10. How To Create Your Own Future

There is a difference between imagination and dreaming. Do you know the finer aspects that differentiate the two?

Imagination and dreaming are not the same. They are two different things or states of mind. Imagination is creating something in the mind that is not there, for example, your own future. Creating that which is possible, not merely thinking about it, but also starting to work for it, towards it.

In imagination, you have a systematic, tangible, solid method. What does this mean? Look at it this way: if you can imagine yourself 10 kilometers ahead of the same route in which you are traveling, it is absolutely certain that you can reach there. This is imagination.

However, if you imagine yourself to be floating in the sky, it is a dream. Imagining that which cannot happen, just fantasizing, is in no way going to help you. Imagining events, which can happen in a creative way, can help you. This is called creative visualization. Creative visualization has enormous power and will always help you in materialising things.

Dreaming is like fantasizing about your future. Just dreaming and fantasizing is in no way going to help you. I have seen many people fantasizing being with great actors and actresses. That is in no way going to help you. But imagining and planning your steps in accordance with your imagination will lead you to where you want to reach. This will undoubtedly be of help for you.

You can choose to live in dreams or in visualization. It is your choice. You have many kinds of freedom in your life. You do not recognize it, realize it or use it consciously. And you complain that you have no freedom.

One choice is, how to live. Another important choice is to decide how best to live. There is really only one choice for this. You can decide to live in the 'now', 'here', or be no where.

A small story:

A great master lived in Maharashtra. In the last phase of his life, for ten years, he was asked by doctors to eat only a certain type of rice and grains. Everyday he used to have the same type of food.

One day his cook was bored out of her wits. She told him, 'It is so boring to cook the same food. Are you not bored of eating the same food?'

The master replied, 'How can I eat the same food everyday? Once I eat, it is over. Every meal I feel it is a new meal. It is a new food!'

So, live in the 'now'. Live with imagination about your life, not with dreams. Dreams are called dreams because they will remain dreams till the end. Create your bliss with imagination that will materialize.