Meaning of Dreaming, The

From ancient to modern times, seers and psychoanalysts have conjectured about why we dream. Let Paramhansa Yogananda open the doors of your mind as he reveals the hidden yogic teachings that provide a new pathway to inner growth.

Should your dreams be important to you or offer special messages or meanings? Have you ever wondered why you have nightly dreams, or exactly how the process happens? And what does it mean if you think you don’t dream or seldom remember your dreams? All these questions and more are answered by the great master of yoga, Paramhansa Yogananda, in a unique look at the ever-fascinating subjects of dreams and dreaming.

Dreams are an endlessly fascinating topic for people of every culture, place, and time. Many books have been written on this subject. Yet, no one has addressed this topic in the same way that the great exponents of yoga have done. And no one has spoken or written on this subject with such fresh insights, clarity, and spiritual authority as one of the greatest yoga masters of recent times, Paramhansa Yogananda.

Yogananda was the first yogi from India to make his permanent residence in America. Born in 1893, Yogananda came to the United States in 1920, where he lived until his passing in 1952. In addition to lecturing and teaching extensively in the West, he wrote books and lessons on yoga teachings, meditation, and philosophy. In some of his earliest lessons he wrote about dreams, why we dream, and what our dreams mean. He did not write as someone presenting a theory about what dreaming is, but as a spiritual master—one who had experienced every level of consciousness, and who had achieved union with the Divine, as well as great knowledge of life and death. In 1948 Yogananda published his masterpiece and his most important written work, Autobiography of a Yogi, which remains, to this day, one of the most sought-after and influential books in the annals of metaphysics.

Much of the material in this book is taken from a series of lessons Yogananda wrote in the 1920s and 1930s. The author also quotes from the books, lessons, and lectures of Swami Kriyananda (1926–2013), a direct disciple of Paramhansa Yogananda and the author’s spiritual teacher for thirty-eight years. He was the founder of Ananda and its communities and centers worldwide. For nearly six decades he served Yogananda's worldwide mission through writing, lecturing, and teaching.