Lord Vishnu asked,
“You wanted to have a glimpse
of my Maayaa! You experienced it! Now what more do you want?”
Gaadhi offered flowers at the
feet of his beloved Lord and said-
“Lord? What is all this? What really happened? I feel
so confused.
The Chaandaala life was my personal experience
perceived for just a few moments under the water like a dream!
How could those dream events occur in the outside real
world in a long span of so many years?
How can a dream experienced in the mind become a
reality in the waking state?
Explain to me everything.”
Lord Vishnu answered-
“What waking state? What
dream state?
An ignorant mind always is
deluded and dreaming!
The mind riddled with
Vaasanaas dreams that it dreams; dreams that it woke up; dreams that it sleeps!
Where does the dream end?
Where does the reality begin?
The reality of the world
projected by the mind itself is unreal. Your belief in the identity of Gaadhi
is one such delusion. Your experience as Katanja and Gavala is another dream
dreamt inside the ‘Gaadhi’s dream’!
Anyhow, assuming Gaadhi to be
a real character, let us analyze where all you were deluded!
You got inside the water to
chant the Mantras. Within a few minutes under-water you lived a full life of
Chaandaala from birth to death.
You got out of the water and
thought that the delusion was over with.
But it was not.
The delusion of the
Chaandaala life was so vivid in your mind that you could not dismiss it as a
dream. You wondered whether it was true or not.
This thought projected
another delusion for you.
As you were seated in your
hermitage, wondering whether the Chaandaala life was real, the mind projected
the continuation of your Chaandaala experience. As a result, a Brahmin guest
appeared at the door and talked about the Keera country and King Gavala.
After that Brahmin guest
vanished, the delusion had stopped again. But you believed the guest’s words as
true and started on the journey to find the BhootaMandala and the Keera
country. But they were not there in the real world.
It was your personal
experience.
Tired and exhausted you
entered a cave and rested awhile.
The hidden Vaasanaa in you,
which wanted the Chaandaala experience to be true, projected the delusion again
of your visiting the BhootaMandala and Keera country. In the delusion itself
you again reached the same cave and woke up from your sleep.
You could not find the
difference between real and false experiences.
You were confused.
You performed penance in the
same cave you had rested in your journey.
Now I am here answering your
questions.
The BhootaMandala, the Keera
country, the Brahmin guest, the people you met are all unreal and they never
existed. Your mind alone created them forced by the Vaasanaas. As long as
Vaasanaas are there, such experiences will keep on occurring like a seed placed
in the fertile earth becoming a huge tree.
Tree is within the seed.
Events are within the mind.
At some point, the fruits and
flowers inside the seed get projected outside.
At some random point, the Vaasanaas
inside the mind are experienced as events as if in an outside world. Space,
time are all projections of the mind.
The events of many years can
be experienced within a few seconds because of delusion.
Within a few minutes inside
the waters, you lived and died as a Chaandaala, in your mind!
Within a few minutes inside
the hermitage, you saw the guest and conversed with him, in your mind.
Within a few minutes inside
the cave, you visited Katanja’s house, and the Keera country; and got the proof
of your Chaandaala life, in your mind!
This is the Maayaa that
envelops an ignorant mind!
Get up. Go home. Do your
duties as you deem fit. Performance of
the ordained duties alone leads a man towards his welfare.”
Lord Vishnu immediately
vanished leaving Gaadhi to sort out the workings of his mind himself.
Gaadhi sat and analyzed all
the events that had happened in his life after he came to the forest. He could
not dismiss all the events as unreal as Lord Vishnu suggested. He had a vivid
experience of the Chaandaala life second by second, minute by minute. They were
a part of his memory now.
He, Gaadhi had experienced
the life of a Chaandaala truly and vividly.
Delusion or no-delusion, the
experience was real! The BhootaMandala must be there as a real country and the
Keera country too.
The delusion-states will not
occur again as Lord Vishnu had explained them. Therefore, assured of the
reality of the world lying in front of him, Gaadhi set out to visit the
Chaandaala village and the Keera country once again.
He walked through the same
paths, traversed the same distances, reached the same places; met the same
people; asked them the same questions; and they all repeated the same story.
Gaadhi was now assured of the
reality of his Chaandaala life. It was real!
The people he met were real!
They confirmed his story!
Then why did Lord Vishnu tell
him that no such country existed; and nothing happened?
Gaadhi returned to the cave;
performed penance again.
Lord Vishnu stood in front of
him asking him what more he needed.
Gaadhi told him that he found
the real Keera country; and a Gavala had ruled them. Everything was real!
Why then did the Lord say
that nothing existed?
Lord Vishnu explained-
“Everything in this world
occurs as a random experience.
Mind alone projects itself
out as an event occurring in space and time.
The ideas of ‘outside’ and
‘inside’ also are projections of the mind.
When many people meet, many
minds collide.
Each mind reflects the ideas
of the others.
A simultaneous event is
experienced by all!
It is a possibility that on
his journey towards the Chaandaala dwellings, Gaadhi just happened to see a
ruined old hut and immediately thought that it was the same hut he had lived in
as Katanja!
It was the same mind which
experienced the delusion of the Chaandaala life under the waters. It was the
same mind which says that the old hut in the forest is the hut Katanja lived!
Who can disprove what the
mind says?
Man is the mind alone!
So Gaadhi might have imagined
that he had lived in the forest hut.
When he met the other
Chaandaalas, their minds would have mirrored the same experiences and they
would have talked of it as real. For them also Katanja was a real person!
The same thing would have
happened in the Keera country.
The Keera citizens might have
been affected by the arrival of Gaadhi and immediately reflected his own
experiences in their minds. For them also Gavala became a real person.
Each mind is a dreamer; a
projector of unreal events.
When many minds join
together, they all project the same unreality and believe it to be true.
Each mind proves the illusory
state experienced by the other as real.
The world is a dream
perceived by Brahma through so many minds.
All the dreamers of his dream
see the same dream as real!
What is Time?
Again it is also a projection
of the mind!
Mind conceives some objects;
imagines ‘Time’ based on the changes occurring to those objects; invents
actions based on those time conceptions.
Time is not some object. It
is just an abstract phenomenon setting a boundary to the events that occur in
our life.
Time is beginning less and
endless.
Time is Brahma himself as he
is the first phenomenon rising from Brahman, bound by ‘time and space’
Time has no likes and
dislikes. Time does not favor someone and hurt some one else.
Time is a conception of the
mind creating the boundary for experiences rising through Vaasanaas.
Dear Gaadhi! Now go back and
engage yourself in performing your duties. Try to analyze the Self through the
method of enquiry and discrimination.
Be free of delusion.”
Lord Vishnu vanished from
sight.
Gaadhi remained for a few
months in the cave thinking about all the events of his life. Still he was
unable to grasp the true essence of the events. The life experienced as a
Chaandaala was still lingering in his mind as memories. He was unable to get
out of that polluted state and felt grieved.
He decided to take shelter in
Lord Vishnu again.
He performed penance again in
that cave desiring for the vision of Lord Vishnu.
One fine day Vishnu graced
him by his vision.
Gaadhi gave word to his
grievance.
“Lord! I still am not able to rid of the memories of
my Chaandaala life. This Maayaa confuses me more and more.
Who am I – the Chaandaala or the Brahmin?
Please explain everything. Do not immediately
disappear after explaining everything. Stay with me and tell me exactly what
duties I should perform.”
Lord Vishnu said-
“Delusion means seeing
something which is not there in reality.
Maayaa hides the reality and
makes something else appear as reality.
Only a person who is freed of
ignorance can escape the clutches of Maayaa.
If the Chaandaala identity is
troubling you as a false superimposition, you must be equally troubled by the
identity of the Brahmin Gaadhi also.
Both identities are false.
In delusions, you cannot
label one as better than the other.
All delusions are just some
random projections of the mind.
Every event in life is just a
random expression of the perceiver, perceived and perception; the Seer, Seen
and Seeing.
As long as the mind is
contaminated with ignorance, some identity with some life event will keep
arising in the mind-arena.
Whether it is Katanja, or
Gavala or Gaadhi, all are just some delusory experiences in the total mind of
Brahma.
No one is real. Nothing is
there except the Supreme Brahman.
All experiences are delusions
projected through ignorance.
Time is also just a part of
the illusory experience.
What you remember as already
unfolded, you label it as past; what is not yet unfolded, you label it as
future. What is unfolding, you label it as present.
Past, present or future are
just terms used for some unfoldment-mode of the Vaasanaas.
All memories or unfulfilled
Vaasanaas remain in the unmanifest state of Brahman. When they unfold randomly
through a Brahma, the world is perceived as populated by many.
All minds are just channels
for various Vaasanaa unfoldments.
Mind is an amazing
phenomenon.
It can create any experience
at any time-mode for long or short durations, and fool you.
Gaadhi or Katanja, both are
illusory identities unfolding some Vaasanaa fulfillment.
How many lives and
experiences an individual undergoes simultaneously is beyond comprehension.
Because of my blessing you were able to analyze one such amazing experience and
could have a glimpse of Maayaa.
Otherwise, what experiences
an individual Self undergoes as which identity at any particular moment, is
never understood by anybody.
At every experience there is
only a combined phenomenon of Seer, Seen and Seeing.
What identity the Seer dons
to perceive what experience is determined randomly by a Vaasanaa.
The Vaasanaa for hoarding
could be the rat hiding in your home. The Vaasanaa for freedom could be the
bird floating in the far sky. The Vaasanaa for play could be the child running
around you.
Who is who?
Everything is just a Vaasanaa
unfoldment.
There are no real identities.
At one particular experience,
an identity is projected by the mind as some form and name.
What is real or what is
unreal can never be understood by the person steeped in ignorance.
Like a dry leaf tossed about
by the storm, the individual goes through countless experiences as countless
identities.
All this is caused by
ignorance.
A knower of Brahman never is
affected by any experience he undergoes.
He is person who is wide
awake in a dream.
He remains always as the Self
(Brahman) and remains untouched by the events of his life.
He has no Vaasanaas and his
mind stops projecting Vaasanaa unfoldment.
His mind is like a burnt
seed. It never again sprouts into birth and death experiences.
Living as a JeevanMukta till
the body falls, the knower of Brahman attains the bodiless liberation.
Knowledge alone is the cure
for delusion.
Delusions cannot be
explained. It will be equal to explaining the actions of a ghost. When the
ghost itself is non-existent, its actions are also non-existent.
Why do you bother about how
your delusion of being a Chaandaala became real in the outside world?
Gaadhi’s life is also an
illusory experience. Katanja’s life also is an illusory experience.
What other life- experiences
you could have had at any other time is also due to illusion.
Instead of trying to figure
out the meanings of the unreal life-experiences projected by the stupid mind,
analyze the nature of the Self and realize the Truth.
Remain here in this cave
itself and seek the knowledge of the Self through the process of enquiry.”
Lord Vishnu vanished like the
cloud of the autumn season.
Gaadhi remained in that cave
for many years practicing Self-knowledge and soon was freed of ignorance. He
then retired to RishyaMooka
Mountain
After getting Self-knowledge,
Gaadhi the
great one,
realizing his
true essence;
freed of fear and grief;
established in
the state of JeevanMukti;
remaining in
the Quiescent state;
with a mind filled with unbroken bliss;
shone forth in
the Brahman-sky,
like the moon
complete with all digits.
END
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