Man is desire; man is aspiration; man is dream; man is reality. Man desires; therefore, basically he always remains the same. Man dreams; therefore, basically he always remains the same. The desire-man and the dream-man always go together. They are two most intimate friends. The aspiration-man and the reality-man also go together, and they, too, are most intimate friends. At the end of their journey, the desire-man feels that his desires have proved totally useless and the dream-man comes to realise that his dreams are all fruitless mental hallucinations with no reality inside them. Desire-man and dream-man gain practically nothing. They develop only one thing: tears in their eyes and tears in their hearts.
Desire has no path, no map, no guide, no direction. Desire is the song of future frustration, and in frustration looms large destruction. Earthbound dream is only a dream. There is no reality inside it. But aspiration-man avoids the desire-life, which is based on frustration. And reality-man avoids the dream-life, which is most often founded upon mental hallucination and delusion. For he knows that real divinity can never grow in the unlit earthbound dream-land.
Aspiration is a long road, but this road is sunlit. Each seeker who walks or runs along this road knows that at the end there is a Goal. His Supreme Beloved is there to receive him, to garland him and to fulfil him here on earth and there in Heaven.
Reality is the root of ultimate Truth; reality is the life-tree of divine realisation. Reality is the life-river that flows into the sea of Infinity and Immortality. Aspiration becomes; reality is. Aspiration eventually becomes the Transcendental Reality, and reality always embodies Infinity, Eternity and Immortality. Desire calculates; dream hesitates. When desire calculates, the desire-man cannot start. When dream hesitates, the dream-man cannot start. Man's hesitation and man's calculation see that something from within or from behind is dragging them backward while they themselves are not fully prepared to go forward. But the man of aspiration and the man of reality constantly move on. When they move on, they see that they are marching forward to the farthest realm of consciousness; they are climbing upward to the zenith of illumination; they are diving inward in order to reach the inmost Goal, the Goal of Goals.
Desire binds us; aspiration liberates us. Dream tempts us; reality inspires us, aids us and leads us to our destination. Desire tells us what we can do and what we cannot do. What we can do is to possess one car, two cars, one house, two houses, and so on. But what we cannot do is realise the vast, infinite, eternal Truth, for it is beyond the vision of desire to house the Infinite. Desire offers us the world of pleasure, and not the world of abiding joy. Abiding joy is far beyond the capacity of desire.
Aspiration tells us that abiding joy is our constant necessity, and that we are growing into this abiding transcendental Joy. What is impossible for desire to achieve or even dream of is an easy achievement for aspiration. For aspiration there is no such thing as impossibility; everything is possible at God's choice Hour. When the Hour strikes, today's impossibility will be transformed not only into possibility and practicability, but into absolute inevitability. This is the message of aspiration.
Earthbound dream embodies practically no reality. It is wishful thinking that gives birth to our dream in the mental and physical worlds. This dream first fascinates us, but eventually it disappoints us. Seizing this dream is like trying to catch a bird that is flying away; it is impossible.
But there is also a divine dream, which is the precursor of reality. Inside this dream reality grows and glows. This dream is the fruit of our self-giving. The divine dream and reality are not two different things. No! The divine dream and reality are inseparable, like the obverse and the reverse of the same coin. When we look up, we enter into the divine dream-land from where reality descends, and when we look around, we see the manifestation of this dream in reality here on earth. And once the divine dream is manifested, it tries to expand its domain. It tries to dream of something higher, vaster, deeper.
God the Dreamer Supreme once dreamt of Cosmic Consciousness; He once dreamt of the entire creation. He was one, but He was not satisfied, and He dreamt of making Himself into many. He wanted to become many so that He could taste and experience Himself in infinite forms and shapes. Easily He transforms dream into reality, for His Dream-Boat shall always reach the Reality-Shore.
We have to dream the divine dream and then grow into our dream through our inner cry, our soulful prayer and our profound meditation. Otherwise, the dream that we cherish will have no solidity. We will simply wallow in the pleasure of ignorance and lethargy, feeling that the reality will come and stand right in front of us. But personal effort is of paramount importance. Lazy people want to feel that it is not necessary. They say, "If God is really kind, if God is generous, if He is all-compassionate, then He is bound to inundate us with Peace, Light and Bliss in infinite measure." This is the attitude of the unaspiring human in all of us. But the divine in us, the divine within the human, tells us that we have to play our role. We have to offer to the Supreme our own capacity. Although our capacity is extremely limited, if we can offer it to the Inner Pilot, then the capacity, the reality and the divinity of the Inner Pilot have the opportunity to grow inside our aspiring heart, dedicated life and surrendered existence.
We started our journey with teeming desires. Our desires were fulfilled to some extent, but satisfaction remained a far cry. Then we entered into the life of aspiration. There we discovered that even an iota of Peace, Light and Bliss would give us a sense of satisfaction. Now, although our ultimate Goal is infinite Peace, Light and Bliss, just a fraction satisfies us, for we feel certain that in the long run our inner being will be flooded with these divine qualities in abundant measure. Then one day we shall become the man of reality. The man of reality is a man of ecstasy. He is divine, perfect, supreme and immortal. This is the quality of ecstasy. When we see the quality of ecstasy, we see Infinity's song and Infinity's dance. The quantity of ecstasy is immeasurable; it is infinite in every possible way.
As desire-man we treasured dream, only dream. We desired, but we did not want to work for the fulfilment of our dream. Naturally the dream had nothing to offer us, because there was no inspiration, no enthusiasm, no dedicated service to water the dream-tree and make it bear fruit. But now we know there is a divine dream as well, and inside that divine dream reality is constantly growing and flowing. When we aspire, when our life becomes consciously, constantly, spontaneously and unconditionally dedicated to the supreme Cause, to the perennial Source, we see and grow into the divine dream and the divine reality. When that happens, man becomes fully totally and integrally realised, and God becomes universally manifested in perfect Perfection here on earth.
MMT 16. University of West Ontario, Business Administration Building, London, Ontario, 28 March 1974↩
From:Sri Chinmoy,My Maple Tree, Bhakti Press, 1974
Sourced from https://srichinmoylibrary.com/mmt