Champaklal Speaks

16 March 1935

Last night I had this dream: There was a huge workshop where many people were working. The road leading to my destination was very long, but there was a short-cut through the workshop. Hence, I requested the owner to allow me to go through it. He said there was absolutely no room inside, as people were working and the passage was full of gunny bags etc. It seemed a mere excuse, so I persisted and finally, despite much reluctance, he agreed. He sent a man to show me the way. After a long walk we came to a secret exit at the end of the workshop but something like two or three walls blocked the way though, to my utter surprise, a road could be seen going through them. Suddenly, I saw a woman approaching us from the other side. I was surprised how she got inside while our way was blocked. My escort, hid himself as soon as he saw her. I felt that he wanted to arrest her, so I warned her through signs which he could not see. So she climbed up a tree and started breaking something; my escort did not like this and asked me to go back. But I requested him to permit me to go ahead and finally he asked me to go with him. He led me along a secret passage through a couple of walls and asked me to sit down in one place. I felt that it was his last secret passage and he did not want to show me. I thought it was the last barrier as I could hear the noise and movement of people on the road on the other side. I sat for a while and when I looked up, I saw a man turning a key. The yellow ceiling, which was gigantic, got separated into two parts. Slowly, the ceiling began to shake. The ground under me felt hollow. I thought all this was due to some mechanical system. What would be my fate if the ceiling were to crash? This thought scared me somewhat. Right then, the whole ceiling came down trapping me in a magic dome, leaving no way out for me. I was terribly frightened but only for a moment. For immediately, an attitude grew in me which may be described in the following words. I prayed to Mother and Sri Aurobindo: “If I am sincere and if I have faith in you, may this dome collapse.” Immediately with a big sound, a path opened for me. When I got out, I found myself surrounded by many people who exclaimed, “Wonderful change! Wonderful change!” My whole body had undergone a transformation and become god-like. I experienced enormous peace and Ananda. Though I remained very calm and steady, I was overjoyed. What does all this mean?

The workshop is probably a symbol of the activity of the ordinary nature which is so full of formations and activities of the ordinary kind that it is difficult to pass through it to the inner or the inmost being.

The walls with the spaces between indicate the different parts of the being to which the outer mind has no access,—possibly, the inner vital (the woman may be the occult vital nature), emotional etc. The ceiling (yellow) may be the intellect or thinking mind which walls one in and prevents [one] from getting into the open spaces of the higher consciousness. But through all a way lies to the open way of the higher Consciousness full of peace, light and Ananda.

16.3.1935

Sri Aurobindo