Holistic Meditation-Part VII (Contd)

The waking 'I' rejects the experience of the dream 'I' as 'Unreal'. But Ramana says, experiencing of the incidents was 'Real' to the dreaming 'I' which went through it. Now in the same way and to the same extent the waking 'I' experiences all that happens in that state. Only one is mistaken by measuring the dream time with waking time measure and inferring that it is false while waking experiences are regarded as real.

The story of the 'I' does not end here. After dreaming for two hours the individual slips into deep sleep. In that state, neither the waking 'I' nor dream 'I' are there. But there must be the linking 'I' which was nascent. It must have been there because there is no break in the continuity of one's existence or his identity. After four hours of deep sleep, one wakes up with the same name and form, 'Paul as Paul', 'David as David', 'man as man' and 'woman as woman'.

The purpose of this exposure by Ramana to daily experience of each one of us is only to show that we are probably in error in believing the waking 'I' to be the totality of it. The subject is the fullness of consciousness, the Self. Hence there must be an extra dimension embracing all the three states aforesaid and existing as their substratum. For Holistic meditation, the significance of this three state analysis is that it opens one to the fact that there is need for enquiry to discover the true subject; the one light illumining everything.

To be continued

About the author

A.R.Natarajan

Sri A.R.Natarajan has had the opportunity of a long association of over 50 years with the Ramanashram. He was the editor of "Mountain Path" for two years. He was the secretary of Ramana Kendra, New Delhi for ten years. He founded the Ramana Maharshi centre for learning, a non profit institution. He has authored more than thirty six books and eleven pocket books on the life and teachings of Bhagavan Ramana.

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