Wednesday, February 26th, 2014

Mayapur, India

Bizarre Dream

One of my female students came up to me and said, “Guru Maharaja, I had a strange dream last night.  It was about you and I was in it.”

“What did you dream?” 

“Well, in the dream, you asked me to be a sacrifice for a dragon, so I was offered to the fiery mouth of the beast.”

I was humoured by this ethereal scenario, and I guess, touched by the fact that she, the dreamer, would be so candid to tell me about this.  She did not ask for an interpretation of the dream or an inner meaning, yet I decided I would offer some comment. 

We both agreed it was rather a silly conjuration.  First of all, I had expressed that we are of the passive kind.  I would in real life never suggest the gesture of human sacrifice.  And entering into the flames of a dragon’s mouth?  That would be out of the question.  As devotional people, we offer ourselves into the fire of devotional service. 

In general, you can’t take dreams too seriously as they are merely a conglomerate of impressions that may not normally be related to one another.  Life is but a dream, and I would say most emphatically, “The only reality is service.”  I can say what isn’t reality, and that is the world in which we live.  This world is dream like, but we mistake it for truth. 

When I became a monk back in the spring of ’73, I cut myself off from gross sense gratification.  I made a commitment, I’ll not go back to that illusion.  I will confess to some day dreaming at times, and those dreams can be outrageously nonsensical.  So I reiterate, “Reality lies in service to others.”  And this is when our hearts are the softest, when our brain is sharpest, and mind is cleanest. 

The big reality for me today was service to Krishna in the form of uttering his name on that quiet trail running along the Jalungi River.  It was absolutely relishable. 

May the Source be with you!

6 KM