By
Sri Swami Sivananda
A DIVINE LIFE SOCIETY PUBLICATION
First Edition: 1958
Second Edition: 2000
(2,000 Copies)
World Wide Web (WWW) Edition : 2001
Website: http://www.divinelifesociety.org/
This WWW reprint is for free distribution
© The Divine Life Trust Society
Published By
THE DIVINE LIFE SOCIETY
P.O. Shivanandanagar—249 192
Distt. Tehri-Garhwal, Uttaranchal,
Himalayas, India.
Contents
Publishers' Note
Introduction
1. Songs Of Dream
2. Dream
3. Study of Dream-State
4. Dream Philosophy
5. Philosophy of Dream
6. Who is it That Dreams?
7. Lord Creates Dream Objects
8. Prophetic Dreams
9. Spiritual Enlightenment Through Dreams
10. Waking as a Dream
11. The Unreality of Imagination
12. Why Jagrat is a Dream?
13. Waking Experience Has Relative Reality
14. Waking Experience is as False as Dream Experience
15. Jagarat is as Unreal as Dream
16. Remove The Colouring of The Mind
17. Upanishads And Dreams
18. Prasna-Upanishad on Dreams
19. Dream
20. The Story of a Dreamer Subhoda
21. Raja Janaka's Dream
22. Goudapadacharya on Dreams
23. Sri Nimbarkacharya on Dreams
24. Dream of Chuang Tze
25. Dream Hints
26. Dream-Symbols And Their Meanings
Though Sri Swami Sivanandaji Maharaj is an Advaita Vedantin of Sri
Sankara's School, he is unique in that in his life and teachings he
synthesises the highest idealism and dynamic practical life. His "Divine
Life" is ideal life, ideal and divine only because it is possible to
live it here and now.
The sage, therefore, has directed the beam of his divine light on all
problems that face man. Not confining himself to the exposition of philosophy
and Yoga, he has enriched our literature in other fields, too, e.g.,
medicine, health and hygiene and even "How to Become Rich."
And now we have from his divine pen his inspiring and enlightened thoughts
on one of the most interesting phenomena viz., dreams. He has viewed
dreams from several angles and thrown such a flood of light on it as
to expose not only its unreality, but also the unreality of the waking
state. Thus the sage leads us to the Supreme Reality that alone exists.
16th February, 1958.
Maha Sivaratri Day
THE DIVINE LIFE SOCIETY
The analysis of dreams and their cause by psychoanalysts are defective.
They maintain that the cause of dream creation lies in the suppressed
desires of the dreamer. Can they create dreams as they like by suppressing
desires? No, they cannot do that. They say that desires stimulate or
help the dream creation. But they do not know what supplies the material
out of which they are made and what turns the desires into actual expression,
enabling the dreamer see his own suppressed desires materialised and
appearing to him as real.
The desires only supply the impulse. The mind creates the dream out
of the materials supplied by the experiences of the waking state. The
dream creatures spring up from the bed of Samskaras or impressions in
the subconscious mind. Indigestion also causes dream. The Taijasa is
the dreamer. It is the waking personality that creates the dream personality.
The dream personality exists as the object of the waking personality
and is real only as such.
The waking and dreaming states do not exist independently side by side
as real units.
Why do we dream? Various answers have been given to this question.
Dreams are nothing but a reflection of our waking experience in a new
form. The medical view is that dreams are due to some organic disturbances
somewhere in the body, but more particularly in the stomach. Sometimes
coming diseases appear in dreams.
According to Sigmund Freud all dreams without any exception are wish-fulfilment.
The physical stimulus alone is not responsible for the production of
dreams. The dream mechanism is very intricate. The wishes are of an
immoral nature. They are revolting to the moral self, which exercises
a control on their appearance. Therefore, the wishes appear in disguised
forms to evade the moral censor. Very few dreams present the wishes
as they really are. Dreams are partial gratification of the wishes.
They relieve the mental tension and thus enable us to enjoy repose.
They are safety valves to strong impulsions. You will know your animal-self
in dream.
The objects which manifest during the dreaming state are often not
different in many respects from those which one perceives during his
waking state. During the dreaming state he talks with the members of
his family and friends, eats the same food, behold rivers, mountains,
motor cars, gardens, streets, ocean, temples, works in the office, answers
question papers in the examination hall, and fights and quarrels with
some people. This shows that man does not abandon the results of his
past relation with objects when he falls asleep.
The person who experiences the three states, viz., Jagrat or waking-state,
Svapna or the dreaming state, and Sushupti or deep-sleep state is called
Visva in the waking state, Taijasa in the dreaming state and Prajna
in the deep sleep state. When one gets up from sleep, it is Visva who
remembers the experience of Prajna in deep sleep and says, "I slept
soundly. I do not know anything." Otherwise remembrance of the enjoyment
in deep sleep is not possible.
The reactions to dreams differ according to mental disposition, temperament
and diet of the person.
All dreams are affairs of mere seconds. Within ten seconds you will
experience dreams wherein the events of several years happen.
Some get dreams occasionally, while some others experience dreams daily.
They can never have sleep without dreams.
The sun is the source and the temporary resting place of its rays.
The rays emanate from the sun and spread in all directions at the time
of sunrise. They enter into the sun at sunset, lose themselves there
and come out again at the next sunrise. Even so the state of wakefulness
and dream come out from the state of deep sleep and re-enter it and
lose themselves there to follow the same course again.
Whatever appears in the dream world is the reproduction of the waking
world. It is not only the reproduction of the objects seen, experienced
or dealt with in the present life, but it may be the reproduction of
objects seen, experienced or dealt with in any former life in the present
world. Therefore the dream world cannot be said to be independent of
the waking world.
The objects that are seen in the state of wakefulness are always seen
outside the body. It is, therefore, external to the dreamer, while the
dream world is always internal to the dreamer. That is the only difference
between them.
During the dream state the whole wakeful world loses itself in the
dream state. Therefore, it is not possible to find the distinctive features
that would help the dreamer to distinguish the waking world from the
dream world.
Scientists and Western philosophers draw their conclusions from the
observations of their waking experience. Whereas the Vedantins utilise
the experiences of the three states viz., waking, dream and deep sleep
and then draw their conclusions. Hence the latter's conclusions are
true, correct, perfect, full and integral, while those of the former
are partial and one sided.
Certain kinds of external sounds such as the ringing of a bell, the
noise of alarm-clock, knocks on the door or the wall, the blowing of
wind, the drizzling of rain, the rustling of leaves, the blowing of
the horn of a motor car, the cracking of the window etc., may produce
in the mind of the dreamer variety of imaginations. They generate certain
sensations, which increase according to the power of imagination of
the sleeper and the sensitiveness of his mind. These sounds cause very
elaborate dreams.
If you touch the dreamers' chest with the point of a pin, he may dream
that some one has given him a severe blow on his body or stabbed him
with a dagger.
The individual soul does not know that he is dreaming during his dream
state and is not conscious of himself as he is bound by the Gunas of
Prakriti. He passively beholds the creations of his dream mind passing
before him as an effect of the workings of the impressions (Samskaras)
of his waking state.
It is possible for a dreamer to remain cognisant during his dream state
of the fact that he is dreaming. Learn to be the witness of your thoughts
in the waking state. You can be conscious in the dream state that you
are dreaming. You can alter, stop or create your own thoughts in the
dream state independently. You will be able to keep awake in the dream
state. If the thoughts of the waking state are controlled, you can also
control the dream thoughts.
Sometimes the dreams are very interesting and turn out to be true.
They foretell events. A man living in Haridwar dreamt on the first January
1947 that he will be in Benares on the night of the third January. It
really turned out to be true. An officer dreams that he will be transferred
to Allahabad. In the following morning he gets the transfer order. Another
man dreams that he will meet with a motorcar accident on the coming
Saturday. It also turns out to be true.
Profound wisdom comes through reflection on dreams. No one has known
himself truly who has not studied his dreams. The study of dreams shows
how mysterious is our soul. Dreams reveal to us that aspect of our nature,
which transcends rational knowledge. Every dream presentation has a
meaning. A dream is like a letter written in an unknown language.
Many riddles of life are solved through hints from dreams. Dreams indicate
which way the spiritual life of a man is flowing. One may receive proper
advice for self-correction through dreams. One may know how to act in
a particular situation through dreams. The dreams point out a path unknown
to the waking consciousness. Saints and sages appear in dreams during
times of difficulty and point out the way.
The Vedantins study very deeply and carefully the states of dreams
and deep sleep and logically prove that the waking state is as unreal
as the dream state. They declare that the only difference between the
two states is that the waking state is a long dream, Deergha Svapna.
So long as the dreamer dreams, dream-objects are real. When he wakes
up the dream world becomes false. When one attains illumination or knowledge
of Brahman, this wakeful world becomes as unreal as the dream world.
The real truth is that nobody sleeps, dreams or wakes up, because there
is no reality in these states.
Transcend the three states and rest in the fourth state of Turiya,
the eternal bliss of Brahman, Satchidananda Svaroopa.
Swami Sivananda
Guru Guru Japna
Aur Sab Svapna,
Guru Guru Japna
Jagat Deergha Svapna.
Jagat Deergha Svapna
The world is like a long dream.
Take shelter in Guru
Everything is unreal. (Guru Guru)
Antarai
When you perceive the things in Dream
You take them all to be real,
When you wake up and perceive
They are all false and unreal. (Guru Guru)
The world of name and forms is like
The dream you have during the night,
You take them all as real things,
But they are only false and transient (Guru Guru)
The only one which really exists
Is that God with Brahmic Splendour
Wake up, wake up, wake up to Light,
Wake up, wake up, from Maya's sleep,
And see the things in their proper light. (Guru Guru)
Svapna is the dreaming state in which man enjoys the five objects of
senses and all the senses are at rest and the mind alone works. Mind
itself is the subject and the object. It creates all dream-pictures.
Jiva is called Taijasa in this state. There is Antah-Prajna (internal
consciousness). The scripture says, "When he falls asleep, there are
no chariots in that state, no horses and roads, but he himself creates
chariots, horses and roads."
The dreaming world is separate from the waking one. The man sleeping
on a cot in Calcutta, quite healthy at the time of going to bed, wanders
in Delhi as a sickly man in the dream world and vice versa. Deep sleep
is separate from both the dreaming and the waking world. To the dreamer
the dream world and the dream objects are as much real as the objects
and experiences of the waking world. A dreaming man is not aware of
the unreality of the dream world. He is not aware of the existence of
the waking world, apart from the dream. Consciousness changes. This
change in consciousness brings about either the waking or the dream
experiences. The objects do not change in themselves. There is only
change in the mind. The mind itself plays the role of the waking and
the dream.
The dreamer feels that the dreams are real so long as they last, however
incoherent they may be. He dreams sometimes that his head has been cut
off and that he is flying in the air.
The dreamer believes in the reality of the dream as well as the different
experiences in the dream. Only when he wakes up from the dream, he knows
or realises that what he has experienced was mere dream, illusion and
false. Similar is the case with the Jiva in the waking world. The ignorant
Jiva imagines that the phenomenal world of sense-pleasure is real. But
when he is awakened to the reality of things, when his angle of vision
is changed, when the screen of Avidya is removed, he realises that this
waking world also is unreal like the dream world.
In dream a poor man becomes a mighty potentate. He enjoys various sorts
of pleasures. He marries a Maharani, lives in a magnificent palace and
begets several children. He gives his eldest daughter in marriage to
the son of a Maha-Raja. He goes to the Continent along with this wife
and children. Then he returns and visits various places of pilgrimage.
He dies of pneumonia at Benares. Within five minutes, he gets the above
experiences. What a great marvel!
As in dream, so in the waking, the objects seen are unsubstantial,
though the two conditions differ by the one being internal and subtle,
and the other external, gross and long. The wise consider the wakeful
as well as the dreaming condition as one, in consequence of the similarity
of the objective experience in either case. As are dream and illusion
a castle in the air, so say the wise, the Vedanta declares this cosmos
to be.
Dreams represent the contraries. A king who has plenty of food, dreams
that he is begging for his food in the streets. A chaste, pure aspirant
dreams that he is suffering from venereal disease. A chivalrous soldier
dreams that he is running from the battlefield for fear of enemy. A
weak sickly man dreams that he is dead. He dreams also that his living
father is dead and weeps in the night. He also experiences that he is
attending the cremation of his father. Sometimes a man who lives in
the city dreams that he is facing a tiger and a lion and shrieks loudly
at night. He takes his pillow thinking it to be his trunk and proceeds
to the Railway Station. After walking a short distance he takes it to
be a dream and comes back to his house. Some people dream that they
are sitting in the toilet and actually micturate in their beds.
As soon as you wake up, the dream becomes unreal. The waking state
does not exist in the dream. Both dream and waking states are not present
in deep sleep. Deep sleep is not present in dream and waking states.
Therefore all the three states are unreal. They are caused by the three
qualities: Sattva, Rajas and Tamas. Brahman or the Absolute is the silent
witness of the three states. It transcends the three qualities also.
It is pure bliss and pure consciousness. It is Existence Absolute.
Once a disciple approached his Guru, prostrated at His Lotus Feet and
with folded hands put the question:
Disciple: O My Revered Guru! Please tell
me the way to cross this cycle of births and deaths.
Guru: My dear disciple! If you can understand
who you are, then you can get over this cycle of births and deaths.
Disciple: O Guru! I am not so foolish as
not to understand me. There is no man on earth who does not understand
himself; but every one of them is having his rounds of birth and death.
Guru: No, No. You should understand the nature
between the body and that person for whom this body is intended. Then
only any one is said to have understood himself.
Disciple: Who is the person to whom this body
belongs?
Guru: This Deha (body) belongs to the Dehi (Atman).
Try to understand the true nature of the Atman.
Disciple: I do not see anybody besides this body.
Guru: When this body was asleep, who is the person
who experienced your dreams? Again in deep sleep who is he that enjoyed
it? When you wake up, who is he that is conscious of the world, your
dreams and the soundness of the deep sleep?
Disciple: I am just beginning to have a little
idea of the nature of Atman who is present in all the three states.
From the above conversation between the Guru and the disciple, it is
clear that the dream and the deep sleep states are worthy of our study
in order to understand the true nature of the Atman, as we already pretend
to have some knowledge at least of our waking consciousness.
Dream is but a disturbance of the deep sleep and the study of the former,
as to its origin, working, purpose and meaning will naturally lead us
to the study of the deep sleep state also.
The best way to study a subject is to trace its history and development
in the hands of eminent authors and to focus our critical faculty on
what we have studied from their treaties and to rectify any omissions,
when we shall have a complete and satisfactory survey of that subject.
The dream reveals within itself those unconscious mental mechanisms
evolved during the course of development for the purpose of controlling
and shaping the primitive instinctual self towards that form of behaviour
demanded by the contemporary civilization. A working knowledge of the
dream as a typical functioning of the psyche-that is, a knowledge of
the dream mechanisms and of the theory of the unconscious symbolism-is
therefore indispensable for dream interpretation. This knowledge may
be gained intellectually from the books written by authorities on that
subject, but emotional conviction is the result only of personal analytic
experience. Dream should be considered as an individual psychical product
from the storehouse of specific experience, which indeed the dreamer
may in consciousness neither remember nor know that he knows.
In the analysis of a dream, one would say that the assimilation of
knowledge of the unconscious mind through the ego is an essential part
of the psychical process. The principle involved in valid explanation
is the revelation of the unknown, implicit in the known in terms of
the individual. This principle underlies all true dream interpretations.
The value of a dream therefore lies not only in discovering the latest
material by means of the manifest content, but the language used in
the narration of dream and in the giving of associations will itself
help towards elucidation.
The subject of "dream" and its analysis will be, therefore, a most
interesting one in understanding the true nature of the individual.
We, therefore, quote in the following pages, relevant extracts from
the lectures of Sigmund Freud, the famous authority on that subject
and will evolve it further, if necessary, by the help of the knowledge
we get from the Indian Sages and Seers.
Certain Karmas are worked out in dreams also. A King experienced a
dream in which he acts the part of a beggar and suffers the pangs of
starvation. Certain evil Karmas of the King are purged out in this experience.
If a man is not able to become a king on account of evil influence
of some planets, he plays the part of a king in his dream. His strong
desire materialises in the dream state.
One derives more pleasure in dream than in the waking state when he
experiences pleasant dreams because the mind works more freely in dream.
If you have made arrangements to go to Bombay in the morning of 30th
April, you may experience a dream on the night of 29th itself that you
are purchasing a ticket at the station and entering the train and some
friends have come on the platform of Bombay station to receive you.
The strong thoughts of the waking state find expression at once in the
dreaming state.
When a strong desire is not gratified in the waking state, you obtain
its gratification in dream. The mind has more freedom in the dreaming
state. The mind is then like a furious elephant let loose.
I
One dreams many things that are never to be experienced in this life
such as "He dreams he is flying in the air."
A dream is not an entirely new experience, because most often it is
the memory of past experiences.
In the waking state the light of the self is mixed up with the functions
of the organs, intellect, mind, external lights etc. In dreams the self
becomes distinct and isolated as the organs do not act and the lights
such as the sun that help them are absent.
The dreamer is not affected by whatever result of the good and evil
he sees in the dream state. No one regards himself a sinner on account
of the sins committed in dreams. People who have heard of them do not
condemn or shun them. Hence he is not touched by them.
The dreamer only appears to be doing things in dream but actually there
is no activity The Sruti says, "He sees to be enjoying himself in the
company of women." (Bri. Up. IV. iii. 13.) He who described his dream
experiences uses the words 'as if'; "I saw today as if a herd of elephants
was running." Therefore the dreaming self has no activity in dreams.
An action is done by the contact of the body and the senses, which
have form with something else that has form. We never see a formless
thing being active. The Self is formless. Therefore it is not attached.
As this Self is unattached, it is untouched by what it beholds in dreams.
Hence we cannot ascribe activity to it, as activity proceeds from the
contact of the body and the organs. There is no contact for the Self,
because this infinite Self is unattached. Therefore it is immortal.
Doctors say, "Do not wake him up suddenly or violently", because they
see that in dreams the self goes out of the body of the waking state
through the gates of the organs and remains isolated outside. If the
self is violently aroused it may not find those gates of the organs.
If he does not find the right organ the body becomes difficult to doctor.
The self may not get back to those gates of the organs, things which
it sent out taking the shining functions of the latter, or it may misplace
those functions. In that case defects such as blindness and deafness
may result. The doctor may find it difficult to treat them.
II
Dreams are due to mental impressions (Vasanas) received in the waking
state. The consciousness in a dream depends on the previous knowledge
acquired in the wakeful state.
The dreams have the purpose of either cheering or saddening and frightening
the sleeper, so as to requite him for his good and evil deeds. His Adrishta
thus furnishes the efficient cause of the dreams.
Even in the state of dream the instruments of the self are not altogether
at rest, because scripture states that even then it is connected with
Buddhi (intellect). "Having become a dream, together with Buddhi it
passes beyond this world."
Smriti also says, "When the senses being at rest, the mind not being
at rest, is occupied with the objects, know that state to be a dream."
Scripture says that desires etc. are modifications of the mind (Bri,
Up. I-v-3). Desires are observed in dreams. Therefore, the self wanders
about in dreams together with the mind only.
The scripture in describing our doings in dreams qualifies them by
an 'as it were'. "As it were rejoicing together with women, or laughing
as it were, or seeing terrible sights" (Bri. Up. IV-iii-13). Ordinary
people also describe the dreams in the same manner. "I ascended as it
were the summit of a mountain, I saw a tree, as it were".
Dream creation is unreal. Reality implies the factors of time, space
and causation. Further, reality cannot be sublated or stultified. Dream
creation has not got these traits.
Dream is called 'Sandhya' or the intermediate state because it is midway
between waking and the deep sleep state, between the Jagrat and the
Sushupti.
III
Dreams, though of a strange and illusory nature, are a good index of
the high or low spiritual and moral condition of the dreamer. He, who
has a pure heart and untainted character, will never get impure dreams.
An aspirant who is ever meditating will dream of his Sadhana and his
object of meditation. He will do worship of the Lord and recite His
name and Mantra even in dream through the force of Samskara.
If you ask any man in this world, "Who is it that wakes up? Who is
it that dreams? And who is it that sleeps?" He will answer, "It is I
that wake up; it is I that dream; it is I that sleep." If you ask him
"What is this I?" he will say, "this body is the 'I'." He will tell
you that it is the body that sleeps. When the brain is tired or exhausted,
it is the body that sleeps; when the brain is disturbed, it is the body
that dreams; and when the brain is refreshed, it is the body that wakes
up after sound sleep.
A psychologist who has made a special study of the mind will say that
the mind, which has its seat in the brain, is the 'I'. He says that
the mind is inseparable from the brain and it perishes along with the
physical body.
The metaphysicians and the spiritualists hold that the mind continues
to exist somewhere after the death of the body. According to psychologists,
metaphysicians and spiritualists it is the mind that wakes up, dreams
and sleeps and this mind is the 'I'.
A Theologist says that there is a soul which is quite independent of
the body and the mind and it is this soul that wakes up, dreams and
sleeps and the soul is the 'I'. This soul enters another body in accordance
with the law of Karma.
A Vedantin says that neither this body nor the mind nor the soul is
the 'I'. There is one pure consciousness or Atman in all beings which
is Infinite, Eternal, all-pervading, self-existent, self-luminous and
self-contained which is partless, timeless, spaceless, birthless, and
deathless. This is the real 'I'. This 'I' never wakes, dreams or sleeps.
It is always the seer or the silent witness (Sakshi) of the three states
of waking, dreaming and sleeping. It is the Turiya or the fourth state.
It is the state that transcends the three states.
It is the false or relative 'I' called Ahamkara or ego or that Jiva
that wakes up, dreams and sleeps. The waker, the dreamer and the sleeper
are all changing personalities and unreal.
The real self, the real 'I' never wakes up, dreams and sleeps. From
the point of the Absolute Truth or Paramartha Satta no one wakes up,
dreams and sleeps.
(Another view)
Some Indian philosophers hold that the creation of chariots etc. in
the dream is verily by the Lord and not by the human self. The dream
objects are created by the Lord as fruition of the minor works of the
Jiva. In order to reward the soul for very minor Karmas, the Lord creates
the dreams.
The followers of one Sakha, namely the Kathakas, state in their text
that the Supreme Lord is alone the Creator of all Karmas in the dream
state for the dreamers (Katha Up. V-8).
"He, the Highest Person, who is awake in us when we are asleep, shaping
one lovely sight after another, that indeed is the Bright, that is Brahman,
that alone is called the Immortal. All worlds are contained in Him,
and no one goes beyond Him. This is that."
Maya or the will of the Lord is the only means through which He creates
dream objects. They are not made of objective matter (gross elements)
because they are not perceptible to all persons, but are seen only by
the dreamer.
He who can cause the bondage and release of the soul can easily bring
about the dream and its withdrawal for the soul. There is nothing wonderful
in it. Kurma Purana says: "It is He (the Lord) who makes the soul perceive
the dream creation etc. and it is He who hides them from his view; for
on His will the bondage and release of the soul depend."
Sometimes dreams are prophetic of future good and bad fortune. The
scripture teaches, "When a man engaged in some work undertakes for a
special wish, sees in his dreams a woman, he may infer success from
that dream vision". "Then having washed the Mantha vessel which should
be either of bell-metal or of wood, let him lie down behind the fire
on a skin or on a bare ground silently and singly. If in his dreams
he sees a woman, let him know this is an omen that his sacrifice has
been successful". (Chh. Up. V-2-8-9).
Other scriptural passages declare that certain dreams indicate speedy
death e.g. "If he sees a black man with black teeth, that man will kill
him" (Kaushitaki Brahmana.)
Those who also understand the science of dreams hold the opinion that
the dream of riding on an elephant and the like is lucky; while it is
unlucky to dream of riding on a donkey.
Lord Siva taught Visvamitra in dream the Mantra called "Ramaraksha".
He exactly wrote it out in the morning when he awoke from sleep.
Works of genius like poems etc. are found in dreams. Remedies for diseases
are prescribed in the dream. Sometimes the exact object seen in dreams
is seen afterwards in waking state.
Vyasa and other sages who know the science of dreams say, "Whatever
a Brahmin or a God, a bull or a king may tell a person in dreams will
doubtless prove true".
Ramanuja holds, "Because the images of a dream are produced by the
Highest Lord Himself, therefore, they have prophetic significance."
"He who is happy within, who rejoices within, and who is illumined
within, that Yogi attains absolute freedom or Moksha, himself becoming
Brahman." (Gita: V-24.) The highest spiritual knowledge is Knowledge
of the Self. He who has known himself, rather his self, for him nothing
remains to be known. The wisest of the Western philosophers Socrates,
gave the highest and the best of his teachings to his disciples in the
injunction "Know Thyself". The Indian saints likewise gave their highest
teaching in the form known as Adhyatma-Vidya or Self-Knowledge.
Knowledge of the Self, which has been called the supreme knowledge
by the wise men of all ages, has seldom been recognised as a mystery
by the ordinary man. He seems to know himself so well that he does not
think it even necessary to reflect upon himself. Not only does the uneducated
illiterate person think it useless to reflect upon himself, but the
highly cultured modern man also thinks in the same way. The greater
the advancement of science and learning, the less we find in the modern
man a desire to know himself.
There are two opposite reasons that lead a man not to reflect upon
himself: first, he thinks that he knows the self too well, secondly
he thinks it useless to think about himself, because the true nature
of the self can never be known. Some think that thinking about oneself
is a morbid mentality. This is a form of introversion from which one
has to free oneself as soon as possible. The study of dreams is corrective
to such an erroneous view.
There was a time when psychologists thought, the less we thought about
our dreams, the better. The psychologists who take consciousness to
be an epi-phenomenon still hold the same view. Seashore, for instance,
thinks that it is only abnormal people who think too much of their dreams,
and that thinking too much about dreams leads to abnormalities. There
is much in the waking life to be attended to and he who spends his time
in thinking about his dreams is missing so much of his waking life and
this contributes to his own failure in life.
Now Psychology, however, has changed this point of view. It shows that
deepest wisdom comes through reflection on dreams. No one has known
himself truly, who has not studied his dreams. The study of dreams at
once shows what a great mystery our soul is, and that this mystery is
not altogether insoluble, as some metaphysicians supposed. Dreams reveal
to us that aspect of our nature which transcends rational knowledge.
That in the most rational and moral man there is an aspect of his being
which is absurd and immoral, one knows only through the study of one's
dreams. All our pride of nationality and morality melts into nothingness
as soon as we reflect upon our dreams.
There is logic in our dreams or rather the logic of our waking consciousness
is just like the dream logic. The great philosopher Hegel constructed
his logic without taking into account what the dream logic has to reveal.
Now logic, which at the same time claims to be a system of Metaphysics,
cannot be complete without taking into account the absurd constructions
of dream experience. Logic is only a tool of intellect, which enables
it to deal with the waking experience alone. This fact is revealed to
us through the study of our dreams. The real must transcend all logical
categories; or the categories by which it can be comprehended have to
be such as will not only suffice to catch the waking experience but
the dream experience too. This simply means that it should be broad
enough to comprehend both the conscious and the unconscious life of
a man. To conceive of such a category cannot be the work of waking consciousness.
Such a category must necessarily transcend both the waking and the dream
consciousness. Thus we are lead to the necessity of intuition or a logical
thought to comprehend Reality, when we begin reflecting upon our dreams.
The modern study of dreams shows that they are not meaningless presentations.
Every dream presentation has a meaning. A dream is like a letter written
in an unknown language. To a man who does not know the Chinese, a letter
written in that language is a meaningless scroll. But to one who knows
that language it is full of most valuable information. It may be the
letter calls for immediate action; or it may contain words of consultation
to one suffering from dejection. It may be a letter of threat or it
may speak of love. These meanings are there only to one who would care
to attend to the letter and would try to decipher it. But alas! How
few of us try to understand these messages from the deep unseen ocean
of our own Consciousness!
Why do we dream? Various answers have been given to this question.
According to the most popular scientific view, dreams are nothing but
a repetition of our waking experiences in a new form. A more thoughtful
view regards them as productions of an organic disturbance somewhere
in the body, but more particularly in the stomach. To this view medical
men stick more tenaciously than any other people. Sometimes coming diseases
appear in dreams. During an illness dreams are generally more horrible
than they are in the healthy condition of the body. These are all scientific
theories of dreams. We have here out of account the unscientific theories,
e.g. that dreams are premonitions or that gods or demons or spirits
produce dreams, or that the soul goes out to a sojourn in dreams etc.
The scientific theories have been very thoroughly exposed by Dr. Sigmund
Freud in his Interpretation of Dreams. No physical stimulus, whether
it is inside or outside the body, no experience of the waking or sleeping
state can explain the presentation of the actual dream content. The
same stimulus, namely the chime of an alarm timepiece produced three
different kinds of dreams to Hidetrant at different times. Why should
it be so if the physical stimulus alone is responsible for the production
of dreams?
According to Freud all dreams, without any exception, are wish fulfilment.
The wishes are actually of an immoral nature. They are revolting to
the moral self, which exercises a control on their appearance. Hence
to evade this moral censor the wishes appear in disguised forms. The
dream mechanism is very intricate. Very few dreams present the wishes
as they really are. Dreams are partial gratification of the wishes.
They relieve the mental tension, and thus enable us to enjoy repose.
They are safety valves to strong impulsions. Dreams do not disturb sleep
but rather protect it. The irrationality and the immorality of dreams
make the morality and rationality of our waking life possible.
The above statement of Freud shows that we know our animal self in
dream. But he does not say anything about the spiritual life being expressed
in dream. This, it seems, has been done by Jung. According to Jung,
a dream is not causally determined as was supposed by Freud, but it
is teleologically determined. The repressed wishes alone do not explain
all our dreams. A dream presents a demand to our waking consciousness.
If rightly interpreted, it shows the way to be at peace with ourselves.
The dreams of the neurotics not only reveal the repressed contents but
they also suggest remedies for the cure. A series of dreams sometimes
occur to a patient, which reveal the way to cure.
The dream consciousness is superior to the waking consciousness in
many respects. Many puzzles of life are solved through hints from dreams.
All dreams, according to Adler, are anticipatory in character. They
show which way the spiritual life of a man is flowing. To know the actual
flow is necessary to correct possible errors. Dreams help us to discover
the lifeline of the individual and help us to give him proper advice
for self-correction.
Thus, through dreams one may know how one ought to act in a particular
situation. The dreams point out a path unknown to the waking consciousness.
Saints and sages appear in dreams at times of difficulty and show the
way. The more one follows the dream intuitions, the clear they become.
In both states-waking and dreaming-objects are "Perceived", i.e., are
associated with subject-object relationship. This is the similarity
between the two.
The only difference between the two states is that the objects in dream
are perceived in the space within the body, whereas in the waking condition
they are seen in the space outside the body. The fact of "being seen"
and their consequent illusoriness are common to both states.
The illusion of both the states is established by their "being seen"
as "object", other then the self, thus creating a difference in existence.
Anything that is "perceived" is unreal, for perception presupposes relation
and relation is non-eternal, for the relations of the waking state are
contradicted by those of dream and vice versa. As duality is unreal,
all objects must be unreal.
As long as the dream lasts, waking is unreal; as long as waking lasts,
dream is unreal. The reality of the one is dependent on the reality
of the other. But dream is proved to be unreal; hence waking also is
unreal.
Dream-relations are contradicted by waking-relations. Waking relations
are contradicted by Super-consciousness which is uncontradicted. Non-contradiction
is the test of reality.
That which persists forever is real. That which does not and which
has a beginning and an end is unreal. Dream and waking have both a beginning
and an end. But it may be contented that one thing exists as the cause
of the other in the beginning. But as causality itself is baseless,
a thing cannot exist as the cause of another. That which has a beginning
and an end is changeable and hence non-eternal and unreal, for change
implies non-existence in the beginning or at an end. Hence all perceived
objects are unreal.
As the objects of the waking state do not work in dream, they are unreal.
As the objects of the dream do not work in the waking state, they are
unreal. Hence everything is unreal. One who eats belly-full during the
waking state feels hungry in the dream state and vice versa. Things
are real only in their own realms and not always. That which is not
always real is unreal, for reality is everlasting.
The perception of an object is unreal, because the objects are creations
of the mind. An object has got a particular form, because the mind believes
it to be so. In fact, the objects of both the dreaming and the waking
states are unreal. An object lasts only as long as the particular mental
condition cognising the object lasts. When there is a different mental
condition altogether, the objects also change. Hence all objects are
unreal.
Both in the dream and in the waking stale, the internal perceptions
are unreal and the objects of external perception appear to be real.
If in the waking state we make a distinction of real and unreal, in
dream also we do the same thing. In dream also objects of internal cognition,
are unreal. Dream is as real as the waking state. But since dream is
proved to be unreal, waking also must be unreal. Dream is unreal only
from the standpoint of waking, and equally so is waking to the dreamer.
From the standpoint of True Wisdom, waking is as unreal as dream.
Through the play of the mind in dreams and deliriums nearness appears
as a great distance and a great distance appears as proximity. Through
the force of the mind a great cycle of time appears as a moment and
a moment appears as a great cycle. The unreal world appears as real
whereas it is in reality a long dream arisen in our mind. This world
is nothing but a long dream. The mind sports and creates an illusion.
Through the play of the mind the dream-world appears as real. The following
story will illustrate this fact.
Lavana was a king of the country of Uttara Pandava. He was once seated
on his throne. All his ministers and officers were present. There appeared
at this time a Siddha or a magician. He bowed down to the king and said,
"O Lord! Deign to behold my wonderful feats." The Siddha waved his bunch
of peacock feathers. The king had the following experiences. A messenger
from the king of Sindhu entered the court with a horse like that of
Indra and said, "O Lord! My master has made a present of this horse
to you." The Siddha requested the king to mount upon the horse and ride
it at his pleasure. The king stared at the horse and entered into a
state of trance for two hours. Afterwards there was relaxation of rigidity
of his body. The king's body fell on the ground after some time. The
courtiers lifted the body. The king gradually came to consciousness.
The ministers and the courtiers said to the king: "What is the matter
with your majesty?" The king said: "The Siddha waved his bunch of peacock's
feathers. I saw a horse before me. I mounted on the horse and rode in
a desert in the hot sun. My tongue was parched. I was quite fatigued.
Then I reached a beautiful forest. While I was riding on the horse,
a creeper encircled my neck and the horse ran away. I was rocking to
and fro in the air during the whole of the night with the creeper encircling
my neck. I was shivering with extreme cold.
"The day dawned and I saw the sun. I cut the creeper that encircled
my neck. I then beheld an outcaste girl carrying some food and water
in her hands. I was very hungry and asked her to give me some food.
She did not give me anything. I followed her closely for a long time.
She then turned to me and said: "I am a Chandala by birth. If you promise
to marry me in my own place before my parents and live with me there,
I will give you what I have in my hand this very moment." I agreed to
marry her. She then gave me half of the food. I ate the food and drank
the beverage of Jambu fruits.
"Then she took me to her father and asked his permission to marry me.
He consented. Then she took me to her abode. The father of the girl
killed monkeys, cows and pigs for flesh and dried them on the strings
of nerves. A small shed was erected. I had then my seat on a big plantain
leaf. My squint-eyed mother-in-law then looked at me with her blood-red
eyeballs and said, "Is this our would-be son-in-law?"
"The marriage festivities began with great éclat. My father-in-law
presented me clothes and other articles. Toddy and meat were freely
distributed. The meat-eating Chandalas beat their drums. The girl was
given to me in marriage. I was named as 'Pushta.' The wedding festival
lasted for seven days. A daughter was first born of this union. She
brought forth again a black boy in the course of three years. She again
gave birth to a daughter. I became an old Chandala with a large family
and lived for a long time. Children are a source of grief. Miseries
of human beings which arise out of passion take the form of a child.
My body became old and emaciated on account of family cares and worries.
I had to undergo pain through heat and cold in the dreary forest. I
was clad in old ragged clothes. I carried loads of firewood on my head.
I was exposed to the chill winds. I had to live upon the roots. I thus
spent sixty years of my life as if they were so many Kalpa-ages of long
duration. There was severe famine. Many died of starvation. Some of
my relatives left the place.
"I and my wife left the country and walked in the hot sun. I carried
two children on my shoulders and third on my head. I walked a long distance
and then arrived at the fringe of a forest. We all took a little rest
under a big palmyra tree. My wife expired on account of long travel
in the hot sun. My younger son Pracheka rose up and stood before me
and said with tears gushing out of his eyes: "Papa, I am hungry. Give
me immediately some meat and drink or else I will die." He repeatedly
said with tears in his eyes that he was dying of hunger. I was then
moved by paternal affection. I was very much afflicted at heart. I was
not able to bear the distress. Then I made up my mind to put an end
to my life by falling into fire. I collected some wood, heaped them
together and set fire to them. I stood up to jump into the fire when
I fell down from throne and woke up. I now find myself as the king Lavana
once again and not as a Chandala."
This story illustrates the heterogeneous actions of the mind. The experiences
of the state of trance or delirium, the experiences in the waking state
and those in dream are all similar. The Samskaras are ingrained in the
mind equally in all the states of consciousness. The misery of Samsara
is equally felt in all the states of the mind when it is vigorously
working. Whatever we see is only a manifestation of the mind. It is
quite illusory. Time is but a mode of mind. Centuries are passed for
but five minutes and vice versa. Within two hours, king Lavana had experienced
such a diverse life of sixty years.
None can say whether his life as king was true or as Chandala. Whether
this is a dream or that is a dream we cannot say. Instead of thinking
that the king dreamt of a life as Chandala, we can as well consider
that a real Chandala dreamt that he was king Lavana. Both are unintelligible
and unreal modes of imagination. Our whole life on earth is a similar
play of imagination. Our states of consciousness contradict themselves
when we try to reconcile them. We cannot say whether we are dreaming
or waking. To us every state of imagination seems to be real. We may
be in this world building castles in the air while sleeping on the bed
in some other world. Nothing can be given as a proof for the reality
of the world in which we live. If all of us now experience a common
world it may be due to an apparent accident in the similarity of the
states of consciousness in us. And moreover there is no guarantee that
all of us look at the world in the same fashion. The world changes from
person to person and to the same person at different conditions of the
mind. This is the state of dream and waking.
We are so much engaged with the present state of the mind and so attached
to the persisting condition of imagination, that nothing but the actual
present seems to be real. We forget the past and ignore the future.
We think now that the dream of yesterday is a falsity. And in the state
of dream we apply the same conviction to the waking state also. Are
we not mere slaves of imagination? Our individual life is thus proved
to be a fallacy and a vile creature of the modes of imagination, which
is itself an illusion!
Jagrat Avastha is waking consciousness. You perceive, feel, think,
know and you are conscious of the external sense-universe. The organs
of hearing and sight are very vigilant. The organ of sight is more active
than the ear. It rushes headlong over forms (Rupa), various types of
beauty, through force of habit. The Abhimani (person thinking upon)
of Jagrat state is termed as Visva. He identifies himself with the physical
body. Visva is Vyasthi (individual) Abhimani. The Samasthi Abhimani
(cosmic) is Virat. Visva is microcosm (Kshudra Brahmanda). Virat is
macrocosm (Brahmanda). Vyasthi is single. Samashti is sum-total. A single
matchstick is Vyasthi. A matchbox is Samasthi. A single house is Vyashti.
A village is Samasthi. A single mango tree is Vyasthi. A grove of mango-trees
is Samasthi. Ear and eye are the avenues of sense-knowledge in the Jagrat
State.
The mind creates the dream-world out of the experience and Samskaras
of the waking consciousness.
Dream is a reproduction of the experiences of the physical consciousness
with some modifications. The mind weaves out the dream creatures out
of the material supplied from waking consciousness. In dream the subject
and object are one. The perceiver and the perceived are one in this
state. The Abhimani of Svapna Avastha is Taijasa. Taijasa is a Vyasthi
Abhimani. The Samasthi Abhimani is Hiranyagarbha, the first-born.
In the Jagrat state there are two kinds of knowledge, viz., Abijna
or Abijna Jnana and Pratibijna or Pratibijna Jnana. Abijna is knowledge
through perception. You see a tree. You know: "This is a tree". This
is Abijna. Pratibijna is recognition. Here something previously observed
is recognised in some other thing or place, as when, for instance, the
generic character of a cow which was previously observed in the black
cow again presents itself to consciousness in the grey cow or Mr. Radhakrishnan
whom I first saw in Benares in 1922 again appears before me in Calcutta
in 1932. There are cases of recognition where the object previously
observed again presents itself to our senses. There is a Samskara in
the mind of object, time and place. When I recognised Mr. Radhakrishnan
in Calcutta, I omitted the previous place Benares where I saw him for
the first time and the time also 1922 and I took into consideration
the present place Calcutta and the present time 1932. This is knowledge
through Pratibijna. In Abijna, there is no Antahkarana Samskaras. There
is knowledge through mere sense-contact with the object.
When you take a retrospective view of your life in college when you
are 60 years of age, it is all a dream to you. Is it not so, my friends?
The future also will turn out to be so. There is only the present, which
on account of the force of strong Samskaras through repetition of actions
and Dhrida (strong) Vasanas appears to be real for an Aviveki (a man
of non-discrimination) only. The past is a dream. The future is a dream.
The solid present is also a dream. When you are alone at Allahabad for
a month, you have entirely forgotten all about Chennai, your affairs,
family, children etc. You have only Allahabad Samskaras. For the time
being Chennai is out of your mind. There is only Allahabad in your mind.
When you return again to Chennai, Allahabad affairs entirely disappear
from the mind after some time. When you are in Allahabad, Chennai is
a dream to you, and when you are in Chennai, Allahabad is a dream. World
is a mere Samskara in the mind. For a worldly man with a gross mind
full of passions this world is a solid reality.
According to Gaudapada, Dada-Guru of Sri Sankaracharya, the Jagrat
Avastha is exactly a dream without any difference. Some saints say that
the waking state is a long dream (Deerga Svapna). An objector says:
"In Jagrat state we see the same objects in the same place as soon as
we wake up (Desa Kala), whereas in dreams, we do not see again the same
objects. We see different things daily. How do you account for this?"
Even in dreams sometimes we see same objects repeatedly on different
occasions.
Every moment the whole world is changing. You do not see the same world
every day. Young people become old. The molecules of the body are changing
every second. Mind also changes every moment. Trees and all objects
are continually changing. The water that you see in the Ganga at 6 a.m.
is not the same when you see at 6.05 a.m. When a wick in the hurricane
lamp is burning, you see the light but the wick is ever changing. There
are continual changes in sun, moon, stars etc. The world is stationary
for people of gross minds (Sthula Buddhi). A man of Sukshma (subtle)
intellect does not see the same world every day. He witnesses changes-changes
in every second and sees daily a new world. Therefore the waking consciousness
also is a dream. Just as the dream becomes false as soon as you wake
up, the Jagrat consciousness becomes a dream when you get Viveka and
Jnana. Science tells you that the world is a mass of electrons that
are in constant rotation and change.
An objector again says: "We remember the events, the persons, the places
etc., in Jagrat Avastha. In dream we do not remember. How do you explain
this?"
In Svapna or dream state there is Rajo Guna Pradhana. Rajo Guna predominates.
In Jagrat state, Sattva Guna predominates. That is the reason why you
have no remembrance in dream.
As soon as you wake up, the dreams turn out to be false. So long as
you are dreaming, every thing is real to you. This world, the waking
consciousness, becomes a dream when you get Jnana. Therefore Jagrat
is termed as a dream. This appears to be paradoxical but it is not
so. Think well.
In prophetic dreams the materials come from the Karana Sarira or seed
body (causal body), the storehouse of Samskaras.
Readers are earnestly requested to go through very carefully Mandukya
Upanishad with Gaudapada's Karika either in Sanskrit or English translation.
The dream problem is very elaborately dealt with cogent argument.
"When I consider the matter carefully, I do not find a single characteristic
by means of which I can certainly determine whether I am awake or whether
I dream. The visions of a dream and the experiences of my waking state
are so much alike that I am completely puzzled and I do not really know
that I am not dreaming at this moment." (Descartes: Meditations P. I.)
Pascal is right when he asserts that if the same dream comes to us
every night we should be just as much occupied by it as by the things
which we see every day. To quote his words, "If an artisan were certain
that he would dream every night for fully 12 hours that he was a king,
I believe that he would be just as happy as a king who dreams every
night for 12 hours that he is an artisan".
In dream the seer and the seen are one. The mind creates the bee, flower,
mountain, horses, rivers, etc., in the dream. The dream objects are
not independent of the mind. They have no separate existence apart from
the mind. So long as the dream lasts, the dream creatures will remain
just as the milkman remains so long as the milking goes on. (The dream
is quite real when the man is dreaming). Whereas in the Jagarat state
the object exists independent of the mind. The objects of the waking
experiences are common to us all, while those of dreams are the property
of the dreamer.
Jacob puts Gaudapada's arguments in the following syllogistic form:
"Things seen in the waking state are not true: this is proposition (Pratijna);
because they are seen, this is reason (Hetu); just like things seen
in a dream, this is the instance (Drishtanta); as things seen in the
dream are not true, so the property of the being seen belongs in like
manner to things seen in the waking state; this is the application of
the reason (Hetupanyaya); therefore things seen in the waking state
are also untrue; this is the conclusion.
Gaudapada establishes the unreal Character of the world of experience:
1. By its similarity to dream state;
2. By its presented or objective character;
3. By the unintelligibility of the relations which organise it; and
4. By its non-persistence for all time.
I
Waking experience is like dream experience
When judged from the absolute standpoint.
But it has Vyavaharika-Satta
Or relative reality.
Dream is Pratibhasika-Satta
Or apparent reality.
Turiya or Brahman is Paramarthika-Satta
Or Absolute Reality.
Waking is reality more real than dreaming.
Turiya is more real than waking.
From the point of view of Turiya,
Both waking and dreaming are unreal.
But waking, taken by itself,
In relation to dream experience,
Has greater reality than dream.
To a certain extent,
As Turiya is to waking,
Waking is to dream.
Waking is the reality behind dream;
Turiya is the reality behind waking.
Dream is not dream to the dreamer.
Only by one who is awake
Dream is known to be a dream.
Similarly, waking appears to be real
To one who is still in the waking state.
Only to one who is in Turiya
Waking is devoid of reality.
Waking is Deergha-Svapna,
A long dream, as contrasted with
The ordinary dream which is short.
II
Waking is a part of Virat-Consciousness,
Though, in waking, due to ignorance,
The Virat is not directly realised.
Waking is the connecting link
Between Visva and Virat.
Man reflects over the world and the Reality
When he is awake
And when his consciousness is active.
In dream, the intellect and the will
Are incapacitated due to Avidya
And deliberate contemplation becomes impossible.
The Visva or the Jiva in the waking state
Is possessed of intelligence and free will.
The Taijasa or the Jiva in the dreaming state
Is destitute of such powers of free thinking.
Dream experience is the result of
Impressions of waking experience;
Whereas, waking experience is independent of
Dream experience and its effects.
There is a kind of order or system
In the waking experiences,
At least, more than in dream.
Every day the same persons and things
Become the objects of waking experience.
There is a definite remembrance of
Previous days' experiences and of
Survival and continuity of personality
In waking experience.
The consciousness of this continuity,
Regularity and unity
Is absent in dream,
Dream is not well ordered,
While waking is comparatively systematic.
III
There are degrees of reality
In the experiences of the individual.
The three main degrees are
Subjective, Objective and Absolute.
Dream experience is subjective.
Waking experience is objective.
The realisation of Atman or Brahman
Is experience of the absolute Reality.
The individual is the subjective being
In comparison with the objective world.
The subject and the object have equal reality,
Though both these are negated in the Absolute.
The objective world is the field of waking experience
And, therefore, waking is relatively real.
But, dream is less real than waking
In as much as the direct contact
With the external world of waking experience
Is absent in dream.
Though there is an external world in dream also,
Its value is less than that of the world in waking.
Though the form of the dream world agrees with
That of the waking world,
In quality the dream world
Is lower than the waking world.
Space, time, motion and objects,
With the distinction of subject and object,
Are common to both waking and dreaming.
Even the reality they present
At the time of their being experienced
Is of a similar nature.
But, the difference lies in
The degree of reality manifested by them.
The Jiva feels that it is in a higher order of truth
In waking than in dreaming.
IV
The argument that is advanced
To prove the unreality of waking
Is that waking also is merely mind's play
Even as dream is mind's imagination.
But, the objects seen in dream
Are not imaginations of the dream subject
Which itself is one of the imaginary forms
That are projected in dream,
The dream subject is not in any way
More real than the dream objects.
They both have equal reality
And are equally unreal.
The dream subject and the dream object
Are both imaginations of the mind of Visva
Which synthesises the subject and objects in dream.
In like manner, the waking individual
Is not the cause of the objects seen by it,
For both these belong to the same order of reality.
Neither of them is more real than the other.
The virtues and the defects that characterise things
Are present in all subjects and objects
That are experienced in the waking state.
The subject and the objects in waking
Are both effects of the Cosmic Mind
Which integrates all the contents of the universe.
The Cosmic Mind has greater reality
Than the individual mind.
Thus the waking state is relatively
More real than the dreaming state.
V
It cannot be said that
Taijasa is related to Hiranyagarbha
In the same way as
Visva is related to Virat.
Taijasa has a negative experience
Characterised by fickleness, absence of clearness,
Lack of will power and cloudedness of intelligence.
To express with certain reservations,
The relation of Taijasa to Hiranyagarbha
Is something like that of minus two to plus two:
Whereas, Visva is to Virat
As minus one is to plus one.
As minus one has greater positive value
Than minus two,
And the distance between minus two and plus two
Is greater than that between
Minus one and plus one,
Visva has greater relative value than Taijasa,
And is more intimately connected with Virat
Than Taijasa with Hiranyagarbha.
Taijasa and Prajna are respectively
The parts of Hiranyagarbha and Isvara
Only as limited reflections with negative values
And not positively and qualitatively.
Otherwise Isvara would have been only
A huge mass of ignorance,
As he is depicted as the collective totality
Of all Prajnas whose native experience is a state of sleep
Where ignorance covers the existing consciousness.
Prajna and Isvara are like minus three and plus three,
And their relation is quite obvious.
As when a man stands on a river bank
And looks at his own reflection below,
That which is highest appears as lowest-
The original head is farthest from the reflected head,-
That which is lowest appears as highest-
The original feet are nearest to the reflected feet,-
In the same manner, Isvara,
Who is the highest among the manifestations of reality
And is omniscient and omnipotent
Is the positive counterpart
Of the negative sleeping experience
Of complete ignorance and absence of power.
Virat corresponds to the foot of the man
Standing on the bank of the river
And Visva to the reflected foot.
Visva is more consciously related to Virat
Than Taijasa to Hiranyagarbha
Or Prajna to Isvara,
As the foot is nearer to the reflected foot
Than the waist to the reflected waist
Or the head to the reflected head.
These illustrations show that
Waking is relatively more real
Than dream which has only a negative value.
The illustrations used here
Are to be taken in their spirit and not literally,
For, Visva, Taijasa and Prajna
Are not merely reflections
Of Virat, Hiranyagarbha and Isvara respectively,
But also their limitations
With qualities distorted
And experiences wrested from truth.
VI
As far as the manner of
Subjective experience is concerned,
It is true that what is within the mind
Is experienced as present in external objects.
But the objects themselves are not
Creations of the subjective mind.
There is a great difference between
Isvara-Srishti and Jiva-Srishti.
The existence of the objects
Belongs to Isvara-Srishti.
But the relation that exists between
The objects and the experiencing subject
Is Jiva-Srishti.
The Jiva is one of the contents of the Jagat
Which is Isvara-Srishti.
Hence, the Jiva cannot claim to be
The creator of the world,
Though it is the creator of
Its own subjective modes of
Psychological experience.
Waking experience is a perception.
Dream experience is a memory.
As perception precedes memory,
Waking precedes dream;
That is, dream is a remembrance
Of waking experiences
In the form of impressions.
To Brahman, the waking world is unreal.
But, to the individual or the Jiva
It is a relative fact
Lasting as long as
Individuality or Jivahood lasts.
VII
That the waking world has relative reality
Or Vyavaharika-Satta
Does not prove that it is real
In the absolute sense.
Comparatively waking is on a higher order
Than dream experiences,
For reasons already mentioned.
But, from the standpoint of the highest Reality,
Waking experience also is unreal.
As dream is transcended in the state of waking,
The world of waking too is transcended
In the state of Self-Realisation.
Both in waking and in dream
Objects are "perceived" or "seen"
As different from the subject.
The character of "being seen"
Is common to both kinds of experience.
There is subject-object-relationship
In waking as well as in dream.
This is the similarity between the two.
"Something is seen as an object" means
"Something is other than the Self".
The experience of the not-self is illusory,
For, if the not-self were real,
The Self would be limited and unreal.
The illusory experience of the not-self
Is common to both waking and dream.
In waking, the mind experiences through the senses;
In dream, the mind alone experiences.
In both the states, the mind alone experiences
Whether externally or internally.
Dream is transcended by waking.
Waking is transcended by TURIYA.
Hence, both dream and waking are contradicted.
Waking contradicts dream,
And dream contradicts waking.
When the one is, the other is not.
Neither of the two is continuously existent,
This proves the unreality of both.
II
Duality is not real,
Because duality is the opposite of eternity.
Without duality there is no perception.
Hence, anything that is perceived is unreal
Whether in dream or in waking.
Dream is real when there is no waking.
Waking is real when there is no dream.
Hence, both are unreal experiences.
They depend on one another for their existence.
One cannot say whether he is dreaming or waking
Without referring one state to another state.
Desires are the rulers of all experiences
In waking and also in dream.
Waking is physical functioning of desires,
Dream is mental functioning of desires.
The senses are moved by desires in waking.
The mind is moved by desires in dreaming.
Both the states are like flowing streams.
They do not persist forever in one state.
That which persists forever is real.
Dream and waking have a beginning and an end.
Change is the character of all perceived objects.
Change implies non-existence at the beginning
And also at the end.
That which does not exist at the beginning
And does not exist at the end
Does not exist in the middle also.
Therefore waking is unreal like dream.
III
It may be objected by some that
Waking is real, because it is the cause of dream,
And dream is not the cause of waking.
But this objection is without support.
If waking is a cause,
It must be real.
If it is real,
It must exist forever.
Waking itself is without reality,
For it does not exist always.
If the cause itself is unreal,
How can it produce a real effect?
Both these are unreal states.
One who eats bellyful in waking state
May feel hungry in the dream state
And vice versa.
Things appear to be real only
In a particular condition.
They are not real always,
That which is not always real
Is an appearance and so unreal.
IV
Anything that has got a form
Is unreal.
Forms are special modes of cognition and perception.
They are not ultimate.
In waking there are physical forms.
In dreaming there are mental forms.
Anyhow all are forms only
Limited in space and time.
A form lasts only so long
As that particular mental condition lasts;
When there is a different mental condition
The forms of experience also change.
This is why the form of the world vanishes
When Self-Realisation is attained.
V
Both in dreaming and waking
External perceptions are considered as real
And internal functions as unreal (i.e., they are ignored).
If in waking we make a distinction
Between real and unreal,
In dream also we do the same thing.
Dream is real as long as it lasts,
Waking also is real as long as it lasts.
Dream is unreal from the standpoint of waking,
And equally so is waking to the dreamer.
From the standpoint of the highest Truth,
Waking is as false as dream.
VI
It may be said that objects in waking state
Serve some definite purpose
And those of dream do not serve a purpose.
This argument is incorrect
Because, the nature of serving a purpose
Which is seen in objects of waking
Is contradicted by dream and vice versa.
The utility and objective worth
Of Things, states, etc. in waking
Are cancelled in the dream state,
Even as the conditions and experiences in dream
Are invalidated in waking.
Objects act as means to ends
Only in a particular condition
And not in all conditions.
The causal relationship of waking
Is rendered nugatory in dream, and vice versa.
The logical sequence of waking
Is valid to itself alone and not to dreaming.
So is dream valid to its own state.
Waking and dreaming have their own notions of propriety,
And each is stultified by the other,
Though each appears to be real to itself.
Thus, the validity of both the states
Is rejected.
VII
It may be contended that
Objects of dream are queer, fantastic and unnatural,
And, hence, waking cannot be like dream.
But the experiences in dream
However grotesque or abnormal,
Are not abnormal to the dreamer.
They appear fantastic only in
A different state, viz. waking.
One cannot say what is really fantastic
And what is normal and real.
The mind gives values to objects
And its conception of normality and abnormality
Changes according to the state in which it is.
There is no permanent standard
Of normality, beauty or decorum,
Either in waking or in dreaming,
Which may hold good for all times.
The dreamer has his own conception
Of space, time and causation,
Even as the waking one has his own notions.
One state is absurd when compared to the other.
This shows that both states are illogical
And, therefore, absurd from the highest standpoint.
VIII
The world of waking experience is unreal,
Because it is the imagination of the cosmic mind.
The fact that in Self-Realisation
There is absolute cessation of phenomenal experience
Shows that all phenomena are unreal.
External forms are the expressions
Of the internal Sankalpas or willing.
Therefore, external objects have no real value.
They appear to exist only
As long as the Sankalpas exist.
The senses externalise the internal ideas
And present them in the forms of objects.
When the Sankalpas are drawn within
The world of objective experience vanishes in toto.
The Infinite Subject, viz., the Self alone remains.
There is no such thing as
Externality and internality in reality.
The ego and the non-ego,
The subject as well as the object,
All are imaginations of the mind alone.
IX
It may be said that
Objects seen in waking are not
Mere mental imaginations,
Because the objects of waking experience
Are seen by other people also,
Whether or not one's mind cognises them.
But it is seen that
In the dream state also
Objects of experience are open to
The perception of other people,
Though the people as well as the objects
Are all subjective imaginations.
It may be said that in waking
We perceive through the sense-organs
And not merely through ideas.
But it is seen that in dream also
We perceive through the sense-organs
Belonging to the dream-state,
Which are not less real than those of waking state.
As dream is unreal,
Waking also must be unreal.
X
The objective world of waking experience
Cannot have independent existence,
Because it is relative to the subject
Which cognises or perceives it.
The object is called an object
Just because there is a perceiving subject.
Similarly, a subject is called a subject
Just because there is a perceived object.
Neither of the two is self-existent,
And, therefore, both prove themselves to be unreal.
Subject and object appear
In the form of cause and effect.
Without a cause there is no effect,
Without an effect nothing can be a cause;
The conception of causation itself is illogical.
The mind perceives and recognises objects
Only by relating one thing to another.
The whole world of perception
Is a bundle of unintelligible relationships
Which the mind tries to organise into cause and effects.
Further, there is no causation at all,
Because, cause and effect are continuous.
There cannot be a lapse of time
In which the cause remains unchanged.
If the cause can exist unchanged for some time,
There is no reason why it should change at any time at all.
Either there is continuous causation,
Or no causation at all.
If causation is continuous,
Cause and effect become identical,
Being inseparable from one another.
If they are identical,
It means there is no causation at all.
If there is no causation,
There is no world of experience also.
The whole causal scheme is illogical,
Because it either requires the existence
Of a first uncaused cause,
Or it itself is meaningless.
There is no meaning in saying that
There is a first uncaused cause,
For, thereby, we create a beginning for time.
If causation were real,
It would never be possible to get rid of it.
But Self-Realisation breaks the chain of causation.
Hence, causation is false,
And, consequently, the world of experience
Also is false.
As in dream also there is experience
Of the causal series,
The waking world is false like the dream world.
For the Ajnanis or the worldly-minded persons the sensual objects are
quite real. For the sages or those who are endowed with discrimination
and enquiry they are unreal.
Whatever you see is false. There is no doubt in this. The deer sees
water in the mirage when the sun is hot. They run towards the mirage
for drinking water. They do not find any water there. The boy runs to
take a piece of silver when there is bright sun. When he goes near the
silver he does not find any silver. He finds only the mother-of-pearl.
When a girl goes to bring water at night she sees a snake on her way
and gets frightened. She takes a light to see the snake but finds only
a rope. There is no snake there. A young man embraces a girl in his
dream and experiences actual discharge of semen. When he wakes up he
does not find a girl. You behold blueness in the sky. The sky appears
as a blue dome. When one moves in the aeroplane in the sky he does not
find any blue dome but the blue dome appears at a distance. Whatever
you see do not really exist. They are mere illusory appearances like
the objects in a dream. But the seer exists when the objects appear
and disappear.
In the dream state big mountains, elephants, cities, big rivers etc.
are seen within a minute Nadi called Hitanadi that is located in the
throat. There is no space in the minute Nadi for these big things to
remain there. Hence the dream objects are false or illusory. The objects
that appear in the waking state also are false.
In the dream you witness the events of several years within a few minutes.
Within a day of Brahma thousand Chaturyugas pass for us. Within the
day of a Deva six months pass for us. Within the time taken by a huge
mountain snake for a second meal, man takes his meals a hundred times.
Within the time taken by a child to develop itself in the womb, small
insects take time to generate crores of their progeny. A happy man spends
one night like a minute whereas a man who is drowned in grief spends
one night like several years. Hence time also does not appear to be
the same at all times for all. The objects that appear and perish in
time are illusory.
The thing seen by you in your dream is not seen in the same place and
in the same manner in the waking state. In the same manner one may say
that Mr. X is a good man. The same man appears as a bad man for another.
The objects seen in a dream do not exist correctly in the waking state.
The objects seen in the waking state appear different even in the waking
state also. In the dream state you do not recollect the things of the
waking state. You do not recollect the things in the dreaming state,
"I saw such and such objects in the waking state. I do not see them
now." Therefore the objects of the waking state are more false than
the objects of the dream. Srutis and sages declare that the objects
of the world are as false as the objects of the dream. They call the
world Deergha-Svapna or a long dream.
That which does not exist in the beginning and in the end does not
really exist in the middle also. It is unreal. The snake that is found
in the rope at night does not exist when a lamp is brought. It appears
in the middle only. Such is the case with silver in the mother-of-pearl,
water in the mirage, city in the clouds, etc. Therefore they are unreal
even when they appear. The dream objects also do not exist in the daytime.
Similarly the objects of this world appear in the middle only. Hence
they are unreal.
An objector says: "The food and drink that you take in the waking state
give you satisfaction. But hunger is not appeased by the food taken
in dream. Therefore the objects of the dream are false. The objects
of the waking state are true." A man who goes to sleep after taking
a sumptuous meal in the waking state suffers from the pangs of hunger
in the dream. He who enjoys a good feast in the dream becomes very hungry
as soon as he wakes up. Similarly the results of actions done in the
waking state are not seen in the dream and vice versa. Therefore, the
waking state is as false as dream.
An objector says, "A man dreams that he has four hands and that he
is flying in the air. Is this not false? Jagrat state is not like this.
Therefore it is true." A man obtains the birth of a Deva or animal or
a bird on account of his Karmas. He becomes Indra with thousand hands
in the waking state. He becomes a bird and flies in the air in the waking
state. He becomes animal with four legs, a centipede with hundred feet
or a snake without feet. Therefore waking state and dream state are
same. Just as in dream some objects are false, some are true, so also
in waking state some objects like the snake in the rope are false, some
like jar, cloth are true. The objects of the dream and waking state
are not so absolutely true as Atman or Brahman.
Just as you remove a thorn by a thorn, just as you remove the dirt
of the cloth by another dirt-the salt-earth, just as you cut the iron
by another iron only, so also you will have to take recourse to another
false object like a Guru or a God, though Atman or Brahman alone is
everything. A false object in the dream produces real fear and wakes
you up. Sometimes whatever you see in dream turns out to be true. An
unreal woman in dream causes a real discharge of semen. Although God
and Guru are not so real as Brahman, they are boats to help you to cross
this Samsara or ocean of births and deaths. Without their grace you
cannot attain immortality or eternal bliss.
Atma Svarup! Brahman alone is really existent. Jiva, world are false!
Kill this illusory egoism. The world is unreal when compared to Brahman.
It is a solid reality for a passionate worldly man, even as dreams are
real to the childish. The world does not exist for a Jnani or a Mukta.
In days of yore there were very able dyers in Marwar or Rajputana.
They would give seven colours to the sari or clothes of ladies. After
washing the cloth one colour will fade away. Another colour will shine.
After some washing a third colour will manifest in the cloth; then a
fourth colour and so on. Even so the mind is coloured when it associates
with the different objects of the world. When the mind is Sattvic, it
has white colour; when it is Rajasic, it is tinged with red colour;
when it is Tamasic it has a black colour.
The mind plays with the five senses of perception and gets experiences
in the waking state. The impressions are lodged in the causal body or
Karana Sarira. Ajnana or causal body is like a black sheet of cloth.
In it are contained the Samskaras of all your previous births.
The mind is ever rotating like a wheel. It receives the different sense-impressions
through the avenues of the senses.
In the dream state the doors or windows of the senses are shut. The
mind remains alone and plays. It is the subject and it is the object.
It projects various sorts of objects like mountains, rivers, gardens,
chariots, cars, etc., from its own body from the material collected
during the waking state. It manufactures curious mixtures and marvellous
combinations. Sometimes the experiences of the previous births that
are lodged in the causal body flash out during the dreaming state.
Remove the colouring of the mind through meditation on Atman. Do not
allow the mind to run into the sensual grooves. Fortify yourself by
developing the Vijnanamaya Kosha or intellect through Vichara or enquiry
of Brahman, reflection and contemplation. The Vijnanamaya Kosha will
serve the purpose of a strong fortress. It will not allow the sense-impressions
to be lodged in the causal body. It will not allow the impressions of
the causal body to come out. It will serve a double purpose.
You will be free from dreams through meditation on the Supreme Being
or Brahman when the colouring of the mind has been removed.
Brahma Jnanis or Sages have no dreams.
May you all attain the Turiya or the fourth state of eternal bliss,
which transcends the three states of waking, dream and deep sleep!
"The Purusha has only two abodes, this and the next world. The dream
state, which is the third is at the junction of the two. Abiding at
the junction he sees the two abodes, this and the next world. In proportion
the endeavour with which one is striving to obtain the place of the
other world does he accordingly see both suffering and bliss. When he
dreams he takes away a little of the impressions of this world which
consists of all elements (the waking state), himself puts the body aside
and himself creates a dream body in its place, revealing his own splendour
by his own light and dreams. In this state the Purusha himself becomes
unmingled light." (Bri. Up. IV.iii.9.)
"There are no chariots, nor horses to be yoked to them, nor roads there,
but he creates the chariots, horses and the roads. There are no pleasures,
joys or delights, but he creates the pleasures, joys and delights. There
are no tanks, no lakes or rivers there, but he creates the tanks, lakes
and rivers, for he is the agent." (Ibid. IV.iii.10.)
"The God-like Purusha who moves alone puts the body aside in the dream
state and himself awake and taking the shining functions of the organs
with him, watches those that are asleep. Again he comes to the waking
state." (Ibid. IV.iii.11.)
"The radiant Purusha who is immortal and moves alone, preserves the
unclean rest of the body by the power of the vital force and roams out
of the rest. Himself immortal, he proceeds where his desire leads him."
(Ibid. IV.iii.12.)
"In the dream world, the shining one attains higher and lower states
and assumes manifold forms. He seems to be enjoying himself in the company
of women or laughing or beholding fearful sights." (Ibid. IV.iii.13.)
"Everybody sees his sport but nobody sees him." They say, "Do not wake
him up suddenly". If the Purusha does not return to the waking state
through the same doors of the senses through which he entered into the
state of dream, if he re-enters in any other manner, then diseases are
produced such as blindness, deafness etc. which are difficult to be
cured. Some day indeed that the dream state of a man is the same as
his waking state as he sees in dreams only those things that he sees
in the waking state. This is not so because in the dream state the Purusha
becomes a self-shining light." (Ibid. IV.iii.14.)
"After enjoying himself and roaming and merely seeing the results of
the good and evil in dreams, he rests in a state of deep sleep. He comes
back in a reverse order to his former condition, the dream state. He
is not touched by whatever he beholds in that state, because the Purusha
is unattached." (Ibid. IV.iii.15.)
"After enjoying himself and wandering in the waking state and after
seeing what is holy and sinful, the results of good and evil, he proceeds
again in the reverse order to his former condition, the dream state
or the deep sleep." (Ibid. IV.iii.17.)
"Just as a large fish swims alternately to both the banks of the river,
the right and the left one or the Eastern and Western, so the Purusha
glides between both boundaries-the boundary of dream and the boundary
of the waking state." (Ibid. IV.iii.18.)
"In him are those Nadis called Hita, which are as fine as a hair split
into a thousand parts, and filled with white, blue, yellow, green and
red juice.
"Therefore all the objects of terror, which a man sees when awake,
are ignorance fancied by him in dream, when anybody seems to kill him,
sees to overpower him, an elephant seems to put him to fight when he
falls into a pit. Again when he seems to be conscious, "I am God. I
am King. I am even all this," he has attained the highest peace.
"When the individual soul is in the state of dream, he becomes an Emperor
as it were or a noble Brahmana as it were, or attains states high or
low, as it were. Just as an Emperor, taking his followers, moves about
as he pleases, so does the soul, taking the organs move about as he
pleases in his own body. (Ibid. II.i.18.)
"Because in dream the dreamer does not actually do what is holy or
evil; he is not chained by either; for good or evil actions and their
consequences are not imputed to the mere spectator for them.
"Having in that dream enjoyed pleasure, wandered about and seen what
is holy and sinful, he proceeds again in the reverse order to the place
of birth, to the waking state. He is not chained by what he sees there,
for, Purusha is untouched." (Ibid. IV.3.16.)
(Prasna Up. IV-1 to 9)
Then Gargya the grandson of Surya questioned Pippalada:
"O Bhagavan! What are they that sleep in man? What wake in him? Which
is the Deva who sees dreams? Whose is this bliss? On what do all these
depend?"
Pippalada replied: O Gargya! Just as the rays of the sun, when setting,
become one in that disc of light and come forth again when the sun rises
again, so all of these become one in the highest Deva-the mind. Therefore,
at that time, that man does not hear, see, smell, taste, feel, does
not speak, nor take, nor enjoy, nor evacuate, nor move; they say 'he
sleeps'.
The fires of Prana alone are awake in the city (body). The Apana is
the Garhapatya fire. Vyana is the Anvaharya-pachana fire. The Prana
is the Ahavaniya fire, because it is taken out of Garhapatya fire.
Because the Samana distributes equally the oblations, the inspiration
and expiration, he is the priest (Hotri). The mind is the sacrifice,
the Udana is the reward of the sacrifice; he leads the sacrifices every
day (in deep sleep to Brahman).
In this state, this Deva (mind) enjoys in dream his greatness. What
has been seen, he sees again, what has been heard, he hears again, what
has been enjoyed in different countries and quarters, he enjoys again.
What has been seen and not seen, heard and not heard, experienced and
not experienced, real and unreal, he sees all; he being all, sees.
When he is overpowered by light, then that God (mind) sees no dreams
and at that time the bliss arises in this body.
Just as, O beloved one, birds repair to a tree to roost (dwell), so
indeed all this rests in the Supreme Atman.
The earth and the subtle elements, the water and its subtle elements,
the fire and its subtle elements, the air and its subtle elements, Akasa
and its subtle elements, the eye and what can be seen, the ear and what
can be heard, the nose and what can be smelt, taste and what can be
tasted, touch and its objects, speech and its objects, the hands and
what can be grasped, the feet and what can be walked, the organ of generation
and what is to be enjoyed, the organ of excretion and what must be excreted,
the mind and what must be thought of, the intellect and what must be
determined, egoism and its object, Chitta and its object, light and
its object, Prana and what is to be supported by it-(all these rest
in the Supreme Atman in deep sleep.)
It is he who sees, feels, hears, smells, tastes, thinks, knows; he
is the doer, the intelligent soul, the Purusha. He dwells in the highest,
indestructible Self.
(From Mandukyopanishad-4)
The second quarter is the Taijasa whose sphere or field or place is
dream, who is conscious of internal objects, who has seven limbs and
nineteen mouths and who enjoys the subtle objects.
During dream, the mind creates various kinds of objects out of the
impressions produced by the experiences of the waking state. The mind
reproduces the whole of its waking life in dream through the force of
Avidya (ignorance), Kama (desire or imagination) and Karma (action).
The mind is the perceiver and the mind itself is the perceived in the
dream. The mind creates the objects without the help of any external
means. It creates various curious, fantastic mixtures. You may witness
in the dream that your living father is dead, that you are flying in
the air. You may see in the dream a lion with the head of an elephant,
a cow with the head of a dog. The desires that are not satisfied during
the waking state are gratified in the dream. Dream is a mysterious phenomenon.
It is more interesting than the waking state.
Svapna or dream is that state during which Atman (Taijasa) experiences
through the mind associated with the Vasanas of the waking condition,
sound and other objects which are of the form of the Vasanas created
for the time being, even in the absence of the gross sound and the others.
Like a businessman tired of worldly acts, in the waking state the individual
soul strives to find the path to retire into his abode within. The Svapna
Avastha is that in which when the senses are at rest, there is the manifestation
of the knower and the known along with the affinities (Vasanas) of things
enjoyed in the waking state. In this state Visva alone, his actions
in the waking state having ceased, reaches the state of Taijasa (of
Tejas, effulgence or essence of light), who moves in the middle of the
Nadis (nerves), illuminates by his lustre, the heterogeneity of the
subtle dream world which is the form of Vasanas (affinities), and himself
enjoys according to his wish.
Sutratman or Hiranyagarbha, under the orders of Isvara, having entered
the microcosmic subtle body and having Manas (mind) as his vehicle,
reaches the Taijasa state. Then he goes by the names of Taijasa, Pratibhasika
and Svapnakalpita (the one bred out of dream).
The dreamer creates the world of his own in the dreaming state. Mind
alone works independently in this state. The senses are withdrawn into
the mind. The senses are at rest. Just as a man withdraws himself from
the outside world, closes the door and windows of his room and works
within the room, so also the mind withdraws itself from the outside
world and plays in the dream world with the Vasanas and Samskaras and
enjoys objects made up of fine or subtle ideas which are the products
of desire. Dream is a mere play of the mind only. The mind itself projects
all sorts of subtle objects from its own body through the potentiality
of impressions of the waking state (Vasanas) and enjoys these objects.
Therefore there is a very subtle experience by Taijasa in the form of
Vasanas only, whereas the experience of the waking state by Visva is
gross.
You will find in Brihadaranyaka Upanishad IV-iii-9, "He sleeps full
of the impressions produced by the varied experience of the waking state
and experiences dreams. He takes with him the impressions of the world
during the waking state, destroys and builds them up again and experiences
dream by his own light." The Atharvana-veda says, "All these are in
the mind. They are experienced or cognised by the Taijasa." The experiencer
of the dream state is called Taijasa, because he is entirely of the
essence of light.
Just as pictures are painted on the canvas, so also the impressions
of the waking state are painted in the canvas-mind. The pictures on
the canvas seem to possess various dimensions though it is on a plane
surface only. Even so, though the dream-experiences are really states
of the mind only, the experiencer experiences internality and externality
in the dream world. He feels while dreaming that the dream world is
quite real.
Pravivikta: Pra-differentiated; vivikta-from
the objects of the state. The objects perceived in the waking state
have an external reality common to all beings, whereas the objects perceived
in the dreams are revivals of impressions received in the waking state
and have an external reality only to the dreamer.
Antahprajna: Inward consciousness; the experiencer
is conscious of the dream world only. Pravivikta or subtle is that which
manifests itself in dreams, being impressions of objects perceived in
the waking state. The state of consciousness by which these subtle objects
are perceived is called Antahprajna or inner perception. The impressions
of the waking state remain in the mind, which independent of the senses
are perceived in the dream. The mind is more internal than the senses.
The dreamer is conscious of the mental states which are the impressions
left in the mind by the previous Jagrat Avastha or waking state. Hence
it is called Antah-prajna.
The microcosmic aspect of Atman in the subtle or mental state is called
Taijasa and His macrocosmic aspect is known as Hiranyagarbha. Just as
Virat is one with Visva in the waking state, so also Taijasa is one
with Hiranyagarbha in the dreaming state.
Subodha was born in a Brahmin family in the ancient capital of Indraprastha.
He was leading a pure life. He was second to none in learning. He was
piety and compassion incarnate. He had every virtue that could be desired.
He was highly charitable and God-minded. He was a Godly personality.
He was God living on earth. He was a perfect celibate.
One fine day Subhoda took a refreshing bath, had a sumptuous meal.
It was midday on a midsummer. It was terribly sultry. He felt exhausted
and leaned against a low couch. He felt drowsy and fell into the state
of dream. In his dream he became the son of the King of Kasi. He grew
up to the age of 12. His father, the king of Kasi educated him in all
the Vidyas suitable to a Prince. The prince was named Priyadarshi. Prince
Priyadarshi soon picked up all the arts, archery etc. The king of Kasi
prepared the marriage of his son in proper time. Prince Priyadarshi
was installed on the throne and the king retired. Priyadarshi ruled
the country justly and wisely.
One day King Priyadarshi went on a hunting expedition with a retinue
of followers. He had a very good game. He was extremely tired. His retinue
had fallen back. He was far away from them. He tied the horse to a tree.
He went to a hut and demanded water for drinking. A beautiful lady equal
in beauty to a celestial damsel brought a glassful of water. The king
was enchanted by the beauty of the lady. He wanted to marry her. The
father of the woman also agreed on condition that he remained with them
and gave half of his wealth in return. The king agreed.
The king took the newly wedded wife to the kingdom. She turned to be
a wretched woman. She ill-treated every one. She led the king into all
evil ways which the king was not at all habituated to. He led a very
loose life. He became very unpopular in the country. He was disliked
by all because he never cared for the welfare of the people. All the
day and night he was engaged in the company of the wicked new queen.
He had many sons and daughters by his new wife. He led a despicable
life in her company.
One night King Priyadarshi retired to his bedchamber after a long day
of dissipation and sensuous revelling. He laid himself upon the bed
soon and sank into a sound slumber. King Priyadarshi dreamt that his
death took place and people were carrying his dead body. He then found
himself reborn in the house of a Bania. The Bania was a wine seller.
He too took the profession and led the life of a wine seller throughout
his life. One day he drank plenty of wine. He fell into drunkard stupor.
In that condition he dreamt that he was born as a Sudra in the country
of Usinara. He served the King of Usinara as a stable keeper. The whole
life he was tending the horses. One night he dreamt that he was born
as Chandala and was leading the life as such. One day he went to the
forest to collect fuel. He was attacked by a tiger. He shrieked and
woke up to find himself to be once again Subhoda, the Brahmin leaning
on his couch.
Subhoda clearly and vividly perceived his various lives as King Priyadarshi,
as the son of a Bania, as a Sudra and as a Chandala. He lived several
lives. All these he experienced in one single dream.
O Man! You are like Subhoda. Just as Subhoda shrieked when the tiger
attacked him you are also now under the painful agony of your present
life. You find everywhere selfishness, crookedness, wars and calamities.
There is no food to eat. There is no peace of mind. You are entangled
in the meshes of Maya and Tamas. You are lazy and lethargic. You are
sometimes fed up with life. Sometimes you even want to commit suicide
when you are placed in acute suffering in your private and public life.
You find your ambitions are shattered. You fall in evil company. You
spoil your life and youth. You have endless desires.
Friend, tell me frankly: "How long you want to remain in this state
of abject ignorance and suffering"? Wake up. Gird up your loins. Become
a Yogi. You are not this physical body. You have nothing to do with
suffering. Shake of this lethargy. Open your eyes. Enough of your long
slumber. Wake up! Wake up to the Reality! Now it is Brahmamuhurtha,
the dawn of glorious future! Sleep no more. Identify yourself with the
real spirit within. You will no more be tormented by agony and misery.
Rise up in the ladder of Yoga. Follow the instructions of the ancient
seers and sages. Practise Namasmarana. Give up vanity. Be humble and
simple. Lead a life of purity, goodness and nobility. You will shine
as a dynamic Yogi!
May you bring light, joy and peace to the Whole world! May you become
Immortal!
Raja Janaka ruled over the country of Videha. He was once reclining
on a sofa. It was the middle of the day in the hot month of June. He
had a short nap for a few seconds. He dreamt that a rival king with
a large army had invaded his country and slew his soldiers and ministers.
He was driven out of his palace barefooted and without any clothes covering
him.
Janaka found himself roaming about in a jungle. He was thirsty and
hungry. He reached a small town where he begged for food. No one paid
any attention to his entreaties. He reached a place where some people
were distributing food to the beggars. Each beggar had an earthen bowl
to receive rice water. Janaka had no bowl and so they turned him out
to bring a bowl. He went in search of a vessel. He requested other beggars
to lend him a bowl, but none would part with his bowl. At last Janaka
found a broken piece of a bowl. Now he ran to the spot where rice water
was distributed. All the foodstuff had been already distributed.
Raja Janaka was very much tired on account of long travelling, hunger
and thirst and heat of the summer. He stretched himself near a fireplace
where foodstuff was cooked. Here some one took pity over Janaka. He
gave him some rice water which was found at the bottom of a vessel.
Janaka took it with intense joy and just as he put it to his lips, two
large bulls tumbled fighting over him. The bowl was broken to pieces.
The Raja woke up with great fear.
Janaka was trembling violently. He was in a great dilemma as to which
of his two states was real. All the time he was in dream, he never thought
that it was an illusion and that the misery of hunger and thirst and
his other troubles were unreal.
The queen asked Janaka, "O Lord! What is the matter with you?" The
only words which Janaka spoke were, "Which is real, this or that?" From
that time he left all his work and became silent. He uttered nothing
but the above words.
The ministers thought that Janaka was suffering from some disease.
It was announced by them that anyone who cured the Raja will be richly
rewarded and those who fail to cure the Raja will be made life prisoners.
Great physicians and specialists began to pour in and tried their luck,
but no one could answer the query of the Raja. Hundreds of Brahmins
well versed in the science of curing diseases were put in the state
prison.
Among the prisoners was also the father of the great sage Ashtavakra.
When Ashtavakra was a boy of only ten years of age, he was told by his
mother that his father was a state prisoner because he failed to cure
Raja Janaka. He at once started to see Janaka. He asked the Raja if
he desired to hear the solution of his questions in a brief and few
words as the question itself is put or full details of his dream experience
may be recited. Janaka did not like to have his humiliating dream repeated
in presence of a big gathering. He consented to receive a brief answer.
Ashtavakra then whispered into the ear of Janaka, "Neither this nor
that is real." Raja Janaka at once became joyful. His confusion was
removed.
Raja Janaka then asked Ashtavakra, "What is real?" There upon there
was a long dialogue between him and the sage. This is recorded in the
well-known book, "Ashtavakra Gita," which is highly useful for all seekers
after Truth.
Men of knowledge have declared the unreality of everything that is
seen in the dream, because all these objects of the dream are located
within the body and exist in a confined space.
All these entities like mountains, elephants etc., are seen in the
dream only inside the body. Therefore, they cannot be real.
And on account of the shortness of the time, it is impossible for the
dreamer to go out of the body and perceive the objects of dream. And
when the dreamer wakes up, he does not find himself in the place even
in the dream. It is not a fact that all that is seen in the dream can
be situated in a limited space. And a man sleeping in the east, very
often feels himself as it were, experiencing dreams in the north. As
soon as a man falls asleep he begins to dream objects, as it were, at
a place hundreds of miles away from his body, which he can reach only
after a month or so in the waking state. His going to such a long distance
and coming back to his body within half a day (one night) is not a fact.
Hence this is unreal that he goes out of the body. He dreams of some
place but he wakes up in another place where he slept the previous day.
Though a man goes to sleep at night he feels as if he is seeing objects
in the daytime and meeting many persons in the broad daylight. But this
meeting is found to be false. Therefore the dream is a falsity.
The Sruti declares the illustration of the state of dream, by saying,
"there are no chariots" etc. This assertion is based on reason.
Moreover the different objects perceived in the dream are unreal even
though they are perceived to exist. For the same reason the objects
of the waking state are illusory. The nature of the objects is not different
in the waking and the dreaming states. The only difference is in the
limitation of space connected with the object. The fact of being
seen is commonly illusory in both states.
Further, the waking and dreaming states are same since the objects
perceived in both states are same. That which is non-existent at the
beginning and also non-existent in the end, is necessarily non-existent
in the middle. The objects we see are thus only illusions, though we
regard them as real, due to our ignorance of the Reality of the Atman.
The objects used as means to some and or purpose in the waking state
are contradicted in the dream state. A man in the waking state, eats
and drinks and appeases his hunger and is free from thirst. But when
he goes to sleep, he finds himself in dream again afflicted with hunger
and thirst as if he has not taken food and drink for days together.
And the contrary also happens and is found to be true. A person who
has taken full meal and drink in the dream finds himself afflicted with
hunger and thirst as soon as he wakes up from sleep. Hence we establish
the illusoriness of the objects of both the waking and the dreaming
states.
The objects perceived in dream are all usually, met with in the waking
state, and those which are not met with in the waking state own their
existence to the peculiar conditions or circumstances in which his mind
is working for the time being. Just as Indra, etc., who reside in heaven
have thousand eyes, etc., on account of their existence in heaven, so
also there are the abnormal peculiar features of the dreamer due to
the peculiar conditions of the state of dream. All these objects are
but the imaginations of his own mind. It is just like the case of a
person in the waking state, who, while going to another country sees
on the way objects belonging to the place. Just as snake in the rope
and mirage in the desert are unreal and are mere mental imaginations,
so are the objects of dream and waking experience.
In the dream state also those which are mere modifications of the mind
cognised within are illusory. For, those internal objects vanish the
moment they are perceived. Objects perceived outside are considered
as real. Similarly in the waking state objects known as real and mental
imaginations should be considered as unreal. Objects, both external
and internal, are mere creations of the mind whether it is in the dream
or in the waking state.
As some dreams are indicative of future good or bad fortunes, it is
impossible for the individual to dream a good or a bad dream according
to his own choice, he, being in his present state of bondage, ignorant
of the future. The individual soul, in his emancipated state, can certainly
exercise his will for the creation of vision in dreams; but the power,
in the state of his bondage, remains eclipsed by the superior will of
the Universal Soul, who directs his actions according to the merits
and demerits of his past conduct; and the suppression of his power is
due to his being encaged in the body.
The creation in dream is all the doing of the Universal soul; as it
is of a strange and illusive character, being not entirely true, nor
entirely untrue; and as such, it cannot be done by the individual soul,
for his essential characteristics including creative powers, in the
present state of bondage, are as yet unrealised; as he is limited and
conditioned, his inherent powers cannot have full play; and therefore
it is not possible for him to create the strange things of dream.
So the Universal Soul is the creator of dreams and not the individual
soul; for had it been possible for him to shape his dreams, he would
never have dreamt a bad dream, but would always have dreamt only propitious
ones.
Chuang Tze, a Chinese Philosopher, once dreamt that he was a butterfly.
On waking, he said to himself, "Now, am I a man dreaming that I am a
butterfly, or am I a butterfly thinking that I am a man?"
One night when Chuang Tze lay in bed,
He dreamed he was a butterfly,
Then waking himself he said,
To solve this problem now I'll try;
Am I a man I've wondered long,
Or butterfly that thinks I'm Chuang?
I
Dreams and Death are rock foundations of all philosophy. Dream world
is totally different from the waking world. But some facts are strikingly
common to both. (1) Sometimes we have a dream within a dream. (2) During
sleep, sometimes we are conscious of the fact that we are asleep and
we are dreaming. (3) In dreams more often than not we assume a body
that is the master of the dream world. (4) Sometimes we feel extremely
helpless amidst the facts of the dream world. We cry and we weep to
the extent that the physiological system is affected. From these facts
of common experience some conclusions can be drawn. It will be readily
conceded: (a) that cognitive, connotive and affective processes are
as much owned by dream personality as by the personality of the waking
subjects; (b) that in the handling of the facts of the dream world,
reason operates subject to the laws of the dream world in the same manner
as it operates in the physical world subject to the laws of physics.
Since the law of the two worlds widely differ, the fruits of the operations
of reason must be necessarily different, e.g., Reason helps the man
to cross the ocean in the dream by bodily flight in the air; it can
never suggest the same thing in the physical world. Such a suggestion
would belong to the realm of imagination in the waking world;
(c) that Introspection brings even to the dream personality (d) that
there is some sort of interaction between the dream personality and
the psychological waking self that in its turn affects that physiological
system and finally (e) in connection with the foregoing interaction,
it must be noted that it is the mind-stuff that makes interaction possible.
The facts of the two worlds although very much similar have no line
of continuity except through the medium of the mind stuff. Thus however
much we may know about the facts of the different worlds, there must
remain discontinuity between the two worlds and unless we have discovered
the common continuum i.e. the mind stuff.
II
When you dream you see the events of fifty years within an hour. You
actually feel that fifty years have passed. Which is correct, the time
of one hour of waking consciousness or the fifty years of dreaming consciousness?
Both are correct. The waking state and the dreaming state are of the
same quality of nature. They are equal (Samana). The only difference
is that the waking state is a long dream or Deergha Svapna.
In dream the Samskaras of your previous births, which are imbedded
in your Karana Sarira (causal body), will assume forms and become dream
picture.
III
The difference between the waking and the dreaming states consists
in this, that in the waking condition the mind depends on the outwards
impressions, while in the dreaming state it creates its impressions
and enjoys them. It uses, of course, the materials of the waking state.
Jagrat is a long dream state only (Deergha Svapna).
Manorajya (building castles in the air), recollection of the events
and things of dream, recollection of things long past in the waking
state all are Svapna Jagrat (Dreaming in the waking state).
When the mind enters the Hita Nadi which proceeds from the heart and
surrounds the great membrane round the heart, which is as thin as a
hair divided into thousand parts and is filled with the minute essence
of various colours of white, black, yellow and red, the individual soul
or Jiva (ego) experiences the state of dream (Svapna Avastha).
You dream that you are a king. You enjoy various kinds of royal pleasures.
As soon as you wake up, everything vanishes. But you do not feel for
the loss because you know that the dream creatures are all false. Even
in the waking consciousness if you are well established in the idea
that the world is a false illusion, you will not get any pain.
When you know the real Tattva (Brahman) the waking consciousness also
will become quite false like a dream. Wake up and realise! my child.
There is temperamental difference. Some rarely get dreams. A Jnani
who has knowledge of the Self will have no dreams.
During dream you see splendid, effulgent light. Where does it come
from? From Atman. The light that is present in the dream clearly indicates
that Atman is self-luminous (Svayam Jyoti, Sva Prakasa).
When modified by the impressions which the external objects have left,
it (the Jiva) sees dreams.
In dream state the senses are quiet and absorbed in the mind. The mind
alone operates in a free and unfettered manner. The mind itself assumes
the various forms of bee, flower, mountain, elephant, horse, river etc.
The seer and the seen are one.
Abuse: There may be a dispute between you and the person with
whom you do business. Take heed and be not slack in your attentions.
Accident: Personal afflictions may be inevitable. But you will
remove soon from the trouble.
Accuse: This is a sign of great trouble. You will acquire riches
by your own personal efforts.
Adultery: Troubles are approaching. Your prospects may be blasted.
Despair will catch hold of you.
Advancement: A sign of success in all that you undertake.
Advocate: A dream that you are an advocate indicates that you
will be prominent in future. You will win universal respect.
Affluence: This is not a favourable dream. It is indicatory
of poverty.
Anger: The person with whom you are angry is your best friend.
Ass: All your great troubles, in spite of despairing circumstances,
will end in ultimate success after much struggle and suffering.
Baby: If you are nursing a baby, it denotes sorrow and misfortune.
If you see a baby that is sick, it means that somebody among your relatives
will die.
Bachelor: Dreaming of a bachelor tells that you will shortly,
meet with a friend.
Bankrupt: This is a dream of warning lest you should undertake
something undesirable for you and also injurious to yourself. Be cautious
in your transactions.
Battle: To dream of being in a battle means quarrel with neighbours
or friends in a serious manner.
Beauty: To dream that you are beautiful indicates that you will
become ugly with sickness and that you will become weak in body. Increasing
beauty indicates death.
Birds: To see birds flying are very unlucky; it denotes sorrowful
setback in circumstances. Poor persons may become better especially
if they hear birds sing.
Birth: For unmarried women to dream of giving of birth to children,
is indicative of inevitable unchastity. For married women it indicates
happy confinement.
Blind: To dream of the blind is a sign that you will have no
real friends.
Boat: To sail in a boat or ship on smooth waters is lucky. On
rough waters, it is unlucky. To fall into water indicates great peril.
Books: To dream of books is an auspicious sign. Your future
life will be very agreeable. Woman dreaming of books will get a son
of eminent learning.
Bread: You will succeed in earthly business pursuits. Eating
good bread indicates good health and long life. Burnt bread is a sign
of funeral and so is bad.
Bride, Bridegroom: This dream is an unlucky one. It indicates
sorrow and disappointment. You will mourn at the death of some relative.
Bugs: This indicates sure sickness. Many enemies are seeking
to injure you.
Butter: Good dream. Joy and feasting. Sufferings terminate quickly.
Camel: Heavy burdens will come upon you. You will meet with
heavy disasters. But you will bear with heroism.
Cat: This is a bad dream. This indicates treachery and fraud.
Killing a cat indicates discovery of enemies.
Cattle: You will become rich and fortunate. Black and big-horned
cattle indicate enemies of a violent nature.
Children: See Birth.
Clouds: Dark clouds indicate great sorrows that have to be passed
through. But they will pass away if the clouds are moving or breaking
away.
Corpse: Vision of a corpse indicates a hasty and imprudent engagement
in which you will be unhappy.
Cow: Milking cow is a sign of riches. To be pursued by a cow
indicates an overtaking enemy.
Crow: This indicates a sorrowful funeral ceremony.
Death: This indicates long life. But a sick person dreaming
of death has the positive results.
Desert: Travelling across a desert shows the inevitability of
a long and tedious journey. Accompaniment of sunshine indicates successful
journey.
Devil: It is high time for you to mend yourself. Great evil
may come to you. You must pursue virtue.
Dinner: If you are taking your dinner, it foretells great difficulties
where you will be in want of meals. You will be uncomfortable. Enemies
will try to injure your character. You should be careful about those
whom you are confiding.
Disease: If a sick person dreams of disease it means recovery
from the same. To young men it is a warning against evil company and
intemperance.
Earthquake: This foretells that great trouble is going to come,
loss in business, bereavement and separation. Family ties are broken
by death-quarrels in family and fear everywhere, heart breaking agony
and disaster from all sides.
Eclipse: Hopes are eclipsed. Death is near. Enjoyment may be
put an end to. There is no use of dotting on the wife, for life is coming
to an end. The friend is a traitor. All expectations will bear no fruit.
Elephant: Good health, success, strength, prosperity, intelligence.
Embroidery: Those persons who love you are not true to their
salt. They will deceive you.
Famine: National prosperity and individual comfort. Much enjoyment.
A dream of contrary.
Father: Father loves you. If the father is dead, it shows a
sign of affliction.
Fields: Very great prosperity. To walk in green fields shows
great happiness and wealth. Everything happens good. Scorched fields
denote poverty.
Fighting: Quarrels in families. Misunderstanding among lovers,
if not temporary separation. A bad dream for merchants, soldiers and
sailors.
Fire: Health and great happiness, kind relations and warm friends.
Floods: Successful trade, safe voyage for traders. But to ordinary
persons it indicates bad health and unfavourable circumstances.
Flowers: Gathering beautiful flowers is an indication of prosperity.
You will be very fortunate in all your undertakings.
Frogs: These creatures are not harmful. This dream therefore
is not unfavourable. It denotes success.
Ghost: This is a very bad omen. Difficulties will be overwhelming.
Terrible enemies will overpower you.
Giant: Great difficulty to be encountered. But meet it with
boldness. Then it will vanish. This indicates that you will have an
enemy of the most dreadful character.
Girl (unmarried): Success, auspiciousness will come over you.
Hopes will be fulfilled.
God: This is a rare dream which few people experience. Great
success and elevation.
Grave: Some friend or relative will die. Recovery from illness
doubtful.
Hanging: If you are hung, it is good to you. You will rise in
society, and become wealthy.
Heaven: The remainder of your life will be spiritually happy,
and your death will be peaceful.
Hell: There will be bodily suffering and also mental agony.
Great suffering due to enemies and death of relatives, etc.
Home: To dream of home-life in early boyhood indicates good
health and prosperity. Good sign of progress.
Husband: Your wish will not be granted. If you fall in love
with another woman's husband, it indicates that you are growing vicious.
Ill: To dream that you are ill shows that you will have to fall
a victim to some temptation, which, if you do not resist, will injure
your character.
Injury: If you are injured by somebody else, it means that there
are enemies to destroy you. Beware of them. Change of locality is desirable.
Itch: This is an unlucky dream. Denotes much difficulty and
trouble. You will be unhappy.
Jail: If you dream that you are in jail it indicates that in
life you will prosper. This is a dream of contrary.
Journey: This indicates that there will be a great change in
conditions and circumstances. Good journey indicates good conditions
and bad journey with troubles indicates a bad life.
King: To appear before a friendly king is a sign of great success,
and before a cruel king is very unfavourable.
Lamp: Very favourable dream. Very happy life. Family peaceful.
This dream is always of good signs.
Learning: You will attain influence and respect. Good omen to
dream that you are learning and acquiring knowledge.
Leprosy: To dream that you have leprosy always indicates a very
great future misfortune. Perhaps you have committed some crime to be
severely punished by law. You will have many enemies.
Light: To dream of lights is very good. It denotes riches and
honour.
Limbs: Breakage of limbs indicates breakage of a marriage vow.
Lion: This dream indicates greatness, elevation and honour.
You will become very important among men. You will become very powerful
and happy.
Money: Receiving money in dream denotes earthly prosperity.
Giving of it denotes ability to give money.
Mother: If you dream that you see your mother and converse with
her, it indicates that you will have prosperity in life. To dream that
you have lost your mother indicates her sickness.
Murder: To dream that you have murdered somebody denotes that
you are going to become very bad and wretched, vicious and criminal.
Nectar: To drink nectar in dream indicates riches and prosperity.
You will be beyond your expectations. You will marry a handsome person
in high life and live in great state.
Nightmare: You are guided by foolish persons. Beware of such
people.
Noises: To dream of hearing noises indicates quarrels in family
and much misery in life.
Ocean: The state of life will be as the ocean is perceived to
be in dream, viz., calm and peaceful life when the ocean is calm and
troublesome life when the ocean is stormy, etc.
Office: If you dream that you are turned out of the office it
means that you will die or lose all property. This is a very bad dream
for all people.
Owl: Denotes sickness and poverty, disgrace and sorrow. After
dreaming of an owl, one need not have any hope of prosperity in life.
Palace: To live in a palace is a good omen. You will be elevated
to a state of wealth and dignity.
Paradise: This is a very good dream. Hope of immortality and
entrance into Paradise. Cessation of sorrows. Happy and healthy life.
Pigs: This indicates a mixture of good and bad luck. You will
have great troubles but you will succeed. Many enemies are there, but
there are some who will help you.
Prison: This is a dream of contrary. Indicates freedom and happiness.
Rain: This foretells trouble especially when it is heavy and
boisterous. Gentle rain is a good dream indicating happy and calm life.
River: Rapid and flowing muddy river indicates great troubles
and difficulties. But a river with calm glassy surface foretells happiness
and love.
Ship: If you have a ship of your own sailing on the sea, it
indicates advancement in riches. A ship that is tossed in the ocean
and about to sink indicates disaster in life.
Singing: This is a dream of contrary. It indicates weeping and
grief. Much suffering.
Snakes: You have sly and dangerous enemies who will injure your
character and state of life.
Thunder: Great danger in life. Faithful friends will desert
you. Thunder from a distance indicates that you will overcome troubles.
Volcano: Quarrels and disagreements in life.
Water: This indicates birth (of some person).
Wedding: This indicates that there is a funeral to be witnessed
by you. To dream that you are married indicates that you will never
marry. Marriage of sick persons indicates their death.
Young: To dream of young persons indicates enjoyment. If you
are young, it indicates your sickness. You may die quickly.
