Sūtra 9.2.7 (Dream, how produced)

Sanskrit text, Unicode transliteration, Word-for-word and English translation of Vaiśeṣika sūtra 9.2.7:

तथा स्वप्नः ॥ ९.२.७ ॥

tathā svapnaḥ || 9.2.7 ||

tathā—so; svapnaḥ—dreaming.

7. So (also is) dreaming.

Commentary: The Upaskāra of Śaṅkara Miśra:

(English rendering of Śaṅkara Miśra’s commentary called Upaskāra from the 15th century)

Thus four-fold vidyā, or true cognition, or knowledge, having been explained, it now becomes proper to explain avidyā or false cognition or knowledge. Therein doubt or uncertainty and error have been incidentally ascertained before. For the purpose of ascertaining dreaming, he says:

[Read sūtra 9.2.7 above]

The meaning is that as reminiscence results from a particular conjunction between the soul and the mind, and from impression or latency, so also does cognition in dreaming. Cognition in dreaming is the mental experience, through the channels of the senses, belonging to one, when one’s senses have ceased to be active and one’s mind is in a quiescent state. And this is of three kinds (1) It partly arises from acuteness of impression or facility of reproductiveness; as in a man who, in love or in anger, thinks intently on some object, when he goes to sleep, in that state, cognition resembling perception, in the form, “This is the contest between Karṇa and Arjuna” (two heroes of the Mahābhārata), is produced, through the influence of impression, reproductiveness or latency, produced by previous hearing of the Purāṇas, etc. (2) It arises partly from derangement of the humours or affections of the body, viz., wind, bile, and phlegm. Therein, in consequence of disorder of the wind, one dreams of moving about in the sky, wandering about on the earth, fleeing with fear from tigers, etc., and the like; under the influence of an unwholesome excess of the bile, one dreams of entering into fire, embracing flames of fire, golden mountains, corruscations of flashing lightning, sudden extensive conflagrations, etc. while, through predominance of phlegmatic deragement, one dreams of swimming upon the sea, immersions in rivers, sprinklings with showers of rain, silver mountains, etc., (3) Dreams appear also under the influence of adṛṣṭaṃ (the invisible after-effects of past acts) or deserts. These are cognitions, produced in one whose internal sense has been lulled to sleep or overpowered with sleep, in respect of the experiences of the present or previous states of existence. Therein somnial cognition, signifying good, results from dharma or merit, and has for its object the riding upon elephants, ascending on mountains, acquisition of the royal umbrella, feasting upon pudding, interview with the sovereign, and the like; whereas somnial cognition, signifying evil, arises from adharma or demerit, and has its object unction with oil, falling into blind wells, riding upon camels, immersion in mire, the seeing of one’s own nuptials, and the like.

The above three, only as jointly operating, have causality here (i.e., in the production of dreams). It should be further observed that this division of causes, is based on the predominance of one or another of the qualities of these causes in their effects.—7.