PHILOSOPHY OF DREAM

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.
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”. 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.
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.