[Advaita-l] 'Dream' references in popular works

[V Subrahmanian]

Namaste.

From the inputs provided by Shri P. Puttamane, a member in the
bharatiyavidvatparishad discussion group, by way of a large file, I have
selected some verses that talk about the unreality of dream
objects/events.  There are some verses that convey some other senses of
dreams too in this collection which is given as an attachment.

Pl. download the attachment from this URL:

http://groups.google.com/group/bvparishat/browse_thread/thread/b248d26112762a09#


The highlight of this collection is this verse from the Mahabharatha:

महाभारतशान्तिपर्वम् अष्टविंशोऽध्यायः

स्वप्नलब्धा यथा लाभा वितथाः प्रतिबोधने ।

एवं ते क्षत्रिया राजन्ये व्यतीता महारणे ॥ ९ ॥

It would be significant to note that the word 'vitathAH' used with regard
to the (gains had in a) dream is reflected in the title: 'vaitathya
prakaraNam' of the   Mandukya kArikA of GaudapAda.  Here the very first
verse is:

वैतथ्यं सर्वभावानां स्वप्न आहुर्मनीषिणः ।
अन्तःस्थानात्तु भावानां संवृतत्वेन हेतुना ।।

From this it is clear that the Mahabharatha considers the dream phenomenon
as something that has unreal objects/events.
One can study the other verses too from the following collection from a
variety of works like the Valmiki Ramayana, adhyAtma Ramayana,
srImadbhAgavatham including the UddhavagitA and compare the usage of the
concept of dream with the usage found in Shankaracharya's works, a sample
from which too a few verses are shown in this collection.

I thank Shri Puttamane for the painstaking work in culling out verses
containing the word 'svapna' from various literary and scriptural works.
Pl. see the attached file.

subrahmanian.v