Question: Guru, it seems that purity in the waking state is under our control, while purity in the sleeping or dreaming state is out of our control.

Sri Chinmoy: It is absolutely true. In the waking state you have more control over purity, whereas when you are sleeping, you have practically no control. But here it is a matter of practice. When you want to become a good singer, you practise, practise, practise. Then you can carry all the tunes perfectly, right from the beginning to the end. But if you don’t practise, you are bound to make mistakes. If you want to become a good dancer, you have to practise all the steps day in and day out; otherwise, you can’t be perfect. So here also, during the waking state if you can meditate on purity most soulfully and if you can be perfect in your inner life during the day, then I assure you that you will also be perfect even while you are fast asleep. Even in a dream, if you have purity you will be most satisfied, because dream represents reality and reality represents dream. What is dreamed is a reality in some other world, a higher world or a lower world. But since you are in the physical world, if you can have some mastery over the subject that you are dealing with, then I assure you that in the dream world also you will have mastery over your impurity.

From:Sri Chinmoy,Sri Chinmoy speaks, part 8, Agni Press, 1976
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