One day , early in the morning.. guess it was about around 5 am, I got up from my sleep … it was not a nightmare ,but an extra normal experience… somebody was asking me , “who are u ?”
Normally one would have answered by his name, and probably tell about his designation either student or working….. but I didn’t!
I was blank, I din know what to say….
Till now one would doubt if anything was not normal about this “dream”…. Yes, they have a right to. But I beg to differ !!
If one would shut his eyes and try to think who he is.. “I”,”I”,”I” , the maximum that one would think of is , idea of his body,about his name,parents etc… is he then , just a combination of material substances? Just a person whose life would start with his birth and end with his death……….. little confused?let me be more clear..
There is a wonderful Sanskrit verse…. “kastvam koham… ka me janani ko me tata…. Manasi vicharaya varam varam . “
Meaning : think again and again in your mind, who is he?, who am i? who is my mother?who is my father? etc
May be reason for that dream is my knowing of this verse… it hints to us that we are not just this bodies , but something more significant, “a spirit living in the body”… this doesn’t have any father nor mother nor children… it does not die after death.. and you cannot say that is was not existing before birth….
The Vedas declare that Soul is neither created nor destroyed….
In its very essence , it is free , unbounded , holy , pure and perfect!!
Let me illustrate a small story (I’m told this is a real incident) about a person…
The person happened to live in treacherous Aurangazeb’s era in his kingdom. He was a Hindu,and as we all know, Aurangazeb advocated “convert or die” policy to convert all non-muslims to muslims .(ps : no disrespect to his religion)
This guy (I don remember his name correctly) happened to be one of those who were forcefully converted …. Many people got converted afraid of the consequences ,,, but he persisted!!
He said “NO! I wont convert”
He was tortured and one can not think about the extent of torture he had to face….Every day, skin of one of his body part was skinned off and salt was applied on the same…. And that evening he was approached weather he was ready to convert of NEEDED a bit more treatment…
Days passed and almost all his body was skinned off… then a Moulwi was sent to convince him… during the conversation Moulwi asked him.. “Doesn’t it hurt?”
He said.. “you cant hurt me in any way, you are only hurting my CLOTH,my dress…
I’m not this body , so you cannot hurt me!!!”
Such was his belief… such was his faith…. In fact , he was not hurt.. rite??
He belived-
“Him the sword cannot pierce—him the fire cannot burn—him the water cannot wet—him the air cannot dry.”
Then who ‘m I?
What is my business here?
What ‘m I supposed to do?
Why ‘m I facing the situation that I’m in?(either good or bad)
Answers to these questions, have to be realized not jus told..
I feel realizing has 2 parts…
1>theory (the established facts.. which are available thru scripts)
2>practical(one has to realize it, it may or may not be same as what was understood by theory)
Hmmm… where did I get into from my dream I was talking about…
Now, getting back to dream…
When I was asked as to who I was… I was blank, didn’t know the answer.. so as I was disturbed by it I got up and started to think on the same lines as above…
I still have doubts.. as to who I’m …
I’m told whatever u r now its because of your past deeds, and the future depends on your past + your present ….so , its lil tricky to interpret our existence…
I’m still on my way to finding my answer as to who I’m….
I’m yet to answer to that person’s question…
