Pariprashnena — Q&A Archive

Yes. See Vedanta sutra 3.2.7.
http://www.bharatadesam.com/spiritual/brahma_sutra/sribhashya_ramanuja/vedanta_sutra_commentary_ramanuja351.php
http://www.veda.harekrsna.cz/encyclopedia/dreams.htm

Only in a deep sleep. Deep sleep deprivation can lead to madness.

Thanks Veda.

Ramanujacaryas commentary on 3.2.7 differentiates between the deep dreamless sleep (susupti) and dreaming state (svapna) of the soul. He states that the soul reposes with the Supersoul only in the deep dreamless sleep state and supports this sttement with verses from Upanishads.

So the comment above: "...the soul retreats into the core of the heart and spends time with the Supersoul when we sleep..." is only partly correct, because according to Ramanujacarya and the Upanisads the soul doesnt repose with Supersoul every time it sleeps but only when in deep, dreamless sleep.

Vedaji, I read your info on dreams from the link you provided. I think you missed some really essential text from Ramanujacaryas commentary which fits very nicely to that section. Try these:

3.2.5: The things seen by an individual soul in its dreams therefore are specially created by the Supreme Person, and are meant by Him to be a retribution--whether reward or punishment--for deeds of minor importance: they therefore last for the time of the dream only, and are perceived by that one soul only.

3.2.6: The things seen in dreams are not created by the wish of the individual soul for this reason also [the reason being that because the souls power is obscured by matter, it cannot create the things it sees in dreams] the soul is unable to create, and that according to Scripture dreams are prophetic of future good or ill fortune. When a man engaged in some work undertaken for some special wish sees a woman in his dream, he may infer success from his dream vision. Those also who understand the science of dreams teach that dreams foreshadow good and evil fortune. But that [dream] which depends on ones own wish can have no prophetic quality; and as ill fortune is not desired the dreamer would create for himself only such visions as would indicate good fortune. Hence the creation which takes place in dreams can be the Lords work only.

All Glories to Srila Prabhupada

"This body is exactly like one of the bodies which we always see in dreams. During our dream of sleep, we create so many bodies according to mental creation. We have seen gold, and we have also seen a mountain, so in a dream we can see a golden mountain by combining the two ideas. Sometimes in dreams we see that we have a body which is flying in the sky, and at that time we completely forget our present body. Similarly, these bodies are changing. When you have one body, you forget the past body. During a dream, we may make contact with so many new kinds of bodies, but when we are awake we forget them all. And actually these material bodies are the creations of our mental activities. But at the present moment we do not recollect our past bodies. " Krishna Book Appearance of Lord Krishna

Hare Krishna

So are you saying there is a contradiction between the Krishna Book that says "And actually these material bodies are the creations of our mental activities" and the Vedanta Sutra commentary by Ramanujacarya 3.2.6 "The things seen in dreams are not created by the wish of the individual soul for this reason also [the reason being that because the souls power is obscured by matter"

Please explain...???