Dream (Conversations 1967 - 1975)

Expressions researched:
"dream" |"dream" |"dream" |"dreamed" |"dreamer" |"dreamer's" |"dreamers" |"dreaming" |"dreamland" |"dreamless" |"dreamlike" |"dreamlover" |"dreams" |"dreamt" |"dreamt" |"dreamy"

1967 Conversations and Morning Walks

Discourse on Lord Caitanya Play Between Srila Prabhupada and Hayagriva -- April 5-6, 1967, San Francisco:

Prabhupāda: It was very nice story, that formerly one ācārya, Madhavendra Purī came to this temple, Gopīnatha, and while that condensed milk which is called kṣīra was being offered to the Deity, Madhavendra Purī wanted to taste it so that he would also prepare such condensed milk and offer to his Gopāla. So after that he thought, "Oh, it is being offered to Kṛṣṇa and I wanted to taste it. So I am so greedy." So he left the temple, that "I am not worth to visit this temple." He went outside the temple and sat down underneath a tree and was chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa. Then at dead of night, Gopīnatha, the Deity, was awakening His priest by dream, that "You please get up. I have kept one pot of condensed milk behind My..." What is called... That (pid?) vastra, kings, sometimes they have got, very long tail-like. What is that called?

Hayagrīva: Robe or something?

Prabhupāda: Yes. What is the name?

Hayagrīva: I don't know.

Prabhupāda: In Sanskrit it is called (pid?) vastra, backside robe. So under the backside robe He kept one pot of condensed milk by stealing. So the pūjārī woke up and opened the door and actually saw that there was a pot of condensed milk. The priests were very much astonished that "Oh, He has stolen (laughs) kṣīra for His devotee."

1968 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation -- March 25, 1968, San Francisco:

Yamunā: Swamiji, Jānakī-devī wrote me this very nice letter where she had a dream that there was a gigantic platform above the surface of the earth, and all of our devotees, our Godbrothers and sisters and you, were assembled on this gigantic platform for saṅkīrtana. And we had such a thunderous joy, magnificent kīrtana, that the whole earth... When you said, "Jaya oṁ paraṁ paramahaṁsa," the whole earth bowed down to you like this. And we were all crying, so happy. And you said, "Now my Guru Mahārāja is satisfied." That was her dream.

Prabhupāda: Thank you very much. Yes. Thank you for your dreaming like that. It is very pleasing to me. Yes, I want to see like that.

Room Conversation -- March 25, 1968, San Francisco:

Devotee: Swamiji, is the dream world the real world?

Prabhupāda: Yes, it is reflection of the real world. Reflection is real for the time being. This world is also dream, for the time being. Because this body is not permanent, so it is also a dream. A dream for 100 years or 50 years or 70 years, but that dream is 50 minutes. At night we see the dream for 50 minutes, and this dream is 50 years. That's all. It is a question of time. It is also dream. But dream is reality... So long we see it and enjoy it, that is reality. Just like a man in dream he's crying. It is dream. But the effect is there. Reaction is there. In that sense, dream is reality. Reality, temporary reality, flickering reality. Otherwise, it is reality.

Room Conversation -- July 16, 1968, Montreal:

Prabhupāda: When you are fast asleep, you do not know whether you are on the nice building in a nice apartment. You are dreaming that you are thrown into the ocean. So sleeping. So simply for nice arrangement for sleeping, is that civilization? (break) Then life is successful. At least, if one understands that "This is my business. My business is not to work hard and end it by sense gratification. This is not my business." That is saṁsiddhi. That is success. If, at least, one understands this aim of life, even little understands, he gets next human body. That is guaranteed. At least, he is not going to get any cats' and dogs' body. That is stated in the Bhagavad-gītā. Śucīnāṁ śrīmatāṁ gehe yoga-bhraṣṭo 'bhijāyate (BG 6.41).

Questions and Answers -- Montreal, August 26, 1968:

Devotee: Swamiji, what's the meaning of "Ṭhākura"?

Prabhupāda: Ṭhākura actually means God. So one who is godly, he is also addressed as Ṭhākura. Yes.

Devotee (girl): When we're dreaming, when we're asleep, are we in māyā?

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Devotee (girl): Even when we dream about...

Prabhupāda: So long you sleep, you waste your time.

Devotee (girl): Swami, even when we dream about Godbrothers and Godsisters?

Questions and Answers -- Montreal, August 26, 1968:

Devotee (girl): Even when we dream about Godbrothers and Godsisters?

Prabhupāda: No. That is not māyā. I mean to say, dreaming... Yes. Sleeping means stopping your active life. So that is a waste of time. We should rather... The mind is always active, and dreaming means the mind is acting. So dreaming is not always bad. Dreaming sometimes very good. What I mean, sleeping is not very good. (long pause) Dāmodara, what is the price of these films?

Press Interview -- December 30, 1968, Los Angeles:

Journalist: Is there much divorce in India?

Prabhupāda: Yes. The modern, so-called advanced boys and girls, they are now after divorce. But before that, even there was misunderstanding between husband and wife, quarrel, there was no question of divorce. Take my life practical. I was a householder. Now I have given up. So practically I did not agree with my wife, but there was no dream of divorcing. You see? Neither she dreamt, neither I dreamt. This was unknown. Now they are being introduced.

1969 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation -- May 10, 1969, Columbus, Ohio:

Prabhupāda: Material consciousness means thinking falsely independent. That is material consciousness. Falsely. He is not independent, but he is thinking falsely, "I am independent." This is māyā. Just like in dream he is falsely thinking there is a tiger. There is no tiger, but he is actuated by this false impression, "Oh, tiger is eating me. It has attacked me. Save me." So this material existence means because he is insane, he is thinking there are so many problems, "The tiger is there. He is attacking me. This, that, so many enemies, friends...," creating so many things. But they are all false. But he is attacked by that false hallucination. That's all. This is māyā.

Room Conversation with Allen Ginsberg -- May 11, 1969, Columbus, Ohio:

Prabhupāda: Then you have to consult. Therefore you have to take, just like when you can not understand something, we consult some great authority. Is it not?

Allen Ginsberg: Not enough to make me dream of it at night, no. Not enough to make me love it. Words are not enough. That authority is not enough to make me love it.

Prabhupāda: You don't accept authority?

Allen Ginsberg: Not enough to love.

Prabhupāda: No, love, apart from love.

1971 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation -- July 18, 1971, Detroit:

Prabhupāda: Gandhi, in my young age I was Nationalist, so I followed Gandhi. I was interested. Later on, when I met my spiritual master, I became disinterested with this temporary, ephemeral things. So this is permanent. Kṛṣṇa consciousness is permanent. It is very long(?) (non?) subject matter. We are simply dreaming. All these activities are just like at night we dream, but they are all false. Whatever you dream at night, they're not facts; they're false. Similarly, these are also daydreams, these activities. Daydream. They're also false. The only thing what we can actually take benefit out of it is Kṛṣṇa consciousness. That's a fact. It will take some time.

Room Conversation -- August 15, 1971, London:

Prabhupāda: So you can go. You can go. And you know Deity... (break) ...and if it is sufficiently left, then she doesn't require further. Otherwise add something. But she'll take after the husband. My mother was doing. Yes. The remnants of foodstuff left by the husband will be taken by the wife. That means if the husband does not eat, she'll not eat. So those things are now dream only. (laughs) Impossible. Just like small child, If he follows the father, catching the hand of the father, she is always safe, he is always safe. Now your so-called independence has spoiled the social life. You know he was married. Where she is now?

Kulaśekhara: Oh, she left. We haven't seen her since she left. I don't know where she is. Three years ago. When she left, Śrīla Prabhupāda, she took some drugs and...

Prabhupāda: Drug is killing the whole Western nation. You will be spoiled, you will be finished with this drug habit. You are already finished.

1973 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation with Indonesian Scholar -- February 27, 1973, Jakarta:

Prabhupāda: Just like you have got a different body from your childhood life. Is it not? But you know that you had a childhood body, although the body is not there. This is transmigration from one body to another. Just like a dream at night. You change this body. You accept another body. And although you're lying down on your bed, you've gone to some other place. Subtle body. Take for... This is a fact that we change our bodies so many ways, but I, the soul, I remain. So therefore, when this body will not exist I'll exist in another body. That is confirmed in the Bhagavad-gītā, na jāyate na mriyate vā, na hanyate hanyamāne śarīre (BG 2.20). We can experience this, and it is confirmed in the śāstra. After destruction of this body we are not disturbed.

Morning Walk -- May 9, 1973, Los Angeles:

Svarūpa Dāmodara: When I was a child, our grandfathers used to tell those things. So I would...

Prabhupāda: No, it is a fact. That is mentioned in Bhāgavata also, that... Whose daughter? She dreamed of a nice husband. So her friend,

Kṛṣṇa-Kāntī: Uṣā.

Prabhupāda: Ah, Uṣā, Uṣā, yes. So Aniruddha. That friend brought Aniruddha, Kṛṣṇa's son. She dreamt Aniruddha. So she promised, "I am bringing you just picture, which picture do you like?"

Kṛṣṇa-Kāntī: Citralekhā.

Prabhupāda: Citralekhā. Yes, he remembers.

Morning Walk -- May 14, 1973, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: Just like stealing. Somebody's pick-pocket. Somebody's dacoit. The stealing is there.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: When we sleep, when we dream, are we carried away by the three subtle elements, mind, intelligence...

Prabhupāda: You are carried always by nature under different conditions. You're simply being carried by the nature. Prakṛteḥ kriyamāṇāni (BG 3.27). You are under the grip of material nature. Just like pulling the ear.

Morning Walk -- May 14, 1973, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: We say that. Life is eternal. It is not created nor destroyed. It is covered only for the time. Just like, I'm eternal, but last night I was covered by dreaming, sleeping. So I say "yesterday" and "today." This is my position. I'm eternal, but because last night I was covered by dreaming, therefore I say "yesterday" and "today."

Room Conversation with Indian Guests -- July 11, 1973, London:

Guest (5): These non-vegetarian foods and things like that. They definitely make effect on a human nature and behavior.

Prabhupāda: No, there is difference. George Bernard Shaw, he wrote a book: "You Are What You Eat." So eating has got effect. Sāttvikāhāra or... Unless one is in the sāttvika position, he cannot understand about self-realization. It is not possible.

Guest (5): The human beings get dreams, and what's the lesson between the dreams and the actual life. Suppose I have a dream at night...

Prabhupāda: Dreams mean that is also change of body.

Room Conversation with Indian Guests -- July 11, 1973, London:

Guest (5): It has nothing to do with the human...?

Prabhupāda: No, dream... Just like you forget about this body. Just you have forgotten what body you had in your last birth, similarly, the same experience daily happening. When you dream, you forget that you have got this body. And again, when you give up your dreaming, you come to this body, you forget in what body you were dreaming. So this is the proof that you are living entity, but the body's changing daily. Therefore Bhagavad-gītā says, tathā dehāntara-prāptiḥ (BG 2.13). But these rascals, they do not understand that there is the dehāntara. They are experiencing daily that there is dehāntara, but they do not have any education about this dehāntara.

Room Conversation with Two Buddhist Monks -- July 12, 1973, London:

Prabhupāda: So forgetfulness is also not that I did not exist. I may not remember my last birth. That does not mean I did not exist. So forgetfulness is my nature. I cannot remember even what I was doing exactly this time yesterday. If somebody asks me. I can generally speak, that "I was sitting." But actually, what I was doing, I'll have to remember. So the forgetfulness is our nature. Because I have forgotten... Death means forgetting. Just like in dream. At night, when we get another body and dream and hover, we go somewhere and talk with somebody, we forget about this body. And again, when I come to this body, I awaken, I forget the dreaming body. So I..., every day I am forgetting. At night I am forgetting this body, and daytime I am forgetting my night body. So forgetfulness is not the basic principle of knowledge. The things as they are we have to study. That body we change, but we are, as living entities, we are existing. Na hanyate hanyamāne śarīre (BG 2.20). This is confirmed by authorities. Na hanyate hanyamāne śarīre (BG 2.20).

Room Conversation with Dr. Arnold Toynbee, Famous Historian, at his home or office -- July 22, 1973, London:

Prabhupāda: Yes. At least twice in a year, all over the world. Just in April I was here, in London. April? Or May?

Śyāmasundara: May.

Prabhupāda: May.

Śyāmasundara: Then to India.

Prabhupāda: In the month of May I was here. Again I have come in July. Formerly, from India to come to London, it was like a dream. And now it is daily affair. (laughs)

Dr. Arnold Toynbee: Yes, yes, yes, yes.

Prabhupāda: You get on the plane in the morning and go in the evening there. Simply you have to pay. Otherwise, there is no difficulty. So let us... So thank you very much for your...

Morning Walk -- August 30, 1973, London:

Prabhupāda: Everything is there in the Vedic literature. Nine holes, they have got nine holes. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine. In this way gradually the senses develop and by the time seven months, everything is complete and the living entity's consciousness come back. Prior to the formation of the body, the living entity remains unconscious just like in chloroform, anaesthetic. Then he dreams and then gradually consciousness... At that time he becomes very much upset to come out, come out. Then nature gives him "khut!" He comes out. That's all. This is the process of birth.

Room Conversation with Dr. Christian Hauser, Psychiatrist -- September 10, 1973, Stockholm:

Dr. Hauser: Oh yes. But that's very often a symptom of a, of a psychosis that they feel that they are persecuted by, by foreign powers or by...

Prabhupāda: Yes, yes. Foreign powers, yes. So this is called ghostly haunted. So our material conception of life, this is also ghostly haunted, madness. "I am Christian. I am Hindu. I am Muslim. I am Englishman. I am German." These are all conception of ghostly haunted. Because spirit soul is pure. In the Vedic language it is said: asaṅgo 'yaṁ puruṣaḥ. The spirit soul has no connection with such designations. Just like in dream we see so many things. But it has nothing to do with me. So this is night dream. At night, we forget all these things about the day dream. "I am this, I am that. I am this family-member. I am his father. I am his husband." And so on, so on. At night, when dream, are in a different situation. And we forget everything. And again, in daytime, we forget everything of the night dream. We come another dream. So this is also dream. That is also dream. I am simply observing. In daytime I am seeing some dream, gross dream, and at nighttime I'm seeing some subtle dream. But seer, I am. Under different condition, I am seeing different things. I think you treats this madness. He's sees things in different way, in different positions.

Room Conversation with Dr. Christian Hauser, Psychiatrist -- September 10, 1973, Stockholm:

Prabhupāda: So everyone is mad. Anyone who is in material contact, he is mad. So we are trying to take him out of this dreaming condition. That is Kṛṣṇa consciousness.

Dr. Hauser: But does he stop dreaming? I mean, substantially, does he stop, stop, does one stop dreaming?

Prabhupāda: Yes. Stop means... Because dreaming means that is not my actual occupation. Dreaming means that. I am separate from the dreaming condition. So if one stops this dreaming condition, then he's cured.

Room Conversation with Dr. Christian Hauser, Psychiatrist -- September 10, 1973, Stockholm:

Dr. Hauser: But the dreaming of the night also has another function, according to my...

Prabhupāda: No. Dreaming at night, dreaming at day. The same thing. The pattern is different. Pattern is different. If you think that you are Englishman, you are Swedish, or if you are Hindu, you are Muslim, that is also dream. You are none of this. As much as you are none of those dreaming things at night. But due to our madness, sometimes we take: "This is fact," sometimes we take: "That is fact." But none of them are facts. Under different condition, we accept them as facts. But none of them are facts. Therefore Kṛṣṇa consciousness means: sarvopādhi-vinirmuktaṁ tat-paratvena nirmalam (CC Madhya 19.170). When one becomes freed from all designations. Upādhi. Upādhi means designation. Sarvopādhi-vinirmuktam. Completely free from all designation. Just like in dream I think I have become now king. I am the proprietor of a factory. But none of them. It is only dream. Similarly, in day dream I am thinking I am the father of this family, I am the mother of this family, I am this, I am that. That is all dreaming. So one has to become free from this dreaming condition. That is called sarvopādhi-vinirmuktam (CC Madhya 19.170), liberated from all kinds of false designation. Designation... Designation means false...

Room Conversation -- November 3, 1973, New Delhi:

Prabhupāda: I was simply planning in different way. Therefore Kṛṣṇa's favor. I never deviated from this plan. Since I heard it from my Guru Mahārāja, I've simply planning how to do it successfully. But I thought at that time, that "I'll be able to do it if I get some money. Let me do some business for the time." That I was thinking. But Kṛṣṇa said, "Even if you are pauper, you try; you'll get everything." But I thought, "Without money, how this can be done?" That was difference of opinion with Kṛṣṇa, argument. And I was dreaming also, Guru Mahārāja, asking me, "Come on." So I was going. So I was, "Oh, I have to go? I have to take sannyāsa?"

Śyāmasundara: You, you dreaming?

Prabhupāda: Yes. Guru Mahārāja said, "Come, come with me." I was going. But that... Many things happened before this. Yes. And at last it became, in America.

Morning Walk -- December 3, 1973, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: But they cannot create even an ant, and now they are going to make super beings. This is another foolishness. They cannot create even an ant, moving ant, and they're going to make super being. Just see. And we have to believe them. (laughter) We are not so fools. Your so-called scientists may be fools, but we are not so fools.

Yaśomatīnandana: You give the example of a potter who was dreaming...

Prabhupāda: Ah, yes, yes, That's it. A potter.

Morning Walk -- December 7, 1973, Los Angeles:

Karandhara: They say we're just dreamers.

Prabhupāda: Dreamer?

Karandhara: Dreamers. That we make up fantasies about God and heaven, but actually,

Prabhupāda: Why fancies? You have no brain to understand; therefore you say, "fancy"

Morning Walk -- December 7, 1973, Los Angeles:

Dr. Wolfe: Śrīla Prabhupāda, wouldn't it be more sincere if these people, these scientists said, "We don't want to be taken out of this dream, that with our senses and with all the machines built on senses we will be able to make it"? But they don't want to be taken out of that dream.

Prabhupāda: But that is their foolishness.

Dr. Wolfe: They don't want to admit it even.

Prabhupāda: Why not? They have to admit Just like I gave you the example that you cannot see how many stars are there, but there are. If you say, "I don't see it, I don't believe it," that is your foolishness. That is your foolishness.

1974 Conversations and Morning Walks

Morning Walk -- January 9, 1974, Los Angeles:

Hanumān: In your books you say that the world is like a dream.

Prabhupāda: Yes, it is dream.

Hanumān: How is it a dream?

Prabhupāda: Dream, just like last night you had some dream.

Hanumān: Yes.

Morning Walk -- January 9, 1974, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: Well, it has no value. It is gone. And again, this night, when you'll sleep, you'll forget all these things. You'll dream. You don't remember during night, when you are dreaming, that "I have got my house, I have got my wife I have..." You all forget. So it is dream.

Hanumān: It is true or is not true?

Prabhupāda: No, no. Where is true? You forget at night. Do you remember when you sleep that you have got your wife and you are sleeping on bed? You have gone some three thousand miles away and seeing something else. Do you remember that you have got a place to reside?

Hanumān: No.

Morning Walk -- January 9, 1974, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: So this is dream at night. And night dream, what you saw at night, that is now dream. So both of them dream. You are simply visitor. That's all. You are seeing this dream and that dream. You are, you are fact, but what you are seeing, that is dream.

Hanumān: But I have the impression that "This is true, and my dream is not true." What is the dif...?

Prabhupāda: No, no. Everything is untrue. How it is true? If it is true, why you forget at night? Why you forget? If it is true. Do you remember at night?

Morning Walk -- January 9, 1974, Los Angeles:

Hanumān: No, I don't remember.

Prabhupāda: Then? How it is true? As you don't remember the dreams which you saw last night..., That, therefore we say "dream." Similarly this thing, because you forget at night, this is also dream.

Hanumān: But I have...

Prabhupāda: This is day-dream, that is night-dream. That's all.

Bahulāśva: Jaya. Day-dream and night-dream. And the night-dream, then you perceive that as being real.

Prabhupāda: Eh?

Morning Walk -- January 9, 1974, Los Angeles:

Bahulāśva: When you dream at night, then you think that is real.

Prabhupāda: Yes. That is real. You cry... It is dream, but you are crying, "There is tiger, tiger, tiger!" Where is tiger? But you are seeing it is fact, tiger. "I am being killed by a tiger." But where is tiger. (break) ...in dream you are embracing some beautiful girl. Where is that beautiful girl? But actually this is happening.

Hanumān: Is it happening?

Morning Walk -- January 9, 1974, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: It is happening because there is discharge of semina, night pollution. But where is that girl? Is it not dream? So similarly this is also dream. You are having the effect of truthfulness, but it is a dream. Māyā... Therefore it is called māyā-sukhāya. The same thing, that at night you are dreaming you are embracing nice beautiful girl, as there is no such thing, similarly, in the daytime also, whatever advancement you are making, this is also like that. Māyā-sukhāya. We are happy, we are dreaming, "This process will make me happy. This process will make me happy." But the whole process is dream only. You are taking this day-dream as reality because the duration is long. At night, when you dream, the duration is for half an hour. And this is for twelve hours, or more than that. That is the difference. It is a twelve hours' dream, and that is half an hour dream. But actually, both of them are dream. And because it is twelve hours' dream, you are taking it as, accepting it as real. That is called illusion.

Morning Walk -- January 9, 1974, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: We are making distinction between animal and ourself, but we're forgetting, we are forgetting, the animal also will die and I will also die. So where is my advancement? Will you remain? You'll also die. So where is your advancement upon animals? That is stated in śāstra: āhāra-nidra-bhaya-maithunaṁ ca samānam etat paśubhir narāṇām. Business—eating, sleeping, sex-life and defending—this is also animal's business. And you are also doing the same. How you are distinct from animal? You'll die. The animal will die. But if you say, "I'll die after one hundred years, and this ant will die after one hour," that does not mean that you are in reality. It is a question of time. Just like this huge universe. It will be all be destroyed. As your body will be destroyed, this will be destroyed, annihilation, dissolution. Nature's way, everything will be dissolved. So therefore it is dream. It is a long duration dream. That's all. Nothing else. But the advantage is that even in this dream you can realize the reality, God. That is the... So if you don't take advantage of this dream, then you are missing.

Morning Walk -- January 9, 1974, Los Angeles:

Hanumān: Without your mercy, there's no way out of the dream of material life.

Prabhupāda: Kṛṣṇa's. Kṛṣṇa's mercy. Yes. (pause) (break)

Svarūpa Dāmodara: ...water is tasteless, but Kṛṣṇa says, "I am the taste in water." Science says water is tasteless, no taste in water.

Prabhupāda: Science says.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Yes.

Prabhupāda: But have you tasted that tasteless water? (laughter)

Morning Walk -- March 31, 1974, Bombay:

Lilavati: How is it possible to forget?

Prabhupāda: Eh?

Lilavati: The subtle body...

Prabhupāda: Yes, you forget. (aside:) Hare Kṛṣṇa. Jayo. You forget. When you dream, you forget that you have got this gross body and you are the father of such and such or mother of such and such.

Dr. Patel: Because this is all due to mind only.

Morning Walk -- April 1, 1974, Bombay:

Dr. Patel: How can there be the smaran?

Prabhupāda: Yes. "Therefore, my Lord, I pray that adyaiva, immediately, because now I am fit."

Dr. Patel: Right now.

Prabhupāda: Right now. "Now I am fit. So let me remember You and die." So one must be fit. You see, even in daily, in dream, while sleeping, we forget so many things. Everything we forget.

Morning Walk -- April 2, 1974, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: One who is not envious. A person generally... All conditioned souls, they are envious of God, envious. "Why He should be God? I am God. I am God." So Arjuna is not like that person. Therefore he is speaking to Arjuna. He is devotee. In the Fourth Chapter also, He said bhakto 'si priyo 'si (BG 4.3). Therefore Kṛṣṇa does not expose Himself unless one is devotee. This is first qualification. So to understand Bhagavad-gītā one must be a devotee. The so-called jñānī, yogis, they cannot understand. It is not possible, because they are trying to become God. Although it is simply dream, they can never become, but they are envious, that "Why Kṛṣṇa should be God? I have got so many gods." Anasūyave.

Morning Walk -- April 7, 1974, Bombay:

Yadubara: What about persons who die in their sleep? Is that a sinful death?

Prabhupāda: Yes. Dream or awakened, everything is dream, gross dream and subtle dream. That's all. This is also dream. What do you mean by dream? Dream means existent for a little period. That's all. So night dream is for two hours and this dream is for twenty-four hours.

Morning Walk -- April 11, 1974, Bombay:

Satsvarūpa: To imagine that God has a form. Man imagines God, not that God exists originally, but man imagines God based on his own form.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Anthropomorphism it is called. They create a form, but that is not the fact. God has His eternal form. That I explained. Sac-cid-ānanda-vigraha (Bs. 5.1). Vigraha means form. And it is sac-cid-ānanda, means eternal, full of knowledge and... Just like Kṛṣṇa is speaking Bhagavad-gītā. People are accepting, because that is real knowledge. And nobody reads other books so carefully. And this Bhagavad-gītā is read all over the world. All big, big scholars, big, big philosophers, theologists, they read. Because that is real knowledge. That is the proof. It is real knowledge. Cit. Sac-cid. And one who is giving real knowledge, it is natural conclusion, he has got eternal body. We cannot give real knowledge because we forget. As we change our body, we forget. Just like at night we dream, but we forget the body, this body. In another body we go to some dreamland. So because we change body therefore we forget. And because Kṛṣṇa is giving knowledge perfect, past, present and future, therefore it means that He has got eternal body. This is the proof.

Morning Walk -- May 29, 1974, Rome:

Prabhupāda: Big castle. And at a time they left. In the Roman, the... Formerly, the Romans, they also came. They also constructed big, big buildings. Now they are rotting, and another generation, they also are creating the same thing. But exactly like the children, after playing, they are going. Nobody knows where they have gone. Similarly, these rascals, they are coming. They have got the human intelligence. Simply spoiling that intelligence in amassing the external resources of material nature, and they leave the platform, and again go away and take the birth of some other form of life. Everything forgotten just like dream. This is going on. They cannot understand it has no value.

Morning Walk -- June 12, 1974, Paris:

Yogeśvara: The scientists claim that they have found a way of making babies more intelligent.

Prabhupāda: That, they are dipping in so many things. Therefore we kick on their face, that say, promise, so many things, but cannot do anything. That is the defect of the so-called scientists. They are promising, "By scientific method, we shall make man deathless." Do they not say?

Devotees: Yes.

Prabhupāda: But have they made him deathless? Simply a dream. That's all. Utopian dream.

Bhagavān: Even if they succeed in one area of doing something they promise...

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Room Conversation with Professor Oliver La Combe Director of the Sorbonne University -- June 14, 1974, Paris:

Prabhupāda: Uṣā, yes.

Yogeśvara: Yes, that's right. She showed her a picture. Because she had never seen Aniruddha.

Prabhupāda: She saw only in dream. So her friend Citralekhā showed. She showed that "Find out whom you dreamed." Then she pointed out.

Professor La Combe: I remember that.

Prabhupāda: Yes, in the Bhāgavata.

Room Conversation with devotees about Twelfth Canto Kali-yuga, and Conversation with Guest -- June 15, 1974, Paris:

Pṛthu Putra: She'd like to know about the problem of death, what's happening at the time of death.

Prabhupāda: Yes. So as you prepare yourself... Because... Just like in dream we think what we have actually performed, similarly, the mental condition at the time of death will be prepared as we are doing in our usual life. Do you understand English? (French)

American Man: I'm American.

Prabhupāda: Oh, that's nice.

Morning Walk -- June 19, 1974, Germany:

Satsvarūpa: Because he can't perceive. He can perceive that he has changed from child to old man, but he can't perceive what is going to happen after death. So who knows?

Prabhupāda: But he cannot perceive that we, at night we change this body and go to another body when we dream? He cannot perceive? Your body, this body, is laid down on the bed, and you go away, and you are thinking that you are in Europe and America or in the sky or so many things. So what is that?

Morning Walk -- June 19, 1974, Germany:

Prabhupāda: Illusion. You are seeing an illusion? Some tiger is coming. You are crying, "Save me, save me." It is illusion. This body is also illusion. But you are affected. That means you are experiencing. How you can say that you are not perceiving? And when in dream you see your beloved or woman and man, there is no, nothing such thing, but still, there is discharge. Why? Why you are not perceiving? How you can say that you are not perceiving. It is perceiving. What is the answer? You are perceiving every night...

Satsvarūpa: Yes, in dreams.

Morning Walk -- June 19, 1974, Germany:

Prabhupāda: Why you said that "I have no perception?" There is perception, every day, every night. How you can say there is no perception? The perception is so strong, sometimes one dreaming some horrible position, he cannot more sleep. The sleep breaks. So why there is no perception? He is so much troubled that breaks. He immediately comes to the safe side of this gross body.

Room Conversation with Professor Durckheim German Spiritual Writer -- June 19, 1974, Germany:

Prabhupāda: When we dream, my body is left on the bed and I go somewhere. That we experience, that I am separate from this body. At that time I forget my, this body is lying down on the bed. I am acting in a different atmosphere. So and again, in daytime, I forget that at night I was in a different body, and I went to such and such place or on the sky I was flying. I forget. At night I forget this body and at daytime I forget that body. But I am existing. Therefore I am not this body. I am existing in this body and that body, but that body I have forgotten, and this body I forget. So this is a structure on my mind only. Actually I am different from the mind. And that is self-realization. That is described in the Bhagavad-gītā.

Room Conversation with Professor Durckheim German Spiritual Writer -- June 19, 1974, Germany:

Professor Durckheim: But in order to get there, to feel that one is neither this nor that, one must have suffered by first having thought that one is this or that.

Prabhupāda: That suffering is just like you suffer in the dream. You are attacked by a tiger. There is no tiger. Actually there is no suffering. But on account of ignorance, you are thinking, "The tiger is eating me."

Professor Durckheim: Yes, but this is a very good example because the dream of the tiger comes very often. And it always means that you are pursued by some of your inner instincts, yourself. So you discover in the image of the tiger something which is not right in yourself.

Room Conversation with Professor Durckheim German Spiritual Writer -- June 19, 1974, Germany:

So as we are changing our body, we are getting different experiences, and all those experiences are photographed within the mind. And they sometimes come out and make an intermixture, and we see dreams and so many contradictory things. This is going on, mental speculation. That is hovering on the mental plane. That is not spiritual plane. That, it is stated,

indriyāṇi parāṇy āhur

indriyebhyaḥ paraṁ manaḥ

manasas tu parā buddhir

buddhes tu yaḥ parataḥ saḥ

(BG 3.42)

So we have to transcend the platform of intelligence also. Then we come to the platform of spiritual realization. That is instructed in the Bhagavad-gītā.

Morning Walk -- June 20, 1974, Germany:

Satsvarūpa: The subtle body carries the soul.

Prabhupāda: Yes. That is the main point. The subtle body carries the soul. Just like in dream, we are carried by the subtle body and placed in different condition. But so long this body is capable of working, I come to this body. My dream is over, and I come back to this body. And death means that this body, being useless, instead of coming to this body, I go to another body. This is transmigration. Just like when you vacate an apartment, then you do not come back in that apartment, but you enter another apartment.

1975 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation with Woman Sanskrit Professor -- February 13, 1975, Mexico:

Professor: Well, I remember one other explanation, that when you are sleeping and you have a dream...

Prabhupāda: No, when I am sleeping I am working.

Professor: ...and you have a dream, and then, when you are coming back from sleep...

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Professor: ...you can remember your dream.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Professor: That means that you are conscious of your existence even on the suppression of consciousness.

Room Conversation with Woman Sanskrit Professor -- February 13, 1975, Mexico:

Prabhupāda: I am not only conscious, but the consciousness depends on me. Because I am there, therefore consciousness... So I am nitya. This is the proof of nitya, that many changes have taken place, but the changes, the phenomenal changes, they have gone out. They are no more existing. Therefore they are not nitya. Just like dream. At night I saw one dream, but the dream is no more existing, but I remember that last night I saw the dream. Therefore I am nitya. And the dream is anitya. The dream is anitya. Similarly, this phenomenal world, when I am not sleeping, but I am so-called awakened, so I am seeing. I am seeing you, I am seeing the table, this book, you see, but... (aside:) Don't... But when I am asleep I forget all these things. I forget. I am in a different world. I am seeing different things. So this is also dream, and the dream at night, that is also dream. But I, the seer of this dream and that dream, I am the eternal.

Room Conversation with Woman Sanskrit Professor -- February 13, 1975, Mexico:

Prabhupāda: Existence of thing... I say that at night, when I am dreaming, I do not see existence of these things. And at this time, in daytime, when I am seeing these things, I do not see the existence of the dream. So the conclusion should be both these things I see in daytime and I see at night, they have no existence. They are phenomenal. But I am the seer; I am eternal. I am existing. This is the proof. Because at night I am seeing and daytime I am seeing, so therefore I am eternal. But the phenomenal manifestation, they are temporary. We don't say it is false. Temporary. The Māyāvādī philo... Śaṅkara said it is false. Brahma satyaṁ jagan mithyā. Mithyā means false. We don't say false. We don't say that this book is false. It has got reality, but temporary.

Room Conversation with Professors -- February 19, 1975, Caracas:

Prabhupāda: So if we think that "Dog is eating on the street, and we are eating very palatable dishes, nicely made, very tasteful. That is advancement of civilization," that is not advancement of civilization because it is, after all, eating. Similarly, sleeping; the animals sleep on the street and we sleep in very nice apartment. But in sleeping, we dream horrible things more than the animals. So eating, sleeping, sex life and trying for defense, these are common formulas both for the animals and for the man. Therefore a human being is distinguished from the animal when he enquires about transcendence. And that is explained in the great literature Brahma-sūtra, or the philosophy of Vedānta-sūtra, athāto brahma jijñāsā: "Now we have got this human form of life. We must enquire about the Brahman, or transcendence." So our bodily necessities of life should be simplified as much as it is required.

Morning Walk -- May 14, 1975, Perth:

Prabhupāda: Now this rascal Jawaharlal Nehru has introduced divorce in the Hindu society. Otherwise in the Hindu society separation between husband and wife is not even dreamt of. That, it cannot be. However there may be quarrelsome, but there is no question of separation. Husband and wife, they fight, everywhere. I have seen. My father and mother was fighting. I fought. (laughter) But there is no question of separation. Separation, they never think. Neither the husband can think of, nor the wife can think of. Even in the life of Gandhi there was fight between husband and wife, and the Gandhi one day drove his wife, "Get out from my home." So she was put into the street, and she began to cry, "Where shall I go?" And then Gandhi ans..., "Come on." Yes. And Cāṇakya Paṇḍita said, bambhārambhe laghu-kriyā. The husband and wife may fight. It becomes a very serious thing, but don't take of it as serious. This is Hindu philosophy.

Room Conversation with Two Lawyers and Guest -- May 22, 1975, Melbourne:

Prabhupāda: There was a great devotee in South India. He was a treasury officer. So he took money from the treasury and constructed very nice temple. (laughter) Yes. Later on, he was caught, and he was put into jail by the Nawab. At that time the Mohammedan king, Nawab, he saw in dream that two boys, very beautiful, they have come to the Nawab: "Sir, what money he has taken, you can take from me and release him." So the Nawab said, "If I get my money, I can release him." Then, when his dream broke, he saw the money on the floor, and nobody was there. Then he could understand that he is great devotee. He called him immediately, that "You are released, and you take this money also. Whatever you have already taken, that's all right. And now this money also you take. You spend as you like." So devotees sometimes do like that. Actually nothing is private property. That is our philosophy. Īśāvāsyam idaṁ sarvam: (ISO 1) "Everything belongs to God." That's a fact. Under the influence of māyā we are thinking that "This is my property."

Morning Walk -- May 29, 1975, Honolulu:

Prabhupāda: It is stone. (so?) It is not separate piece. It is attached to a big...

Gurukṛpa: Big lava came, and now it's here. Actually, it's all false. It doesn't exist. It's just like a dream. We're just dreaming these things. But when you wake up and you're out of the dream, then you actually come to the Brahman. It's just false.

Prabhupāda: But when this chunk is thrown over your head, that is not false. If it is thrown over your head, then you protest, "No, no, don't do it. Don't do it."

Morning Walk -- May 31, 1975, Honolulu:

Prabhupāda: No, not two rupees. Jagannātha Purī at that time was four rupees, four annas or one anna. And Vṛndāvana was six rupees.

Gurukṛpa: Six.

Prabhupāda: Six rupees from Calcutta. So I was dreaming "When I get this four rupees or six rupees, I shall go." (break)

Gurukṛpa: That is not material.

Bali-mardana: You were desiring to worship... You were worshiping Jagannātha, weren't you?

Prabhupāda: Yes. Rathayātrā.

Morning Walk -- June 21, 1975, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: We are not doing business? We are doing the best business. You are working hard day and night, and without working, we are living comfortably. They cannot dream of. (break) ...is their envy, that "These people, without doing anything they are living so comfortably. And we are working so hard day and night." (break) Yes, this is envious. (break) He is searching some fish? (break)

Jayatīrtha: Clams.

Garden Conversation with Professors -- June 24, 1975, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: ...which is fact? The dreams and phases of different life while passing through, they are facts or I am fact? What is your answer? We are teaching that, you take care of the fact, not of the dreams. That is our Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement. That is the beginning of Bhagavad-gītā, dehino 'smin yathā dehe kaumāraṁ yauvanaṁ jarā, tathā dehāntara-prāptiḥ (BG 2.13). We are changing circumstances. The circumstances are not fact but the whole world is taking care of the circumstances not of the sheer fact. This is the defect of modern civilization.

Morning Walk -- June 25, 1975, Los Angeles:

Dr. Judah: I had an interesting dream last night, and after dreaming it, I woke up and stayed awake until I got up, until I was called at five. The dream was... It seems to be a mixture of the events that occurred last night. I was in a temple and doing kīrtana with a number of devotees, and in the middle of the kīrtana, a little child crawled in on the floor into the temple, and we all stopped and talked to the little child. And I'm reminded... And I thought, "Now what does this mean?" And I remember then. I was talking with Dharma just before I went to bed, and there was this little child that came in from next door there, and so he, we gave him some prasādam, and so I feel that this all got mixed together in this dream.

Prabhupāda: Dream means some mixed ideas.

Morning Walk -- July 16, 1975, San Francisco:

Dharmādhyakṣa: So when the jīva soul descends into the material world, it is like a hallucination?

Prabhupāda: Yes. We get experience daily. In the daytime we have forgotten the night dream, and night dream we forget in this daytime existence. So which is correct? Therefore it is hallucination.

Morning Walk -- October 3, 1975, Mauritius:

Prabhupāda: This is the preliminary necessities of life: illicit sex, meat-eating, drinking, gambling. They cannot think that a man can live without these things. Therefore people are wonderful, that "How he is turning these Europeans, Americans to this standard?" That is their wonder. Nobody can think of, that these things can be given up and one can avoid it. It is dream. Your government, American government, is also surprised that "We have spent so much money for stopping this LSD, and this man by saying his disciples, they are giving up." Judah has also mentioned that. That is their surprise—"How these things can be given up? It is impossible."

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: You once said in Geneva that no one has died by giving up smoking.

Morning Walk -- October 26, 1975, Mauritius:

Harikeśa: I think he was also the same one who was saying the Aquarian Gospel was just somebody's dream.

Prabhupāda: Yes, but you are also dreaming. Why do you claim that your dream is all right; his dream is wrong? Dreaming is wrong. If his dream is wrong—you are also dreaming—you are also wrong. Why do you claim that your dream is all right? That is nonsense. Everyone thinks that he is right and everyone is wrong. We do not think like that. We take the words of the authority, that's all. Or we have no respect(?). This is our program. That is the way of paramparā. Not only we accept, but our previous ācāryas, all the big, big ācāryas, they have accepted. Śukadeva Gosvāmī said. He is ācārya. Vyāsadeva says from the very beginning. Kṛṣṇa says. That's all right. We take these authorities. We do not dream. That is not our process. Dream, your dream or my dream, this is all rascal. Dream is dream. Why do you think that your dream is right and my dream is wrong?

Morning Walk -- October 26, 1975, Mauritius:

Brahmānanda: That's why they're always bickering with one another.

Prabhupāda: Yes. There is no standard idea. I dream some way; you dream some way. That's all. What is this?

Cyavana: Seaweed.

Brahmānanda: It looks like a sponge.

Cyavana: Plant.

Prabhupāda: That is their defect. If my dream is wrong, why your dream should be right? That they did not conceive of, that "My dream is right(?)." And if you say that "Your dream is also wrong," yes, I do not dream. I take the facts from the authority. We do not dream. Dream is dream, either yours or mine. It doesn't matter.

Morning Walk -- November 2, 1975, Nairobi:

Prabhupāda: Unless the girl is grown up, she is not going to the husband. She remains with the father and mother. Sometimes they meet, and the wife is taught, giving some sweetmeat to the husband-official. Official. The parents of the girl: "Just go up to your husband and offer this." So she comes as obedient servant. But gradually they get the connection. In this way the love develops, and when they are fifteen, sixteen years old, they are allowed to live together. Because both of them have already developed that "She is my wife," "He is my husband," psychologically. And there was no question of divorce. The love is so strong, they cannot dream even that "I have to leave my wife," "I have to leave my husband." They cannot dream it. They may fight. The husband and wife fighting, that is not unusual. Therefore Canakya Paṇḍita says, "Fight between the husband, wife, never take it seriously." Daṁpatye kalahe caiva baṁbhāraṁbhe laghu-kriya: "They'll make all arambha, but it is not very important. Don't take." Next moment they will again live peacefully. So according to Indian culture, there is no divorce. There is no question of divorce. Both the husband and wife, they cannot dream of divorce. The love was so strong.

Morning Walk -- November 18, 1975, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: No, no. You say some of the scientists.

Dr. Patel: No, somebody else does not believe in God. Don't put me there. (laughter) He does not believe in God. Suppose he does not believe in God. (laughter) It is impossible for me not to believe in God, how much I may try even in my dream. It is impossible.

Prabhupāda: No, I am speaking not you but a scientist, so-called scientist. So what did he say? That "There is no need of God"?

Morning Walk -- December 10, 1975, Vrndavana:

Harikeśa: As soon as the desires completely change, then everything else is purified.

Prabhupāda: Yes. As Arjuna said, kariṣye vacana tava, naṣṭo mohaḥ: "Now my illusion is over. I agree to act as you say." This is Kṛṣṇa conscious. Naṣṭo moha smṛtir labdh tvat prasādān madhusūdana. (break) The moha is there. Moha means these desires are illusion, like dreaming. In dream we see so many things. They are all false. In dreaming I am seeing that somebody is coming to kill me but there is nobody, but still, I am dreaming. This is called moha. So when one is free from moha, then he's Kṛṣṇa conscious. The whole material world is going on under such illusion. Therefore it is called māyā. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Thank you.

Morning Walk -- December 23, 1975, Bombay:

Kīrtanānanda: We've seen the example used, Prabhupāda, that just like a man, if he goes to sleep at night and he dreams that he has committed some murder or some...

Prabhupāda: So why does he dream?

Kīrtanānanda: ...he enjoys or suffers the activities, but actually he is...

Prabhupāda: Yes, but why he dreams like that? One is dreaming like that, another is dreaming a different way. That is due to his practice. (aside:) Hare Kṛṣṇa.