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"The Dream Merchant"

From the Bhakti List Archives

sadagopaniyengar • March 11, 2003 


                                    
      Srimate SrivanSatakopa Sri Vedanta Desika Yatindra Mahadesikaya nama:

                            The Dream Merchant

         The boy wakes up screaming. His entire body is bathed in sweat, his lips are dry, his face pale and his heart pounding with terror. His eyes are glassy and unseeing, still focussed on some terrible spectacle of recent occurrence. He has just had a benumbing dream in which several people are chasing him with lethal weapons upraised in their hands, like so many flags of death. There is no place to hide, no soul in sight who could come to the rescue and no hope of reaching some safe haven in time, before the murderous mob could lynch him. The pursuers are slowly gaining, with the lad tiring from the long chase, his legs turning to rubber, more from terror than from fatigue. Just when the ferocious person in lead reaches out to grab his collar, the boy wakes up, with the aforesaid symptoms. Even after coming awake, he is still in the grip of the terrible dream for a few minutes. Only thereafter is he able to collect himself, realize that all the pursuers had been imaginary and it had all been only a bad

         We too have had similar experiences sometime or the other. Not all dreams are bad, of course. There are some extremely pleasant ones in which we get to give a dressing down to our most-hated boss, to rescue a damsel in distress and become the object of her undying affections, to be the custodian of immeasurable wealth and the object of universal respect, adoration and envy, to be elected the Prime Minister of the country and to sermonize to anyone and everyone on all subjects under the Sun, and so on. Some dreams we are able to remember, while some others cannot be recalled, even if we rack our brains for all it is worth. And it is not only adults or adolescents who have dreams-even babies have them. You will find them smiling braodly in sleep, apropos of nothing, and suddenly start crying too-they too are in the grip of dreams, pleasant or otherwise. Old people too have dreams, and find it occasionally difficult to distinguish between dream and reality. When they are in the grip of nostalgia, think

      The dreams of young boys are often filled with impossibly beautiful maidens, while girls dream at times of handsome, virile and muscular characters, who are also kind, gentle and romantic. Thus Sri Kodai Nacchiar dreams about wedding the immeasurably attractive Krishna. Her dreams are delightfully graphic, displaying the minutest details of the wedding with the Lord. She is able to recollect in vivid detail the wedding hall with its pearl-studded canopy draped with festoons, the arrival of the gorgeous Groom riding on and surrounded by a bevy of elephants, the Celestials performing various pre-marriage rituals and adorning Andal with beautiful new garments, Vaidikas tying the Pratisarabandham (KAppu) on Her wrist, musical instruments spreading melodious strains of joy, the Lord taking Her palm gently in His own to the accompaniment of Veda ghOsham, and holding it firmly, perform pradakshinam to the sacrificial fire, gently lift Her foot and place it on the pestle, uttering the mantra "Atishtta imam asm

       Since Kodai Piratti was endowed with exceptional communication skills, She could make Her dream come alive for us in the form of ten pasurams beginning with "VaraNamAyiram", with the refrain, "KanA kandEn tOzhI nAn!".

 However, what would happen if a dumb person were to have an exquisite dream? Try as he might, he would just be unable to make the other person understand the delightful dream he had had and the uniqueness of his experience. Absence of speech would deny him the pleasure of sharing with others his own memorable dream. Thus the dreams of a dumb man are as good as not having been dreamt at all, however joyous or otherwise they might have been. Dreams are thus wasted on people with speech disorders. Similarly wasted are our days spent in the pursuit of women and wealth, unmindful of the delights of devotion to Sriman Narayana, says Sri Thirumangai Mannan-

"SemamE vEndi teevinai perukki terivaimAr uruvamE maruvi
oomanAr kanda kanavilum pazhudAi kazhindana ozhinda annAtkaL"

      Dreams may also be portenders of things to happen, harbingers of good tidings or bad. The dream of Trijata is a case in point. To instill confidence in the depressed Sita Piratti and to prevent Ravana's acolytes from harming Her, Trijata recounts to them her dream, in which the Prince of Ayodhya and His brother, clad in pure white clothes and ensconced in an ivory palanquin borne by numerous Swans, come to Lanka and reclaim Sita who is clad similarly and seated on a white mountain in the midst of the Milky Ocean. In contrast, Ravana appears in the dream, clad in blood red robes, with oil all over his body, with a shaved head, falling down from the Pushpaka vimAna, traveling in a chariot drawn by hideous donkeys. What happened in reality is history and proves that dreams do come true, at least occasionally.  According to the SwapnAdhyAya, to dream that one is riding a cow, bull, elephant or climbing on to a mountain, a palace etc., to dream of crying, of dying etc. is auspicious.

      Coming down to brass tacks, what is the stuff of which dreams are made? Are they as imaginary as the mirage, disappearing, as they do, once we wake-up? Are they as flimsy as a wisp of the willow, disappearing with the opening of an eyelid? Where do they come from to briefly enthrall or torment us, before vanishing unbidden? Do they have any relationship, however tenuous, with reality or are they utterly unreal? Why are some dreams pleasant while others are horrid?

Whether dreams are real or not, the experience of joy or horror they generate appears quite real, and on waking, the emotions continue to grip us for some time.

Does the Shruti, that ultimate arbiter, have anything to say on the apparently frivolous subject of dreams? We are surprised to find that dreams do find a mention in the Scripture, that too in the famous BrihadAranyaka Upanishad-

"na tatra rathA:, na ratha yoga:, na panthAnO bhavanti.
atha rathAn ratha yOgAn patha: srijatE.
Na tatra AnandA: muda: pramudO bhavanti
atha AnandAn muda: pramuda: srijatE.
Na tatra vEshAntA: pushkariNya: sravantyaO bhavanti
atha vEshAntAn pushkariNya: sravantya: srijatE.
Sa hi KartthA"

     The Upanishad takes the case of a person dreaming that he is travelling in a chariot, pulled by beautiful white horses, faster than the wind, on a broad tree-lined road providing welcome shade from the hot Sun, with the cool breeze blowing against his face. Several beautiful ponds dot the landscape, with birds skimming the waters for fish. There are rivers too, with their waters flowing with a musical sound, sometimes generating more noise when dashing against huge rocks on the river bed, sometimes graceful as an elegant dancer, at times gushing like the whirlwind when flowing down precipitous hilltops in the form of silvery cascades. The entire picturesque scenario makes for such elation and enjoyment that the traveler is transported to new and hitherto unknown heights of delight.

       Each and every small item of the dream is true, says Sri Ramanuja, explaining the purport of the Shruti vAkya. The Lord creates the chariot, the horses, the tree-lined avenue, the ponds, rivers and all the myriad details forming part of the beautiful scene, all for the enjoyment of the dreamer, as reward for some meritorious deed or the other performed by the latter. These items did not exist before, and would equally vanish once the dream comes to an end. They have a limited existence for the period of the dream, created specifically for the particular person's gratification. They do not exist as far as the others are concerned, nor do they exist anywhere outside the dream of the particular person.

All the same, they are indeed true and real, as far as the dreamer is concerned.

     Similarly, as punishment for some minor offence, the Lord also creates bad dreams with all their accessories, as described in the case of the boy at the beginning of this piece. All the pursuers, the weapons in their hands, the hot pursuit, the fatigue and terror-all these are real, created by the Lord for a very limited and specific purpose, as part of the divine system of reward and retribution.      Thus dreams as well as the emotions generated by them are indeed true, though they might have an extremely brief existence, confined to the mind of the dreamer. 

All things we see in this world are created such that they can be seen, heard and felt by everybody, affording everyone the same sort of uniform happiness, sorrow or pain. The question may therefore arise as to whether it is possible to create some things specifically for affording pleasure or pain to a particular person, that too, for the duration of an extremely brief timeframe, in effect to create one's own private heaven or hell. The answer lies in the omnipotence of the Lord and in His extraordinary ability for creating things in any permutation or combination of parameters. He is after all the "Satya Sankalpa", whose every word and thought are translated into fruitful action, for He is the all-powerful Creator ("Sa hi KartA").

Srimate Sri LakshmINrsimha divya paduka sevaka SrivanSatakopa Sri Narayana Yatindra Mahadesikaya nama:

Dasan, sadagopan

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]



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