The gap between knowledge and experience
The efforts made by our society to build strong characters amongst all its members have been nothing less than sincere. The theme adopted by it to achieve this feat is almost similar across time and space. That theme is optimism. It teaches from the very nascent stage of our lives that every desire is achievable and the key to reaching it is hard work. This sets the stage for a propaganda that life is predictable to achieve anything you wish for, the path is treacherous but you will surmount it with utmost dedication. Almost all of us start our lives with the vigor of going out and achieving all we wish for. In the beginning of life, it works most of the time. Doesn’t it?
As we grow older, we sense something is missing from this picture. Life can’t be that predictable where you aim for a goal, put in all your effort and finally achieve the desired result. That can’t be the entire truth because life experiences are proving otherwise. The gap between the knowledge acquired to lead a life and the real experiences grows wider. The humongous blue ocean starts to appear in front of us and all the past knowledge seems useless to steer through it. Mind desperately seeks an anchor to tread out of the turbulent waters. In its attempt, it catches hold of the same old optimistic positivity packaged in a shiny covering only to get temporary respite until it starts drowning again.
The absolute truth
Truth alone is the savior. Realizing the truth is the ultimate solution to all miseries. If the misery is because of the gap between knowing and experiencing, the solution must reside in converging the knowing and experiencing. This can happen by knowing the truth, nah realizing the truth. Knowing occurs only at the intellectual level by reading books but that’s not enough. It’s like saying I have read about swimming and I understand it, that’s intellectual. However, the realization of swimming happens when you are just about to drown and then you start to float and move forward. That very first moment, a joy rushes within you and you say it to yourself, I now know what swimming is.
Just as the idea of swimming is fearful and seems impractical to an absolute beginner, the same is the case of knowing the truth. It’s fearful, shocking, and unbelievable. But remember many advanced swimmers have jumped long before you and realized what swimming is. They will confide you with their experiences of stepping ahead of that boundary of fear, disbelief, and shock thus giving you the reason to believe that swimming is real. Similarly, for beginners seeking the truth, the truth would naturally seem to be unbelievable but testimonials from legitimate advanced seekers who bring those experiences should inspire them to leap.
Everything is an illusion and that’s the truth, the only truth. This world is just an appearance. Me writing this article; you reading it; this body; the mind; the planets; this world; all of it is a dream. Wait! that’s an unbelievably absurd statement. That’s the natural reaction almost all of us would have but refer back to the premise that was just laid out in the previous paragraph. It’s going to be weirder as we move but hold on to that premise. The obvious question that follows is, If it is a dream then who is the dreamer? No one. The dream itself is the dreamer. There is no separate subject and object.
Consider yourself dreaming after falling asleep. Within that dream, you are not aware that you are dreaming. It revolves around a subject, your role inside the dream. You are playing whatever part you have to play within that dream. All emotions that are being felt, it’s the character within the dream experiencing. Isn’t it? You aren’t aware that it was a dream until you are awake and the moment you are awake the emotions that the subject was feeling inside the dream immediately or within some time disappears. From outside the dream, is it not true that the dream has no abject reality? The dream is happening within the dreamer. From outside isn’t the dream and the dreamer the one? Wasn’t the character inside the dream, all other characters and situations, the feelings felt, etc. an illusion?
More about the dream
Where is this dream happening? It’s like asking where is the mirage happening. The mirage is happening within the mirage. The dream is also occurring within the dream. In a dream, the illusion seems real but the moment you wake up it vanishes. A great sense of realization happens, Wow! it was all an illusion; a dream. Similarly, this waking state you are in, where you are opening your system, finding an article, reading through it and all other phenomena around us seemingly objective & real is a dream. When you wake to the fourth state called ‘Turiya’ (Apart from the three states known to us i.e. waking, dreaming, and deep sleep), you realize that this seemingly waking state was an illusion; a dream.
How and why the dream exists? For the mirage to happen there needs some conditions like the sun, a vast flat area, adequate temperature, etc. Concerning the waking state, it can be reasoned that dreams occur to us in our sleep due to the subconscious impressions of the mind. Similarly, there are conditions for this dream called life(waking state) to happen. Impressions on the mind, as we call ‘samskaras’ in Sanskrit governed by the laws of causation (karma) result in this dream. The flow of this dream is governed by this law where past impressions depict the present outcomes and the present actions depict the future. It’s a cycle of cause and effect.
The question of free will
If this is all true then there shouldn’t be any free will and we must be just helpless illusionary characters haplessly beaten by the Samsara(Maya or illusion of time, space & causality). To this question the Bhagavad Gita answers indeed that’s the truth. We are just chariots and the consciousness alone is the charioteer. We are just the mediums through which the consciousness is dreaming according to the script produced by samskaras. Free will is an illusion. This free will is an objective functionality within this waking state, which itself is a dream/ illusion then how it can be real.
Then what’s the point of reading this or any other knowledge on realizing the self, becoming moral, doing what’s right, etc.? The very act of reading through this article and getting little knowledge about the truth is also the script of this dream. All the characters in the dream who are supposed to come closer to the truth will be transited through a process. Reading books written by people who are already closer to the truth, and practicing likes of spirituality as Yoga, Tai-chi, etc. is the scripted process through which that would happen. Many people would encounter these processes but still ignore or outrightly discard the idea to be meaningless. That’s also the script of the dream.
Those who are liberated and have fully realized the truth by getting into the ‘Turiya’ state are no longer bound by the laws of causation. It was also the part of the script where their negative(bad) karma/ causes were exhausted and they realized the truth. They would then spend their leftover good karma in uplifting some of the other characters towards the truth. Those of us who would encounter them directly or indirectly and get illumined are also part of the dream, where these characters deserve or are destined to be illumined.
After knowing the truth
Should we sit back and do nothing as everything is scripted? If you/I become a fully realized being then it would depend after reaching that state. It would be a decision out of true free will. Buddha, Ramana Maharishi, and the like decided to come back and help and yet many more yogis decided to stay immersed in the state of ‘Turiya’. But before reaching that state this decision is not a matter of free will. If gaining this knowledge is compelling one to sit idle and do nothing then it’s the script of the dream.
If after coming closer to the truth, people are motivated to work without any expectations for the upliftment of others towards the direction of truth then also it is scripted. These people would get motivated and do more work because there is no fear of the outcome, no fear of taking control, no bondage to work, and no expectation involved. The general pattern of this dream has been that those who are supposed to reach even closer to the truth, end up taking selfless services without any expectations, and those who are to return to illusion end up in laziness.
Every being starting from the smallest worm to the most intelligent human will eventually reach the truth without fail. Everyone is following their path and would take their own time. But sooner or later, we would be merged into that absolute truth within this life or any of the next lives.
May this article reach those who are destined to read…
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