Svapna treated in Småti texts
Author(s): Ramadevi Sekhar
Abstract: The voyages the mind takes dur ing sleep are fascinating, intensely personal, and unique. These sleep adventures in the form of dreams confuse, alarm, preoccupy, amuse or enlighten the dreamer. Man has two states of awareness in which the thought-activity or the process of knowing takes place – One is external perception and the other is internal perception. External perception is generally accepted as being derived through the five sense organs namely olfactory, gustatory, auditory, visual and tactual. Hence, it has been termed
jāgrat, meaning
nidrākṣaya,
i.e., diminution of sleep. Under the second variety, namely the internal perception falls the
svapna, the dreaming state, wherein the knowledge of the waking state is visualised as images, with only the mind to aid the cognit ion. The concept of
duùsvapna was very much dreaded by the Vedic seers; they considered them as highly inauspicious and as seen earlier; prayed to varieties of Gods for protection against bad dreams and their evil consequences. These
duùsvapnas were considered inauspicious due to their effects and unknown future.
Pages: 71-79 | Views: 730 | Downloads: 286Download Full Article: Click HereHow to cite this article:
Ramadevi Sekhar. Svapna treated in Småti texts. Prācyā. 2017; 9(1): 71-79.