Annihilating Sanskaras: Two Analogies – 3. The simile of dream and awakening

(continued from previous post)

Let us take another simile. Suppose you are dreaming, and in that dream state you are enjoying a fine drive in a motor car in America.’ Mind you, all this enjoyment is an imaginary dream! Now, take this dream to represent ordinary or right-side-up or obverse sanskaras. Just as there is a need of inverted or reverse sanskaras for Realization, in the same way, to bring you into the awake state and to prove the falseness of your dream state, reverse dreams are required, such as to wake you up immediately. And what would such a reverse dream look like? Quite the contrary or opposite of the dream you were having before. Just as you were enjoying imaginary pleasure in the dream of the motor car drive, in your new dream you have to experience the opposite, you have to encounter some dreadful object that in a moment would jolt you from your slumber and strike terror in your heart—such as an enormous dragon—the mere sight of which would make your eyes pop open in wide wakeful amazement. And once you woke, you would find that there is neither this dream nor that one, neither the fun and fine enjoyment of the motor drive nor the terror of the sight of the dragon. Both have been proven mere dreams. What this means is that, to alert you and draw your attention away from the enjoyable dream of the motor drive (which represents ordinary sanskaras), there arose the necessity of that big dragon (which represents reverse sanskaras). In short, there really is a need for some such drastic “means” as the appearance of the dragon if your ordinary sanskaras are to be reversed and if you are to be freed from their bindings as soon as possible.

And who is this dragon, after all? No one but the Guru, who is “experienced” (in the real sense) and knowledgeable in how to reverse and cancel out these ordinary sanskaras.

The association and company (sang sahavas) of such a Secret Guru and the duties that you perform under his orders—as you all are doing, even now—will enable you to wipe out and destroy your sanskaras and will give you a strong push forward towards further advancement in the path of Truth. Secret work is going on here to wake you all up from this dream state by showing you this “dragon.”

– “Meher Baba’s Tiffin lectures”, p27
20-May-1926; Meherabad

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