In the realm of the improbable, whether or not one is being carried on a river of existence, or just floating in still water, or even drifting, what is one to do with events which could not possibly have occurred?
Were you to see a man lying on a mattress floating at about eye level, how would you react? The mattress has a rope dangling from each corner. Each rope is moving in the breeze. Could such a thing really happen?
Let us now say that you were in a deep dengue fever-gripped sleep, and you suddenly felt yourself to be floating horizontally near the ceiling. You looked down and saw 2 bodies, both clearly dead, and laid on 2 single beds. One of the bodies is yours; the other is that of your father. But you had witnessed his cremation only recently. Was that a near-death experience or a nightmare?
I had both experiences when I was a youth. What conclusions could I draw from them? Although I lived in a multi-ethnic community in which there were fortune-tellers, clairvoyants, yogis, believers in the ‘Indian rope trick,’ and such like, I said nothing about my experiences. One part of my mind said that what I had seen could not have happened. Another part of my mind just knew that what I had seen and experienced was real. How could I seriously reject a significant exposure even as I wasn’t able to explain it?
There would be other significant experiences to confound me, but I did not know it then.
RAJA ARASA RATNAM 