December 2, 2024
How did the mind become aware of the outside material world? Through the body, through the avenues of the body. I am able to see you because of the eyes. I'm able to hear you because of my ears. Once the vision stops functioning, there is no apprehension of the external world. That's quite simple, isn't it?
You and I know that it is possible to build a world of our own in sleep -- that faculty is still there -don't call it mind, we don't know what it is all about. We go only on things you and I are clearly aware of. You are not clearly aware of the thing called mind, but you are clearly aware of the thing called body and how it is sustained - how it bills itself, does the repair work, elimination all the rest of it. You are aware of that, so go on with that.
This body may not need another 58 years to disintegrate, but it will still take some time. If it is not burnt, varied or thrown to the dogs, it will take some time because decomposition needs some time. A composition needs some time and decomposition need some time; and then slowly it disintegrates. But nothing comes and nothing goes - that means the faculty which was associated with this fellow called Swami Venkatesananda which was able to dream up the whole of itself within itself. Now that the body is gone, the contact with the external world of matter is also gone. (External means external to the skin.) So the world does not exist, but not quite ….
Just as, when he was in this body, he was able to go to sleep and dream (single code go to sleep' means disconnect the sensors from apprehending the world of matter outside) and then create a dreamworld zone; in exactly the same way, at the same point to (of death), now that the world has been disconnected by the cessation of the functioning of the senses, this Venkatesananda starts dreaming. And that becomes a new world! In that world the fellow functions. For how long? What is time, what is space?
So, nothing has come, nothing is gone.