Srimad Bhagavatham

One day Baana’s daughter Usha had a dream in which she saw Aniruddha (whom she had never seen before) making love to her. All of a sudden she woke up and didn’t find Aniruddha; she thereby starting shouting “where are you” and started roaming here and there searching for Aniruddha. All her friends saw her searching and shouting for some person.

Explanation

There is a science dedicated to analysis of dream – this seems to be catching up lately as people want to know as to what would happen if they have a particular dream. Did you see AMMA in the dream? Did you see Yama in the dream? These are some of the very basic questions that finalizes the analysis of the dream.

Vedanta on the other hand gives a beautiful analysis of dream explaining it to perfection – it also gives the way to control the dream world (as Swami Gautamananda of Ramakrishna Mission Chennai explains it beautifully). Sankara defines the dream state (svapna) as jaagaritha samskaarajah or “that which is born out of the latent tendencies of dream”. The more a person thinks about PIRATES OF THE CARRIBEAN in a day, the chances of that getting into his dream is more. It is also a matter of fact that whatever we generally think just before going to sleep will be experienced in dream.

Dream thus depends on the tendencies that a person has accumulated in this birth as well as many of the previous births. Any person who hasn’t ever thought about Sankara will not dream about Sankara. Thus we find here Baana’s daughter Usha seeing Aniruddha in dream because of a previous birth connection. It isn’t important as to why she got the dream but it is important as to where the dream world incident leads her to.

If a seeker wants to control the dream world, he has to control the waking world and automatically his dreams will be controlled. Many vedantic learners have dreams about teaching or chanting Sanskrit slokas – many devotees of AMMA have dreams in which they see AMMA. This is the simple rule of dream – control the vasanas in waking state and dream will automatically be controlled. Since the dream world is born out of the vasanas of the waking state, therefore whatever we dream may have something to do with the waking state – this doesn’t necessarily mean that whatever one dreams will come true (as the waking state vasana might be to fly – since a person nourishes this vasana, he will dream as flying in space though it will never happen in the waking state unless he is in a helicopter or an airplane).

Bhagavatham along with bringing in the concept of dream here is comparing the dream world with waking world. We may consider Usha as a mad person as she went after a person whom she saw in dream but this waking world is a long dream – this came out of the non-dual reality of Lord and resides in the non-dual reality of Lord. There is no possibility of this dual world having come out of the non-dual reality of Lord (as the Lord is changeless and the changing world cannot appear in the changeless Lord). Thus this waking world is also an illusion like the dream world. But we often go behind people we see in the waking world – even to the extent of crossing the sea (going over to other continents) in search of a person. Rather than seeking worldly people and objects (who are just illusions) a seeker should seek the ultimate reality of Lord (or realized masters who are one with the ultimate reality of Lord). This alone will give a seeker the eternal bliss that he is searching in the external world.

Let us try to always remember that this world is just a long dream so that we don’t identify ourselves with the doer or get attached to objects/people which in turn will make us ever abide in bliss at all times like the Lord all the while doing external activities to perfection.


Baana’s minister Kumbaanda’s daughter was Chitralekha who was a friend of Usha (Baana’s daughter). Anxiously she asked Usha “Dear friend! Whom are you searching? Your husband hasn’t yet arrived and yet you are running hither and thither in your mind”. Usha replied “Friend! I saw a man in my dream who had blue lotus-like eyes. Wearing a yellow robe, with long hands and attracting the hearts of women, I am searching for that man who is my husband. Making me enjoy him and without letting me completely quench my thirst, he left me and went away.”

Explanation

Here we find the irony of life. We go on seeking people or things in the world all the while forgetting that the goal of all our seeking is eternal bliss and that eternal bliss cannot be found in the ever-changing world. Eternal bliss is our very nature of Lord. It is by seeking the ultimate reality of Lord (who is the indwelling Consciousness that pulsates each moment as “I-exist, I-exist” and pervades the entire illusory dream world) that a person can get eternal bliss and thereby contentment. There have been many emperors like Alexander, Hitler, Napolean etc. who have tried to conquer the world and gain contentment but none of them have got contentment from the world.

The world that we perceive is limited and hence it cannot give us eternal bliss. Therefore the Lord says that “having attained the temporary and sorrowful world, seek me”. The ultimate reality of Lord is changeless. Even as the dream world cannot give us eternal happiness similarly this long dream world of waking world cannot give us eternal bliss. Eternal bliss can be achieved only from the eternal entity of Lord.

Where can we find the Lord? The Lord cannot be found in the external world as the world is not real (but when a seeker goes beyond the unreal world, he can find that the world is just an illusion of names and forms in the Lord even as the dream world is an illusion in the dreamer). In order for a seeker to realize the Lord he has to find the Lord. Finding the Lord has two aspects or steps to it – first is the abode of the Lord and second is knowing that the Lord alone is present as the illusory dual world.

AMMA gives a beautiful story as to residing place of the Lord. Earlier (long ago) people used to have access to the places where gods resided (like Kailasa, Vaikunta etc.). This became a big problem for the gods as day in and day out people started disturbing them – if people were disturbing them for eternal bliss, gods would have been happy but people were troubling gods for petty things like job, marriage etc. It is not just today that conferences are called for to address problems – this existed even in ancient times. So the gods called for a conference where the issue of “how to escape from humans” was discussed. Many gods tried to give suggestions but none of those proved useful until an old god came up with a hiding place for the gods. This hiding place was so good that till day humans are searching for God (bliss) and most of the humans are unable to find God. The hiding place is inside humans.

Thus God resides in the heart of all beings. This is not just a story but it is what the scriptures proclaim and the truth as well (of course story makes the concept easy to apprehend by the limited human mind) – the Upanishads proclaim “tat sristvaa tadevaanupraavishat” (after having created the world, the Lord entered into the world as the various beings or “I” or Consciousness in beings).

Though this is the truth, many people don’t know this truth and hence seek bliss in the external world all the while when bliss is right inside them (their very nature). As simple as it may seem, it still is tough to apprehend nonetheless implement and live (living the truth means each and every moment living life blissfully).

There is one of AMMA’s song which depicts this truth thus:

Unmaye thedi thedi ulakellaam naan alainthen
Ulakellam payanam cheythum unmaye kaana villai
Unmay kaana alaintha naan unnidathil vanthen amma
Uravodu kaappaathu unmay kaatta vendum amma

I searched for the truth in the entire world – even after going through the entire world, I couldn’t find the truth; But finally I have come to your abode (you who are abiding in truth) so please do protect me and show the truth to me.

The simple story of Ganapathi and Muruga fighting as to who would get the jnaana-pazham (knowledge-fruit) depicts this same concept. Knowledge-fruit is knowing that the entire world is nothing but one entity of Ishwara denoted as Siva and Shakthi (Siva is Consciousness and Shakthi is siva power – Lalitha Sahasranama speaks about the Lord as SivaShakthiAikyaRupini or one who is of the form of oneness of Siva and Shakthi). Muruga went around the entire world whereas Ganapathi found Ishwara very near himself.

The person who realizes that the Lord resides in the heart of all beings thereby first purifying his mind and finding the Lord of “I” in his heart then seeing the Lord as pervading the entire world alone will get bliss. All others who roam around various temples, ashrams, sapthaahams etc. without remembering this truth that the Lord resides as the “I” in all beings and the Lord alone is present here will not get any bliss even after doing many such spiritual activities.

Yoga Vasistha speaks about such people who seek Ishwara in the world not trying to find him inside one’s heart thus:

Thyaktvaa hridgriha ishaanam devam anyam prayaanthi ye
Te rathnam abhivaanchanthi thyaktvaa hasthastha kausthubam

Those who forsake the Lord in one’s heart and seek other devatas are people who seek jewels forsaking the Kaustubha jewel in their hand (Kaustubha is the greatest of jewels).

We will continue with the story in the next day.

Let us try to always remember that the Lord resides as the pure “I” in the heart of all beings and try to realize the Lord by getting rid of the Ego sense and duality (keeping in mind that the entire world is only an illusion in the Lord) so that we may be able to rejoice in bliss in this very birth itself.