BE AWARE OF YOUR INTERIM DIMENSION

[Ms Tercy Lonan]

78. BE AWARE OF YOUR INTERIM DIMENSION
In this world, each human individual has three dimensions of life. Most people, especially
sadhakas, are immediately aware of two of them and are trying to study and deal with these two.
But the third one, everyone is aware of it, but no one pays any attention to it. No one fully recognises
the importance of it.
Everyone is aware and pays attention to the first dimension, the secular life, the outer life,
the worldly life, where we have to interact with people. This outer, secular world comes upon us
from all sides from the moment we wake up from sleep. We cannot do anything about it, and it does
not care for our inner aspirations. People and events push us to do things and we must act.
Secondly, we have a spiritual life where we are connected with God, where we are Atman,
Immortal Souls, unborn. In that dimension, that other aspect, we are That which weapons cannot
injure, fire cannot burn, water cannot wet, wind cannot dry; we are eternal, ever pure, perfect,
avinasi (indestructible).
But it is the third dimension of life—everyone knows it, but no one pays attention to it—that
is more important than either the outer secular life or the inner spiritual life. For it is this third aspect
which decides how you will deal with the outer life and what you will do with the spiritual life.
This third dimension is your inner life of thoughts, feelings, views, attitudes, reactions, your
psychological life of memories—hundreds of thousands of memories— imaginations, fantasies,
desires, schemes, ambitions, projections into the future, thinking about tomorrow, about ten years
hence. It is your psychological life of attitudes— positive, negative, warped, justified, unjustified,
wise, unwise—an inner life of reactions to what keeps happening around you.
We are aware of this third dimension, but we are too busy engaged in and involved in our
outer life; we are too busy with our sadhana, our spiritual life—japa, meditation, svadhyaya,
upasana, kirtan—to pay much attention to it. Whereas, your ancients, those men of wisdom, gave it
great importance.
They paid so much attention to it that they went so far as to say that it is this in-between,
interim dimension, this subtle, invisible but very tangibly felt level, which decides what the world
will be for you and what the inner spiritual life will be for you. Everything depends upon it.
Because, as a matter of fact, all day, from morning till evening, you live only in this interim
dimension, this psychological level of your life. It itself is the reason, the cause of your bondage or
liberation. Mana eva manushyanam karanam bandha-mokshayoh (Mind alone is the cause of
bondage and liberation of human beings).Aperson is what one thinks. As you think so you become.
What a person’s faith is, that that person is. In so many ways they say that it is this interim inner
life—which is not the higher spiritual life nor the outer material life—which is the very stuff of your
life. You live there only.
You live in this interim life when you are relating yourself to this outer vyavaharic world;
you live in this interim dimension when you are dreaming. And it is in this interim life that
everything about spirituality, about sadhana, is to be known by you, grasped by you and understood

and applied by you. It is only upon the dictates of your intelligence, your rationality and
understanding, that your higher spiritual life is based.
And if your higher spiritual processes such as japa and meditation are not properly
supported by a correctly lived interim inner life, everything is in vain. You will be doing sadhana
for years and years, yet you may still be firmly enmeshed in your bondage. You will not proceed
one step forward because something here binds you down, pulls you down.
Therefore, when all the great realised sages and seers formulated their methods, they paid
maximum attention to your sankalpa-vikalpa (imagination), to your vrittis. They deeply studied the
different states that the mind assumes. And they formulated ways and means of living this interim
life in an intelligent way, with common sense, with caution and with understanding. For it is this
which decides whether any factor, state of affairs or situation in your outer life, in your gross,
material secular life, will be favourable to you or unfavourable to you.
If one is faced with sure death, one is filled with fear. But if one makes up one’s mind, it will
be taken as a challenge and thus arouses within one all the courage and heroism one has in one’s
inner content. Markandeya took sure death staring him in the face not as a catastrophe or calamity;
he did not break down into fear. Rather, he said: “No, I shall deal with this; I shall overcome.”
Savitri was facing the loss of her husband, sure widowhood. Normally, women will start beating
their breast, weep and wail, but Savitri, no! She said: “I shall dare even to defy death.” And it is not
the spiritual dimension of Savitri that reacted, it was the psychological dimension that took this as a
challenge, a situation to be faced, grasped, confronted, dealt with and overcome.
These are indications of what you can do if you make this interim dimension of your life an
instrument of right perception, of facing everything and moving towards it in a positive, creative
manner and not in a defeatist, pessimistic or negative manner. Move towards life. Make use of
every faculty within you. Deal with things that are outside in a positive manner.
Everything in this world—every person, every situation, every experience—has both a
positive and a negative side. The wise spiritual aspirant makes use of his interim dimension to
always put forth a positive attitude, a positive vision, a positive approach and orientation: “Let me
see in what way I can deal with it to my advantage. If God is my father, mother, friend, relative and
He is the doer of all good, and wishes my highest good, then if He has brought about these
circumstances, He has some purpose in it. Otherwise, He will not do it. So, let me see in what way I
can be benefited, in what way I shall deal with it, or in spite of this, in what way I can keep moving
onward, Godward.”
It is this interim dimension that should be fully at work, intelligently thinking, reasoning,
enquiring, discriminating and deciding step by step in what way this outer material world of
vyavahara should be dealt with, in what way you have to live and move in it. It is this interior
dimension that decides what each and everything that happens to you is going to be for you. For,
essentially, until we reach Self-realisation, every human individual is a psychological being.
Therefore, to make it the right instrument is the most essential part of the total training of the
individual for attaining enlightenment, illumination and emancipation.

Thus, it is worth paying attention to what you are doing, day after day, in this interim
psychological realm of your being—what thoughts you are allowing to remain, what thoughts you
are rejecting, how you are behaving: “This is good for me; this is going to be a problem. I do not
want a problem to be created within me by my own psychological being. I want solutions from it,
not problems. Therefore, I will pay full attention to it and see how my mind-process works, how it
functions, in what patterns it thinks its thoughts. I will be always alert to see that everything that is
coming up and manifesting itself within is positive, helpful and creative, and not negative,
destructive and a liability to me.”
Make your mind, its functions, its activities—every manifestation of it, whether in the form
of a feeling or a thought or an intention—an asset and not a liability. Otherwise, there will be
constantly a war within yourself, constantly a two-way pull, and a great deal of your power will be
consumed in dealing with the situation which you have allowed to prevail inside.
All the powers of your entire being should be free, should be one hundred per cent available
for living both the higher life and the outer life in a wise, creative and positive way. Otherwise,
ninety per cent will be used up in a constant inner resolution of situations and conflicts because of
your not having the wisdom to be alert and awake to channel the mind in such a way that the interim
dimension is always positive, gainful and helping you to achieve—not pulling you down,
enmeshing you and creating problems for you.
Therefore, inside there should be an alert, keen, interested observation of what is going on,
and a constant, continuous effort to see that the inner state is always a thing that is taking you
forward and not holding you up or, worse still, taking you backwards. This is the art and science of
day-to-day life of the sadhaka or the seeker, of the devotee of God or the spiritual aspirant. And this
is much more necessary in the spiritual person than even for a business executive or a professional
person.
Today is, therefore, an indication to you of this important inner life, the interim dimension
or level of your being which is the link between the higher spiritual inner life and the gross, outer,
worldly secular life. This is both secular as well as spiritual. It partakes of both. It affects both. And
success in both the first two dimensions depend upon what is going on here.
You can do sadhana for years and years, but if it only increases your pride, your abhimana
(ego), then finished, all your sadhana is as nothing. It will fall to the ground. It is like a house built
on sand, because the entire purpose of spiritual life is to try to get rid of this big thing that is plaguing
you, that is sitting upon you, the human ego-sense, the individual personality. And if this is not
grasped by your mind, intellect and understanding, and if your japa, meditation, vows, austerities
either inflate your ego or have no provision for trying to directly lessen it and eliminate it, then no
matter how much you are doing you are stuck; you are stuck!
Therefore, in a hundred different ways, Holy Master Gurudev Swami Sivanandaji tried to
make you aware of this much known but least attended to inner life of yours— not the higher
spiritual inner life, but the interim, psychological, mental life of yours. He wrote so many volumes
including Mind Its Mysteries and Control to try to bring your attention to it. He gave so many

secrets of the inner realm and gave so many valuable hints. “Give up Brahmin abhimana, give up
sannyasa abhimana, give up doctor abhimana, give up name, fame and sex abhimana.”
It would, therefore, pay rich dividends to be constantly taking a look at yourself. Ultimately,
this outer world, what surrounds you, is not what it is for others. It is your own world. Each one
creates one’s own world by the way in which one looks at it, understands it, reacts to it, approaches
it, and the attitude one takes to it. If there are a thousand people in this hall, they are living in a
thousand different worlds. Each one makes one’s own world.
Realise this. It is the mind. You make your own outer world. And in the way in which you
make it, it looks back at you. It is like a person standing before a mirror and looking at his own
countenance. Whether it is serene, or peaceful, or tense, or negative all depends upon the expression
you assume. If you smile, it smiles. If you scowl, it scowls. If you frown, it frowns.
And this interim dimension is a secret realm which no one else in the world really knows.
Someone else may try to infer by some outer signs, but, really, no one else can enter into it and
know. Even Yajnavalkya didn’t know what was in the mind of Maitreyi. He thought she would just
want to have a secure life after he left. Rama did not know what was going on in Sita’s mind. He
thought she would be content to serve His mother when He had gone to the forest. He did not know
what stuff was inside Sita.
Therefore, pay attention, pay attention to this interim, hidden, inner life which only you
know. Because upon it depends your success or failure, your bondage or liberation. Whatever the
outer world is depends upon what you make of it from this inner realm. And your higher spiritual
inner life also depends upon in what way you are able to understand it, know its essence, and, with
wisdom, live it.
May the supreme power of God, the Cosmic Power, the Supreme Being who dwells within
you, and has manifested in you as this interim inner life, enable you to understand it, utilise it, and
make it a positive asset, an instrument for liberation and Divine illumination and perfection. That is
my humble prayer.
You are eternal, beyond time. You are timeless. Nevertheless, even though you are rooted in
that state of timelessness, you now find yourself to be a creature of time. Is there any way that we
can profit from this peculiar, paradoxical situation we are caught in? While we are in time, can we
turn it to our advantage and utilise it in a gainful way?
Our wise ancients admonished us: “Forget about the past. It does not exist. It is finished.
Don’t be burdened by it. But before you forget it, take from it all the lessons and wisdom it has
taught you about yourself and the world. Then fully concentrate on the present. Focus upon all the
opportunities it offers you each day. Take the present in both your hands in a creative, dynamic,
constructive way. Be always positive.”
And, while you thus take wisdom from the past and focus upon the opportunities of the
present, visualise what you wish to be in the future: “I wish to be a liberated soul. I wish to be an

instrument of God and a benefactor of man. I wish to bring glory and honour to my guru, to become
an embodiment of his teachings and the teachings of the scriptures and all the great saints.”
In this way, utilise time to go beyond time. Attain your true status as the time-transcending,
eternal, all-perfect Being. Do it now and become blessed!