I had a dream this afternoon. I was walking with a friend next to a church. I told him I'm going inside to pray. When I walked in I notice there was a bread dough on every chairs and was covered. I start thinking of taking some home to bake it. Anyway I start praying and some how the dough was a people praying too and few of those people grape my face and eyes and start blessing me. what the meaning of this dream?
—emile, syria
Dear Emile,
Paramhansa Yogananda has a lot to say about the meaning of dreams. But it is important to understand that this is YOUR dream and no one can interpret it better than you can.
Here’s a good way to do that. First pray to be guided to understand what the symbols in the dream mean. Then list out the 3 or 4 major symbols on a piece of paper.
In the case of your dream, these would probably be: 1) the church 2) the bread dough on the chairs 3) the people who were blessing you
Then put the list aside, pray once again for guidance, and begin to meditate deeply for as long as you can. Try, during the meditation, NOT to think of the dream or what it means. Then at the end of your meditation bring out your list and mentally ask this question: “What part of myself does each of these symbols represent?”
Then wait quietly for the answers to come. If they do not, try it again the next day when you meditate. Often answers will come later on when you are not meditating, in the middle of the day or night, when you least expect it. Have faith that the answers will be revealed to you.
If the answers do not come, then know that the dream was probably not especially important for you. Most of our regular nightly dreams, according to Yogananda, are simply our subconscious minds replaying and re-weaving memories from our past or from other incarnations also.
Our dreams are sometimes instructional, but primarily they are for entertainment and to remind us that all of life is a dream.
