Mandukya_Upanishad

dream. All this the psychoanalysts of the West do notknow. And, Īsvara’s grace, also, can bring about dreams.God may bless you and give you certain peculiarexperiences in dream. You may ask, “Why should they notcome in waking? Why should the Guru work only indream, and Īsvara’s grace come only in dream?” The reasonis that you oppose their function in waking life, due to theassertions of the ego. You counteract Īsvara’s working andGuru’s blessing by the action of your own egoism. But, indream, the ego subsides, to some extent. You become morenormal, one may say, and you approximate yourself moreto reality, rather than to artificiality, in dream. Thus, it iseasier for these powers to operate in dream than in waking.The opposing will of the ego, which functions in waking,subsides, to a large extent, in dream, and so there is agreater chance provided for the diviner forces to functionin the dreaming condition. The physician puts the patientto sleep first, before the healing process can take place,because the ego opposes interference in the waking life,while there is no such opposition in dream and sleep. Inhypnosis, the patient is put to sleep. The nerves must besoothed; the agitation of the mind should come down; theego should not oppose the healing forces. Dream is helpful,in this way, for the operation of the higher powers comingfrom the Guru, or from Īsvara.Dream, therefore, can have umpteen causes. Whateverthe causes be, dream in the individual is regarded as aneffect of waking, and is often judged as a consequence ofimpressions of waking perception and cognition. The worldof dream being subtle, projected only by the mind, is84