Broadly speaking dreams can be seen in two perspectives; as a hard scientific reality and in the form of a flowery world of fantasy. Scientifically there is no element of romance related to the dreams, while they have a significant role to play in the world of fantasy, with passion and imagination ruling the roost.
The eastern poets, for ages, have lived in a world of fantasy and based their writings on imagination. They may have been terminally old, pitifully haggard, woefully weird and what not, but their write ups reflect their young, emotionally charged inner self, mirroring their unfulfilled dreams, in their poetry.
Factually speaking it is the dreamers who have made this world a better place to live in. All big men and achievers have been great dreamers, their dreams being an index to their greatness. These dreamers are not bothered by the night fall. They find their way by the moonlight, creating an enviable future. We are not born by choice, we do not choose our parents or the country of our birth, nor we control the mode and time of our death but we can choose our dreams and make them come true. Every dream precedes a goal or, perhaps, a goal is a dream with a deadline.
All people dream but not equally. Dreams are those fleeting moments when you are between asleep and awake and don’t know the difference between reality and fantasy. For some they are like stars, you may not touch them, but if you follow them they will lead you to destiny, changing the course of the entire life. Dreams do not vanish so long as people do not abandon them. So learn to fight for your dreams. Future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams. That is the key to success. Those who dream by night wake up in the morning to see them vanish.
Dreams lend aesthetics to literature and are an integral part of culture; appearing in bewildering mythology, unbelievable fairy tales and mesmerizing poetry. Many dreams are said to have produced, directly or indirectly, fabulous stories, romantic poetry, melodious music and even great scientific inventions. Pakistan was the dream of Allama Iqbal, Martin Luther King dreamt of a slave free America, George Stephenson’s dream personified in the shape of a railway locomotive and the space scientists realized their dreams by reaching the moon and beyond. So never surrender your dream as, without the leaps of imagination, or dreaming, we lose the excitement of possibilities. They must be free to fly high.
Poets have been aspiring to make up for their unfulfilled dreams, young people spin golden dreams day in and day out, the inventors cast their dreams for their futuristic inventions while people who do nothing just day dream, living in their imaginary world. Call them lunatics. Scientifically all these categories may be absurd thought disorders and hallucinations but in real life they certainly touch the young hearts and make their deserts bloom to life. Shakespeare‘s legendary ‘Midsummer night’s dream’ has a love theme, a subject on the minds of most teenagers, much of the time. Translucently allegorical dreams so often narrated in romance are essentially inconceivable but they are still widely cherished; filled with images of joy, and brimming with charming delights. No wonder the famous ‘Mills and Boon’ series are so popular with the teenagers.
“Once in the dream of a night I stood,
Lone in the light of a magical wood.”
Sarojini Naidu.
Each dream is a creation which is either a conscious aspiration or an unconscious one. These aspirations enter into the desire-life. Our dreams are God’s creation in the inner world that leads us to a world of reality. Creation and dream, aspiration and realism are all members of the same family. If we become familiar with one, we automatically achieve the rest, for our dreams are after all disguised realities that do not always remain so. They purify our minds, motivate us for the better and lend the much needed inner awakening of the soul. Dreams pass in to reality of action. From the action stem the dreams again and this interdependence produces the highest form of living. Nothing happens unless we first dream.
“To accomplish great dreams we must not only act, but also dream, not only plan but also believe”. A French proverb.
Day dreaming is the worst form of dreams. These dreamers seldom appreciate what they have, but always crib about what they lack. They are living in a fool’s paradise. The happiest people are those who may not have the best of everything but just make the best of everything that they have. It is only the visionary dreams that that bear fruit, fanciful ones do not. Dreaming is a form of planning and the dreams are the touch stones of our character. If we advance in the direction of our dreams and live the life we have imagined, we will meet success. I will quote George Bernard Shaw who says ‘You see things as they are and you say “why”? I dream of things that never were and say, “why not”?
Scientifically dreams are sequence images, sounds and feelings, experienced while sleeping, with no universally agreed biological definition. They are excitation of long term memory, a short- lasting psychosis or mere reflections of the subconscious. Humans spend six years in dreams during their normal life span that works out to two hours each night, most dreams lasting 15 to 20 minutes on the average. The thinkers and intellectuals have an altogether different approach to this process. They stress that one should not negotiate his dreams as it is the dreams that make us airborne; above the clouds and above the storms. Dreams keep us young. When our memories outweigh our dreams, we have grown old. People, who don’t have dreams, don’t have much. We grow great by dreams. So nourish them, protect them, nurse them through bad days, bring them to light, and they come true. Circumstances or people can take away your material possessions, take away your money, and also your health but no one can ever take away your precious memories. They are dreams. In the words of Mark Twain, “Explore. Dream. Discover” and live your dreams.
