Kailash Bihari Verma, from Patna.. Yes! Please sit. You said, 'Dreams also come because of stress. I get a lot of dreams while sleeping. Please throw some light on dreams so that my sleep becomes dreamless. In this world, fame & success as well as Self realization - are they both possible together? If yes, how to achieve this holistic improvement?' First thing - Dreams occur not only because of stress. Dreams also come because there is a flood of emotions & feelings running in your mind. If we take an opinion of medical science, it says that brain is working on which memory to keep for short term and which memory to keep for long term. So mind does... Brain does the processing. And in the same processing, imagery that is created...Imagery meaning the scenes that are made, you call them dreams. See! What is a dream ? You see certain things. After waking up you combine these scenes together and say, 'This had happened and then may be this happened and then may be something like that happened and then I forgot what happened next....'. We make this story later. Randomly images keep coming. What you see & hear during the day and not only of that day, last month, last year.. Go further back, in your subconscious mind there is no demarcation between earliest & subsequent. That is what we are doing. For example, if you look at your watch & watch shows it is 5:26. So the question arises, this time of 5:26 - Is this in the evening or in the morning? You will then look outside for daylight & Sun. Assuming that you slept after taking some medicine. When you woke up & checked time, day or night.. You will ask - whether it is a day or an evening or what? I don't know. Ok - what is the day today? In a way, this is a mass idea created by society. It is 5:26 here and in London, go back 4 hours. So it is 1:15 over there. And if you turn it 9 hours back...In New York, take it back by 9 hours, so right now over there it is late night. Australia is ahead, America is behind, England is behind by few hours. Someone ahead... When you do an international travel, first thing when the announcement is done - the local time of our destination is announced. And right before the arrival, pilot announces as well as it is displayed on the screen in front of you. So you adjust hands of your watch either backwards or forward. But the dial is same, with numerals 1-12. Now we slide back the watch hands from 11 to 9 hours back. We slide it back 6 hours, 4 hours based on whatever the time difference is. Watch itself is not aware of what is happening. Who is using the brain? Human being. According to Greenwich Mean Time - it should be this time. These calculations of the time zones is only a few hundred years old. In India - time calculations are primeval. But even that is an imagination. For example, there is an anecdote in Bhagvatam. Parikshit was cursed that he will die in 7 days. Right? On 7th day, Takshak Naag (species of snake) will come, bite you & you will die. Parikshit was terrified that I will die in 7 days. Ok! I say this to you today that you will also die in 7 days. Why are you laughing? Sure. Why? Whenever you will die it will either be Monday or Tuesday or Wednesday or Thursday or Friday or Saturday or Sunday. Death occurs only on these 7 days, there is no 8th day. The only difference is that Parikshit was seeing it as, in next 7 days he will pass away. And your ignorance/delusion tells you that 'Oh! you will live a long life'. People just keep looking at this - look my lifeline is so long. This enthusiasm for astrology & palmistry crops up in many people. Books are available in the market, they look it up on the internet & then they say, 'Look how long is my lifeline.' One person came & said, 'Look how long is my lifeline.' My habit is to keep on puncturing (ego). I said, 'Did you not notice the island here? You will be seriously ill and your life line is cutting exactly there.' (He said) 'Where?' 'Where?' 'Where?' I said, 'Here.' I said, 'Look here! You wont even cross 40.' Hearing this his face drooped. It was worth seeing. I said, 'Who told you to just look at the lifeline? You have to see an island too.' He said, 'Pandit ji said that I will live long, up until 75 years.' I said, 'what does a pandit know? Did pandit... I took names of some scriptures.' I said, 'Did he read these scriptures?' He did not read them? Then he does not know what he said to you.' 'So am I about to die?' I said, 'Certainly.' 'God save me, please save me. You are my god. I said, 'I cannot ... I can't save anyone. My job was to tell you and I have told. (like a) Postman! Live and then tata bye bye.' Good or bad - how does it matter to me? 7 days. But these 7 days if we analyze it, these 7 days - are they not the imagination of a human mind? If there is a suffering, time seems to be longer. If there is a happiness, time seems shorter. Is time shorter or longer? Neither short nor long. If there is mind then the effect of time is on this mind. And if by spiritual practice, we take this restless mind into the restfulness and take it to the quiet state and if your mind takes a dip in it then you will be out of the cycle of time. But for now you are entangled. In what ? In feelings, emotions, counter thoughts & thoughts. In all these you remain entangled and in order solve this complication, we are having this discussion. In dreams your mind is still engrossed in the same work. So if in waking state, your mind has thoughts, delusion and emotions which are racing through it, until then your dreams will also be running. You say, 'How to get dreamless sleep?' It is only possible if in the waking state your mind gets free of thoughts. And do you see yourself having a mind which is thoughtless? Are you doing something to make your mind thoughtless? Now in order to do that, practice is necessary. Practice means sitting (in meditation). Practice means spiritual practice means sitting. Sitting means when your mind is not hankering for any external object and when your mind comes to stillness. And when the mind is quiet, no memory bothers you, no desire bothers you, no thought, no counter thoughts. This will not happen by itself. This must be done. Now how to do this? That is a different subject. With mantra, with pranayama, with dispassion or by contemplating on the Gyana - there are so many options which I am teaching you and I am giving you. Question is are you using it? You are not using it. If people do sit, they sit like... As soon as it is said, 'Open your eyes' - that very instant your eyes are wide. You are not working on yourself. You have come to the Ashram. You should be working on your mind making it more quiet. How will you do that ? You cannot catch hold of your mind directly but you can get hold of your body & breath. You can take the support of Mantra. But anything you do, result should be quietude of mind. And to whatever extent your mind gets quiet, to that same extent this mind gets strengthened with divine abilities and then this mind which is strengthened with divine abilities, whatever it thinks, that begins to manifest. We can also call this as 'siddhi' (acquisition of supernatural powers). You would've heard if a saint/sage says something to someone, that happens - it is truth not a lie. It is different matter that people... Some phony saints do the wrong usage of this. They claim that, 'I can do this'. I don't need to name anybody, there are many phony sadhus who are popular on the TV. Under the excuse of money...they will charge you a hefty money and then they claim that they can cure you, they can get you job, they can get you married, they can get you divorced, they can buy you... get you a house, they can get you...'Whatever you want, I can deliver. I have this power.' That is a sheer stupidity. Until you need something, you are worldly. And until you are wordly - world will run away from you. That is the whole game. The day you become desire free, the day you lose all your passions and desires. And earthly desires can make your mind calm and whatever desire... a thought - not desire I would say - thought will arise in your mind, this thought will have so much of a power, it would become a reality. Ok you... If you go outside on the road and if you say to someone or the traffic to 'Stop.' Nobody is going to stop. Police in the uniform... If he is alone, nobody will listen to him in India. But two or four policemen - if they are standing alongside their jeep and they wave the traffic to Stop - whole traffic will stop. Why? He has the power. Similarly the mind which is calm, it has a great power and in that powerful mind whatever thought arises - it most certainly manifests. But...but...the interesting thing is - One who has desires, his mind will not stay quiet and if it is not quiet, that power will never arise. And the one who has power, he will never have any desire. One who has desires, his mind is scattered. When your mind is distracted and scattered, you have no power. And when your mind is concentrated, attentive, quiet - you have all the power. But when the mind is quiet, there is no desire. But say in that quiet mind if any thought arises, it immediately fructifies. Mahavir Swami - Tirthankar of Jains, he used to do many such experiments based on mind. For example - 'I will eat food only when there is a princess, her hands & feet in shackles, one foot inside the house and one foot outside the house and taking food platter in her hands, when she will request me only then I will eat food.' Impossible situation! First thing, why would princess be in handcuffs? If handcuffed, why would she be outside the door? And if these two things are there, why would she have a food platter in her hands? This resolve & thought he made in his mind and that's it. He just left it. He did not partake food. Many days passed, he did not eat. Now, he is a yogi. Yogi does not live on food. Yogi knows how to sustain on some other energy form. That is why there is no problem. Then one day he was passing by. Because Mahavir Swami used to live naked, the truth is that he was hit by stones that 'Why is he roaming naked.' People did not understand this. Mahavir Swami is passing by naked and at the doorway, one princess whose hands & feet are in shackles, one foot inside, one foot outside, holding a platter she is standing. On seeing Mahavir Swami, she called out, 'O! Monk. Please accept this food. I have been standing here for many days. I have been waiting that here from this pathway someone will come who will accept the food offered by me. I wait here daily with a platter of food & finally you came today, please accept this food. Mahavir took the food. He used to stay without food for 3 months at a stretch. Why? He used to put one or the other condition. Why? To check the purity & strength of his mind. If you don't get food for two times, you get miserable. And here (with Swami Mahavir) there is no question whether he gets food or not. This... Keeping such a rigorous austerity in mind - In Sukhmani Sahib, Guru Arjan Dev wrote these words for the path of Jainism. 'Jain marg sanjam att sadhan'. It is an arduous path, it is the path of sadhana and very difficult sadhana. Because Mahavir Swami used to make such resolves, It was just like, I would say, a leela - a game for him.
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