Posted on: 15 Jan 2017
Dr. Nikhil asked: Padanamaskarams Swamiji,
I had an amazing dream of You as a Professor last night. You were in an auditorium with Your students. But You were not on the stage, You were casually addressing a crowd of students, who were standing around You. You were wearing a greyish-brown suit and looking so handsome that it is impossible to describe in words. Some of Your devotees including me, were also standing around with the students. It was a treat for the eyes to watch You interact with the students in the most playful and charming manner. It really touched my heart. As I was enjoying the scene, I thought I should take a picture of it on my phone. But as I was about to take the picture, You left the auditorium for some work, asking Devi to stand there instead. I thank You for this wonderful experience, and would like to know if this dream had some deeper meaning.
At Your Divine Feet,
Nikhil
Swami replied: The dream is always an index of two contexts: 1) Ideas from level of consciousness (this birth) and level of sub-consciousness (previous births) projected as dream and 2) God enters the dream to give you some message. The dream you got belongs to context No 2.
God is giving you the message that best clarity of the subject is always attained in preaching the spiritual knowledge to the low level receivers (appeared as students) during propagation of knowledge. It also gains best clarity during discussions and debates with your friends (represented by you). The Gita is simply a discussion between God Krishna and Arjuna. You can find the modes of discussions and debates between sages as mentioned in Upanishads. Even the commentaries involve the discussions between the opponent (Purvapakshi) and the establisher of theory (Siddhanti). Mere lecture from a speaker standing on a stage like a politician speaking for election is not much appreciable mode of propagation of spiritual knowledge. Shankara spent all His life time in discussions and debates only. Such mode is called as satsanga, which is the first step to achieve liberation in this life itself (satsangatve… jivanmuktih).
I am seen in western dress to indicate that there is no link between dress and knowledge. The Gita was spoken by Krishna, who was dressed with all jewels, crown and silk clothes. The divine preachers, who were in saffron clothes, wrote commentaries on the Gita! This is absolute truth. But, it is better to be in saffron cloth, the effect of which is tremendous. A saint speaking in saffron cloth is heard with full attention even though he speaks nonsense. It is better to follow the trend that suits the psychology of public in propagation of spiritual knowledge. Spiritual aspirants of very high level don’t bother about the dress and care only for the concepts spoken.
I was in that dress of a professor of science because I have to preach the scientists today, who are perfect experts in the analysis of every item of this creation. Analysis of creation was called as Tarkashastra (Logic). While dealing the philosophy (Vedanta Shastra) in ancient times, it was a compulsory norm in the tradition that the preacher of philosophy (spiritual knowledge) must be a scholar in logic. Logic of ancient times is the science today. Hence, I studied science and became a professor in science. The Sanskrit scriptures came to Me spontaneously from My previous births as I didn’t study Sanskrit and scriptures in Sanskrit from any person. I was in that dress to suit to the atmosphere, which is to be dealt by Me. The unimaginable God merged with Datta, the first energetic incarnation. Datta merged with Me, a human being, called as Venugopala Krishna Murthy. Unimaginable God is like the inner most banian. Above that, the Shirt is Datta. Above that is the human being (body+soul) like coat. The dress signifies this concept. All the credit goes to Datta with whom the unimaginable God merged. Since it is not proper to give the credit to this human being, as one of all of you, I went out avoiding your photograph. In order not to disappoint you, I asked you to take the photo of Devi, your wife.