WHY DO WE DREAM? Why do we dream? Various answers have been givento this question. Dreams are nothing but a reflection of our waking experiencein a new form. An article long back storedin my memory device is posted today. I have read and posted. Some referencestold are not clear to me.
Sincerely, GopalaKrishnan 2-6-2021 The medical view is that dreams are due to some organicdisturbances somewhere in the body, but more particularly in thestomach. Sometimes coming diseases appear in dreams. Dreams are partial gratification of thewishes. They relieve the mental tension and thus enable us to enjoy repose. They are safety valves to strongimpulsions. You will know your animal-self in dream. All dreams are affairs of mere seconds.Within ten seconds you will experience dreams wherein the events of severalyears happen. Whatever appears in the dream world isthe reproduction of the waking world. It is not only the reproduction of theobjects seen, experienced or dealt with in the present life, but it may be thereproduction of objects seen, experienced or dealt with in any former life inthe present world. Therefore the dream world cannot be said tobe independent of the waking world. If you touch the dreamers’ chest with thepoint of a pin, he may dream that some one has given him a severe blow on hisbody or stabbed him with a dagger. No one has known himself truly who has notstudied his dreams. The study of dreams shows how mysterious isour soul A dream is like a letter written in an unknown language. Svapna is the dreamingstate in which man enjoys the five objects of senses and all the senses are atrest and the mind alone works. Mind itself is thesubject and the object. It creates all dream-pictures. One derives more pleasure in dream than inthe waking state when he experiences pleasant dreams because the mind worksmore freely in dream. If you havemade arrangements to go to Bombay in the morning of 30th April, youmay experience a dream on the night of 29th itself that you arepurchasing a ticket at the station and entering the train and some friends havecome on the platform of Bombay station to receive you. The strong thoughts of the waking statefind expression at once in the dreaming state. A dream is not an entirely new experience,because most often it is the memory of past experiences. The dreamer is not affected by whateverresult of the good and evil he sees in the dream state. My note- Unless he fears a bad dream would surelyoccur No one regards himself a sinner on accountof the sins committed in dreams. People who have heard of them do not condemnor shun them. Hence he is not touched by them. Doctors say, “Do not wake him up suddenlyor violently”, because they see that in dreams the self goes out ofthe body of the waking state through the gates of the organs and remainsisolated outside. If the self is violently aroused it may not find those gatesof the organs Smriti alsosays, “When thesenses being at rest, the mind not being at rest, is occupied with the objects,know that state to be a dream.” Dreams,though of a strange and illusory nature, are a good index of the high or lowspiritual and moral condition of the dreamer He,who has a pure heart and untainted character, will never get impure dreams Everybody knows 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 thatdreams; and when the brain is refreshed, it is the body that wakes up aftersound sleep. The metaphysicians and the spiritualistshold 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 andsleeps and this mind is the ‘I’. If in his dreams he sees a woman, let himknow this is an omen that his sacrifice has been successful”. (Chh. Up.V-2-8-9). Otherscriptural passages declare that certain dreams indicate speedy death e.g. “If he sees a black manwith black teeth, that man will kill him” (Kaushitaki Brahmana.) Those who also understand the science ofdreams hold the opinion that the dream of riding on anelephant and the like is lucky; while it is unlucky to dream of riding on adonkey. Lord Siva taught Visvamitra in dream the Mantracalled “Ramaraksha”. He exactly wrote it out in the morning when he awoke fromsleep. Works of genius like poems etc. are foundin dreams. Remedies for diseases are prescribed in the dream. Sometimes theexact object seen in dreams is seen afterwards in waking state. Vyasa and other sages who know the science ofdreams say, “Whatever a Brahmin or a God, a bull or a king may tell a person indreams will doubtless prove true”. The modern study of dreamsshows that they are not meaningless presentations. Every dream presentation hasa meaning. A dream is like a letter written in an unknown language The scientific theories havebeen very thoroughly exposed by Dr. Sigmund Freud in his Interpretation ofDreams. According to Freud all dreams, withoutany exception, are wish fulfilment. The wishes are actually of an immoral nature. Very few dreams present the wishes as theyreally are. Dreams are partial gratification of the wishes. They relieve themental tension, and thus enable us to enjoy repose. Dreams do not disturb sleep but rather protect it. Theabove statement of Freud shows that we know our animal self in dream . A series of dreams sometimes occur to apatient, which reveal the way to cure. The dream consciousness is superiorto the waking consciousness in many respects. Many puzzles of life are solvedthrough hints from dreams Saints and sages appear in dreams at times ofdifficulty and show the way. The more one follows the dreamintuitions, the clear they become. The only difference between the two states is thatthe objects in dream are perceived in the space within the body, whereas in the wakingcondition they are seen in the space outside the body. The fact of “being seen”and their consequent illusoriness are common to both states. As long as the dream lasts, waking is unreal; aslong as waking lasts, dream is unreal. The reality of the one is dependent onthe reality of the other. But dream is proved to be unreal; hence waking alsois unreal. Jagrat Avastha is wakingconsciousness. You perceive, feel, think, know and you are conscious of theexternal sense-universe. The organs of hearing and sight are very vigilant. Theorgan of sight is more active than the ear. It rushes headlong over forms(Rupa), various types of beauty, through force of habit Ear and eyeare the avenues of sense-knowledge in the Jagrat State. The mind creates the dream-world out of the experienceand Samskaras of the waking consciousness. Dreamis a reproduction of the experiences of the physical consciousness with somemodifications. Themind weaves out the dream creatures out of the material supplied from wakingconsciousness. In dream thesubject and object are one In Svapna or dreamstate there is Rajo Guna Pradhana. Rajo Guna predominates in dreams . In Jagratstate, Sattva Guna predominates. That is the reason why you have no remembrancein dream. In dream the seer and theseen 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 dreamlasts, the dream creatures will remain just as the milkman remains so long asthe milking goes on. (Thedream is quite real when the man is dreaming). In the dream state big mountains, elephants, cities,big rivers etc. are seen within a minute Nadi called Hitanadi that is locatedin the throat. There is no space in the minute Nadi for these big things toremain there. Hence the dream objects are false or illusory. The objects that appear in the wakingstate after dream also are false. The thing seenby you in your dream is not seen in the same place and in the same manner inthe waking state. In the same manner one may say that Mr. X is a good man. Thesame man appears as a bad man for another. An objectorsays: “The food and drink that you take in the waking state give yousatisfaction. But hunger is not appeased by the food taken in dream. Thereforethe objects of the dream are false. The objects of the waking state are true.” You will be free fromdreams through meditation on the Supreme Being or Brahman when the colouring ofthe mind has been removed. Brahma Jnanis or Sages have no dreams. “The Purushahas only two abodes, this and the next world. The dream state, which is thethird is at the junction of the two. Abiding at the junction he sees the twoabodes, this and the next world. “In the dream world, the shining one attainshigher and lower states and assumes manifold forms. He seems to be enjoying himself in the company of womenor laughing or beholding fearful sights.” (Ibid. IV.iii.13.) Everybody sees his sport but nobody sees him.” They say, “Do not wake himup suddenly”. If the Purusha does not return to the waking statethrough the same doors of the senses through which he entered into the state ofdream, if he re-enters in any other manner, then diseases are producedsuch as blindness, deafness etc. which are difficult to be cured. Some day indeed that the dream state of a manis the same as his waking state as he sees in dreams only those things that hesees in the waking state. This is not so because in the dream state the Purushabecomes a self-shining light.” (Ibid. IV.iii.14.) “Just as alarge fish swims alternately to both the banks of the river, the right and theleft one or the Eastern and Western, so the Purusha glides between bothboundaries—the boundary of dream and the boundary of the waking state.” (Ibid.IV.iii.18.) The desires that are not satisfied duringthe waking state are gratified in the dream. Dream is a mysteriousphenomenon. It is more interesting than the waking state. This is as per markandeyaUpanishad. You willfind in Brihadaranyaka Upanishad IV-iii-9, “He sleeps full of the impressionsproduced 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.” And a man sleeping in the east, very oftenfeels himself as it were, experiencing dreams in the north. As soon as a manfalls asleep he begins to dream objects, as it were, at a place hundreds ofmiles away from his body, which he can reach only after a month or so in thewaking state Though a man goes to sleep at night he feels as if he isseeing 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. As some dreams are indicative of futuregood or bad fortunes, it is impossible for the individual to dream a good or abad dream according to his own choice, The creation in dream is all the doingof the Universal soul; So theUniversal Soul is the creator of dreams and not the individual soul; for had itbeen possible for him to shape his dreams, he would never have dreamt a baddream, but would always have dreamt only propitious ones. Dreams and Death are rock foundationsof all philosophy. Dream world is totally different from the waking world. But some facts are strikingly common toboth. (1) Sometimes we have a dream within a dream. (2) During sleep, sometimeswe are conscious of the fact that we are asleep and we are dreaming. (3) Indreams more often than not we assume a body that is the master of the dreamworld. (4) Sometimes we feel extremely helpless amidst the facts ofthe dream world. We cry and we weep to the extent thatthe physiological system is affected. >From these facts of common experiencesome conclusions can be drawn When you dream you see the events of fifty yearswithin an hour. You actually feel that fifty years have passed. Which is correct, the time of one hour ofwaking consciousness or the fifty years of dreaming consciousness? Both arecorrect. The waking state and the dreaming state are of the same quality ofnature. They are equal (Samana). The only difference is that the waking stateis a long dream or Deergha Svapna. In dream the Samskaras of your previous births, whichare imbedded in your Karana Sarira (causal body), will assume forms and becomedream picture. Manorajya (building castles in the air),recollection of the events and things of dream, recollection of things long past inthe waking state all are Svapna Jagrat (Dreaming in the waking state). When themind enters the Hita Nadi which proceeds from the heart and surrounds the greatmembrane round the heart, which is as thin as a hair divided into thousandparts 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 ofdream (Svapna Avastha). There istemperamental difference. Somerarely get dreams. A Jnani who has knowledge of the Self will have no dreams. During dream you see splendid, effulgent light. Wheredoes it come from? From Atman. The light that is present in the dream clearlyindicates that Atman is self-luminous (Svayam Jyoti, Sva Prakasa). -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Thatha_Patty" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/thatha_patty/118716977.2139800.1622626334269%40mail.yahoo.com.
