Some time back, I was on a chat with my friend Dr. Yadam Ramkumar, a young international motivational speaker from Orissa. We used to quarrel over multitudes of concepts and philosophies. Each interaction was powerful Satsangh for us. That day, our discussion slipped into the process of dreaming. I stressed the need for sensible and powerful well calculated dreams that lead to healthy manifestations. He was not against that. He told me that he has learnt that dreams manifest on its’ own and our role is just to witness the manifestation. His concern was on practically living in such an experience of having reached the intended goal, in a sense ignoring that the idea is only a fancy dream. After a quite long debate on it we concluded that dreaming over a dream, instead of boldly choosing to be in the intended experience is like plucking a plant every day to confirm it is growing. We categorized living in the experience of having reached the goal to be positive while dreaming with no investment is neutral and living in doubt is negative. It was easy to find that a hopeless life added with a dream, how powerful it be, is double negative. We also found the real reason behind distorted manifestations - we grow dreams in doubt and nourish it in mistrust.
Once Mark Twain was forced to the parish church, on compulsion of his friend, who offered a very inspiring talk by the new priest there. The priest knew his presence and that day he gave his best ever. Mark twain but remained indifferent all the time. While on car back, the priest accompanied Mark Twain, who did not comment on the talk that day. At last the priest asked him, “You did not say anything?” Mark Twain replied, “There was nothing new in it; everything was there in a book I took last night.” The priest was surprised to hear that because he had not copied anything from anywhere. Seeing his astonished looks, Mark Twain said, “I will send you that book tomorrow.” Mark Twain did as he promised and what he packed was the latest version of a dictionary.
What Mark Twain actually tried to convey was that even though the discourse contained attractive combinations of words and phrases he sensibly wove for an emotionally pleasant listening, it had no juice in it. Words without juice are lifeless. What is meant by juice? Juice certainly is the life energy in it. The new generation dreams also are like the discourse of the priest; not enough life in it. Dreams for most are fancy mansions in which they comfortably lay their heads and rest.
Joseph Mattappally
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