of which dreams are made. We don’t want to know why we dream, but merely what a particular dream means. There are always specialists around to interpret them for us. Because most symbols make sense only in a cultural context, we have many kinds of dream interpretations like the Islamic, the Christian, the Hindu, the Freudian and so on. And the specialist thrives in a pluralist society like our own. However, the hidden meaning of a symbol eludes even the adept, not so much from a lack of adequate knowledge, but perhaps because the meaning has changed dramatically over time. Despite being open to several, and sometimes conflicting interpretations, symbols in dreams continue to invite the specialist to provide meaning to the dreamer. Wake up, dear reader, and know your symbols well, and their meaning in a dream context, for not a day passes without dreams.
Aldous Huxley wrote that “Man is an amphibian who lives simultaneously in two worlds – the given and the homemade, the world of matter, life and consciousness and the world of symbols.” He points out that the symbols in science have been carefully chosen to represent the physical world; however, in matters of religion and politics no such effort preceded the creation of symbols. Consequently, while the former helped us to grow technologically, the latter has held us back from overcoming our brute nature. No matter how many symbols we deal with in our daily life, it is perhaps more important, and urgent, to distinguish between those that aid our understanding and those that excite our passions, than merely to be overcome by their avowed meanings.
Anand Betanabhotla
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