Q: “Guruji, we were talking about lucid dreaming. Is it really possible?”
Guruji: “It is quite possible. With advance yoga practice this ability comes automatically. But some people also practice this technique, mostly those who are interested in astral flight. It’s basically waking up in the dream.”
Q: “But aren’t dreams just projections of subconscious?”
Guruji: “No, dreams are of two types. One is just continuation of what was going on before the sleep. It’s a display of the memory. The second are the dreams which come out of the blue. They are astral world impressions. The sleep frees us from physical limits and we go to the astral world. It’ll be hard to survive without it – we’ll never recuperate. Physiologists say that dreamless sleep doesn’t relax. Dreams are necessary. We don’t remember most of them though due to the shock of waking up.
“Dreamless sleep is slumber, which you get when you are very tired. But the mood always elevates after a good dream and gets spoiled after a bad one. Dreams make direct impressions on the mind.”
Q: “Guruji, what do the third and fourth states – sushupti and turiya mean?”
Guruji: “Sushupti means beyond dream. What is dormant – 95% of our brain – is sushupti. Hibernation is a better word for it. That is the dreamless state. Turiya means the fourth state – beyond the three states. It is the same in Kriya yoga: in the first a person wakes, in the second starts experiencing dream states, in the 3rd you gain knowledge of sushupti, and of turiya in the fourth. One who goes even beyond the fourth state is called turiyateeta. ”
Q: “And you said that the practice still goes on forever..”
Guruji: “If you’ve earned MA or PhD, that doesn’t mean a full-stop on your learning. It means you are now better equipped to learn. You’ve earned the qualification that you can learn anything. In yoga sadhana, after touching a certain level, you don’t need to go to anyone to learn any more – you become independent even in the matter of learning.”
[20110324-3] Recorded: Jan, 2002
That's a genuinely wise post on the 4 states mentioned in Vedanta and yoga.
I especially liked the statement on getting independent on the path of learning. There is no end to knowledge.
Satyam Jnanam Anantam Brahman.
It would be more helpful if we get to know the correct path of attaining our Guru;can He really hear our desperate calls even from a distance or take us out of really hard trouble?
Payal,Asansol