"Bhishma said, 'The yogin who wishes to always practise sinless
Brahmacharya and who is impressed with the faults attaching to dreams
should, with his whole heart, seek to abandon sleep. In dreams, the
embodied soul, affected by the attributes of Passion and Darkness, seems
to become possessed of another body and move and act influenced by
desire.What is meant by the first line of the verse is this. The Soul had, before the creation, only Knowledge for its attribute. When Ignorance or Delusion, proceeding from Supreme Brahma, took possession of it, the Soul became an ordinary creature, i.e., consciousness, mind, etc., resulted. This Ignorance, therefore, established itself upon Knowledge and transformed the original character of the Soul. What is stated in the second line is that ordinary knowledge which follows the lead of the understanding is affected by ignorance, the result of which is that the Soul takes those things that really spring from itself to be things different from itself and possessing an independent existence. In consequence of application for the acquisition of
knowledge and of continued reflection and recapitulation, the yogin
remains always awake. Indeed, the yogin can keep himself continually
awake by devoting himself to knowledge. On this topic it has been asked
what is this state in which the embodied creature thinks himself
surrounded by and engaged in objects and acts? True it is that the
embodied being, with its senses really suspended, still thinks itself to
be possessed of body with all the senses of knowledge and of action. As
regards the question started, it is said that that master of yoga, named
Hari, comprehends truly how it happens. The great Rishis say that the
explanation offered by Hari is correct and consistent with reason. The
learned say that it is in consequence of the senses being worn out with
fatigue, dreams are experienced by all creatures. (Though the senses are
suspended) the mind, however, never disappears (or becomes inactive) and
hence arise dreams. This is said by all to be their noted cause. As the
imaginings of a person that is awake and engaged in acts, are due only to
the creative power of the mind, after the same manner the impressions in
a dream appertain only to the mind. A person with desire and attachment
obtains those imaginings (in dreams) based upon the impressions of
countless lives in the past. Nothing that impresses the mind once is ever
lost, and the Soul being cognisant of all those impressions causes them
to come forth from obscurity.The correct reading, I apprehend, is upagatasprihah and not apagatasprihah. Nilakantha is silent. All that he says is that the first verse has reference to 'yogins,' the second to yogins and 'non-yogins' alike. Both the vernacular translators adhere to apagatasprihah. Whichever among the three attributes
of Goodness, Passion, and Darkness is brought about by the influence of
past acts and by whichever amongst them the mind is affected for the time
being in whatever way, the elements (in their subtile forms) display or
indicate accordingly (in the way of images).I expand verse 8 a little for giving its meaning more clearly than a literal version would yield. All the impressions, it is said here, in dreams, are due either to the impressions of this life or those received by, the mind in the countless lives through which it has passed. All those impressions, again, are well-known to the Soul though memory may not retain them. Their reappearance in dreams is due to the action of the Soul which calls them up from the obscurity in which they are concealed. Avisena's theory of nothing being ever lost that is once acquired by the mind and the recollection of a past impression being, due to a sudden irradiation of the divine light, was, it seems, borrowed from Hindu philosophy. After images have thus
been produced, the particular attribute of Goodness or Passion or
Darkness that may have been brought by past act rises in the mind and
conduces to its last result, viz., happiness or misery. Those images
having wind, bile, and phlegm for their chief causes, which men apprehend
through ignorance and in consequence of propensities fraught with Passion
and Darkness, cannot, it has been said, be easily discarded.The sense is this: a particular attribute among the three, viz., Goodness or Passion or Darkness, is brought to the mind by the influence of past acts of either this or any previous life. That attribute immediately affects the mind in a definite way. The result of this is that the elements in their subtile forms actually produce the images that correspond with or appertain to the affecting attribute and the manner in which it affects the mind.
Whatever objects again a person perceives in the mind (while wakeful)
through the senses in a state of perspicuity are apprehended by the mind
in dreams while the senses are obscured in respect of their
functions.Nothing less than yoga can discard or destroy them, for they really spring from desires generated by past acts. The Mind exists unobstructedly in all things. This is due
to the nature of the Soul. The Soul should be comprehended. All the
elements and the objects they compose exist in the Soul.The Bombay reading Manohrishyan is better. In the
state called dreamless slumber (sushupti), the manifest human body which,
of course, is the door of dreams, disappears in the mind. Occupying the
body the mind enters the soul which is manifest and upon which all
existent and non-existent things depend, and becomes transformed into a
wakeful witness with certainty of apprehension. Thus dwelling in pure
Consciousness which is the soul of all things; it is regarded by the
learned as transcending both Consciousness and all things in the
universe.Both the external and the internal worlds are due to Consciousness, which, in its turn, arises from delusion affecting the Soul. That which is called the Mind is only a product of the Soul. The world both external and internal, is only the result of Mind as explained in previous sections. Hence the Mind exists in all things. What is meant by all things existing in the Soul is that the Soul is omniscient and he who succeeds in knowing the Soul wins omniscience. That yogin who in consequence of desire covets any of the
divine attributes (of Knowledge or Renunciation, etc.) should regard a
pure mind to be identical with the object of his desire. All things rest
in a pure mind or soul.The body is called the door of dreams because the body is the result of past acts, and dreams cannot take place till the Soul, through past acts, becomes encased in a body. What is meant by the body disappearing in the mind is that in dreamless slumber the mind Mo longer retains any apprehension of the body. The body being thus lost in the mind, the mind (with the body lost in it) enters the Soul, or becomes withdrawn into it. Nidarsanam is explained as Nischitadarsanam Sakshirupam. The sense of the verse is that in dreamless slumber the senses are withdrawn into the mind; the mind becomes withdrawn into the Soul. It is the Soul alone that then lives in its state of original purity, consciousness and all things which proceed from it disappearing at the time. This is the result attained to by one who is
engaged in penances. That yogin, however, who has crossed Darkness or
ignorance, becomes possessed of transcending effulgence. When darkness or
ignorance has been transcended, the embodied Soul becomes Supreme Brahma,
the cause of the universe.i.e., the mind becoming pure, he gains omniscience and omnipotence. The deities have penances and Vedic
rites. Darkness (or pride and cruelty), which is destructive of the
former, has been adopted by the Asuras. This, viz., Brahma, which has
been said to have Knowledge only for its attribute, is difficult of
attainment by either the deities or the Asuras. It should be known that
the qualities of Goodness, Passion and Darkness belong to the deities and
the Asuras. Goodness is the attribute of the deities; while the two
others belong to the Asuras. Brahma transcends all those attributes. It
is pure Knowledge. It is Deathlessness. It is pure effulgence. It is
undeteriorating. Those persons of cleansed souls who know Brahma attain
to the highest end. One having knowledge for one's eye can say this much
with the aid of reason and analogy. Brahma which is indestructible can be
comprehended by only withdrawing the senses and the mind (from external
objects into the soul itself).'"The Burdwan translator, using the very words of Nilakantha, jumbles them wrongly together and makes utter nonsense of both the original and the gloss.