A Dream about Stealing

While listing the various means human beings use to evolve, Patanjali the father of yoga mentioned the knowledge gained from dreams as one of them. The subject of dreams is indeed a vast one and it is hardly possible to go into much of it here. A bit about them has been mentioned in earlier posts. Just two things may be mentioned though, when dreams are mostly traumatic and stressful, it implies that much emotional stress is stored up within the recesses of one’s personality. Time and dreams help to resolve these so that dreams become sweet and gentle most times as they should be. Leading a simple loving life,  in secluded green surroundings hastens this process and that is something that mystics have done from time immemorial to cleanse their souls of unnecessary burdens. However, leading a hectic life of greed, anger and stress will increase the problem.  For most humans, it appears to be a good idea to reflect on their dreams, or whatever part of it they remember soon after waking up to assist this process of resolution. It is something I have done from an early age.

In his treatise on yoga, Patanjali mentions that to even begin evolving as a human it is necessary as the very first preliminary steps to give up things like violence and stealing. These are left over of our animal past. A monkey would not think twice about stealing a banana from your hand when hungry but a human is supposed not to steal i.e. take something that belongs to someone else without their permission or knowledge. A Human may only take from what belongs to no other humans or what is earned by them or given to them willingly by someone else.

However, while it is easy to moralize and be ethical when one is not faced with an opportunity, temptation and need, the real test comes when one is faced with all of these. Some such consideration and fear must have been locked up somewhere in the recesses of my sub-conscious mind too because they unfolded in a dream yesterday. Our hidden fears appear in dreams in order to help us overcome them such as finding oneself paralyzed or frozen at a time when activity is urgently required, is a common dream.

In a dream last night I found that I had access to a temple cellar for some engineering work. Temple cellars are commonly used to store temple treasures and in this temple there was a direct chute from the surface through which donors could throw in their donations to land up in the cellar. While I was there alone, a fresh and therefore unaccounted donation of a large sum of money suddenly poured in. Because I was in need in the dream, I secretly picked up some and put it in my pocket. However soon after I was disturbed by the act and put it back.

This dream woke me up and disturbed me. Although I am firmly against stealing perhaps that tendency or the fear of that tendency still remains in the depths of my being. However, the dream has a teaching too, to fight any such remaining tendency because I remember as a child of having stolen a few toys once and a newspaper another time. At that time it was an adventure and immaturity but such a tendency must not continue as one grows up.

An evolved human does not steal not because he might get caught and punished for it but because of more basic reasons. Whatever we acquire in life is because of the doings of the world or universe around us and hardly because of our own doings although most humans think otherwise because of their ego. It is the Universe that grants us whatever we have and it is the Universe that takes it away too. If one steals, even though no one may know about it, the Universe does know and then one can hardly expect the Universe to be generous or kind to a person who does that. Once a human evolves to a basic threshold, he simply does not take what belongs to someone else, whatever be the temptation, knowing fully well that it is thing not done and it is something that will produce pain and harm in the long run aside from depriving one of the generosity of Nature.