Once Lord Krishna and his close disciple Narada went for a walk. While they were walking, Narada asked, “Master, you say that the world is Maya, or delusion. Can you show me power of this Maya?”
“Sure,” Krishna replied, “Let’s sit down under a tree and I shall tell you everything. But I am really thirsty, so would you be so kind as to get me a glass of water?”
“Right away,” said the devotee, as he set out across the fields. The nearest village was far away, and the sun was beating down, so Narada began thinking he was going to need to ask for a glass of water for himself, too! When he reached the village, he knocked on the first house he came across. As the door opened, there stood the most beautiful young woman he had ever seen. When she smiled at him, his mind went blank and all he could do was blurt out the words, “Will you marry me?”
The woman agreed and her family arranged for a simple yet festive wedding. Soon after the couple settled down, their lives got full while they worked on building their dreams. Children began to arrive, and as the years passed, their children got married and then grandchildren also arrived. Narada’s hard work slowly turned him into the patriarch of a great family; he had earned the respect of the whole village and his lands stretched into the horizon.
Then a flood came, turning the fields into a raging river. Narada’s helpless eyes watched everything he loved and lived for suddenly being swept away: his land, his cattle, and his house, as well as his beloved wife, children, and grandchildren. Although he tried to save them, his effort was in vain. They were all gone. In great pain, Narada fell on his knees and cried from the very depths of his heart, “Oh Krishna! Krishna!”
At once, the sky cleared, the turbulent flood vanished, and he saw Krishna sitting casually under a tree. Looking at the sage, the Lord inquired, “Well, Narada, where is my glass of water?”
Think of this story every time you catch yourself taking things too seriously or getting too tangled up in the egoic dramas of this world. If you remember it’s all a dream of Divine Consciousness projecting, experiencing, and realizing itself, then there’s no need to fear or cling on too tightly to anything. You always have the choice to be like Narada enjoying and then suffering an external reality, or like Krishna, who is the pure awareness of your true Self dreaming a dream.
Who Is Really Dreaming Your Life?
When you’re in the dream state, there is no conscious input from sensory perception, and things, people, and situations appear and disappear without your control. You may feel scared, happy, or excited; you may walk, run, and even fly; you may interact with other characters in the dream or simply observe them interact with each other. The possibilities are endless, because the conscious mind is asleep and cannot censor the subconscious desires, fears, and memories the dream symbolizes.
When you wake up, you realize you were watching a dream but now you’re no longer participating in it, since you’re awake. However, the people and situations in the dream seemed as real and vivid as the reality you experience in the wakeful state, except that now you believe you must have control over things and people to avoid feeling vulnerable and afraid of the unknown.
Like a dream, your life is an individualized projection of past impressions and memories hidden in the causal body of your soul. From a spiritual perspective, there’s no difference between the dream state and the wakeful state; they both emerge from the subconscious and unfold without your control; they both lead to the unknown, because the future is always unknown and uncertain. More importantly, the same awareness—the real you—observes the dream and the wakeful state.
But as long as the ego-mind is in charge of your perception, you believe to be conscious when you’re not asleep; you think you’re the “doer” in your life-movie or the “owner” of your experiences, when in truth you’re simply reacting to what comes into your awareness. Whether it’s a personal relationship, a situation regarding your work or career, your own state of health, or the current pandemic and lockdown, you can either get tangled up in the emotions they trigger or choose to mentally step back, to detach from the dream and reclaim the pure awareness of your Self.
Doing this on a regular basis is how you awaken from your own life-movie or every-day-dream. The situations that help you realize how little control you really have are divine blessings in disguise prodding you to surrender to life without fear, expectations, or the need to control anything, to let Consciousness take care of its own dream—through and for you. So contact me today to embark on an in-depth journey to emotional and spiritual freedom, to reclaim your true nature as the divine dreamer!
© 2020 Yol Swan. All rights reserved.
