working like a king, and after the dream is over, I am not sorry. Similarly, in dream I was seeing that tiger has attacked me. I was actually crying "Here is tiger! Here is tiger! Save me." And the person who is lying behind me or beside me, he says, "Oh, why you are crying? Where is tiger?" So when he's awakened, he sees there is no tiger. So everything is like that. But this dream, these gross and subtle dreams, are simply reflections. Just like what is dream? The whole day, what I think, the dreaming is a reflection, reflection. My father was doing cloth business. So sometimes he, in dreaming he was quoting price: "This is the price." So similarly it is all dreaming. This material existence, made of these five gross elements and three subtle elements, they're exactly like dream. Smara nityam aniyatam.(?) Therefore Canakya Pandita says, smara nityam aniyatam. This anitya, temporary... Dreaming is always temporary.

So we must know that whatever we possess, whatever we are seeing, these are all dream, temporary. Therefore if we become engrossed with the temporary things, so-called socialism, nationalism, family-ism or this-ism, that-ism, and waste our time, without cultivating Krishna consciousness, then that is called srama eva hi kevalam [sB 1.2.8], simply wasting our time, creating another body. Our own business is that we should know that "I am not this dream. I am fact, spiritual fact. So I have got a different business." That is called spiritual life. That is spiritual life, when we understand that "I am Brahman. I am not this matter."

[...] Bg 2.15 lecture

realist · March 10, 2008

Fallen means fallen asleep and into a dream state. This dream state is called maya. This is why Mahaprabhu exhorts us "Jiv Jago Jiv Jago," wake up sleeping souls.

Rather we fell into this dream state from Goloka or the Brahmajyoti is irrelevant at this point. It is not worth the effort to strenuously argue in favor of one or the other. To do so takes an interesting philosophical point, the answer of which lies beyond the purview of our minds, and turns the natural questioning of the mind into a prolonged session of mental masturbation. IM (not so humble) O of course.

When we successfully awaken from this illusory dream state the reality will be self apparent. So if we really want the answer to the question of our original position the quickest and indeed only way to realize the answer is to wake up and not to continually rehash it over and over in our heads.

Good points