Interpretation of Dreams
Perhaps Sigmund Freud is somewhat overrated. Or is he? I'd assume from my later experience of people that people's dreams are more likely to be Freudian if they have read Freud or know somethings about his theories. People innocent of Freudian structures just dream and that's it.
Like this friend of mine once had a dream. He dreamt that some archaeological digging was being done in 'Ayodhya in Greenland' (sic) and that his son picked up a beautiful vase and went running. My friend is supposed to have shouted to his son 'Don't break it!!'
If I were to add that I had visited Greenland in 1982, perhaps that would clue everyone to believe that the dream was somehow related to me. Freud famously links objects like 'vase' to symbolically represent women for obvious reasons and that his son picked up the vase should leave no doubt as to who that woman is. What about breaking the vase? Evidently it has to do with violating the woman. But my friend is no ignoramus of geography and why did he come to dream of Ayodhya in Greenland. Obviously in his mind, for some reason, he links up a scoundrel like me to the likes of Sri Rama. But what would I have to do with his wife?
It might be useful to draw attention to the fact that I had borrowed Rs20,000/- on my personal guarantee of paying up the money to help another friend who had a penchant for charitable deeds. This other friend was seeking to finance someone who was in financial trouble. So I took it upon myself to borrow the amount from this guy on my personal guarantee. Another fact is that at the same time all of us had seen a very nice French film 'Vincent, Francois, Paul & others' by Claude Sautet. Yves Montaud - one of the main character is portrayed in a very sympathetic light who deals with his estranged wife in a very straight and cordial manner and even seeks her financial help. Having been influenced by the film and my trifling act of helping a friend in a monetary way, perhaps he unconsciously came to mistakenly associate my character with Sri Rama !!! Try as I did to draw his attention to all the complexities of his dream by saying to him several times that it was a favourite film of mine, he never took the hint.
He is supposed to have had another dream. In that he dreamt that he was sitting in a bus traveling to Belgaum, but some time during the journey he fell asleep. However when he woke up he found that he was in Tel Aviv, and in the dream he is supposed to have asked a girl as to which place that was. The girl told him somewhat crossly "Can't you see with your eyes. Its Tel Aviv". And when he looked around he found buildings with chandeliers and the works. When I asked him why in one dream he considered Greenland and in another Tel Aviv, he told me that Greenland was extreme north and Tel Aviv was more west than Belgaum.
As I can see he tends to exaggerate in his dreams. For one thing, my friend is a little too thrifty, so he exaggerates his weakness to call himself a Jew (Tel Aviv, Israel, Jew, Shakespeare etc). Likewise he grossly exaggerates my so-called large heartedness with Sri Rama. Ayodhya which is to the north of Bangalore is exaggerated to be in Greenland, which is even further north. And Belgaum which is to the west of Bangalore is exaggerated to Tel Aviv which is likewise further west.
Such are the dreams of the sophisticated. How do the simple ones dream? A junior colleague of mine always told me that he never ever dreams. He had told me so over a period of one or two years of talking to me. One day he came to me and said "Sir! Today I had a clear dream that was strongly registered in my mind! I dreamt that Shiridi Sai Baba came and told me 'Bete! Neenu illivarigu ninagoskara badukidiya! Inna mele bere avarigoskara baduku'" Except for the first word that is in Hindi (meaning Son!)the dream was essentially in Kannada and means "Son! Till now you have lived for yourself! From now on live for others!"
My wife too reports that a majority of her dreams are either about temples, or gods, or Sai Baba (her guru). Wonder what Freud's take on this would be!
