ABOUT THE BOOK

Dreams. Illusions. Reincarnation. Karma.
Dreams are a serious matter in Indian myth and religions, especially
Hinduism. But are they maya (illusion), lila (God’s play), or an awakening to
our real selves? Are we living in a dream dreamt by the Author of the universe
as we know it? Are dreams, then, an insight into the reality of that universe?
Do they prove the ‘nothingness’ of the world we see or the substantial reality
of ‘illusion’ itself?
In this dazzling short book, one of the world’s great scholars of Hindu texts
and myths tries to unravel the dream adventure—encompassing dreaming,
forgetting, rebirth and karma—with the help of fascinating stories from the
Yogavasishtha (regarded as the greatest text ever written on the subject), the
Mahabharata, the Bhagavata Purana and the Matsya Purana.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR 

Wendy Doniger is the author of several acclaimed and bestselling works,
among them, Winged Stallions and Wicked Mares: Horses in Indian Myth and
History; The Hindus: An Alternative History; The Ring of Truth: Myths of Sex and
Jewelry; Dreams, Illusion and Other Realities; and translations of the Rig Veda and
the Kamasutra (with Sudhir Kakar). She is the Mircea Eliade Distinguished
Service Professor of the History of Religions at the University of Chicago. She
has also taught at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of
London, and the University of California, Berkeley.