wakes up and is perceived to have been
unreal the entire time, so does the every-
day understanding of the world disap-
pear when one has perceived the
ultimate truth. In quite a different
understanding, the dream state is the
second of the states of consciousness
mentioned in the Mandukya Upanishad,
or one of the religious texts known as
theUpanishads. In the Upanishads,
the dream state is the first step in turn-
ing one’s awareness away from the out-
side world and into one’s Self, where all
sense of ego is lost. Waking conscious-
ness is further away from one’s Self
than the dream state. The four-step
pattern in this upanishad, and in oth-
ers as well, is from waking conscious-
ness, to dreams, to deep sleep, and
from there to the realization of the
eternal Self.
On quite another level, dreams are
an important part of religious life in
popular Hinduism. They are often
believed to give omensfor the future,
which may be interpreted as favorable
or unfavorable, according to the dream’s
content and context. Dreams are also
seen as providing a channel for commu-
nicating with spirits, ghosts, village
deities, and other nonhuman spiritual
beings. Unquiet spirits of the dead will
often appear to family members in
dreams to reveal what they need to find
peace. The same process is often found
with village deities, who usually mani-
fest themselves to specific people in the
village, either to give warnings or to
make demands.
Drona
In the Mahabharata, the later of the
two great Hindu epics, Drona is
famous as a teacher of all the arts of
war, but particularly for teaching
archery. He is the martial preceptor to
both the Pandavasand the Kauravas,
the two royal factions whose battle
for power is at the heart of the
Mahabharata. Drona is the sonof the
sage Bharadvaja, born through an
involuntary seminal emission when
the sage sees a celestial nymph
(apsara). Drona’s skill in weapons is
gained from the god Vishnu’s Parashuram
avatar, who bequeaths both his
weapons and his skills to Drona as a
boon. Drona’s skill as an archer is leg-
endary, as is his prowess as an archery
teacher. Among his pupils he has a par-
ticular fondness for Arjuna (a
Pandava brother), whose commit-
ment and concentration so outstrip
his peers that Drona promises Arjuna
that he will be the world’s greatest
archer. This support for Arjuna can be
seen in the story of Ekalavya, a tribal
boy whom Drona refuses to teach
because of his low status, but who
becomes Arjuna’s equal as an archer by
worshiping a clay statue of Drona. When
Drona discovers this, he demands that
Ekalavya give him his right thumb as a
preceptor’s fee, to ensure that no one will
be Arjuna’s equal.
During the Mahabharata war, Drona
fights valiantly on the side of Duryodhana
(eldest son of Dhrtarashtra), but is
finally killed by King Drupada’sson
Dhrshtadyumna. In the epic, Drupada
and Drona have a long history of con-
flict. They have lived together as stu-
dents, but after their student life ends
Drupada becomes the king of Panchala,
whereas Drona is so poor he cannot
afford to feed his family. On one occa-
sion, when Drona asks Drupada for
alms, Drupada upbraids him most
insultingly. Drona vows revenge, and
after teaching the arts of war to the
Pandavas and Kauravas, Drona demands
Drupada’s kingdom as his teacher’s fee
(dakshina) from his students. When
Drupada is defeated, Drona takes half of
his kingdom; Drupada vows to get
revenge on Drona. Drupada subse-
quently performs a great fire sacrificeto
give birthto a son who will kill Drona.
Out of the fire come two luminous chil-
dren, one of whom is Dhrshtadyumna,
and the other his sister, Draupadi.Drona