| Dreams have always been a special
treat in my life. I dream in color and see such amazing things.
I have been on other planets, under the water, in the bodies of animals, and in the air flying like a
bird. Once I sewed this amazing, snowflake-like doily. I
held it up and marveled at the intricate design. When I woke up,
I wondered just where all that came from. I don't sew. I
am not an artist. So I perceive a tremendous difference
between who I am in this body and who I am in my dream world.
Compared to who I am in my dream world, waking up every morning is sort of
like getting dressed to go out into a freezing snow storm. Huge
gloves. Thick boots. Head wrapped tight. So
bundled up that your real abilities are smothered. Sometime I can't
wait to get to bed and fall asleep.
I have also wondered about the
Saints. Surely Jesus & Lord Chaitanya dreamt at night.
Also there are stories in the Holy Scriptures about different Saints &
Prophets going into trances (e.g. Shrila Prabhupada). What makes something Holy?
God is Holy. Surely his shoes are Holy. Anything about Him is
Holy. And yet, some of the stories in the Holy Books are pretty
far-fetched, such as Jonah living in the belly of a whale for three
days and three nights; Gajendra and the
crocodile fighting for a thousand years, etc. Actually, earlier in my
spiritual life these far-fetched tales hindered my faith rather than bolstered it -
opposite to what I thought would happen. After all, wasn't I doing the
right thing: reading the Holy Scripture?
Just try to imagine
how absolutely wonderful the dreams of Jesus Christ or Lord Chaitanya
are. Or take any of the dreams of the great Saints.
What if they woke up and wrote them down? Take the of story of
Jonah for example - perhaps this was simply a dream that the Prophet Johah (785-760 B.C.) had. Perhaps he wrote it
down and later it was canonized, codified and placed in the Holy Bible. On
any give day I will totally accept the dreams of truly God-Conscious
persons and true, worthwhile, and Holy.
~
What follows are dreams of
devotees, much like you and me. Should they be separated
from the above in importance and value? Of course. But I also want to hear
them. None of these dreams are mine. They have
been sent to me by very special souls (names omitted for privacy) ...all
greatly attracted to His Divine Grace Shrila Prabhupada and the Sankirtan
Movement of Lord Chaitanya.
~ ~ ~
Since the
late 1970's, I have had many dreams of Srila
A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada. In one of the earlier
ones, I eagerly awaited in the corridor immediately outside his
quarters to retrieve his lunch plates hoping for remnants, and
also hoping to have a private moment with His Divine Grace so that
I might ask him a personal question.
While I waited, Sripad
Satsvarupa Maharaj came and garlanded Srila Prabhupada, engaged in
a brief communication and left. I thought, Now's my chance to be
alone with Srila Prabhupada! I boldly dared to enter his private
quarters and paid my dandavatts to His Divine Grace. He
enthusiastically picked me up from the floor embracing me saying,
Jaya! Jaya! Mahaprabhu!. I blurted out, What about the future?
What about my spiritual master? (At this time I was still the
disciple of one of the first zonal acharyas to manifest
difficulties.) His Divine Grace silenced my inquiry as if it were
something I need not have asked. Then with his hands upon my
biceps, he proceeded to bring me into his inner quarters and
sitting room saying,
Please. Come in. Sit down. At which point he
directed me to sit down in a chair opposite His Divine Grace at
small table.
I remember wishing that I had a small tape recorder
to record our conversation. He began to tell me all about his own
family life and children and how he
... did not get much
satisfaction from his children... This was particularly pertinent
to me at that time as I very badly wanted to marry and have
children. His Divine Grace spoke at length about his own
disappointment in family life as if to advise me that my own
domestic pre-occupation would bring me little real fulfillment.
Then he finished by telling me,
...but I always wished I had a
son just like you. As is the case with many of my dreams with His
Divine Grace, I awoke with tears streaming from my eyes, strongly
feeling his separation.
In
the summer of 1982, I was in L.A. for Ratha-yatra. I had a dream
wherein the morning program had just ended and His Divine Grace was
crossing Watseka Avenue to go to a room in the now famous green
building. I shouldered my way to the front of the throng of
followers so that I might again have a few private moments with His
Divine Grace.
Together we entered a room to the rear left, off the
courtyard. The entire back wall of the room was a floor-to-ceiling
bookcase full of his effulgently glowing books. His Divine Grace
then sat down upon a cushion on the floor while I remained standing.
I began to praise his books to him,
"Srila Prabhupada, your books
are so BEAUTIFUL!He smiled. I then expressed,
Srila Prabhupada, I
don't want to be re-initiated! I just want you to be my spiritual
master! He smiled again
and pointed with his upturned Lotus Palm towards the wall of his
Supremely Gorgeous books saying,
Don't worry. You'll be
alright. You'll KNOW what to do. Krishna will help you.
I
had a dream wherein I was sitting with others (mostly Indian) upon
the floor of a wood-paneled living room waiting for a devotional
program to begin. It was time for kirtan and because I like to sing,
my ego was causing me to hope that I might be permitted to lead the
kirtan. But before I could start, an Indian man whom I had somehow
previously overlooked began to sing the refrain from Gaya Gaura
Madhure Svare. At this point I immediately recognized that it was a
forty-something Srila Bhaktivinode Thakur chanting Hare Krishna was
such devotional intensity that his whole body was quivering,
trembling and convulsing with ecstasy in time with the rhythm of the
kirtan as he nearly shouted out the Holy Name explosively in a very
deep voice.
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