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Q. I have dreams at night with sages from the past. I am wondering if these are just dreams or if the dead can make communication through dreams.

A. First, please see the section on visions in the question-and-answer material, because what applies to visions mostly applies to dreams. Ramana Maharshi’s caution about getting involved with vision and dreams is most important and trustworthy.

It is extremely hard trying to figure out whether a dream is “real” or “true.” Yogananda said that if we dream of a saint and they look exactly like their photographs, then the dream is real, for the subconscious mind cannot reproduce the form of a realized Master. I have found that this is an extremely valuable principle, for a lot of the time our mind is just fooling around or even trying to trick us.

But even if the dream proves to be “real” is it completely trustworthy? For often a dream has both superconscious and subconscious elements mixed together. It is not uncommon for the mind to splice in subconscious “footage” even if the basic part of the dream is real. I have known for dreams to start out real and end up fantasy. How can the difference be detected?

It is best to just take note of what is dreamed but to go no further than that. In time life itself will reveal the truth or falsehood of the dream, as well as its value or worthlessness.

Masters never die, but live forever, and they can communicate with us. It has been my experience that such communication is always backed up with more objective elements, that the communications are more a pointing out than a stand-alone kind of teaching.

There is no substitute for the intuition developed by meditation–not even visitations from saints and angels.

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Q: Can you help me find or choose a spiritual name, one that will express my understanding?

Since you are interested in a name that indicates your inner spiritual life, you can go about it in two ways.

1) You can choose a proper name, such as that of a great holy person, a figure in religious lore (such as the Mahabharata, Ramayana, etc.) or scriptures, or even the name or title of an aspect of God. (There are thousands in Indian religion.) Of course to do so you need to be well acquainted with such things.

2) You adopt a spiritual quality or state as a name. For example, you can take a Sanskrit dictionary and look through it for words that correspond to your inner feeling. We recommend that you start with A Brief Sanskrit Glossary, and if that does not yield what you need, then look into larger dictionaries. In India many people have names that indicate spiritual qualities, such as Abhaya (without fear; steadfast), Jnana (wisdom), Vivekan (one endowed with discrimination), or Brahmavadin (one who follows the path to Brahman).

But this is very important: the name should be your choice, not one recommended by another. Since you want it to express your inner feeling (bhava,) it must be determined from within, through your own intuition. Otherwise in time you may not feel completely satisfied with it.

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Q: When I listen to people on TV that talk to spirits that have passed on, they say that we chose to come back as who we are in this life, so that almost sounds like it was a script we chose to live out. That seems to be that it was all written and what happens is predisposed.

We do indeed determine what each life is going to be in a general way. For reincarnation does not stand alone. In fact, it is not an entity unto itself, but is the result of karma, the law that “whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap” (Galatians 6:7). So every time we are about to reincarnate we look at our karmic balance sheet and decide just what karmas-good and bad-shall be reaped in the next life.

It is rather like plotting a drama in which we are going to be the star. Having outlined the play, we then work on our costume-the kind of body we are going to have-and the sets-the kind of place we are going to live in, who our families are going to be, and what kind of people will surround us. But all this is just the framework. Within that framework our free will, and that of those involved in our life, determines most of what goes on with us-especially inside us. And since even the framework is of our own construction, that too is completely a matter of free will, actually. Destiny is simply the free will we have already set in motion.

The famous French playwright, Moliere, did not write out the dialogue of his plays. Instead he wrote the plot-divided into scenes and acts-on a big blackboard which the actors read and then went out and improvised. After each performance they discussed how it had gone and made changes in the plot outline and refined the dialogue. When they felt it was as good as it could be, it was all written down with stage directions and printed for others to act from. This is very much like our life as we live out performance after performance through reincarnation.

Examples of Karma

Let me give some examples of karma. If we are meant to be the renowned leader of a great army, it is a pretty safe bet that we will have to choose to be a man. And our male body will have to be healthy. If we are meant to fight on the side of good, then we will have to be born in a country whose policies are for the right things. And we will have to be born in a country that has a large army. And it have to be that country’s karma to engage in warfare. We will have to find the place to be born that can supply us with all this.

Now where does free will come in? Everywhere. Because what I have outlined is just the skeleton of a life. Each person has to fill in the spaces, and they usually are far more than the simple karmic bones.

We choose how we go

Another thing about free will and destiny. We may be destined to go to Chicago, but we will choose how we go: bus, train, plane, car, or hitchhike, and if we hitchhike or drive we will decide what route we want to take. The road of karma has many (very many) branches, and we decide when we come to them which one to take. So we move freely within a predetermined framework. If we want to build a fence it can only be within the boundaries of the land we own. If we live on an island we can only travel within its boundaries. So we do have freedom, but it is not unlimited.

It also happens very often that our karma is not to do something, but to have the chance to do it. In some lives we may have the possibility to take up several professions, and we are completely free to choose from those. So we do a lot of “I will” and “I won’t” within the framework of our karma. Those choices in their own turn create karma which will manifest in the future. When we look at it, we see ourselves as both caught in the machine of karma and at the same time as the free owner and operator of the karma. Ultimately, it is freedom that is the truth of the whole thing.

Yes, it is all predisposed-by us. Yet, as I have said, the predisposition is only a general outline. At every moment we fill in the details, choosing right then.

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Q: Sex (thought and act) was part of my life while I was in college but I repent for having done that. Recently someone told me that if you commit a mistake it can never be erased, and that is the end to me becoming a brahmachari (celibate) because the guilt will always be there in my mind. Does this mean that even if I try now to improve myself and follow a strict life, I will never be blessed?

A: A person who has lied can reform and practice truthfulness (satya). A person who has stolen can reform and practice non-stealing (asteya). A person who has done harm (himsa) can reform and practice ahimsa. It only follows to reason, then, that someone who has engaged in sexual acts can reform and practice brahmacharya.

Some of the greatest sannyasis (and therefore brahmacharis) in modern times had been married and begotten children. Yet, when they took up a new order of life they attained liberation and uplifted many others and inspired them to purity of life. Among the great monastic disciples of Sri Ramakrishna, Swami Brahmananda–the first president of Ramakrishna Mission–had been married and had one child. The great Swami Sivananda of Rishikesh, founder of the Divine Life Society, was married and had two children. When his wife and children were killed in a fire he took sannyas and became one of the greatest yogis of our times, even writing books on brahmacharya. The beloved Swami (Papa) Ramdas of Anandashram, the embodiment of purity, had been married and also had children.

In the Gita Sri Krishna tells us:

“And though you were the foulest of sinners, this knowledge alone would carry you like a raft, over all your sin. The blazing fire turns wood to ashes: the fire of knowledge turns all karmas to ashes.” (Bhagavad Gita 4:36, 37)

“Everything in future will
improve if you are making
a spiritual effort now.”

—Sri Yukteswar

“ Though a man be soiled with the sins of a lifetime, let him but love me, rightly resolved, in utter devotion: I see no sinner, that man is holy. Holiness soon shall refashion his nature to peace eternal; O son of Kunti, of this be certain: the man that loves me, he shall not perish. (Bhagavad Gita 9:30, 31)

In Autobiography of a Yogi, we find this: “A new student occasionally expressed doubts regarding his own worthiness to engage in yoga practice.

“Forget the past,” Sri Yukteswar would console him. “The vanished lives of all men are dark with many shames. Human conduct is ever unreliable until anchored in the Divine. Everything in future will improve if you are making a spiritual effort now.”

This is the truth of the matter.

Trust in God and in your divine Self.

Related articles:

Twelve Pointers for Maintaining Brahmacharya (Celibacy)
Science Discovers the Physiological Value of Continence

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There are many levels in the astral world, and they are all much more stable than the earth plane. Spending time in the astral plane is exactly like living within the earth plane, though in some of the higher worlds thought is more evidently a force. We are born into those worlds and work out karma in them just as we do here. Of course, there is much more learning done there and some people spend centuries in the astral equivalent of study. The lower astral worlds are so much like the earth that the people even live in buildings and there are changes in weather. In the higher worlds this is not so, and things remain more unvarying. Also, communication becomes increasingly non-verbal as we ascend to higher levels.

Many of the same things that are done on earth are also done in the astral worlds–negative as well as positive. You may remember that Yogananda in his autobiography speaks of wars going on in the astral planes with mantric power being used instead of bombs. The astral world may seem advantageous to our earthbound minds, but in reality it is a terrible place, being both more intense and more binding than the earth plane.

It is very difficult for people to extricate themselves from astral involvement. This is why many people while incarnated on the earth are addicted to so-called astral travel. I knew one of Yogananda’s personal secretaries whom he continually warned against this, but every night she would be “out and about.” Many times she was almost destroyed by evil forces, and only the Master’s intervention saved her.

Spiritual life can completely come to a standstill if our attention becomes overly focused on psychic and astral phenomena. One very psychic friend of mine told me that the first words she spoke to her guru were: “Can you get me off the astral?” Not all are so wise.

Related post: The Real Heaven

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Karma means both action and reaction. Since action precedes reaction we can say that karma “began” as soon as we were able to act intentionally in any manner. Since intention implies conscious will, that would be as soon as we have evolved to that capacity–sometime during our manifestation on the animal level. (“Animal” is meant in a very broad sense that would include even micro-organisms.)