Once Jiddu Krishnamurti was traveling in a car and Pupul jayakar and another eminent personality (whose name fails my brain now) were sitting in the back seat discussing the true meaning of awareness and conscious…and the discussion got heated with both of them opening up their knowledge boxes in response to the other. Both of them were influenced a lot by Jiddu (Pupul even wrote Jiddu’s Biography).

Jiddu who was till then silently sitting in the front seat suddenly turned and asked both of them “Did you know that we hit a stray dog a few minutes ago” He said that and turned away as both Pupul and her friend looked at each other because as they were delving deep into the meanings associated with the complexities of life and mind they had forgotten to notice what was happening around them. They were in absolute sleep as they discussed the many elements of consciousness… how ironic….

George Ivanovich Gurdjieff (I G Gurdjeiff) to whose work I was first introduced from the books of the social philosopher Jacob Needleman has beautifully said “We humans are always in a state of waking sleep”. Though I am yet to read more into Gurdjief and his philosophy of ‘the forth way” that is other than the notable three ways of the fakir, monk and the yogi. Gurdjieff’s Fourth way was further developed by his student P.D. Ouspensky in his book “The fourth way”…In my reading list..But not ready yet to read

Nevertheless the concept of waking sleep which is not a new concept and has been depicted in various forms in various beliefs. The concept of Maya also tries to tell you that this whole life is an illusion and not true and the real truth is something different. But for me waking sleep, sleep and being awake are very integral human activities and we keep moving across each of these states on a constant basis multiple times in our daily lives.

The tragedy is that we always fall into long spells of sleep powered by religious rituals, godly/superhuman fears, economical/financial/stockmarket magic shows and political blabber where we fail to see what happens around us. And I don’t believe that we all are always in a waking sleep… I think we come out of sleep every now and then and that is when we see ourselves. But we have so much happening in our minds that we unknowingly go back to a sleepy sedation and shut ourselves the moment we realize we are awake.. Quite interesting to think about it….

Categories: Articles, Life, Life and Happiness, Philosophy, Random Thoughts

Tags: awareness, gurdjieff, Jiddu Krishnamurthi, Waking Sleep