The Dream Specialist: The Revelation Dream (Conclusion)

We have spent significant time with what I call the ”Revelation Dream”, dreams where the higher self vividly interfaces with the subconscious, emotional, and psychological mind. At first I presented examples of such dreams for inspection. We then looked at how these types of dreams can intertwine with our life cycles to give us important information. In the last column we looked more closely at how the merger of “Super Conscious” and subconscious can yield even deeper insights into the workings of our psyche and even provide prophetic moments to consider. In this column I wish to address how these dreams clarified for me a subject that goes deep into the theological questions often posed by humanity: what is the essence of the guiding spirit of all that is, that which we most often term “God”.

I have used my own dreams here, mostly because they have been so plentiful in this regard and such a crucial aspect of my spiritual journey, but also because I don’t have many first hand examples from others to share. In my case, the “progenitor” of this source energy predominantly took on the form of “Guru”. Ostensibly, this was because I “grew up” spiritually in that tradition, but I believe something larger was at work in this process as well. What we call Guru is technically not understood very well in the West and in my opinion is not truly grasped in the East completely either. Yet whether we like it or not, Guru’s, whether named as such or not, have been the foundation for the spiritual growth and development of humanity. The founders of the great religions in my opinion were Gurus: Jesus, Mohammed, Shiva, Krishna and Buddha, although he would not call himself that. I also believe that the great Jewish prophets, Elijah, Isaiah, and others were Gurus, but the religion had no language or conception to consider them as such. Therefore none of us is outside Guru’s reach. The question then becomes, who or what is Guru that plays such a critical role in the human journey?

Traditionally “Guru” is associated with a personage. The Divine energy of Source, Center expresses itself fully or nearly fully through such a one. The power of wisdom, love and energy emanating from these figures is so overpowering, their status becomes legendary and mythical. And the great trap is to associate this energy exclusively with the one toward whom you are drawn. And if it is not your karma to have a physical Guru in the body, the association with “Inner Spirit” or Inner guide is connection to Guru essence none the less. This trap of form is ostensibly one of the greatest mistakes of traditional Christianity and Islam as well, which has (mis) informed Western civilization for centuries, but also ensnares devotees of almost any Master in terms of its fixatrion. It is said of Kabir’s followers, for example, both Hindu and Muslim that when he died they began to fight bitterly over possession of his body for burial. Kabir settled the dispute by turning his body into flowers so that each “side” could have their share.

So how did my dreams give me insight into the nature and truth of “Guru”? When I began to have “Guru” dreams they were almost exclusively with the one I have termed “Baba”, for me that was Shrii Shrii Anandamurti. For other paths having dreams of this magnitude and plenty they most likely would have been with Christ, a great angelic guide, a powerful animal totem, or a Druidic spirit, etc. Only once, relatively early on, when I began to have psychological problems, did I have a dream with another Master. This was Rajneesh, now known as Osho. Struggling greatly, I prayed to God for help and that night had a dream with Rajneesh. Something exploded and I was literally inside his head, which was vast. He said “What do you want from me?” I replied I needed strength and the ability to find stability. It took three months but the prayer was answered through events. I now understand why Rajneesh was the archetype necessary to appear. For although, in my opinion, he had great problems, one of his strongest gifts was the erasing of separation of physical pleasure and spiritual growth. This was part of my root problem at the time. Little did I fully understand, as I do now, how the essence we call Guru can morph itself into any form when needed, even if that form is not an individual.

The great turning point in my realization of what this energy is came in two ways. The first was during my trip to India, which was the only time I saw my Guru in the flesh, even though for years I had formed an extraordinarily intimate relationship with him in dreams and meditation. It had not quite dawned on me that “He” was “me”, and that would beget a larger question as to who “I” am. (Still working on that one.) After 14 years I was so attached to his form that a huge lesson while I was there was for him (as Source itself, not the form) to pry me away from the incredible grip I had made. In the midst of a plethora of events regarding this issue, one of my last experiences I had getting on the bus leaving his house was with a young woman I knew saying to me, “You know, Baba said that those closest to him most likely would not be those in close physical proximity to him. They could be in the back of the room, or tent (with thousands) yet in their meditation would feel him the most deeply.” I knew this was an extremely important message, perhaps the most important communication of the entire trip there, and I felt it was delivered by him through her at that exact moment. It was exquisite how scripted it felt, as if set up by the most ingenious director who ever lived. Amazing timing.

But it was after Baba died, in 1990, in dreams and then in an extraordinary experience of channeling, that I grasped this great truth. The details of the channeling are for another time, but 1991-1992 were the critical years. First, when the Gulf War with Iraq over Kuwait happened, Guru knew that I still suffered PTSD from the past over military affairs. The night the war started, a picture of my Guru appeared, one in my possession that exposed his feet. I heard a voice say, “hold onto Guru’s feet.” There was a knowledge that this was going to be a rough time for me and I was getting support. But this happened even though my Guru had “died” a year before. This was one of the first occasions that I realized Guru can’t die (neither can anyone else truly for that matter), and that in body or not, he was still guiding me. Therefore, how could I only associate him with a living form? But a far more powerful and deeply intense experience was just around the corner.

1992 was a pivotal year for me. On my birthday in September, I spent the day with a female Guru who was traveling in our area. She was not well known. Her name was “Chitti Ma”. She had a technique of putting your hands over hers as she held them out frontally, each to one side, and raising your kundalini with an amazing amount of “shakti” or Divine energy. I remember her putting my head in her lap and I had the strongest sensation that this experience would have been exactly the experience of “personal contact” from Baba most members of my group saw as the “holy grail” of connection to him. I felt as if “He” was coming through “Her”. The sensation was unusually powerful and profound and that night I was swimming with energy. It took me six weeks to integrate what had happened and spaces were opened in me that had been closed for a long time.

Concurrently, in my dreams, a similar and equally powerful shift was taking place for I was having a series of very strong “Guru” dreams. Except the Guru was not “Baba”-Anandamurti. Instead into my dreams came the Guru associated with Ram Das, Neem Karoli Baba, often known as “Maharaji”. I had several important dreams with him. In one, I was lying in bed with him trying to touch his feet with mine. He looked at me and said “no, no, no” as if to indicate the use of my will was not the way to go. He then took his leg and did the impossible. Lying on his left side, he took his right leg, bent it backwards from the knee, (which is physically and anatomically not possible), and laid his foot right across my forehead and third eye. This signified a huge blessing, one that had to be received, not striven for, and pertained to an intimate situation romantically I was about to enter that for me would be “outside the box”, and my sense of convention. This dream amazed me but I wondered “what is He doing here in such a prominent role?”

His presence continued and a little later I had one of the most powerful and important of these dreams of my entire life. Ram Das always said that the greatest gift one could get from Maharaji was to get him to hold his gaze on you. In the dream, Ram Das was setting up a sixteen mm camera and said he did not know why but the Guru demanded it. As I was watching the film, Maharaji, looking exactly like his pictures, (let’s forget that he “died” in 1973) wearing only his famous blanket, propped himself up on one elbow and looked directly at me for over thirty seconds. The dream then catapulted me into a series of sequences where I was in Maharaji’s country, green, full of fields and trees, safe and one after another parts of myself seemed to speak, quickly, one after another. It was if my entire inner psychological self was expressing itself. Suddenly everything disappeared, and only Maharaji, Neem Karoli Baba, remained in front of me. He looked directly at me and said forcefully, “Whatever you have, whatever you need, YOU BRING IT TO ME!!” And then I awoke. My third chakra was on fire and energy coursed all throughout my system. It was then I said to myself, “I have to write a book about this stuff”. Well I haven’t written a book, but I have written these columns.

This dream remains to this day one of the most significant of my entire life. Since I believe a message from the Higher Self of one is a message to all, I want to reiterate this promise and command from Source energy though the form of this Guru again. Whatever you have, whatever you need, you bring it to me. I believe this holds true despite whatever form your inner guidance takes, and is a marvelous assurance and baseline for anyone regarding Divine protection and strength.

The question remains, however, what has all of this to do with the over riding theme of this column, insight into a truth or reality of the nature of Guru and God. The answer is quite simple. Anandamurti always had a fairly strict persona. He even stated once “Often I appear to be harsh, but that is for love”. When he died physically I was very conflicted about him and his role in my life. In 1992 this was still very prevalent in my life. It was not easy to take him in. I already had some affinity to Neem Karoli Baba, but nothing like the complete relationship I had with Anandamurti. In my mind, Neem Karoli Baba represented a softer, more accessible form. So the Universal Guru simply switched forms, as had happened years ago with Rajneesh. I got what I needed from a form I could relate to in that moment. It took some while and some important other experiences to finally and fully understand that there is only one Guru, and that Guru is not a person but a frequency of God (All that is) that appears in many forms. In truth all are Guru, for all are God. Certain Avatars just remember fully who they are.

Later on, when the Guru began channeling through a friend in the most unique way to help me and my friend especially work through incomplete wounds surrounding this Divine relationship, He said, “I am the composite of all Guru energies”, the source of that which you would associate to a form.” In addition, to a question put to him at a different session regarding the difference between angels and Guru, he said, “Guru is the guiding Spirit of All that Is. Angels carry the Guru frequency”. Anandamurti even codified this while he was alive. He said there is “Nirguna, the formless, that which is unfathomable, beyond all comprehension. There is “Saguna”, that which is within all form, even subtle form. (Angels, light beings, Ascended Maters, etc.) And sitting at the junction of the two is what is known as “Taraka Brahma”. Taraka Brahma is he point where the sense of personal guide and devotion to God resides. He said it is not really an intellectual construct but the source of all devotional sentiment. In other words, feelings in duality toward God (Higher Self) are not an illusion as many materialists would proclaim, but are an inlaid, integral aspect of reality itself. An analogy would be the Native American distinction between “great Mystery” (All that is) and “Great Spirit”, Great Mystery’s manifestation as Creator and guide in the phenomenological realm.

A great female Guru, Karunamayi, says, “The sun is one, its rays are many.” This is easier to grasp now, It was not so easy twenty or forty years ago and is still very difficult for literally millions to comprehend. My own journey to this realization took years. What we call God is a frequency or frequencies within us, and Guru, or inner guide, is a foundational aspect of that band of frequency. It permeates all creation, and is also the foundation for all sense of devotion. My dreams with Guru were a highly important and crucial part of that realization for me. Form was immaterial to my needs of the moment. The Divine will give what is necessary. I will end with a story and reminder. There is a legend that when Anandamurti traveled to the Philippines, which was highly Catholic, there was great consternation among many who felt conflicted over their life long relationship to Christ and the powerful draw to this Indian Master. One priest spent most of the night praying for clarity, as he was to see “Baba” the next day. But when he entered to see “Baba”, the Guru was not there. Instead he saw Jesus sitting on a throne. The message, of course, was, “we are all one, its just form”. Yet even those of us in Ananda Marga who told the story were still deeply invested in our own Guru. Such is the power and attraction of form.

So whatever your relationship to inner guidance, be aware, as I am sure that many of you are, that your guidance will appear to you in and as different stages and phases in your life. But the essence of Guru will be in each one. Baba once remarked in channeling, “One wears a shoe until it is no longer useful. One then gets new shoes. One does not sit and weep and lament over the old shoe. It was meant to carry you this far. Now wear the new one.”

And I will reiterate once more the great reminder:

Whatever you have, whatever you need, you bring it to me.

Ken Kaplan is a dream specialist, intuitive counselor, and presenter on spiritual topics. If you wish to inquire about his services, or especially if you desire to work with him on a dream you have had, he can be contacted at kenstories@comcast.net. Ken works by phone, charges a reasonable fee, and emails that just describe dreams seeking answers with no depth of interaction or willingness to engage verbally generally are not considered. If you wish to explore a dream for healing that could appear in this column, Ken will work with you for the reduced rate of $25 no matter how long the session.