. . . EXPLORING
.
. People sometimes stay with the religion of their youth just because getting out is too uncomfortable. If all of your relatives are members of a certain faith, it's more or less expected of you to do the same. It just wouldn't do for you to suddenly change religions; you would be made to feel that you had destroyed the social structure of your family. This is strong pressure. It keeps many people from seeking truth.
. Those in less rigid family groups are able to explore. One family member tries this, another tries that, another tries nothing at all, and they all get along. But families with a very rigid structure can impose strong rules to dictate what each member must believe and how he must conduct himself in order not to be ostracized. And in the midst of all these settings, we try to find our way in life.




The Dream Master
Sri Harold Klemp
The Mahanta, the Living ECK Master

. GETTING A GLASS OF WATER
.
. A principle in good storytelling is to establish a goal at the beginning of the story, then have the main character go through a struggle to reach it. As an example, let's suppose the main character is me. I'm onstage giving a talk. Suddenly I get very thirsty, and my goal is to drink some water. If all I have to do is pick up the glass of water conveniently placed on the table next to me, we have no story.
. So let's make the struggle more challenging. I'm giving a talk, I'm very thirsty, and my goal is to drink some water. I reach for the glass that's usually placed on the table next to me, but it's not there. Someone forgot to put it there when the stage was being set up.
. I'm really thirsty, I mention to the audience.
. "There's some water at the back of the auditorium," someone yells. "You're welcome to it." My throat is too dry to continue without something to drink. But I figure I can keep talking while I walk to the back of the hall to get a glass of water.
. I leave the stage and take about ten steps up the aisle. The microphone jerks out of my hand. I hadn't realised the cord was so short. Now I've got another problem: If I want the water, I have to stop the talk long enough to go to the back of the hall and return to the stage. But I'm really thirsty, so I leave the microphone and head for the water.
. As I walk up the aisle, someone from the audience comes up and says, "I'd like to ask you a question. You're handy right now, so I think this is as good a time as any.
. Now there are two obstacles between me and the water: The person trying to ask his question as we walk, and the audience sitting around waiting for me to come back.
. I start walking faster because I want to get my water and get back onstage - and my shoe comes off. I don't want anyone to know, I certainly don't want to walk all the way to back of the room with my shoe off. But I can't get it on without bending down and using both hands, which I don't want to do. Third problem.
. Farther along, I trip over a chair and fall. Someone reaches out to help me up and accidentally pulls my jacket off. By the time I finally make it to the back of the room and take a drink, I think to myself, This is the best glass of water I have ever tasted. It has a completely different flavour than if it had been sitting handily on the table beside me. The difference is in the experience I gained in the struggle to reach my goal. This is what our life is about - experience.




The Dream Master
Sri Harold Klemp
The Mahanta, the Living ECK Master

. SUBJECTIVE AND OBJECTIVE EXPERIENCE
.
. Soul came from the high spiritual planes into the lower worlds. The lower worlds include the Physical Plane as well as the Astral, Causal, Mental, and Etheric planes. The Astral Plane is the plane of emotions on the subjective side. On the objective side, certain parts of it are known as the area of ghosts, flying saucers, and things of this nature.
. The subjective side of the Causal Plane is memory. It is an area of your mind that retains all the events of the past.
. Beyond is the Mental Plane, the area of the mind that works in the present. Unlike the remembering faculty, this is the active area that you work from to make plans, analyze, and solve problems as they arise in the present time.
. . BEING SHOWN THE PAST
.
. Then comes the Etheric Plane, which is the unconscious, or subconscious, area. It is the high part of the mind that houses unconscious attitudes, some of which were acquired through karmic experiences in the past lives. This often accounts for why we have certain talents or why we are instinctively drawn to one person and repelled by another.
. At a certain stage in our spiritual unfoldment we may be shown, through dreams or Soul Travel, a past-life experience that explains a present love, hate, or fear. There is a particular reason, for instance, why some people have a fear of heights. Fear has many faces. Each face has a specialized reason. Usually - though not always - it is based on something that happened in a past life.




The Dream Master
Sri Harold Klemp
The Mahanta, the Living ECK Master

The secret and unknown name of God was first given light by the ECK Masters - that which we call HU, the beginning and ending of all.
. The Supreme has been called various names in different languages, but it is known to those who recognize the real wisdom as HU, the name of the nameless one. The word HU is the Spirit of all sounds and of all words, and is hidden under them all as the Spirit of Soul. It does not belong to any language; no language can help belonging to it. This alone is the true name of God, a name that no people and no religion can claim as their own. This word is not only uttered by human beings but it is repeated by animals and birds. All things and beings exclaim this name of the Lord, for every activity of life expresses distinctly this very sound. This is the word mentioned in the Bible as existing before light came into this world: "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God."
. The word, the avenue of Spirit, is the real liberation for anyone. The word HU was the first manifestation of the Divine Creator, and the rest of creation, including the ethers and other elements, were created by the sound of HU. The Spirit current, HU, was the prime mover and the first impulse that came from the Deity and also the first cause of motion, color, and form.



Sri Paul Twitchell
The Flute of God

. . OPEN SLOWLY
.
. The Spiritual Exercises of ECK are a self discipline. If you are interested in doing them, you begin to open yourself to the eternal wisdom, the divine consciousness that you are. This is a first step.
. It would not be wise, at any time, to open up instantly to the high awareness of God Consciousness. Whether an individual believes it or not, the shock would be too much.
. Sometimes we have problems with even little changes. When we travel to another country, for instance, certain customs or phrases can cause a real cultural shock. Places where the light switch has to be pushed down to turn a light on, instead of up as we are accustomed to doing in the United States, can be confusing at first. An Australian visiting in America would be in for an interesting experience if he asked for a lift. Americans, who don't know it as an elevator, would have no idea what he meant.
. The point is, if one were to open up to God all at once, the experience would be shattering.



The Dream Master
Sri Harold Klemp
The Mahanta, the Living ECK Master

. . Reincarnation

. You're like a hamster going around and around in a wheel. This wheel is called the wheel of reincarnation. Life after life you can come back trying to solve the mystery, wondering how to love God, then how to love yourself.
. The answer to that mystery is called spiritual freedom. And the way to spiritual freedom is simply to sing HU with love. That is where you begin.
. That's the doorway to a new life, a life of love.


Sri Harold Klemp
What Is Spiritual Freedom

. . ECK TERMINOLOGY
.
. We in ECK have a trinity, if you will, and it goes like this.
. First there is the Sugmad, which is our term for God. Then there is the ECK, the Voice of God, more commonly known as the Holy Spirit or Divine Spirit, and sometimes referred to as the Holy Ghost, Divine Comforter, Paraclete, and so on.
. The ECK has two aspects, and these are the mainstay of the teachings. They are known as Sound and Light. The ECK, the Voice of God, is heard as Sound and seen as Light.

. . WHAT IS THE MAHANTA?
.
. Then we have the Mahanta. The best way to explain the Mahanta is as a personalized version of the Sound and Light. He works as the Outer and the Inner Master. He brings the message of ECK to the outer world through the written and spoken word. He also works with people inwardly in the dream state, during Soul Travel, and in other ways.
. It is a bit difficult to explain the Mahanta to people who are not familiar with the Eckankar teachings. This is why we put so much stock in experience. ECK is the path of experience. Once you have the experience, then you have a reason to believe and, if you choose, to go forward in the life of ECK. But I don't ask you to go forward; that's up to you.
. To give a more specific definition, the Mahanta is the Inner Master and the Living ECK Master is the Outer Master. The Mahanta, the Living ECK Master also operates on each of the inner planes. On the Astral Plane, for instance, he has a body which corresponds to the properties of that plane. Therefore, he is as real to those who live on the Astral Plane as he is to those who live here on the Physical Plane.
. But even there, as on every plane in the lower worlds, there is the inner, unseen part which is the Mahanta. On every plane in the lower worlds, the Mahanta, the Living ECK Master works and operates to lift Soul to Its heritage of God Consciousness.



The Dream Master
Sri Harold Klemp
The Mahanta, the Living ECK Master

. It reminded me of the people who come to the spiritual path of ECK, looking for truth. They stay for a season, and then there seems to be a drought. Ten out of twelve may feel they didn't get the water they needed. But since one person did, and possibly two, it is a climate in which some can thrive.
. . YOUR SPIRITUAL SEASON
.

. Every season there are those who come to ECK, stay for a while, then say, in effect, "It's not for me; it's not my time yet, it's not my season." Others are still weighing things. For one reason or another, they can't decide whether they should stay and thrive, or wait for another season.
. People tend to project their own religious beliefs onto Eckankar, so I want to make this clear: Comparing people with the ten trees that died is not meant to imply that those who don't thrive in Eckankar are spiritually dead or lost. This is not true. Soul cannot be lost; therefore, It cannot be saved. But It can be liberated.




The Dream Master
Sri Harold Klemp
The Mahanta, the Living ECK Master

. . BREAKING FREE
.
. In a way, the lower worlds are a prison, walled up by time, space, matter, and energy, from which Soul has to break free. Once It had the opportunity to have the knowledge of God - like the glass of water close at hand - but It did not appreciate the gift. So God sent Soul into the lower worlds for experience.
. The experience is not always pleasant, and some people tend to personalize the obstacles that confront Soul. In ECK we refer to the negative force, and as a matter of convenience we call it the Kal Force. In Christianity the negative force is generally known as Satan or the devil. Many people never gain a real understanding of why God would allow Satan to exist if God were so much powerful. All they know is, when anything goes wrong, lay it on Satan.
. If we could walk through life without any obstacles, Soul would learn absolutely nothing. The obstacles that occur along the way are to give Soul experience; they are responsible for the purification and maturity of Soul. The experiences are necessary for Soul to become a Co-worker with God. This is Its final purpose.



The Dream Master
Sri Harold Klemp
The Mahanta, the Living ECK Master

Sri Frank

. Did you ever wonder why it is that children have laughter in their eyes?
. Because they have no fear. And having no fear, they rest in the loving arms of the ECK. Their trust in the ECK is like the swings they ride. They trust the upward exhilarating ride and experience freedom. An adult may fear that the chains might break, that the swing isn't strong enough to support their weight, or that they might lose their hold and fall. But children never think of that. They think only of the ride.
. Perhaps what makes adults tentative is that they once fell off the swing. Pain will either make one tentative or make one Love SUGMAD even more. A choice is always to be made after times of great pain. And this choice will determine which way the individual will choose to walk for a time - the road of love, or fear.
. I suffered some beatings in prison and discovered something about pain - every man has a pain threshold. When this threshold is breached, the will is broken. The will to resist the forces of the world, but also to resist the inner forces of the ECK. I learned that one can reach this threshold of giving up the will without going through the process of pain by surrendering to the ECK. You see, pain is merely friction caused by the tense grasp and resistance of the will, the ego, to keep Soul from accepting the inevitable - the will of SUGMAD. And our daily lives, one can see that pain is a reflection of desires. Life is simple. One can either desire the things of the outer life and constantly live in a state of pain or potential pain, or be like those kids on the swings - not wanting, but living in the heart of the SUGMAD, living for love and freedom, for the ride.
. By not holding inwardly to the things of material world, you can give freely of yourself to life. It's difficult to give anything of yourself if you're busy clinging to things that you feel are important. What could be more important than giving 100 percent of yourself at each moment? If the goal is God-Realization, then the only way to reach it is to emulate It - by giving love - for what does the Divine Creator create, other than love itself?
. Everyday life is nothing more than a series of problems to be solved. There's no escaping them. What makes the differences between men is that those on the lower end of the survival scale let the outer conditions and problem move and toss their inner states about. Emotionally, they're always in a turmoil, seemingly never able to gain control of their lives. Mentally, they can't control which thoughts enter their minds. But the experienced Soul is like the child that lets the SUGMAD speak through them via the ECK. They are the patient ones, because they know and trust that the ECK will reveal all of life's answers. They know that love exists all about them, for they have the eyes and ears to partake of it.




In the COMPANY of ECK MASTERS
Phil Morimitsu

God's Voice

. The Holy Spirit, remember, is the Voice of God. In the beginning was the Word. This is the Holy Spirit, the Word, the Voice of God. This is why we speak so often about the Holy Spirit, God's voice. God's voice speaks about love. We see this voice on the inner planes and out here as the Light. All different forms of light. We hear it as the Sound. All different forms of sound.
. You mix light and sound, and you have the building blocks of creation, the building blocks of the entire material universe. It's all created out of the Light and Sound, because they create energy. The Light and Sound are the primordial forces.


Sri Harold Klemp
The Mahanta the Living ECK Master
How to survive spiritually in Our Times

. This universe is not designed for peace, because Soul wouldn't learn anything under those conditions. As long as the lower worlds exist, there will be a place for Satan. You might say he has a duty to accomplish. He is on a mission for God, to create obstacles which will bring about the spiritual upliftment of Soul. If this is the reason Soul is in the lower worlds, then for as long as It is here, Soul will have to face opposition and obstacles that stand between It and Its goals.
.
. . WORLDS OF LIGHT
.
. I am speaking now of the individual as Soul. In the impersonal sense, Soul is neither male nor female. Duality is a lower-world phenomenon that goes as far as the Etheric Plane, which is the high Mental Plane.
. Beyond that state, there is no such division, no positive and negative, no shadows. Beyond are the worlds of Light, of pure Love. I am not referring to human love, which has a high side and a low side - warm and giving at its best, possessive and restrictive at its worst. What we are trying to do is gain spiritual freedom from these lower states of the human consciousness.



The Dream Master
Sri Harold Klemp
The Mahanta, the Living ECK Master

. Birds and other animals need love too. Some human beings have too high opinion of themselves. They think animals are such a low species that they have no Soul. In ECK we don't refer to Soul as something that we have. Instead we say: I am Soul, and I have a body. Animals are Soul too, and they too have a body.
. Soul moves through the evolutionary process in a number of different forms, including those of animals and birds. These are some of the many different ways in which Soul gains experience, thereby gaining expression of Its divine self. In the process, Soul must learn to receive love and to give love.
. To receive love sounds easy enough, but many people have a hard time accepting it from others. This is apparent when someone responds to a gift by saying, "I can't take that." If you were to suggest that their attitude was due to the inability to accept love, they would only deny it. But actions speak louder than words.



The Dream Master
Sri Harold Klemp
The Mahanta, the Living ECK Master

. . AN UNCOMMON ABILITY
.
. To Soul Travel is not a common ability. It is one of the things you learn in Eckankar if your interest is along that line. But it's not at all necessary. Some people accomplish the same feat through dream travel. Others totally bypass Soul Travel. They have some dream experiences, then go to the state of direct perception.




The Dream Master
Sri Harold Klemp
The Mahanta, the Living ECK Master

Soul Travel

. Soul Travel is an individual experience, a realization of survival. It is an inner experience through which comes beauty and love of all life. It cannot be experienced in rituals and ceremonies, nor bottled in creeds.


. The Shariyat-Ki-Sugmad
. Book One


. You Are Soul
. The traditional concept of Soul is that you have one, but It is distant from your everyday life and becomes important only when your physical body ceases to exist. The ECKist believes, however, that each person is Soul and that Soul is the essential and permanent center of our being. It can never be lost.
. The pressures of the modern world make it easy to forget who we are. Our physical senses and emotions Become overwhelmed, and we lose Soul's spiritual view. Regaining this view is called Soul Travel. And Soul Travel is accomplished by practising the Spiritual Exercises of ECK on a daily basis. In ECKankar, you learn to prove spiritual truths yourself through personal experience.



ECKANKAR Ancient Wisdom for Today
Sri Harold Klemp
The Mahanta the Living ECK Master

. DIMINISH FEAR THROUGH SOUL TRAVEL
.

. In Soul Travel there is a heightened awareness, another layer of perception beyond the ordinary senses. This added element makes Soul Travel quite an interesting experience.
. Some people have only one or two Soul Travel experiences, but it is enough to show them that they are Soul, that they exist beyond the physical body. This is the first step in overcoming the fear of death.
. The fear of death usually underlies all the other fears that people have. This is what holds them back in their spiritual life. It is the reason many are failures in their material life. Because of something that happened in the past, maybe in another lifetime, the fear of death lies within the subconscious of the individual.
. Once you have the experience of Soul Travel - if this is the route you choose to go - it begins to diminish the fear. Not instantly, of course, because the fear has been built up over a long period of time.



The Dream Master
Sri Harold Klemp
The Mahanta, the Living ECK Master

. The dream worlds - and there are many - are as real as the physical world. You can make full use of the hours your body is asleep. You can go to the other worlds, look around , and learn. It does not have to be a time of zero consciousness; it can be a very fruitful and interesting experience.
. YOUR DREAM WORLDS ARE REAL

. It is during this period of sleep that you, as Soul, move into the heavenly worlds of God and explore. The Mahanta, which is the inner side of myself, or one of the other ECK Masters generally comes along with you. We act as guides to make sure that you don't get lost in one of the many locales.
. In some of the inner worlds, just as here, there are people who would try to pull you off the spiritual path. But there is always a spiritual guide nearby to insure your safety.



The Dream Master
Sri Harold Klemp
The Mahanta, the Living ECK Master

Dreams

. Dreams touch every level of our life. They may let us glimpse the future, or give suggestions for healing, or share insights into our relationships. Above all, they can and will steer us more directly toward God.

. Sri Harold Klemp
. The Art of Spiritual Dreaming


. . Soul Never Sleeps

. Soul never sleeps. It is a unit of awareness. While the body sleeps, the consciousness of Soul is awake. The memory of this experience is often called a dream.
. Dreams are as real and vivid as the waking state. They simply occur on a different plane of existence. The reason so many of our dreams are confusing is that our memory becomes distorted. Upon waking, the dream experience is run through the dream censor, a function of our own mind, and we remember only pieces of the event. Or the dream is camouflage with symbols because of our discomfort or lack of understanding.



ECKANKAR Ancient Wisdom for Today
Sri Harold Klemp
The Mahanta the Living ECK Master

The miracles that happened in the early Christian Church still happen today. To see and benefit from them, all we need to do is open our consciousness through spiritual exercises.

—Harold Klemp
The Language of Soul

Light and Sound, just like the rain and the wind, come to everyone equally and alike. But some people benefit more than others.
. It's up to you in your state of consciousness.
. And your state of consciousness depends upon whether or not you care enough to open yourself to this inner guidance of Divine Spirit so that you can have some of the experiences that are necessary to break through this hard human shell. Unless you do, you cannot rise into the higher states of awareness.



How to Survive Spiritually in Our Times
Sri Harold Klemp
The Mahanta, the Living ECK Master

. Experience is more important than belief, because only through experience can we learn what is true and what is not true. But experience is merely a halfway step to awareness. We are not just seeking experience for its own sake. The purpose of dream and Soul Travel experiences is to reach a greater awareness of life and our place in it, of who and what we are as Soul.



The Dream Master
Sri Harold Klemp
The Mahanta, the Living ECK Master

How do you know you are not being misled?
How do you know that eckankar wasn't really founded in 1965 for pedar zaskq personal interests?
Why do most eckists not know Darwin gross as spritual leader from 1971-1981?

timonski:
How do you know you are not being misled?

Firstly because l have personal experiences that show am on the right path.

secondly, how do you know you have not been misled all the while?

How do you know that eckankar wasn't really founded in 1965 for pedar zaskq personal interests?

Because at the age of 3-4, l met an ECK Master (l first heard of Eckankar probably around 1997)...additionally Socrates happens to be an Eckmaster--amongst hundreds of a line of unbroken chain of ECK Masters
through pre-recorded and recorded history.

Why do most eckists not know Darwin gross as spritual leader from 1971-1981?

actually many did and do,--as the case may be--reasons for people not knowing him vary from person to person,

and also circumstance...like relevance. Darwin Gross was expelled from Eckankar...Most important is the fact

that undue emphasis or attention is not placed on a translated (dead), or past 'Living Eck Master', but on the

present 'Mahanta', The Lving Eck Master' who is Sri Harold Klemp. When his time comes, he passes the mantle to

any one who is spiritually up-to-the-task.

. . ABORTION QUESTION
.
. There are strong social forces surrounding this issue. On one hand you have the pro-life/anti-abortion advocates, and on the other, the forces of pro-choice-a woman's right to make her own choice. I got to thinking it over, to fine-tune my own views, and this is my position.
. Suppose the fetus is allowed to come so close to term that it would be able to breathe the first breath of life on its own after it is delivered. If a doctor were to end its existence at that stage, I would have to call it the taking of life.
. But in the first several months of pregnancy, a fetus is not developed to the point where it could breathe. It's heart and lungs are underdeveloped; the breath of life has not come in.
. A person knows very early on that she is pregnant, and my feeling is this: If one is going to have an abortion, the time to exercise that freedom of choice is before the first breath of life comes in. Soul enters the body at the time of the first breath. The fetus is not Soul.



The Dream Master
Sri Harold Klemp
The Mahanta, the Living ECK Master

. . DUST To DUST
.
. We are living in changing times. Decisions like this come up often, and people are confused about what is right and what is wrong. But even the Bible says that the Lord God Breathed into man the Breath of life, and man became a Living Soul.
. To take the point further, when the physical body dies, Soul goes immediately into the other worlds in full consciousness. It continues It existence without interruption. The physical body does not resurrect. The body returns to the dust of the earth and stays there.
. This is a great area of ignorance in many orthodox religions. A school of thought in Christianity is that the body rests in the ground until the Judgment Day. At that time, even though it has been munched on by who knows what, the physical body will miraculously rise again.
. To me this is not a spiritual belief. It is not based on reality. It is not true. A lot of people will object to that, but Christians can find the answer in their own scriptures, if they will read it with right understanding.



The Dream Master
Sri Harold Klemp
The Mahanta, the Living ECK Master

. DOORWAYS FOR SOUL
.
. Until Soul comes into the body with the first breath of life, the body is just a physical machine. With that first breath of life the body becomes the temple of Soul, to be treated with all respect. At this point we have a great reverence for life; but until this point, it isn't life as occupied by Soul.
. There are many jokes about how pregnant women develop strange cravings for different foods. Keep in mind that Soul waiting to be born was in a physical body before, probably not too long ago, and may have enjoyed things like pickles and ice cream.
. The pregnant woman starts to build an affinity with the Soul waiting to use her body as a doorway into the physical plane. Much of this takes place in the dream state. The mother's inner agreement to accommodate the Soul's dietary takes manifest in these strange cravings. It's like she's saying, "Anything for my baby. Got a taste for pizza? I'll go get some right now."
. So, contrary to what many people would like to believe, these cravings do not indicate a nutritional need. The mother could get along very well with the nutritional program set up by her doctor. The cravings are influenced by the Soul who is going to reincarnate as her child.



The Dream Master
Sri Harold Klemp
The Mahanta, the Living ECK Master

. SOUL'S TOTAL EXPERIENCE
.
. It is very much the same as the spiritual experience in reincarnation. In each incarnation we pick up tools - we learn a particular lesson or develop a certain skill. But the problem is this: As we go into succeeding lifetimes, we forgot what we have learned before.
. If we only knew how to tap into our total experience as Soul, we could look to the past and draw upon a tool once mastered but now forgotten. We could bring that tool into this lifetime and use it to solve a problem that is holding us back on the spiritual path, a problem that is preventing us from going to the next level.



The Dream Master
Sri Harold Klemp
The Mahanta, the Living ECK Master

. . PRESENT TOOLS
.
. People outside of ECK generally get the tools by continuing to reincarnate - a very slow process. In ECK we want to take a more direct route. This is why I teach dream and Soul Travel techniques.
. If you run into a block that keeps you from getting to the next level of initiation, you can go back; pick up the tool, talent, or lesson from a previous lifetime; and bring it into the present. You can then use it to help you walk the spiritual path to God today.



The Dream Master
Sri Harold Klemp
The Mahanta, the Living ECK Master

. INTERCONNECTED WHEELS
.
. Through the ECK dream discourses and the Spiritual Exercises of ECK, I'm trying to help you develop your spiritual awareness, to bring you to the realization that all life is a series of interconnected wheels. Very little can happen to you that isn't known by you beforehand. All you have to do is to learn to be aware.
. This is not as easy as it sounds. It doesn't happen overnight; we don't go straight upward in our awareness. We may do very well for a while, then all of a sudden we go into a downward cycle. But there is no reason to get discouraged. Eventually the cycle takes a turn again, and we come back stronger in our awareness than we were at the last peak. This is how our awareness goes - up and down, up and down - hopefully always moving toward greater awareness.



The Dream Master
Sri Harold Klemp
The Mahanta, the Living ECK Master

. Dreams Can Prophesy


. There are also dreams of prophecy. You can view life from above the normal track of time and get a glimpse of the future. It is best, however, to restrict your use of prophecy to your own personal life. The opportunity for misunderstanding the symbols is great. If you dream of an earthquake and then run to warn your friends of the upcoming cataclysm, it would probably be embarrassing when nothing happens.
. Such a dream, more likely, is foretelling a personal shift, perhaps indicating the approach of a sudden change in circumstances or consciousness. The dream may indeed be prophetic, but you could miss the real meaning.



ECKANKAR Ancient Wisdom for Today
Sri Harold Klemp
The Mahanta, the Living ECK Master

. You Can Be Free of Karma

. When you achieve the exalted state of Self-Realization, you'll still be held accountable for your actions in your daily life. However, you will have worked off the karma built up from past lives. And when you finish your mission in this life, unless you choose to come back to this plane to teach or to serve, you need not return.
. Perhaps you will maintain this expanded consciousness throughout your lifetime. Perhaps you'll hold on to it for only a moment at a time. You will learn, however, that there is always a risk of losing the 360-degree viewpoint. You earn each step toward God Consciousness moment to moment.
. Most ECKist want to be free of karma. They would like to balance their karmic account by the end of their present lifetime. The Mahanta helps them do this. By practicing the Spiritual Exercises of ECK, they drop attitudes and habits binding them to the past. They can fulfill their spiritual destiny without having to be reborn. Thus they are freed from endless rounds on the Wheel of the Eighty Four. The ECKist calls this spiritual liberation.



ECKANKAR Ancient Wisdom for Today
Sri Harold Klemp
The Mahanta the Living ECK Master

. Dream Symbols Are Individual


. Many people claim the images and symbols we have in dreams are common to everyone and can be easily interpreted. You can find books in your local library telling you water means this or horses mean that. The dream teaching of ECKankar do not follow such a simplistic model.
. In ECK, each person is a unique individual. Therefore, the dream symbols used by each person are also unique. Swimming in a river may well have a different meaning for one person than it would for another. The key for the dreamer, then, is to go within and determine what each of these symbols may mean. This can even become a type of spiritual exercise.



ECKANKAR Ancient Wisdom for Today
Sri Harold Klemp
The Mahanta the Living ECK Master