The outer world dream

Hello Shawn,

Good to know of your interest as regards to celibacy. Reading past answers helps broaden understanding and hence is a recommended 'do' for those interested in celibacy. Coming to your query,

Q: What could be the reality behind and the connection between the physical world, life, God and creation?
A: When we start pondering and contemplating on who we are, each and everyone of us will get a gut feeling that there is something very ancient and permanent about us at the deepest innate level. Something beyond the body, mind, intellect, consciousness and ego. It is a very subtle feeling. The degree of awareness as regards to this subtlety might differ from person to person and from being to being. But at the beginning of everything and at the end, there is this basic feeling. We generally don't pay much attention to this feeling or awareness. It's very fleeting in most of us and doesn't occur very often while we are in the normal state.

Sometimes this 'awareness' goes to the next degree and 'tells' us that we should be doing something or shouldn't do a particular thing, then again this direction that is given out is itself very subtle and faint in most of us. But it is there, it is very definitely there. There have been times when we meet a person who appears very charming and acceptable but this 'very faint inner voice' tells us he or she is in fact the opposite. Much later, after a few months or years, after we have had bad experiences with this very person, we realize that this person was not what we assumed him or her to be. Then, at that point, after having been wronged, if we sit quiet a bit and can succeed in recollection of the past, we will know that at the time we met this person many months or years back, there was that faint voice that told us not to trust this person. It was a voice that knew the truth at the first glance and whispered us this fact from deep within like the sound of waves hitting the shore on a still moonlit night. You might be at some distance from the sea, you cannot see the sea, but you hear the sound of waves lashing the shore and know you are close to the sea. This was not a feeling originating from the body, mind,  intellect, consciousness or the ego. It was something beyond all these. There was something very direct, absolute and no-nonsense about it.

If most of us are asked about who we are, we will describe ourselves as the body we possess. If the body is hurt, ill or wounded, 'WE' are wounded. If the body 'died', that person is no more and is dead. Some others consider themselves to be the mind they have. If their 'feelings' 'likes' or 'desires' are met or not met, they feel happy or unhappy. A few others will say they are the 'intellect'. They consider the real themselves to be the power within them to discriminate, ponder, reason and realize. A fourth sect of people might describe themselves as the 'consciousness' and the fifth sect as the 'Ego'. But neither the body, mind, intellect, consciousness and ego could point out the reality in the above real life example. All the five failed in discerning the nature of the 'charming and acceptable' person. So now we come to understand that there is a sixth dimension within us that has a purview beyond the purview of the body, mind, intellect, consciousness and ego. Rather it is a dimension which is not bound by the limitations of these three. That according to me, is the 'soul'. It is the true 'US'. That is who we are. That is what we actually are.

If we contemplate a little more on this 'sixth dimension' through meditation, we will start to get a trickle of a feeling that everything is contained within it and everything comes from it. That there is nothing beyond its purview or nothing independent of its knowledge and reach.

We will also start to realize first hand that the world we see is only a reflection of our own mental state. That the very same world appears different at different times. When we are irritable and angry, every person appears as somebody who could instigate and ire us further. When we garner a fat profit from a new business, the whole world seems so very agreeable, so filled with lovely people and so very perfect. How can this be? How can one thing appear as two or many different things? What does this show? It shows two things:

1. That anything that is real must hold its reality and state of stability immaterial of our or anyone else's mental state. Water is a liquid at room temperature. Immaterial of whether it is day or night, we are angry or happy, we got a promotion or a demotion at our workplace, water will remain a liquid at room temperature. This is the reality of water in gross terms and time.

2. That if the external world we see was real, it would have to remain fixed, constant and unchangeable. But the apparent world is never fixed. It is constantly in a state of flux. A girl who appears very pretty in her teens is no longer found to have this 'prettiness' on reaching middle age. Where did the beauty in the body go? If it were real, it would be fixed and permanent. So the so called beauty in the body was unreal, it was never really there. It was more like an illusion. Similarly the impermanence in the world we see around us comprised of roads, buildings, automobiles and people will also have to be unreal for none of these things are fixed. With time, all these will change. Roads will be widened, buildings will be demolished and taller buildings will take their place, people who were once nice to us become unfriendly, wealth and a fat bank account dissolve into nothing further to a wrong investment and the wealthy man becomes a pauper. So all these things were and are unreal. For were they real they would stand against the ravages of time and forces.

Now coming back to the concept of the real 'US' or what we called the 'soul', why is it that the 'voice' of such a powerful and all knowing soul within most of us is so faint? If the so called 'soul' were to be so knowledgeable, omnipresent, omnipotent and supreme, why is it we have to try so hard to hear its voice and suggestions? Couldn't we all become super humans if we knew everything before it were to happen? We would then take only the right decisions, judge the right people and choose best road to success. There can only be one answer to this query. That there is some kind of an obstruction preventing this great power from reaching our minds, intellect and consciousness. Just as the rays of a light get dimmed or partially blocked if it were to be covered by a piece of cloth, the supreme power of the soul seems to be largely covered by some obstruction. If we could decipher a method to relieve the soul of this 'obstruction', the world would be in our hands. We would know the future and attain spectacular success. We would realize the power of 'ourselves' to the fullest extent and go beyond sorrow and misery.

This is where Brahmacharya comes into the picture. At the start of celibacy and during the first few months of celibacy unto a year, various of these 'obstructions' at the physical level start getting undone. The physical body is the foundation on which the other bodies (astral and causal bodies) rest when the soul is in a state of encasement. 'Obstructions' at the physical level are represented by disease, illness and health related abnormalities. These slowly start getting rectified and the time taken will depend on the extent of these abnormalities. As one succeeds in longer and longer periods of Brahmacharya in thought, word and deed, 'obstructions' or abnormalities/ deviations at the mental and causal level start getting vacated. It is a slow process but can be a sure process depending on the intensity and honesty in celibacy. If there is a break, the process gets broken.

With continued and persistent practice of Brahmacharya in thought, word and deed for a period of 12 years, the scriptures profess that man can undo all the obstructions covering the soul and become totally free. While the removal of all obstructions ensures that the full light and power of the soul starts to shine through (thereby ensuring man gets superhuman powers - not a miracle really, since knowledge is power and the soul always knew everything but had been obstructed by ignorance) it also bestows on man the all knowable status. He will know the secret of creation, the past, the future and will rest in a state beyond sorrow perfectly in tune with the creator or God who was present within him all the while. He will realize he was a fragmented microsm of the macrosm we call God and that all creation has come from he himself at the macrosm level.

So to answer the query as to whether the illusory dream upgrades with success in celibacy, the answer would have to be that it would take man to a state where he would totally get freed from the grip of illusion and would start relating to the only entity which is permanent: " He himself, the soul which is a microsm of the macrosm -God", whereupon the purpose of human birth would be met and the cycle would be complete.

Trust this threw some 'light' on matter of the 'light'!

God bless and have a nice day
Dhananjay :-)