Mandukya_Upanishad

Dreams, therefore, are due to repressed desires. This isone of the causes behind dreams. This is the only factor thatthe psychoanalysts of the West emphasise. But Indianpsychologists and psychoanalysts, like the rāja-yogins andthe philosophers of the Vedānta, have touched anotheraspect of dream. The dreams may be, to some extent, ofcourse, the results of complexes created by frustrateddesires. But, this is not wholly true. Dreams may be due toother reasons also; one such reason being the working ofpast karma. The effects of past karmas, meritorious orunmeritorious, may project themselves into dream whenchances are not given to them for expression in waking life.Also, a thought of some other person may affect you. Afriend of yours may be deeply thinking of you; and you mayhave a dream of him, or you may have a dream withexperiences corresponding to his thoughts. Your mothermay be far away, crying for you, and her thought can affectyou; you may have a dream. All this is equal to saying that atelepathic effect can produce dream. In the case of spiritualseekers, Guru’s grace can cause a dream; and catastrophicexperiences that one may have to pass through in thewaking world may pass lightly as a dream experience by hisgrace. Due to the power of the Guru, one may have a dreamsuffering, instead of a waking one. If the disciple has to falldown and break his leg due to a prārabdha, the Guru willmake him experience it in dream, and save him the troublein waking. One may have a dream temperature, or fever,instead of a waking fever. One may have a calamity indream instead of its coming in waking. This is due to thegrace of the Guru. So, śaktipata can also be a cause of83