Visions of Champaklal

Vision

I spoke to Kamalaben that I was going out for a walk. “You too come and join me; it is a very beautiful place where we are to go.”

But Kamalaben said, “No, no; you alone can go.” I said, “Come and see for yourself, you will find it very interesting.”

At last both of us started.

There was a forest and it was all full of flowers having a large variety of colours. The whole forest was filled with their fragrance. There were birds and animals too of many kinds and their voices created a sweet music for our ears.

Advancing further, we saw that two children were moving towards us. “Champaklal”, they cried from afar, and I wondered how they could recognise me from such a distance.

The boy and the girl approached me and were very happy on seeing me. They said, “Come to our house.” Kamalaben told me, “You go alone; as for me I shall sit down here.” But the children told her,\ “No, no, you too will have to come.” Kamalaben told them, “I shall come at some other time, just now you take Champaklalbhai with you.”

But seeing their loving insistence, I said to Kamalaben, “You also come, you too will like the place.”

At last all four of us advanced, the two children leading. As we advanced we began to feel that we were entering quite a new wonderful world. On going further, when we looked in front of us we found that the road was blocked by a dense thicket. But on nearing the place the children did something, we do not know what, and there opened before us a path just big enough for us to go. Kamalaben said, “I am tired, I would like to sit down here. This place is beautiful enough for sitting down. Now I wish to rest for a while comfortably. Really I am very tired.”

On hearing this the children began to laugh and then said, “Come, please come. There is nothing like fatigue in our place. You will surely know it when you will see the place for yourself. You do not need to walk there at all. The earth will walk for you.” Saying this the children began to laugh. Kamalaben told the children, “But the earth too will get tired.” The children said again with a laugh, “No, no, it is not like that. You will see there what you have not yet seen; come along.” Saying so, they caught a finger of Kamalaben and made her rise, and she rose smilingly.

We then entered a new world. One child went on explaining all. “Here we have children from various countries and we all live together. Now come and stand here, please.”

Then, they made us stand at a place, but we saw that without walking we were moving further on and on. The boy and the girl were with us. Only now we could understand what the children had said about the earth moving for us. We saw it with our own eyes.

The children, pronouncing each different name, showed us the places where lived the children of various lands.

We saw the children from those lands, but what they had put on was uniformly beautiful and each had an individual and novel stamp. They also spoke in the same kind of language in spite of their knowing various languages.

Here our two children remarked, “There still are regions more beautiful than this; so our parents have been saying. We were also told that when we would be ready, we too would be taken there. They say that everything there is more charming than what is here.”

The two children added,

“Although we are very happy here, we feel how beautiful would be those regions about which our father speaks. It is pleasant here, no doubt; but we shall take you to our parents. Seeing them you will be very delighted. At present we are not to go up, but our parents themselves will take you both further there. All are not taken up, many are seen off here itself, but, as for you, we are sure that they will take you up.”

“We are very glad to have met you; but if you go up there, it is quite possible that you may not even return, you may stay there. This has happened in the case of some, but very few have come back, farther up still fewer have remained. We have also heard that some have turned back after going some way. When we hear this, we are really astonished. For our father says that it is more beautiful there; why should some come back? We questioned our father about this and he replied, 'You will yourself understand this when you go up.' How nice! our father is very nice. He loves us very much and teaches us ever new things.”

“Now let us go. See, you have not to walk. You can move everywhere without walking. All this arrangement too is the working of our father. It is he who has brought us here from our (physical) parents; but now we do not at all want to go back to our own parents. Here are our true parents. You also will understand this thing as soon as you go there, and that too without being told about it.”

“Yes, but remember one thing. You will be surprised when you meet them, wondering whether they are two or one. We ourselves in the beginning felt like that. Quite in the beginning, some children even felt afraid, and some were full of wonder. But now our parents have explained to them that only their bodies were different, but in fact they were one. We felt it to be strange; but our parents gave an explanation and said, 'Never mind if you do not understand this. After growing, when you come up, you will understand all.' Some of the children among us say that they have understood it, but all have not done so.”

The children then said, “Look, what do you see in front of you?”

I said, “Light. Is it the East? It appears as though the Sun is going to rise, and now it appears that it is rising.”

The children answered, “Yes, it is the East, but up there it is like this everywhere. Our parents were saying so. Our parents too will be there.”

The children asked Kamalaben, “Did you get tired?” Kamalaben replied, “No, not at all.”

The children exclaimed, “Say, did we not tell you that here there was nothing like fatigue. Till now we too do not know what fatigue is; but we have heard about fatigue. One person who had come here was asked about it and he explained to us what fatigue was. This matter we narrated to our father who said, 'My dear children! that world and our world here are two quite different things and people coming from that world might speak of many such things, but what they say is not all quite true.”

Hearing this, we asked our father, 'Then why do those people speak of many such things?'

The father replied, 'It has become their nature.' And we asked the father, 'What is it that you call nature?'

He said, 'This too you will understand later on. Look, I am not going to explain all that just now; for, some words of those people have a different meaning in our world. Some of their things are even non-existent in our world. But all this you will surely understand one day and that too by yourself.'

The father asked all of us, 'Is it not true?' and we replied in the affirmative. We know that all happens exactly as our father says.

Now we shall proceed, but as for us we shall remain here in our own world. You will be seeing them. Look, look, they themselves appear to be coming towards us. Once we asked them, 'How did you come? How did you know that we had need of you?' Our mother replied, “'My dear children! one day you too will know like this.'“

Two persons were seen in front coming towards us. Sometimes it seemed as if it was only one person coming, and sometimes it was two. We began to feel a pull towards them even from a distance. They came close, looked at us with a great love and tenderness. Their sight was sufficient to create in us a desire to lose ourselves in them. We began to feel that we were intimately familiar with one another.

Then with a sweet and charming smile they said, “We were only waiting for your arrival.” We observed that the children had clasped them and both of them were affectionately moving their hands over the children's heads; they moved their hands along their backs also. It was a wonderful sight to see—they were bending over the boy and girl who were bending before them. I was so engrossed in the scene that I did not even notice the boy and the girl going back from there.

The parents spoke to us, “Well, well, you have come at last.” I was surprised a bit as to why they were saying this, but remained quiet.

The children had suggested to us, “You simply hear what the parents say; even if you do not understand it then, you will yourself understand it later on.”

The father with a smile full of love began to speak to us as if we were very intimately familiar to them, “Look, we have spent many lives for accomplishing what you have already seen and the wonderful creations that you will see here now. You are now able to see the ultimate result. What you have already seen is nothing compared to what is still further. All of it you will be seeing as we rise higher and higher. But seeing is not enough, it has to be experienced and realised; and that too you will do. At present we have gone to different countries and brought from there children we found worthy of higher things. Later on these children will be taken higher up and gradually they will be led to higher and higher regions. At present it is not possible to have them settled here, but a time will come when all aspiring souls will find a place here. It is only a question of time.”

I saw that it was quite a new world. As we went higher, we saw elderly people who were busy doing their work cheerfully. In this way we saw many a world and the atmosphere of each succeeding world was of a superior character.

Little by little, we rose higher and yet higher and saw many wonderful worlds, worlds where physical necessities like food and drink and bath, etc. were absent.

At last we saw a dazzling golden light, up and down and everywhere. The mother and the father told me with love that we could not go further than this. I wondered what could be still further there.

The parents cast a loving yet piercing glance at us, and on looking at them I found that there was only one person, calm and shining. I remained very calm and quiet. From the atmosphere around there came a loud sound piercing the eardrums, a sound the like of which we had never heard before, and both of us entered into them.

My eyes opened and I felt that I was in quite a new world. I saw Sri Aurobindo's cot by my side, I felt it with my hand and when I looked around I found that I was in the same place as before. I looked at the clock and it was 3.10 a.m. In only one hour I felt as if I was back after many years. In my childhood, my father had told me a very interesting story of a sage who had gone for a bath in a river and in one plunge had passed many years of experience. The story as far as I remember was, in brief, like this:

The sage asked God to show him His Lila, and God gave him that experience. With a plunge in the river, the sage entered some mysterious world. There he married and had children.

After passing many such years thus, when he rose up from the river, he found everything as it had been before the plunge.