Dream means

Expressions researched:
"dream means" |"dream" |"dream, means" |"dreaming means" |"means"

BG Chapters 13 - 18

It should not be concluded that a person in the mode of goodness does not dream. Here "dream" means too much sleep.

BG 18.35, Translation and Purport:

And that determination which cannot go beyond dreaming, fearfulness, lamentation, moroseness and illusion—such unintelligent determination, O son of Pṛthā, is in the mode of darkness.

It should not be concluded that a person in the mode of goodness does not dream. Here "dream" means too much sleep. Dreaming is always present; either in the mode of goodness, passion or ignorance, dreaming is a natural occurrence. But those who cannot avoid oversleeping, who cannot avoid the pride of enjoying material objects, who are always dreaming of lording it over the material world, and whose life, mind and senses are thus engaged, are considered to have determination in the mode of ignorance.

Bhagavad-gita As It Is Lectures

When you sleep at night, then you dream, means subtle body. So these activities of this gross body stop. You again work in the subtle body.

Lecture on BG 3.27 -- Melbourne, June 27, 1974:

So if you train up... You have got this facility of life, comfortable life. Do not misuse it for becoming next life a dog. Utilize it to become next life God. That is success. You have got advanced intelligence, but this intelligence is given to you for understanding God and your position that by forgetting God you are in this material world, and in this material world you are changing one body to another. Sometimes American body, sometimes demigod's body, sometimes celestial body, sometimes dog's body, cat's body, tiger's body. This science is unknown. But this is the science. Prakṛteḥ kriyamāṇāni guṇaiḥ karmāṇi sarvaśaḥ ahaṅkāra (BG 3.27). We have got this body, that body, this body, under the direction of the prakṛti, material nature. So therefore intelligence is that "If I am eternal..." Na hanyate hanyamāne śarīre (BG 2.20). You are not dying. Hanyamāne śarīre.

That you can experience practically, daily. How is that? When you sleep at night, then you dream, means subtle body. So these activities of this gross body stop. You again work in the subtle body. You dream that you have gone to somewhere or in the forest or somewhere, somewhere, somewhere. But you forget that "My real body is lying in this bed." You do not remember. This is practical. So I change this, myself. I am soul. I change from this gross body lying on bed in a very nice apartment, skyscraper building, but I have gone to the forest, and I am affronting a big tiger and I'm crying. In this bed I am crying. The friends say, "Why you are crying?" "Tiger, tiger, tiger." Where is tiger? This is called subtle body. So you are changing daily at night from this gross body to the subtle body. And again the dream is over, from the subtle body, again to the gross body. Every one of us has got this experience.

Srimad-Bhagavatam Lectures

Dream means whatever you act in awakened state, that comes as something, phantasmagoria.

Lecture on SB 6.1.15 -- London, August 3, 1971:

Woman: Is it a very good omen to see in your sleep state person showing to do the Hare Kṛṣṇa chant?

Prabhupāda: Well, sleep, when you sleep and dream, you take it all false. It is not very good omen.

Śyāmasundara: She said...

Woman: Like(?) you do anything about the movement in sleep, and I was... (?)

Prabhupāda: Sleep... Sleep is sleep. But in advanced stages in sleep also... Dream means whatever you act in awakened state, that comes as something, phantasmagoria. But actually, you have to do according to the rules and regulations, not under some dream or phantasmagoria. So Kṛṣṇa consciousness has to be executed according to the rules and regulations. Then it will be successful.

The dreaming means subtle body is working.

Lecture on SB 6.1.20 -- Honolulu, May 20, 1976:

So if we misuse this human form of life only like animals, eating, sleeping, sex and fearing, then we are spoiling our life. We must prepare next life. If we don't, then after death we have to go to the Yamarāja, and he will decide what kind of next body... Body will change. Kṛṣṇa says in the Bhagavad... Tathā dehāntara-prāptiḥ (BG 2.13). After death you have to change the body. As you are changing from childhood to boyhood, boyhood to youthhood, similarly this old body, when it is no more usable, that means death. But the subtle body, mind, intelligence, that is... We have got proof. At night this body is silent, but your mind, intelligence and ego takes you somewhere. You dream that "I have come to here." Sometimes we dream, "I am flying in the sky," or gone to some forest or some friend's house or so many things. "I am talking with a beautiful girl or beautiful man." So this dream we every day see. So that means when this body stops, the gross body, the subtle body is there. Why don't you believe it? Unless the subtle body is working, how do you dream? The dreaming means subtle body is working. So transmigration of the soul means the soul is twice covered—subtle body and gross body—just like shirt and coat. So when this gross body is finished, the subtle body is there. It takes you to another body. The subtle body with the semina of the father, it is injected in the mother's womb, and then again you will develop another body. This is the process of transmigration. So this body, how you'll be transferred to another body, that will be judged by the Yamarāja. Daiva-netreṇa. Karmaṇā daiva-netreṇa (SB 3.31.1). By our activities we shall be judged. Those who are criminal, they will be judged, not that everyone will be judged. So, and because those who are devotees, they are... Mad-yajino 'pi yānti mām (BG 9.25). Those who have devoted their life, dedicated their life only in Kṛṣṇa consciousness, they are sure. Kṛṣṇa says, tyaktvā dehaṁ punar janma naiti mām eti (BG 4.9). That is sure. They are going back to home, back to Godhead. And those who are not dedicated or taken to Kṛṣṇa consciousness, they are criminals. They will be taken to the Yamarāja's court, and Yamarāja will decide what kind of body. There are 8,400,000 different forms of body, and he will be given a certain type of body. This is called transmigration of the soul.

Dream means the stock in the mind of our experience past, may be many, many years past, but the stock is there. Sometimes they come. That is dreaming.

Lecture on SB 6.1.28-29 -- Honolulu, May 28, 1976:

So this mental condition naturally is there what I practice throughout my whole life. So if we practice this chanting of Hare Kṛṣṇa name, then there is chance of chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa at the time of death. That is the examination. In Bengali there is a proverb, bhajan kara sādhana kara murte jānle hoy. That is, "How you are becoming Kṛṣṇa conscious, that you'll be tested at your time of death." That is wanted. If we practice throughout whole life "Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa," then there is good chance of chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa, because at the time of death everything becomes disordered. The tongue becomes disordered, the mind becomes disordered. There is a verse by Kulaśekhara. He was praying to Lord, adyaiva me viśatu mānasa-rāja-haṁsaḥ, prāṇa-prayāṇa-samaye kapha-vāta-pittaiḥ smaraṇaṁ kutas te (MM 33). He was praying to the Lord, "My Lord, Mukunda, now I am healthy, very strong. Everything is all right. My mind is in order. My health is in order. So I am praying to You, let death come immediately so that I can soundly remember Your name. Otherwise natural death, it may be that on account of dissolution of the..., arrangement, physiological arrangement of the body..." Just like in sleep we forget everything. In sleep we forget everything. The subtle mind, intelligence work. I am sleeping in a nice bed, but mind and intelligence have taken me far away near the desert. And I'm seeing I'm in the desert. That is happening daily. Dream means the stock in the mind of our experience past, may be many, many years past, but the stock is there. Sometimes they come. That is dreaming. Just like you'll find in a lake all of a sudden... There is discussed in psychology also how this remembrance comes all of a sudden. The example is given just like in a lake all of a sudden you'll find there is a bubble. So similarly, the mind is the subtle matter. That is described in the Bhagavad-gītā, bhūmir āpo analo vāyuḥ khaṁ mano (BG 7.4). This gross is this land, bhūmi, earth, straw. Water is a little more subtle. Just like in land you can stand, but in the water you cannot stand. It has become little subtle. Then fire, then air, and then ether. This is the position, from gross to subtle. And then mind. Still finer than the ether is the mind. And then intelligence. And then false ego, and then the soul. These are the different position.

1968 Conversations and Morning Walks

The mind is always active, and dreaming means the mind is acting. So dreaming is not always bad. Dreaming sometimes very good. What I mean, sleeping is not very good.

Questions and Answers -- Montreal, August 26, 1968:

Prabhupāda: So long you sleep, you waste your time.

Devotee (girl): Swami, even when we dream about Godbrothers and Godsisters?

Prabhupāda: Huh?

Devotee (girl): Even when we dream about Godbrothers and Godsisters?

Prabhupāda: No. That is not māyā. I mean to say, dreaming... Yes. Sleeping means stopping your active life. So that is a waste of time. We should rather... The mind is always active, and dreaming means the mind is acting. So dreaming is not always bad. Dreaming sometimes very good. What I mean, sleeping is not very good.

1973 Conversations and Morning Walks

Because dreaming means that is not my actual occupation. Dreaming means that. I am separate from the dreaming condition. So if one stops this dreaming condition, then he's cured.

Room Conversation with Dr. Christian Hauser, Psychiatrist -- September 10, 1973, Stockholm:

Prabhupāda: So everyone is mad. Anyone who is in material contact, he is mad. So we are trying to take him out of this dreaming condition. That is Kṛṣṇa consciousness.

Dr. Hauser: But does he stop dreaming? I mean, substantially, does he stop, stop, does one stop dreaming?

Prabhupāda: Yes. Stop means... Because dreaming means that is not my actual occupation. Dreaming means that. I am separate from the dreaming condition. So if one stops this dreaming condition, then he's cured.

Dr. Hauser: But the dreaming of the night also has another function, according to my...

Prabhupāda: No. Dreaming at night, dreaming at day. The same thing. The pattern is different. Pattern is different. If you think that you are Englishman, you are Swedish, or if you are Hindu, you are Muslim, that is also dream. You are none of this. As much as you are none of those dreaming things at night. But due to our madness, sometimes we take: "This is fact," sometimes we take: "That is fact." But none of them are facts.

1974 Conversations and Morning Walks

Dream means existent for a little period. That's all.

Morning Walk -- April 7, 1974, Bombay:

Yadubara: What about persons who die in their sleep? Is that a sinful death?

Prabhupāda: Yes. Dream or awakened, everything is dream, gross dream and subtle dream. That's all. This is also dream. What do you mean by dream? Dream means existent for a little period. That's all. So night dream is for two hours and this dream is for twenty-four hours.

1975 Conversations and Morning Walks

Dream means some mixed ideas.

Morning Walk -- June 25, 1975, Los Angeles:

Dr. Judah: I had an interesting dream last night, and after dreaming it, I woke up and stayed awake until I got up, until I was called at five. The dream was... It seems to be a mixture of the events that occurred last night. I was in a temple and doing kīrtana with a number of devotees, and in the middle of the kīrtana, a little child crawled in on the floor into the temple, and we all stopped and talked to the little child. And I'm reminded... And I thought, "Now what does this mean?" And I remember then. I was talking with Dharma just before I went to bed, and there was this little child that came in from next door there, and so he, we gave him some prasādam, and so I feel that this all got mixed together in this dream.

Prabhupāda: Dream means some mixed ideas.

Dr. Judah: Yeah. Yes. An interesting mixture of things.

1976 Conversations and Morning Walks

Dreaming means he's seeing. The seer is the same.

Morning Walk -- June 3, 1976, Los Angeles:

Pradyumna: ...when someone is sleeping and dreaming, that the seer has left the gross body?

Prabhupāda: Yes, yes.

Bharadvāja: How does the.... Life symptoms, how are the life symptoms maintained in the body?

Prabhupāda: Huh?

Bharadvāja: The life symptoms are maintained in the body still?

Prabhupāda: No, life symptoms, there is not. The body's fit; therefore, he comes back again. When the body is not fit, he enters another body. Just like your car you leave. We have come here. Now the car is all right; we go. If it is useless, we don't go. We take another.

Bharadvāja: The body is breathing.

Hṛdayānanda: That is like leaving the motor running.

Prabhupāda: They, unless the seer returns back, the body will lie down. That is death. The seer no more comes back. Then it is dead.

Hṛdayānanda: Yes, sometimes a man dies in his sleep.

Prabhupāda: It is dead.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: So sleeping is like temporary death.

Prabhupāda: Yes. All deaths are temporary. When you change bodies, you die for seven months. This death is for few hours, and that is for seven months. That's all.

Bharadvāja: What happens when he dreams of the spiritual master or Kṛṣṇa?

Prabhupāda: That's all right. Dreaming means he's seeing. The seer is the same.

1977 Conversations and Morning Walks

He's dreaming means his subtle body, mind, is working, and therefore, within the mind, he is seeing some tiger and he's crying, "Oh, here is tiger! Save me! Save me! Save me!"

Room Conversation -- February 17, 1977, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: That has to be understood, and therefore He's explaining in so many ways. Nityaḥ śāśvato 'yaṁ na hanyate hanyamāne śarīre (BG 2.20). This one word, na hanyate hanyamāne śarīre. He cannot understand it. "The body's finished, everything's finished." These rascal professors. And Kṛṣṇa says, na hanyate hanyamāne (BG 2.20), "Don't think it is finished. It is there." Who will understand it? It requires a special brain. These rascals say, "Now everything's finished. The body's finished." But Kṛṣṇa says, "No, no, no. Not finished." Who will understand this, unless he has got a very good brain? And our education begins from that point. These rascals, when they are disappointed—"Bas, finished"—we begin from there. Na hanyate hanyamāne (BG 2.20). It is not finished. It is there. Where it is? Dehāntara-prāptiḥ: (BG 2.13) he has taken another body. A man is sleeping; he has taken another body. He's jumping on the tree. How we can see? It's a fact. He has forgotten that "I am on a nice bed," and he's somewhere else. How it is? You see that he is sleeping, that he's not working. But he is working. Where is that brain? And it is a fact. I see the man is sleeping, but he has gone somewhere else. That is our daily experience. You cannot see it, where he has gone. He has gone to the jungle. He's seeing there is a tiger and he's crying, "Tiger! Tiger!" You cannot see. So why he's crying? So how can you see his activities? You have no such eyes. You cannot see even how the subtle body is working, and what to speak of the soul. He's dreaming means his subtle body, mind, is working, and therefore, within the mind, he is seeing some tiger and he's crying, "Oh, here is tiger! Save me! Save me! Save me!" And the man in the gross, he cannot see: "Where is tiger?" You cannot see; it does not mean that he does not see. And that is another brainless proposal. "You cannot see." What you can see?

Hari-śauri: But then they could argue that actually the dream is just imagination. When the man wakes up, then he's back in reality.

Prabhupāda: Whatever it may be, it is acting on him. You cannot see how it is acting. That is not possible. You cannot see how it is acting, but it is acting.

Ādi-keśava: So that proves there must be something beyond the gross plane.

Prabhupāda: Yes. But your conclusion—"I cannot see"—that is brainless. That is brainless proposal. You depend on your seeing, but you cannot see. So many things are happening.