Life is a Dream

Hari Om,

I have heard many a times from the words of sages, saints and philosophers that ‘Life is a Dream’. I have never been able to comprehend how it could be, until yesterday when I read Swami Sivananda’s 'Philosophy of Dreams'. I am not sure if I have understood it completely, but some insights did dawn in me, and I like to share it on this blog. Well, when we are awake, the dreams we see in our sleep seems so ‘unreal’. When we are dreaming, the state when we are awake seems so ‘unreal’. The mind is a common factor which functions during our wakeful and dreaming states; the only difference is the mind functions along with the senses in our wakeful state and the mind alone functions (without senses) during our dreaming. Both the states are ‘unreal’ relatively. Probably, this is the reason why life which we perceive as ‘real’ during our wakeful state is nothing but a long dream. Even, in the wakeful state, what has passed in our life is a ‘dream’ or the future which we perceive in our minds in also a ‘dream’. What seems real is only the present moment. The present moment seems real since it is limited by a time factor. Once time advances, this ‘present’ also becomes a ‘past’ and becomes a ‘dream’. Remove the time factor, the present is also a dream. Life thus in totality is nothing but a long dream.

Om Namoh Bhagavathe Sivanandaya !

Om Namoh Bhagavathe Chidanandaya !