Is the world really an illusion?

         Believing that: our existence in this world is real, is the greatest of all illusions.

But, we find the events in this world to be very vivid and clear. This is because, our senses impose their experiences and perceived information on our mind. Our mind then dramatically emphasizes these experiences on its screen. Its mastery in cheating us again succeeds. We again fall prey to it.

We must understand that our mind is heavily clouded by its own notions and realities. It is always interested in creating different stories. It uses us as a tool to find its characters from the world. Due to the negative forces of the mind, we are drawn closer to the external world, thereby interacting with other worldly beings. 

Our mind here, notes down all our interactions with people in order to create a story. It selects certain acquaintances as the central characters. We are so unconscious that we are unable to track the mind’s deceitful tricks. The mind then emphasizes each character of the story, creating hallucinatory experiences.

For Example:  In the Tripura Rahasya – King Hemachuda was spellbound by the beauty of his wife. His wife Hemalata, being a Brahmagyani, educated her husband on the nature of the mind. She explained that the mind draws an image of ‘idealistic beauty’ with its own repeated conceptions. This image then becomes clearer and clearer until it appears in the external world as a tangible object or person. Attraction towards that person/object springs up as a result of constant mental association.

These experiences makes us create notions about the world, thereby strengthening our belief that the world is real, the life we are living is the only reality. 

But what about our dream experiences. In that state, we have no other reality as it seems so real. But as soon as we get up, we realize that these were simply the creations of the mind. They never occurred. In fact, we never experienced that world.

Similarly, the world we live in, the life we are leading is a bigger dream. It is high time for us to understand this fact of life. The world is a dream, an illusion, its creator being our own mind.