RELIGION AND REALIZATION BY DIAMOND PICKED UP IN THE STREET

VI

Swapna Sidha

Swapna Sidha ¾The lucky man who sees and becomes God in dreams is called Swapna Sidha.

“He, who is Swapna Sidha, is a liberated one”

¾Sree Ramkrishna

Among the known figures in the ‘Gospel of Sree Ramkrishna’, Mr. Biswanath Upadhaya, generally designated as ‘Captain’. The Consul General of the Maharaja of Nepal, was the first man who saw Sree Ramkrishna in a dream. Sree Ramdrishna was an unknown man to him at the time. He did not see him before, nor was he aware of him. He dreamt¾’He was standing at the back-gate of the garden to the temple of Dakhineswar. There was a big heap of cowdung. A thousand petaled lotus in full bloom was seen over the heap. Sree Ramkrishna was standing by the heap and showing the lotus to Mr. Biswanath’. Some two months went by after this dream, when one day Mr. Biswanath came on a holy pilgrimage to the temple of Dakhineswar¾ where Sree Ramkrishna lived. He came upon Sree Ramkrishna there for the first time. He was struck with wonder. He at once remembered his dream.

This was the man whom he had seen in dream ! He surrendered himself at the feet of Sree Ramkrishna and became a life-long devotee.

‘Heap of cow-dung’ represents the body first and then the world. All around the maddening world there is ‘Woman and Gold’, a strenuous arrangement for enjoyment and pleasure of the senses, an uproar of selfish competition : yet, in this era, the thousand petaled lotus will bloom in the human body ; God will emanate and manifest Himself and He will be seen. it is His will, His sport and He will do so. The dream Mr. Biswanath dreamt reveals the picture of the era of Sree Ramkrishna and this will come to pass.

Mr. Ram Chandra Dutta, a doctor and chemist to the Medical College of Calcutta, was the first man to get his initiation from Sree Ramkrishna in a dream. He was sleeping in his place at Simla, a locality in Calcutta, some five miles off from Dakhineswar temple. He dreamt Sree Ramkrishna giving him initiation in the dream. He woke up, came to Dakhineswar temple and met Sree Ramkrishna. He told his dream to Sree Ramkrishna who heard it. He was seated at the time, but hearing the dream, he jumped up and danced with joy.

Both Chandogya and Brihadaranyaka (the names of the two different Upanishads¾ parts of the Vedas) have dealt with divine dreams. They are of opinion that realisations and manifestations of God in dreams are purer and finer than the manifestations and realisations of God in an awakened condition of the body.

Joseph was engaged to interpret the dreams of the Pharaoh in Egypt.

God spoke to Moses, “Henceforth I won’t come and talk with you in person, but I will convey my command in dream”.

The Old Testament is full of divine dreams.

Mohammed dreamt that he was carried in a chariot of seven horses to Heaven near Allah (God) and from Him he received instructions and command.

Sree Ramanuja, the great saint and philosopher of souhern India and the founder of the School of qualified non-dualism (A.D. 1017-1137) was ordered in a dream to go to Delhi during the rule of the Pathans in India and to bring the image of a god from the palace or the empoeror. He went to Delhi, brought back the image and set it up in a temple of Sri Rangapattam in the province of Madras.

Sree Chaitanya (the first Avatar – prophet of Bengal, born A.D. 1485) go his initiation in a dream.

“To get initiation in a dream is the supreme luck which a man can aspire to as a man”.

¾Sree Ramkrishna.

Sree Chaitanya uttered these holy words (Mantras) to the ear of Sree Keshab Bharati (his preceptor) who in his turn gave back these holy words again into the ear of Sree Chaitanya.

The lucky man getting his initiation in a dream, should not take initiation again from any other human agent. God is in the inside of the human body. He, out of mercy to man, manifests Himself in words within the man and thereby He makes him His own chosen man through these words and becomes his guardian and protector.

Sree Chaitanya at Gambhira, the place where he lived in Puri in the province of Orissa, realised in dreams almost all the sportive forms of Sree Krishna, an ideal Avatar of India, as set forth in the holy book of ‘Sreemat Bhagawat’. In dreams, Atma, God within Sree Chaitanya, manifested Himself, assumed the form of Sree Krishna and showed him all the sportive forms.

Sree Vrindavan Das Thakur, a devotee of Sree Chaitanya, closed his famous book ‘Sree Chaitanya Bhagawat’, with realisation in dream of Pundarikaksha Vidyanidhi another devotee of Sree Chaitanya. Pundarikaksha Vidyanidhi had been to Puri to pay his regard to Sree Chaitanya. He went to visit the temple of Juggernath, the Lord of the world, in the company of Swarup Damodar, a devotee of Sree Chaitany. There in the temple they marked some irregularity in the conduct of service to the deity. It aroused a dissatisfaction in Pundarikaksha and he pointed it out to Damodar. They spoke lightly over it. Then they came back to their place. At night, Pundarikaksha dreamt¾’Both Juggernath and Balavadra appeared before him. They commenced giving him slaps on his cheeks for his irreligious thoughts in the temple’. He got his cheeks swollen with marks of finger on them. In the morning Swarup Damodar came to Pundarikaksha and saw him in this plight.

The life of the great saint Tukaram in the province of Bombay was full of divine dreams. Vithoba was the household deity of Tukaram. The Atma, God, in Tukaram assumed the form of Vithoba and expressed Himself in Tukuram in various sportive forms. In dreams, Tukaram got Vithoba as his God-the-Preceptor.

Satchidananda Guru. There was a wonderful episode in the life of Tukaram. Tukaram was not a man of letters. He did not know how to read or write. But in dreams Vithoba taught him how to read and write, not only this, but also to compose the holy songs which even now are reckoned as the best holy songs ever written in the Marathi language.

Somehow or other, to see God and to realise His sportive forms in dreams was a lost chapter. Sree Ramkrishna has again given life to it and established it.

Sree Ramkrishna said to Sree “M”, the author of the Gospel of Sree Ramkrishna, “If, in a dream, you find me giving instructions, then you shall be knowing that he is Satchidananda, God, assuming my form, giving you instructions.”

God releases Himself from the body, assumes the human form of condensed light of God and gives His grace to him.

“The father has taken charge of his own child.”

¾ Sree Ramkrishna.

Ram Babu, Master Mahasaya, Baburam Maharaj, (Swami Premananda) and some others received their initiation from Sree Ramkrishna in dreams.

Human life is a certain period of time. This span of time consists of four parts. They are : (1) Waking condition (2) Dreams (3) Profound sleep or Susupti and (4) Turiya (lit : the 4^th part).

Turiya means the rising of the life-power (Adya Sakti) and getting it converted into Brahma or Supreme existence. This Supreme existence has got its symbol. It is seen. It looks like for inter-mingled with light moon beams. Not only this, but of this for come out human forms. They are in a sportive mood. They fun. They talk. They drink. They play with each other. The realisation of Sree Ramkrishna is cited here to throw light on the matter :¾

(Sree Sree Ramkrishna Kathamrita – the 4^th part, The Gospel of Sree Ramkrishna 23^rd. Oct., 1885)

Sree Ramkrishna – “Do you know what realisations came down upon me in this changed state of bliss (Bhava) and what I saw then?

(Bhava is bliss. It is not confined to a single state but it has got variety in it. Some are light and some are deep.)

“A meadow some six or eight miles in extension, ws before me. Through the meadow lay the road to Sihor (a village near Kamarpukur – the native village of Sree Ramdrishna). In that meadow I was alone. There appeared a sixteen-year-old – Paramahansa boy,

(Paramahansa is one in whose body God gets Himself separated in full measure. The State of Paramahansa is visible in the body of one who has attained the Paramahansa state. It is simply to ask him – “Has God separated from your body?” Before he can speak, a light contortion will come upon him; the facial outline will get a bit swollen and to the eye of the spectator, it will appear that something in the body of the man is riging towards his head and bringing about all these outward changes) and exactly he looked like the one I had seen beneath the banyan tree at the Panchavati of Dakhineswar.

“All around lay a dog of bliss. There emerged a boy thirteen or fourteen years old out of it. Only his face was seen at first. It was Purna’s face (Purna – a boy, devotee of Sree Ramkrishna). Both of us were naked. Then began our sports of running with a great hilarity in the meadow. The running made Purna thirsty. He drank some water from a pot and offered me the remnant. I said, ‘Brother, your

leavings, I cannot take’. On this, he kept on smiling got the tumbler washed and brought fresh water for me.” This is the realisation made by Sree Ramkrishna in the Turiya state and it is not an ordinary Bhava or bliss.

Susupti is profound sleep. At the outset, as well as at the end of sleep, realisations appear, but neither during the sleep, nor in the fully wakened condition. Such realisations are reckoned as realisations in Susupti or profound sleep.

In all these four states of life – viz : (1) Waking, (2) Dreams )3) Profound sleep or Susupti and (4) Turiya or Supreme conscious existence, there are different realisations of God’s sportive forms in the body.

There are some lucky fellows sho see God in all these four states of life.

Some again see the sportive forms of God in the three states : - (1) Waking (2) Dreams and (3) Profound sleep.

There are some who see God in the two conditions :¾ (1) Waking and (2) Dreams.

There are some who see God in the two conditions :¾ (1) Waking and (2) Dreams.

Some again see God and His sportive forms in Dreams only. These people are called Swapna Sidha.

In dreams they get their body purified, their hinking and feelings purified; they get their Satchidananda Guru or God-the-Preceptor; they see God’s light; they get themselves transformed into God and finally they see the Avatar or the descent of God assuming the form of a man in them. But all these happenings come to pass through sheer grace of God.

All these divine dreams come without any previous knowledge, so the seer is Hathat-Sidha. He got the grace of God without the least expectation.

Without the grace of God nobody can dream all these divine dreams, so he is Kripa Sidha.

Again, this Swapna Sidha is also a Nityasidha as he has got spontaneous emanation of God from the body and the first form of emanation is Satchidananda Guru or God-the-Preceptor. If a man is not favored with a Satchidananda Guru, then there is no chance for him of either seeing or realizing God.

Furthermore, a Swapna Sidha becomes a Sadhan Sidha or Dhyan Sidha in no time and with no exertion of his own, and then God with a form appears to him and says, “Well, you are a Dhyan Sidha”.

The era of Sree Ramkrishna reveals that a man may see all the sportive forms of God and God with all the attributes in dr3eams, and this is the first occurrence of its kind in the annals of the world.

The lucky man who has seen God and become God in dreams, Swapna Sidha, is fully aware and has obtained the grace of all other four forms and processes of Sidhis or seeing God and becoming God.

He has seen God in dreams, he is Swapna Sidha.

VII

There is hardly any chance to see and realise God by self-exertion – Vividisha. Before getting the bliss of Dhyan Sidha – it is seen that there is a meandering river and the current of the river is terrible and the devotee has got to go to the destination in the realm of bliss in a round about way.

This attainment of Sidhi or the fulfilment of life’s purpose, has got its own measurement. It depends upon the measurement of the emanation of God from the body. Bliss comes to him in different degrees of intensity.

Sree Ramkrishna used to signify this degrees by ‘annas’, saying – one anna, two annas, four annas, and eight annas. Sixteen annas mean full measure of a complete silver coin. He asked Sree “M”, the, author of the Gospel of Sree Ramkrishna, “How many annas of realisation of God have I ?”

Sadhan-Sidha or Dhyan Sidha

The terms Sadhan Sidha and Dhyan Sidha are synonymous. Bothe of them mean to see and attain God by self-exertion. It means to get your mind drawn off from

the world, from the body, eliminating all the animal life and getting the divine life

expressed through the seven planes and lastly thereby to see God and to get yourself transformed into God with attributes and without attributes (Sagun and Nirgun).

The holy Bhagawat Gita says – “One in a thousand thinks about God. Again one of a thousand thinkers sees God. One, in a thousand among the seers of God, attains God (Satchidananda). Again one, among the attainers of God, becomes God with forms and without forms”.

Chandidas, the Vaishnava saint, says – “It is one in ten millions”.

Ramprosad, a Bengali devotee and writer of songs about divine mother, says – “At best, but one or two get freed from the bondage of the body out of one hundred thousand aspiring after God.”

Sree Ramkrishna. – “It is with great difficulty and exertion that one may attain God”.

Sree Ramkrishna was a perpetual positive. He was ever conscious of God and this consciousness was his life. He told Swami Vivekananda, “There are two principles – Yea (Asti) and Nay (Nasti). Discard the negative one and take up the positive one”. He had no negative in his character. In his conversations with his disciples and devotees, wherever he remarked “Not so easy”, “With great difficulty”, “Very hard”, etc., they are to be reckoned as negative.

The sheer mercy of God enables one to see God and not one’s own exertion.

God in the form of matter, Atma, is attained according to the rule of Vidyat in the Vedas, but not by Vividisha as set up later on.

God cannot be attained by self-exertion : so Sadhan Sidha is an impossibility.

When a man attains the state of Dhyan Sidha, God assumes a human form, made of God’s light, appears and says, “Well, you are a Dhyan Sidha”. It is an averment and a bliss showered upon him. But this happens only in the case of a Nityasidha Iswarcoty Avatar. In case of a Nityasidha-Iswarcoty, it turns out that whenever he sits in Dhyan-self elimination, his inner-self at once transforms into God without any form.

Sree Ramkrishna said about Swami Vevekananda – “Naren is Dhyan Sidha”.

Furthermore, he added about Dhyan Sidha, “Dhyan Sidha has got God freed from his body.”