Seeing or Dreaming or Both
TRANSCEND MEMBERS, 19 Sep 2022
Dr. Ravi P. Bhatia – TRANSCEND Media Service
22 Aug 2022 – Wherever we may be, we are flooded with sights and sounds during the daytime. Some of these sights are so intense, we often dream about them if not in an exact form; sufficiently close to recognise them even while sleeping.
To give an example, yesterday my younger brother and I had an argument over a silly thing and the argument continued without either of us claiming that I was right, my brother was at fault. Unsurprisingly, I had a dream of the two of us arguing intensely. I cannot say if it was clear in the dream about the topic of our argument, but after a brief while, my dream ended with my brother on the winning side.
On another occasion, I was watching an old Hindi film on my TV in my home. It was a romantic film as most Hindi movies are. Suddenly while the heroine was singing a romantic song, the electricity went off — the film and the song ended midway. What a pleasure I felt when that night, when I dreamt about the actress singing that romantic song that made me smile even in my dream.
Political disputes and related arguments are often intense in India. Usually, they relate to the different parties who claim that their party was working hard to curb inflation while the opposing party was at odds with their policies. The arguments are intense on this and other issues but as usually happens, neither party can claim to be wholly correct while the opponent is wrong. Imagine my surprise one night when I dreamt about two people arguing on some issue so intensely that I woke up confused. It took me a while to go back to sleep; fortunately that dream did not reappear.
India is a vast ancient country with large number of hills and mountains — the Himalayas in the north of the country, Meghalaya (Land of Clouds) on the East. Other hills can also be seen in other parts. Similarly, there are many large rivers — Ganga, Jamuna in the northern part of the country and Kaveri in the South. Many beautiful temples and tourist spots have been built near these rivers. I had visited some of these around Ganga and Jamuna rivers but never been to the southern river.
Imagine my delight when I dreamt one night that I was on a boat ride in the Kaveri River and the scenery around was spectacular, unforgettable. Next morning I tried to remember the beauty of my dreams; couldn’t do so. But I decided to go to the states of Karnataka and Tamil Nadu in the southern part of India to see the river and some nearby temples. I had been to Kerala earlier but not seen this river.
Is it not fantastic that not only one dreams of events or people, but the opposite also happens? Dreams of temples, rivers motivate a person to go visit the sites and actually partake of their beauty and spirituality. Long live these sights at night.
Good Night friends.
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Dr Ravi P Bhatia is a member of the TRANSCEND Network for Peace Development Environment, an educationist, Gandhian scholar and peace researcher. Retired professor, Delhi University. His new book, A Garland of Ideas—Gandhian, Religious, Educational, Environmental was published recently in Delhi. ravipbhatia@gmail.com
This article originally appeared on Transcend Media Service (TMS) on 19 Sep 2022.
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