Satsang with Sri Swami Viditatmananda Saraswati
Transcribed by Jaya Kannan. Edited by Jayshree Ramakrishnan and Krishnakumar (KK) S. Davey.
Question
Why do we get odd dreams sometimes?
Answer
A dream is the result of the impressions that have been gathered during the experiences of the waking state. As we go through our day, our experiences and transactions leave some impressions in our minds. For example, if you feel that someone hurt you when you talked to that person, it leaves an impression in your mind. I might say something to somebody, which leaves a feeling of guilt in my mind. Thus, throughout the day, we gather some hurt, guilt, jealousy, anger, joy etc. These experiences leave different kinds of impressions on our mind. Also, during the day, we may have many unfulfilled desires. Perhaps my health or some other conditions do not permit me to satisfy my desire and such unfulfilled desires remain in my mind. Such impressions remain unresolved or unassimilated in our mind because our transactions or interactions are not complete. Thus, there are unresolved desires, unresolved impressions, and unassimilated things floating in our mind. These are the impressions that again appear in our mind in sleep and a dream world is projected on the basis of these impressions. Perhaps we had a very active day with many impressions and we dream that night to release those impressions. Some days our mind is much calmer and, therefore, we do not have any dreams.
A dream is the result of the impressions that are stored in our mind. We gather these impressions from our experiences either of the same day or of previous days. They just appear and form the dream. It is difficult to determine what the dream would be on a particular night. If the mind is agitated too much, you may have lots of dreams. When the mind is quiet, on the other hand, you may have fewer dreams or no dreams.
Question
What happens to dreams after we gain self-knowledge?
Answer
A wise person’s mind is free from any reactions. It is free from any of these residual impressions because jealousy, greed, anger etc. do not arise in his mind. Since he is a non-demanding person, he doesn’t get disappointed; therefore, he doesn’t get angry or jealous. He enjoys a mind, which is free from these reactions; a non-reacting mind. His mind is free from these various agitations or unassimilated impressions or desires. Therefore, there are no dreams in a wise person’s mind. It is just a quiet scene. Perhaps, there could be a dream based on some past impressions, but at least no new impressions are gathered and, therefore, in course of time, he has freedom also from that dream.
