Posted on: 19 Apr 2020
Shri Martin Evind asked: Dear Shri Datta Swami! Pranams. Some years ago, I was sitting in meditation and I had a powerful experience. Suddenly, I was looking at a large Indian classical painting on a wall. The painting was of a residential compound in India. A wall surrounded the compound with buildings. Then the painting opened up and became actual reality and I was inside the painting. There was a man lying on the ground with people surrounding him. I was about 15 feet away. One of the men turned to me and said “Come help us! He needs help.” Then I was at the feet of the man lying on the ground. I wanted to do something for him, but I did not know what to do for the man. The people there, were looking to me to do something. Suddenly, for some reason, I felt the Man was Lord Rāma or Lakṣmaṇa. Not knowing how to help, I knelt at his feet and it came to me to chant “Om Shri Ram Jai Ram Jai Jai Ram”. I chanted several times. Then suddenly, the scene changed and I was looking up at a tall man with a dress and crown, who was broadly smiling down at me. His footwear or pādukās descended down from above to my head.
After the meditation, I was stunned and had to think and process this experience. This was a vision in meditation; not a dream. I am grateful that You would comment. Pranams. Martin Evind, USA.
Swami replied: O Learned and Devoted Servants of God! Dreams and visions (day-dreams) are of two types: (1) Messages given by God and (2) Our strong thoughts arising from our experiences in this world, in the present life or in previous lives. We have to analyse the dreams or visions so that we can find out whether it is God who is giving us a message or whether they are merely some strongly-impressed worldly thoughts appearing before us. If I analyse your vision, it looks like a divine message given by God to you. The vision is about Rāma, who was a Human Incarnation of God. The Human Incarnation appears only when the ego and jealousy of the soul have vanished completely. Otherwise, only Energetic Incarnations, which are divine energetic forms of God, appear. Lakṣmaṇa served Rāma and was considered to be in the highest place in God’s service. It was God Rāma alone who gave the idea of Lakṣmaṇa to your mind. Hence, the conclusion is that God is inviting you to do His work. God’s work is the propagation of spiritual knowledge in this world so that there is betterment in both the pravṛtti (worldly life) and nivṛtti (spiritual life) of people. Today, pravṛtti itself is in a lot of danger because we find injustice prevailing over justice, everywhere. When pravṛtti itself is in danger, we cannot even hope for any development in nivṛtti. The present calamity of the new coronavirus is also due to the excessive growth of sin in this world. Sin has increased to such an extent in the world that good souls are finding it very difficult to even live in this world. Rāma stands for pure pravṛtti because Rāma was the Incarnation of God who stood as an ideal human being in His family life as well as His social life. Even God Krishna has said in the Gita that He incarnates to establish justice (pravṛtti). He did not refer to nivṛtti, at all (Dharma saṃsthāpanārthāya…).
Keywords:
| Shri Dattaswami | Could You please interpret my vision of Lord Rama? | Dharma samsthaapanaarthaaya Nivrutti Pravrutti