Abstract
For traditional Indian Hindu, Buddhist, and Jaina thought, all human life is afterlife, since one must have died before one was born this time. But Yogavāsiṣṭha, a ninth century epic poem with the most mind-boggling narrative structure, construes all these deaths and afterlives as deaths within a series of dreams within a super-dream of the cosmic divine dreamer. This chapter compares the famous dream-death of King Padma in the Līlā story from Yogavāsiṣṭha, with a contemporary Bengali short story about actually dying while dreaming. The question is, what psycho-moral work can such narratives of death-dreams do in contemporary “busy” human lives?
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
BG ŚrīmadBhagavadGītā: With the commentaries Śrīmat-Śaṅkarabhāṣya, with Ānandagirī, Nīlakaṇṭhī, Bhāṣyotkarṣadīpikā of Dhanapati, Śrīdharī, Gītārthasaṃgraha of Abhinavaguptācārya and Gūḍhārthadīpikā of Madhusūdana with Gūḍhārthatattvāloka of Śrīdharmadattāśrama (Bachchāśarma). (1996). New Delhi: Munshiram Manoharlal.
BP Bhaṭṭācārya, V. N. (1916). Bhāṣāpariccheda. Kārikāvalī of Mahāmahopādhyāya Viśwanātha Panchānana. Bombay: Tukārām Jāvajī.
BU Bṛhadāraṇyaka Upaniṣad. (1998). In P. Olivelle (Ed. and Trans.), The early Upaniṣhads (pp. 29–164). New Delhi: Munshiram Manoharlal.
BUB Śaṅkara. (1968). Bṛhadāraṇyakopaniṣad: sānuvāda Śāṅkara-bhāṣya-sahita. Gorakhpur: Gita Press.
CU Chāndogya Upaniṣad. (1998). In P. Olivelle (Ed. and Trans.), The early Upaniṣhads (pp. 166–286). New Delhi: Munshiram Manoharlal.
Devi, R. (1897/1956). Āmāra jībana (4th ed.). Kolkata: Indian Associated Publishing.
Freud, S. (1918). Reflections on war and death (A. A. Brill & A. B. Kuttner, Trans.). New York: Moffat Yard.
GP Garuḍa Mahāpurāṇa. (2003). Delhi: Nag Publishers.
IU Īśā Upaniṣad. (1998). In P. Olivelle (Ed. and Trans.), The early Upaniṣhads (pp. 405–411). New Delhi: Munshiram Manoharlal.
KU Swami Chinmayananda. (2003). Kathopanishad: A dialogue with death. Central Chinmaya Mission Trust.
Mukhopadhyay, S. (1993). Galpasamagra. Kalakātā: De’ja Pābaliśiṃ.
NS Nyāya Sūtra. (1997). Savātsyāyanabhāṣyaṃ Gautamīyaṃ Nyāyadarśanam. New Delhi: Indian Council of Philosophical Research.
Plato. (2002). Five dialogues (G. M. A. Grube, Trans.). Indianapolis: Hackett.
RV Ṛgvedasaṃhitā. (1940). Aundh: Svādhyāyamaṇḍala.
Sarkar, T. (2010). Hindu wife, Hindu nation: Community, religion, and cultural nationalism. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
YV Vālmīki. (1937). The Yogavāsiṣṭha of Vālmīki: With the commentary Vāsiṣṭhamahārāmāyaṇatātparyaprakāśa. Bombay: Pāṇḍurang Jāwajī.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2018 Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Chakrabarti, A. (2018). Dream, Death, and Death Within a Dream. In: Blamberger, G., Kakar, S. (eds) Imaginations of Death and the Beyond in India and Europe. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-6707-5_7
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-6707-5_7
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Singapore
Print ISBN: 978-981-10-6706-8
Online ISBN: 978-981-10-6707-5
eBook Packages: Literature, Cultural and Media StudiesLiterature, Cultural and Media Studies (R0)