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Thread: Koshas, consciousness and precognitive dreams

  1. #1

    Koshas, consciousness and precognitive dreams

    Namaste,

    I have a multi-part question I was hoping that if you have any thoughts on it, you may be able to respond:

    1. Are the koshas and the consciousness we have in our dreams related? If so, how?
    2. When we have dreams of the future (when we see things in our dreams that happen later or that we see later in the waking state), in which kosha are we operating? (If they are not related, what is happening with our consciousness when we have dreams of the future?)
    3. What should our response be when we have precognitive dreams? (i.e., Does it matter when we have dreams of the future? Should we just go about life as if we did not have these dreams? Are we coming closer to Brahman when we have dreams of the future like this?)
    4. Is it wrong to share our dreams with those we trust or should we just keep it all to ourselves?


    Thank you very much for your time and thoughts.

  2. #2

    Re: Koshas, consciousness and precognitive dreams

    I’d like to thank anyone that may have read the above post and gave it some thought. I have been reading the Mandukya Upanishad and Gaudpada’s Karika along with Swami Nikhilinanda’s commentary and I believe that I have found a response to my question.

    In chapter 3 (Advaita Prakarana) of Guadapada’s Karika, it is written “The yogi must not taste the happiness [arising from Samadhi]; he should detach himself from it by the exercise of discrimination. If his mind, after attaining steadiness, again seeks external objects, he should make it one with Atman through great effort” (III.45).

    Swami Nikhilinanda writes the following: “The teachers of Vendanta speak of four obstacles the student may face while practicing spiritual disciplines. . . Laya is a trance-like condition, a sort of hypnosis. Vikshepa is the distraction caused by material objects. Kashaya is the deep attachment the student suddenly feels for an object experienced long ago. Rasasvada is the taste of bliss – temporary in nature – which arises when the student overcomes a particular obstacle or when he experiences certain visions while still on the path.”

    “The temptation to enjoy inner happiness comes to all highly developed yogis. After the attainment of Nirvana, Buddha felt tempted to enjoy its bliss all by himself. But he controlled the desire and dedicated himself to the service of humanity. Ramakrishna often brought his mind down by force, as it were, from the state of Samadhi in order to instruct people. Furthermore, he admonished Vivekananda after the latter had experienced Samadhi, to forgo its pleasure and work for others. All three worked for the world, living under the spell of divinity, immortality, and non-duality of Atman. Ramakrishna often said that to see the maniford world alone, without being aware of Non-duality, is ignorance (ajnana); and to realize the One only, and deny multiplicity, is a kind of philosophical knowledge (jnana); but to see the non-dual Atman alone in everything, even in what the unillumined call the manifold, is a richer knowledge (vijnana), the highest Wisdom.”

    So, it is my opinion at this point that visions (in dream or waking state) are a type of rasasvada, which can be obstacles to the Supreme Knowledge when attachment is placed there, or when one tries to analyze.

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