Of Dreams and Divine visions

May 27th, 2017

This morning while having a conversation with my sister, she shared a dream that she had a couple of days after Navratri.

“I saw a dream of Divine Mother. It was a majestic vision of Her sitting on a rock with one leg folded and the other down. Behind her sat an enormous lion. 

I approached and sat at Her feet, taking it in my hands and pressing them as I looked at Her beautiful presence. In my mind a thought occurred that I should ask Her about my daughter T. But before I could ask, She read my mind and said “She is my daughter.. I always look after her.”

I replied “Mother have I brought her up well?” 

She smiled and gestured with Her hand and nod of Her head that I have done well.

I then asked “Mother what should we teach children to make them good human beings?”

Mother replied in chaste Hindi-

“Do not lie.

Without faith, worship and prayers are meaningless.

Avoid bad company.

Do not rejoice at others sufferings, be happy at others happiness.

Do not complain always. Believe that whatever I do for you will be for your good.

Take care of your elders; to give them peace is your duty.

Whatever you do today, do with the awareness that you will reap the fruits of your action soon. Keep an eye on your own karmas.

You will always receive fruits of your earnest efforts.

Patience makes life easier. Patience during sorrows keeps the mind peaceful. Patience during good times will prevent rise of ego/arrogance. Patience is great strength. 

Always remember that I keep an eye on My children at all times. Listen carefully always to your inner voice emanating from your conscience.”

As a parting note She said “No matter what, I will surely give T the fruits of her labour. Have faith in my words.”

As the dream ended I woke up feeling very clear. It was 5:45 am in the morning.

Curious to know more, I asked my sister to describe the appearance of Divine Mother.

“Her presence was absolutely radiant, indescribable. No artist, no poet, could ever capture Her beauty. It transcends all imagination.” She continued, “She wore rich red robes, and Her jewelry gleamed with a divine brilliance. Her tejas (radiance) was as bright as the sun, yet soothing and gentle. When She raised Her hands in blessing, I noticed how small and delicate they were. Her words, spoken in shuddh (pure) Hindi.”

Intrigued, I asked for an example. My sister shared one of Mother's statements: “Bina vishwas ke prarthna, pooja nirarthak hai” (Without faith, prayers and worship are meaningless). 

She further shared that what truly captured her attention was the majestic lion seated behind the Divine Mother. “He was a striking figure—regal, fierce, yet utterly tranquil, as if guarding Her with quiet devotion. His eyes..” she said, “glowed with an almost otherworldly brilliance.”

The purpose of sharing this story isn't simply to recount a dream; rather, it is to highlight a mystical interaction between the Divine and an ordinary person. We often think of God as distant, elusive, but through my studies of spiritual phenomena, I've encountered many accounts where the Divine reaches out to humans in deeply personal ways.

Naturally, I wondered why such a vision had come to her.

When I asked my sister if she had done anything to invoke this blessing, she admitted that for many years now, she experiences a special darshan (divine vision) after Navratri. Usually, it is Swami who appears, but this time it was the Divine Mother. Interestingly, she confessed that she doesn't follow the traditional Navratri rituals as closely as others in our family. She once prayed to Swami, asking not to observe rituals just for the sake of it but only when she felt truly inspired. As a result, she was uncertain why this grace was bestowed upon her.

She went on to mention that her daughter, T (my niece), while not particularly religious or spiritual, yet has a profound and personal connection with Lord Shiva and Ma Parvati. Every Monday, without prompting from anyone in the family, she makes it a point to visit a nearby Shiva temple to offer her prayers.

She shared another incident. 

When T was little, she fell gravely ill, suffering from a jaundice-related ailment that left her weak and unable to keep any food or water down. Her stomach was in constant pain, and sleep was nearly impossible. The doctors were concerned and advised my sister to take great care. One night, as my sister was tending to her, my niece asked her mother to rest, promising to wake her if she needed anything. Reluctantly, my sister fell asleep.

Late at night, my niece awakened needing to go to the restroom, but she didn’t want to disturb her mother. As she turned to get up, she was astonished to see a regal woman, whom she instantly recognized as Mata (Divine Mother), sitting by her bedside in a red saree, gently massaging her stomach. Thinking her illness was playing tricks on her mind, she made her way to the restroom, drank some water, and returned to the room, still leaning against the walls for support due to her weakness. To her astonishment, the Mother was still there, sitting in the same place. Too tired to process what she was seeing, she thought of lying down first and then gazing at Mothers form. Remarkably,  the moment her head touched the pillow, she fell into a deep, peaceful sleep; for the first time in days.

It is natural to question the authenticity of such experiences— but the test of such an event lies in its effect. My sister’s dream wasn’t just about seeing the Divine Mother; it was about the wisdom imparted. What was shared with her resonates deeply with the teachings of our scriptures. My sister, ever self-reflective, admits that the insights she received were not something she had previously considered or meditated on herself, and she experienced the deep wisdom of those words even as Mother spoke them.

A sevadal friend, Santosh, once shared an intriguing experience with me. He had been asked to escort a sadhu for darshan at Ramesh Hall in Brindavan. After the darshan, Santosh found the Sadhu looking perplexed. Sensing something was amiss, Santosh inquired if all was well? The sadhu, with a tone of awe, replied that he could not see the Her clearly during the darshan. Curious, Santosh inquired further, and the sadhu explained that the Divine Mother’s jewelry shone with such overwhelming brilliance that it obscured Her form from him.

Now thoroughly confused, Santosh asked, “But did you see Swami?” The sadhu pointed to a nearby photograph of Swami and asked, “Is this the form you see when you have darshan?”

“Of course,” Santosh replied, “What did you see?”

The sadhu, with quiet reverence, responded, “I saw Ma Bhagwati walking among us. Her presence - beyond majestic, Her aabhushans (ornaments) gleaming with such intensity, as if each one held the light of many suns.” 

This statement compliments the narrative of the above dream.

Another similar case is from my own childhood. I was studying in a boarding school in Panchgani, when one night I had the most memorable dream. 

I found myself in a mystical environment what seemed like a time beyond night and day. Before me lay Lord Vishnu in His reclining form, resting on the Ksheer Sagar (the Ocean of Milk). His feet were close to me and His head away from me. His body was beautiful blue and He appeared to be in a state of deep repose, His eyes closed and a soft smile playing on His lips. 

What distracted me from gazing at His appealing form was Adishesha. As I was at the feet of Lord Vishnu, Adishesha's hood was nearly over me as well. It was a beautiful yet frightening spectacle. Its hood of many faces was bejeweled and shone with many colors. Though not menacing, the sheer size and presence of the serpent filled me with awe and a touch of fear. I remember covering my eyes from it and trying to see Lord Vishnu though my fingers. A radiant light emanated from His chest, and while I didn’t know why at the time, I somehow knew it was coming from a jewel He wore. The scene felt otherworldly, as if I was no longer on Earth but in a divine realm beyond the grasp of ordinary reality. 

As the dream got over it caused me to wake up spontaneously. I found all the other children sleeping in my dorm and I realised it is still very early morning.

One might dismiss this as a child’s imagination, but here’s the intriguing part: I was only in the first grade at the time. I knew of Lord Vishnu, but not Adishesha, or the Ksheer Sagar or Vaikuntha. It was not within my understanding to conjure such vivid imagery, yet as I grew older, I realized that the details I had seen matched the descriptions of Lord Vishnu reclining on the serpent in the cosmic ocean. Even the radiant jewel on His chest, which I later learned was the Kaustubha, was exactly as I had seen it in the dream—so bright it almost obscured His face.

Dreams are a strange phenomenon. Often we have dreams which just reflect back to us our everyday life events. But every now and then we somehow access deeper realms and experience something uncommon. While our physical body rests, our astral bodies can take our dim awareness to various subtle regions, sometimes even penetrating the causal worlds where Divine realms exist. 

My Guru often said that whenever we sincerely think of God, it elicits a response from Him in some way. Swami once taught that the amount of time we spend in sincere connection with God during our waking hours is the same amount of time God spends with us in our deep, subconscious moments, whether or not we are fully aware of it when we awaken. 

It makes one wonder: Is God truly distant from us, or is this distance merely an illusion of our own making? The divine realm may be much closer to us than we think. Nor is it exclusive to the saintly class . The everyday people are after all God’s children too.