The Dreams of a Sadhak

We take up for discussion the detailed report of the five consecutive dreams Mr.S.R.C, has had in a single night.

Mr.S.R.C, 37, Unmarried, had his education for the medical profession, but voluntarily gave up a career in Medicine in order to do full-time sadhana through Raja-yog. First he began on his own with dhyana sadhana and practised for a year. Subsequently, he has been formally initiated into Raja Yoga sadhana by a house holder guru. "In spite of having an otherwise excellent gurudeva", of late Dr.S.R.C. is being plagued by anxieties and doubts.

Dr.S.R.C. wants to understand the meaning of the sages reply "the 8th house". He also wants to know whether this dream could be more than just a fancy of his unconscious, or "perhaps a true mystical experience".

Dr.S.R.C. discovering the meaning of a dream consists in inserting the text of the dream into the context of the dreamers ongoing biography. This is to be done, in the first instance, by producing free associations from relevant and significant elements in the dream and linking them up with elements/situations in the wake-state. I have described this method in detail in the September 1996 issue if EST. Your dream is also most appropriate for the application of what is called the dialogue technique.

The dialogue technique consists in carrying on an imaginary conversation in the wake state with the dream figures. In your case, you will most probably begin the dialogue with the following question: Dr.S.R.C.: Swami (Ramakrishna), why did thou appear in my dream?

Then you will assume yourself to be Saint Ramakrishna (it means no blasphemy in this context, you can rest assured on that) and utter as the reply whatever comes to you spontaneously, without second thought or hesitation, If the reply is irrevalant, incomplete or unsatisfactory you must revert and become yourself, derive the next question from this reply and thus proceed till it results in what is called an aha experience - a mini-stori- of discovering something that is at once surprising and obvious. You will repeat the same exercise - perhaps, with a different series of questions - with your present guru (Remember, this is only an imaginary conversation mono-acted by yourself!)

The answer for your second question under this dream is dependent on the first. Again, as the Mother (of Sri Aurobindo Ashram) has indicated in an identical context of dream interpretation, first exhaustively search within yourself for an answer to a question about the meaning of your dream before you go outwards or for occult explanations.

Sri Ramakrishna says "something about the 8th house". Dr.S.R.C. does not understand its import and wonders whether it has something to do with the 8th house of astrology which deals with occult matters. Suddenly another siddha saint of 19th-20th century Varanasi to whose "order" Dr.S.R.C. belongs appears and repeats "the 8th house". Dr.S.R.C. requests him to explain it but "the 8th house" is all that he repeats. mind which is willing to observe critically and scrutinize closely well-established and received, traditional beliefs in the light of your individual experience and change them when this is warranted. This is really a valuable quality. Keep it up and it will stand you in good stead.

If you feel it wont interfere with your sadhana you may keep up a dream diary and regularly practise dream understanding exercises. I have indicated in the same column in the June 1997 issue (pp.59-60) the relationship and difference between dream understanding and meditation. They could be complementary. I may add here that the Mother began this practice of recording her dreams and she says she could begin to see its effects only after fourteen months.

Of course, no hard and fast prescriptions can be made in these matters - especially in the case of those those who have already under-taken sadhana, and certainly not from a distance, without any occasions for face-to-face interaction.

as you have surmised, must be an echo of your excelling performance of the occult Kriya together with your gurus reactions thereto earlier. Your first two questions under this dream have been partly answered here, I believe.

As to why you should feel apprehensive that you have travelled farther than you are entitled to is difficult to answer from the information you have provided: perhaps, you unconsciously evince a hesitation about transgressing the limits prescribed by your guru for your progress. Do you get an insight when you link up by free association - as I would do, for example - guru - authority figure - Professor of Surgery - Shock Therapy - Intravenous Fluids - a year - two other sadhus giving your milder voltage electroconvulsive therapy? Why should this sadhu be ash-smeared? Who does he look like?

Pursue such chains of free associations from each of the elements - like "ampere" - meter; they will converge onto a significant point and knot up or criss-cross into a networks of words which will capture the meaning of your dream.

Most important: Pursue exhaustively all that is associated with "8th house" in the depths of your mind and link it up with these. Dhyana sadha proceeds by distinct stages. I believe you have definitely got into the first stage because you feel physically fit and mentally calm.

Other sign are: Less sweating, panting and palpitation than before when you have to exert yourself physically. Each stage gets stabilized and you stay put there for sometime. Then, when once progress to the threshold of the next stage, there is a total destabilization and one feels utterly lost and "back to square one" nay, worse than that. So your doubts and anxieties may also be a part of the travails of progress. From your report I feel that you have what it takes to achieve substantial progress in sadhana and that your observations about yourself and others must be fairly accurate.

As Sri Aurobindo advises a sadhak, one must go by ones own internal experiences and not trust explanations. I suggest that you read Sri Aurobindos "Letters on Yoga" in volumes 15 and 16 of his Collected Works - particularly his observations about dreams. Though the letters of disciples (for which some of the observations are replies) are not included in these volumes you may still find them helpful.

I will comment on your other two dreams which relate to your family (brother) and personal life in the next issue.