Journey Through Dream

Wow! Such a milky bright place! Is this place heaven or earth! Everything is so white. How is this possible! Wait, I can feel soft grasses under my feet and It feels so wonderful. After a long time, I am walking on the grass barefoot. But why I am in barefoot and where are my slippers? I looked down and what the heck is happening! How grass can be white?

Taking my eyes up looked around to see plants, flowers, leaves, houses all are milky white, though I can differentiate everything. I can hear a river flowing nearby. Automatically moved towards the direction the sound was coming from and saw the dazzling milky white waters.

Still wondering about this magic world, forgetting the way I entered, I moved ahead. Coming from colourful earth, how can these pure white structures be giving me a peaceful filling, so beautiful to eyes, the heart is full of happiness, there is no fear, no sadness in me. Walking on the grass road for a long time, without the feeling of tiredness. Wandering I reached in front of a huge palace. Out of the palace gate, people are moving around. Everyone is busy with their work. But, I am not able to hear any conversation or sound from them.

What! People are also white in this place! I can differentiate their head, leg, their clothes. Even felt some people as my own. My own! Someone is approaching me! I should be scared. Should I move back and run! Instead of these feelings, I felt curious. Eagerness to meet that person.

He came near to me, held my hand and dragged me forward. No introduction, no welcome, nothing. With that stranger, I started walking silently without fear. Instead, I had a secure feeling, which made me enjoy the new place, a new way and new surroundings. He took me near the door of a house. I didn’t see if the house was big or small. Like every other thing, the door is also white. He instructed me to open the door still holding my hand and I was about to open the door.

“Gita! Gita! Come back. Come back to us. I am counting again. You have to be back!”

This is my father calling. Where is he? I looked around me. He is nowhere to be seen.

“One, two, three...”

Where is he and why he is calling me with so much anxiousness?

Hey, what is happening? Why I am falling with this speed like someone is dragging me? I don’t want to go. I didn’t want to move from that place. I wanted to open that door and look into what’s inside. But here I am falling and falling. At last, I reached somewhere.

I am sleeping! Is that a dream? If it is, I want to stay for a little longer.

Why both my parents are calling so anxiously then? If I slept for a long time? Let’s look into the situation. Slowly I opened my eyes, saw my family members' anxious face. It took a little more time to remember that I was practising self-hypnotism with my father.

“Why you people called me so soon!” I whined.

“I was about to look into a room and was in a very beautiful and interesting place! And your voice dragged me and made me fall with so much speed that I am feeling dizzy now!” My whining continued with my head down.

“You left for such a long time! I was scared to lose you! Though you are not the first person, with whom I was doing this, but no one has gone for such a long time!” my father was almost shouting to me.

I saw the clock on the wall and I was gone for almost one hour.

“You are lying there like a lifeless body. I was about to scold your father for taking such a risk. What if you were not able to come back!” my mother's face looks so pale and worried.

She is the strongest person in our home who always keeps her wits even in tougher situations. I wondered and realized my importance in their life at that point. Tried to imagine their worry, I started consoling them and tried to ease their mind by telling the whole story of my journey of this self-hypnotism session.

Self-hypnotism is a practice first we have to do with a Guru, who is perfect in this field and will able to guide the practitioner to take out your mind to the outer world and back again. I read a book on this subject before practising the same with my father. According to the book the person who practices this, he or she is sending their soul to a higher place. Once perfect, the soul can move anywhere in this world, even outside the world. Also, we can know our past life and see the future with this practice.

When I came to know that my father has already learned the process from his Guru, I begged him to teach me the same. Because of my strong curiousness and to practice whatever he learned, he agreed to try the same on me. But he never expected that within a small period of time I can go so far and for such a long time. That day he was scared so much, it made him stop the training. I was so disappointed and curious at the same time. So, I tried to practice myself. But I was not able to get that level of success even after half a year practice. I was only able to create white bubble by my imagination as per process, which is the first step of self-hypnotism and stayed inside that, not able to leave that bubble to go next level.

Time goes by. Life became busy with starting and setting the career. Staying away from family and staying alone in big unknown cities, this incident moved to the back of my mind. For others, it is a forgotten story, when it stayed as a wonderful journey in my memory. Seven years passed in between with so many incidents overwriting happy as well as sad stories of life.

Like every year, I came for a vacation after six months and this time my mother informed me that she wanted to go to Puri. She has not gone for a long time due to my father's health for last one year after a heart stroke. His heart muscles are going weak as per the doctor’s examination. He is not supposed to travel. So, anyone of us kids accompanies her whenever she wants to go somewhere. This time it’s me who is travelling with her. Me too going after a long time to Puri, though we are people of Odisha.

I was so happy and behaving like a child. My eyes are wandering here and there to take all scenes at a time. My head started spinning after moving so much from this side to that side. Though I am travelling in train for a long time from my workplace to hometown, still every time I travel, I try not to miss enjoying the beauty of nature in my side of the railway track. And this side of Odisha I am travelling after a long time and there are so many changes that feel as if I am travelling through a new place. My home town is south of Odisha and I work in a state of South India. And we are travelling towards the north of Odisha.

This is one of the hot days. We reached Puri around morning at 10 o’clock. After freshening up, we started for Darshan. Whatever time I have been to Puri, that many times I was amazed by the charisma of God Jagannatha. As they say after looking into all gods in the temple your eyes always stick to Jagannath’s big eyes ‘Chakanayana’. Even my mother used to behave childlike once she steps into that world-famous temple. Sometimes I have to behave like a bigger person and drag her to move ahead. Once darshan was completed we had Avada (Mahaprasada of Puri temple) and purchased some for my home. Taking some rest, we started from Puri and reached home at midnight after having some delightful talk with my parents and had Avada. We slept because of heat and tiredness.

But why I am in this dream again? Seven years! It’s not a small time! After such a long time why I am in this place again? Now, I am not practising self-hypnotism. Am I? Whatever, let’s go and explore this place as I was not able to do the same last time. And my journey started once again.

Once again, I am in that milky white place! and same way I reached near that palace as before. Feelings, curiousness, the attraction of the place, everything is the same. People are still white here.

This time also, one person came and held my hand and dragged me. I was wondering if this is the same person as last time? I don’t remember the person’s face. But this time is different. He started a conversation full of question. Still no introduction, no asking of my name.

He asked me, “whom you will see in mind when you remember God?"

I replied “Radha Krishna”.

“Which places you want to go again and again?” he asked me.

I thought of so many places, but I always long to go to one place at last. So, I replied, “Puri”.

He smiled. Then he talked, “last time what I wanted to show but was not able to, this time I want to show.”

Oh! This is the same person as last time. How is this possible! Did I enter my self-hypnotism world? I was asking myself again and again.

“Really!!! Thank you,” still I replied though my mind was busy and happy at the same for some reason.

Still, I asked the question of my mind. “Who are you? Do you know me?”

Without answering my questions, he continued. “Whatever that I wanted you to show and teach some lesson with the view, all of those you have done so well!” he smiled proudly.

I was wondering “what have I done? Anything wrong? If yes, what? If it is right, what was that?” My mind was racing with a hundred questions per hour but my mouth kept shut. Rolling my eyes, keeping my head down with so many thoughts, I kept walking with him.

At last, we reached to the same door and this time it is open. This time he told me to go ahead and look inside. Not able to stop my curiousness I did the same.

What are these things? Why so many dazzling pots are there with different shapes and sizes? What he wanted to teach me? I looked carefully. There are a lot of smaller pots of different sizes made up of some shinning metals, maybe gold or silver. Some of them look like made up of shining glasses or diamond. Are they really diamond? How much their value must be? Also, there are some big and one or two huge mud pots present. I was scared looking at those mud pots. I thought those are filled with something black or dark things. I was not sure, so kept my eyes away from them and happy to look at the pot full of shiny things. Better this way! Can I touch those metals? It never came to mind if I can take some of these too?

Wondering what he wanted to teach me and to ask these questions in my mind, l looked at the certain person who was standing beside me smiling with great silence. He saw questions in my eyes. He gave me the answer before I asked them.

“Those mud pots are the sorrows or bad times in your life which you felt like the longest period of your life. So, the sizes are bigger.”

Hmm. That’s why I was scared to look at them! What are the shining metals then?

Before I started questioning, he started again, “those pots are your happy times. I was thinking about how you understood the concept that very fewer people in this world can understand!”

I was standing watching the place and thinking what was that concept.

He continued, “Those pots are made up of happiness, collected by you. These memories, you always tried to store in front of your mind. Do you have any idea?”

“Really!” I was surprised. “Though I remember I wanted to live all small happy moments, also trying to remember that at the time of worse moments to help myself, I used to re-play them. Those memories always helped me to face bad situations bravely.”

“Yes, those are the happy moment that you stored in your heart. Can you look into those empty spaces?” he asked.

I just nodded looking at the empty spaces taking away my eyes from shining objects for the first time.

He continued, “Maybe some more of those mud pots will come to those places as bad times are unavoidable in life, but I am hoping you will collect some more gold or diamond pots of happiness, either big or small without any care of size and fill this room. So, those mud pots will bury under them”. Then he looked at me with full of hope and encouragement in his smiling eyes.

With those eyes full of appreciation and my ear ringing with his voice, I woke up by the morning sounds coming from the kitchen. My mother started cooking breakfast, I can smell it.

So, I was dreaming!

His hopeful eyes which I saw in my dream before that moment are still alive in front of my face, I got up from bed hoping I can live my life as I like and collect more of those shiny pots of small or big happy moments as he expected. Wishing me a happy life and smile on my face, I started the day.