An Indian military officer burdened by visions of Krishna until awakened in
the presence of Ramana Maharshi in the 1940’s. Poonjaji gave Satsang in Luknow, North India. He died Sept. 6, 1997 at age 89.

Dreams are mental projections, at night you project them inside your head,
during the day you project them outside your head. You dream up these worlds
because you have a strong desire to enjoy them.

Q: You tell me “Wake Up!” that I am in a dream right now. When I go to sleep at
night I don’t remember anything until I wake up again the next morning, and
sometimes I have dreams that feel as real as the waking state, as real as
the feeling that I am sitting here right now. How do we know what is real
and what is unreal?

All your dreams are unreal even the dream you call the waking state, the
only reality is the screen on which they appear. When you identify with the
screen and not the pictures, you will know what is real and what is unreal.

Q: When I am dreaming I sometimes feel that I am all the characters in the
dream simultaneously. At the same time, I feel that I am observing all these
characters, and everything that is going on. Yet I don’t have a sense of
control over what I am dreaming. It is just happening, I am the dream, I am
observing the dream, I cannot control it. What is really happening?

You are just dreaming. If you want to know what is really happening wake up.

Q: You say there is no difference between the dreaming and the waking state.
Right now, how can you tell that you are in the waking state and not
dreaming that you’re giving Satsang?

I’m not in either of the two states. Both states alternately appear in me.
You are dreaming that I am giving satsang, but your dreams do not touch me
or affect me.

Q: Why do we have trouble remembering our dreams?

The brain is programmed to forget most of what we dream. That’s just the way
the body works.

Q: Are our dreams messengers? Are they telling us something?

They are telling us that creation is a dream, and that there is a
possibility to wake up out of the dream.

Q: Are you conscious when you are sleeping? If so, what of?

The same consciousness prevails in all the states of waking, sleeping and
dreaming. The appearance and disappearance of the alternating three states
do not affect that consciousness, it is not conscious of the three states,
they just appear and disappear within it.

Q: Is everything in my life, for example the moment and method of my death,
predetermined? What freedom of choice and action do I have in my life? Is
the moment of Enlightenment pre-determined, or could it happen at any time?

All the activities that the body performs are predetermined. The only
freedom you have is to choose not to identify with the body that is
performing the actions. Enlightenment does not happen in time. It happens
when time stops.

Q: We live in times of abundance. We can choose between many different objects
and we may find ourselves caught up in never-ending desires for more,
bigger, better. How can we live “in the market-place, but not of it”?

By not going shopping for sense-objects.

Q: What is desire? What is the way to true happiness?

By discriminating between what is real and permanent and what is unreal and
impermanent. And by then desiring the former, not the latter.

Q: What is the difference between love and compassion?

For the ego, love is an attachment generated by desire, while compassion is
a feeling of pity towards ‘others’. When the ego is absent both are the
same.

Q: We all desire to love and be loved and time and time again our search for
the perfect partner ends in disappointment. Is it only possible to love
another when both people are Self-Realised? And when we are Self-Realised,
will we not love everyone in the same way - making monogamy impossible?

In the Self there are no others to love or to be monogamous with. The desire
for a perfect partner will always end in disappointment because there is so
such thing as a perfect partner. Partnerships are always imperfect.

Q: Is unconditional love possible when we are still living the ego?

No

Q: Is God Love?

You brought him into existence. Be creative, make him be whatever you want
him to be.