Philosophy of Dreams

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Philosophy of Dreams XII: Waking Experience Has Relative Reality

By Sri Swami Sivananda

I

Waking experience is like dream experience

When judged from the absolute standpoint.

But it has Vyavaharika-Satta

Or relative reality.

Dream is Pratibhasika-Satta

Or apparent reality.

Turiya or Brahman is Paramarthika-Satta

Or Absolute Reality.

Waking is reality more real than dreaming.

Turiya is more real than waking.

From the point of view of Turiya,

Both waking and dreaming are unreal.

But waking, taken by itself,

In relation to dream experience,

Has greater reality than dream.

To a certain extent,

As Turiya is to waking,

Waking is to dream.

Waking is the reality behind dream;

Turiya is the reality behind waking.

Dream is not dream to the dreamer.

Only by one who is awake

Dream is known to be a dream.

Similarly, waking appears to be real

To one who is still in the waking state.

Only to one who is in Turiya

Waking is devoid of reality.

Waking is Deergha-Svapna,

A long dream, as contrasted with

The ordinary dream which is short.

II

Waking is a part of Virat-Consciousness,

Though, in waking, due to ignorance,

The Virat is not directly realised.

Waking is the connecting link

Between Visva and Virat.

Man reflects over the world and the Reality

When he is awake

And when his consciousness is active.

In dream, the intellect and the will

Are incapacitated due to Avidya

And deliberate contemplation becomes impossible.

The Visva or the Jiva in the waking state

Is possessed of intelligence and free will.

The Taijasa or the Jiva in the dreaming state

Is destitute of such powers of free thinking.

Dream experience is the result of

Impressions of waking experience;

Whereas, waking experience is independent of

Dream experience and its effects.

There is a kind of order or system

In the waking experiences,

At least, more than in dream.

Every day the same persons and things

Become the objects of waking experience.

There is a definite remembrance of

Previous days? experiences and of

Survival and continuity of personality

In waking experience.

The consciousness of this continuity,

Regularity and unity

Is absent in dream,

Dream is not well ordered,

While waking is comparatively systematic.

III

There are degrees of reality

In the experiences of the individual.

The three main degrees are

Subjective, Objective and Absolute.

Dream experience is subjective.

Waking experience is objective.

The realisation of Atman or Brahman

Is experience of the absolute Reality.

The individual is the subjective being

In comparison with the objective world.

The subject and the object have equal reality,

Though both these are negated in the Absolute.

The objective world is the field of waking experience

And, therefore, waking is relatively real.

But, dream is less real than waking

In as much as the direct contact

With the external world of waking experience

Is absent in dream.

Though there is an external world in dream also,

Its value is less than that of the world in waking.

Though the form of the dream world agrees with

That of the waking world,

In quality the dream world

Is lower than the waking world.

Space, time, motion and objects,

With the distinction of subject and object,

Are common to both waking and dreaming.

Even the reality they present

At the time of their being experienced

Is of a similar nature.

But, the difference lies in

The degree of reality manifested by them.

The Jiva feels that it is in a higher order of truth

In waking than in dreaming.

IV

The argument that is advanced

To prove the unreality of waking

Is that waking also is merely mind?s play

Even as dream is mind?s imagination.

But, the objects seen in dream

Are not imaginations of the dream subject

Which itself is one of the imaginary forms

That are projected in dream,

The dream subject is not in any way

More real than the dream objects.

They both have equal reality

And are equally unreal.

The dream subject and the dream object

Are both imaginations of the mind of Visva

Which synthesises the subject and objects in dream.

In like manner, the waking individual

Is not the cause of the objects seen by it,

For both these belong to the same order of reality.

Neither of them is more real than the other.

The virtues and the defects that characterise things

Are present in all subjects and objects

That are experienced in the waking state.

The subject and the objects in waking

Are both effects of the Cosmic Mind

Which integrates all the contents of the universe.

The Cosmic Mind has greater reality

Than the individual mind.

Thus the waking state is relatively

More real than the dreaming state.

V

It cannot be said that

Taijasa is related to Hiranyagarbha

In the same way as

Visva is related to Virat.

Taijasa has a negative experience

Characterised by fickleness, absence of clearness,

Lack of will power and cloudedness of intelligence.

To express with certain reservations,

The relation of Taijasa to Hiranyagarbha

Is something like that of minus two to plus two:

Whereas, Visva is to Virat

As minus one is to plus one.

As minus one has greater positive value

Than minus two,

And the distance between minus two and plus two

Is greater than that between

Minus one and plus one,

Visva has greater relative value than Taijasa,

And is more intimately connected with Virat

Than Taijasa with Hiranyagarbha.

Taijasa and Prajna are respectively

The parts of Hiranyagarbha and Isvara

Only as limited reflections with negative values

And not positively and qualitatively.

Otherwise Isvara would have been only

A huge mass of ignorance,

As he is depicted as the collective totality

Of all Prajnas whose native experience is a state of sleep

Where ignorance covers the existing consciousness.

Prajna and Isvara are like minus three and plus three,

And their relation is quite obvious.

As when a man stands on a river bank

And looks at his own reflection below,

That which is highest appears as lowest?

The original head is farthest from the reflected head,?

That which is lowest appears as highest?

The original feet are nearest to the reflected feet,?

In the same manner, Isvara,

Who is the highest among the manifestations of reality

And is omniscient and omnipotent

Is the positive counterpart

Of the negative sleeping experience

Of complete ignorance and absence of power.

Virat corresponds to the foot of the man

Standing on the bank of the river

And Visva to the reflected foot.

Visva is more consciously related to Virat

Than Taijasa to Hiranyagarbha

Or Prajna to Isvara,

As the foot is nearer to the reflected foot

Than the waist to the reflected waist

Or the head to the reflected head.

These illustrations show that

Waking is relatively more real

Than dream which has only a negative value.

The illustrations used here

Are to be taken in their spirit and not literally,

For, Visva, Taijasa and Prajna

Are not merely reflections

Of Virat, Hiranyagarbha and Isvara respectively,

But also their limitations

With qualities distorted

And experiences wrested from truth.

VI

As far as the manner of

Subjective experience is concerned,

It is true that what is within the mind

Is experienced as present in external objects.

But the objects themselves are not

Creations of the subjective mind.

There is a great difference between

Isvara-Srishti and Jiva-Srishti.

The existence of the objects

Belongs to Isvara-Srishti.

But the relation that exists between

The objects and the experiencing subject

Is Jiva-Srishti.

The Jiva is one of the contents of the Jagat

Which is Isvara-Srishti.

Hence, the Jiva cannot claim to be

The creator of the world,

Though it is the creator of

Its own subjective modes of

Psychological experience.

Waking experience is a perception.

Dream experience is a memory.

As perception precedes memory,

Waking precedes dream;

That is, dream is a remembrance

Of waking experiences

In the form of impressions.

To Brahman, the waking world is unreal.

But, to the individual or the Jiva

It is a relative fact

Lasting as long as

Individuality or Jivahood lasts.

VII

That the waking world has relative reality

Or Vyavaharika-Satta

Does not prove that it is real

In the absolute sense.

Comparatively waking is on a higher order

Than dream experiences,

For reasons already mentioned.

But, from the standpoint of the highest Reality,

Waking experience also is unreal.

As dream is transcended in the state of waking,

The world of waking too is transcended

In the state of Self-Realisation

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Jagrat Avastha is waking consciousness. You perceive, feel, think, know and you are conscious of the external sense-universe. The organs of hearing and sight are very vigilant. The organ of sight is more active than the ear. It rushes headlong over forms (Rupa), various types of beauty, through force of habit. The Abhimani (person thinking upon) of Jagrat state is termed as Visva. He identifies himself with the physical body. Visva is Vyasthi (individual) Abhimani. The Samasthi Abhimani (cosmic) is Virat. Visva is microcosm (Kshudra Brahmanda). Virat is macrocosm (Brahmanda). Vyasthi is single. Samashti is sum-total. A single matchstick is Vyasthi. A matchbox is Samasthi. A single house is Vyashti. A village is Samasthi. A single mango tree is Vyasthi. A grove of mango-trees is Samasthi. Ear and eye are the avenues of sense-knowledge in the Jagrat State.

The mind creates the dream-world out of the experience and Samskaras of the waking consciousness.

Dream is a reproduction of the experiences of the physical consciousness with some modifications. The mind weaves out the dream creatures out of the material supplied from waking consciousness. In dream the subject and object are one. The perceiver and the perceived are one in this state. The Abhimani of Svapna Avastha is Taijasa. Taijasa is a Vyasthi Abhimani. The Samasthi Abhimani is Hiranyagarbha, the first-born.

In the Jagrat state there are two kinds of knowledge, viz., Abijna or Abijna Jnana and Pratibijna or Pratibijna Jnana. Abijna is knowledge through perception. You see a tree. You know: ?This is a tree?. This is Abijna. Pratibijna is recognition. Here something previously observed is recognised in some other thing or place, as when, for instance, the generic character of a cow which was previously observed in the black cow again presents itself to consciousness in the grey cow or Mr. Radhakrishnan whom I first saw in Benares in 1922 again appears before me in Calcutta in 1932. There are cases of recognition where the object previously observed again presents itself to our senses. There is a Samskara in the mind of object, time and place. When I recognised Mr. Radhakrishnan in Calcutta, I omitted the previous place Benares where I saw him for the first time and the time also 1922 and I took into consideration the present place Calcutta and the present time 1932. This is knowledge through Pratibijna. In Abijna, there is no Antahkarana Samskaras. There is knowledge through mere sense-contact with the object.

When you take a retrospective view of your life in college when you are 60 years of age, it is all a dream to you. Is it not so, my friends? The future also will turn out to be so. There is only the present, which on account of the force of strong Samskaras through repetition of actions and Dhrida (strong) Vasanas appears to be real for an Aviveki (a man of non-discrimination) only. The past is a dream. The future is a dream. The solid present is also a dream. When you are alone at Allahabad for a month, you have entirely forgotten all about Chennai, your affairs, family, children etc. You have only Allahabad Samskaras. For the time being Chennai is out of your mind. There is only Allahabad in your mind. When you return again to Chennai, Allahabad affairs entirely disappear from the mind after some time. When you are in Allahabad, Chennai is a dream to you, and when you are in Chennai, Allahabad is a dream. World is a mere Samskara in the mind. For a worldly man with a gross mind full of passions this world is a solid reality.

According to Gaudapada, Dada-Guru of Sri Sankaracharya, the Jagrat Avastha is exactly a dream without any difference. Some saints say that the waking state is a long dream (Deerga Svapna). An objector says: ?In Jagrat state we see the same objects in the same place as soon as we wake up (Desa Kala), whereas in dreams, we do not see again the same objects. We see different things daily. How do you account for this??

Even in dreams sometimes we see same objects repeatedly on different occasions.

Every moment the whole world is changing. You do not see the same world every day. Young people become old. The molecules of the body are changing every second. Mind also changes every moment. Trees and all objects are continually changing. The water that you see in the Ganga at 6 a.m. is not the same when you see at 6.05 a.m. When a wick in the hurricane lamp is burning, you see the light but the wick is ever changing. There are continual changes in sun, moon, stars etc. The world is stationary for people of gross minds (Sthula Buddhi). A man of Sukshma (subtle) intellect does not see the same world every day. He witnesses changes?changes in every second and sees daily a new world. Therefore the waking consciousness also is a dream. Just as the dream becomes false as soon as you wake up, the Jagrat consciousness becomes a dream when you get Viveka and Jnana. Science tells you that the world is a mass of electrons that are in constant rotation and change.

An objector again says: ?We remember the events, the persons, the places etc., in Jagrat Avastha. In dream we do not remember. How do you explain this??

In Svapna or dream state there is Rajo Guna Pradhana. Rajo Guna predominates. In Jagrat state, Sattva Guna predominates. That is the reason why you have no remembrance in dream.

As soon as you wake up, the dreams turn out to be false. So long as you are dreaming, every thing is real to you. This world, the waking consciousness, becomes a dream when you get Jnana. Therefore Jagrat is termed as a dream. This appears to be paradoxical but it is not so. Think well.

In prophetic dreams the materials come from the Karana Sarira or seed body (causal body), the storehouse of Samskaras.

Readers are earnestly requested to go through very carefully Mandukya Upanishad with Gaudapada?s Karika either in Sanskrit or English translation. The dream problem is very elaborately dealt with cogent argument.

?When I consider the matter carefully, I do not find a single characteristic by means of which I can certainly determine whether I am awake or whether I dream. The visions of a dream and the experiences of my waking state are so much alike that I am completely puzzled and I do not really know that I am not dreaming at this moment.? (Descartes: Meditations P. I.)

Pascal is right when he asserts that if the same dream comes to us every night we should be just as much occupied by it as by the things which we see every day. To quote his words, ?If an artisan were certain that he would dream every night for fully 12 hours that he was a king, I believe that he would be just as happy as a king who dreams every night for 12 hours that he is an artisan?.

In dream the seer and the seen are one. The mind creates the bee, flower, mountain, horses, rivers, etc., in the dream. The dream objects are not independent of the mind. They have no separate existence apart from the mind. So long as the dream lasts, the dream creatures will remain just as the milkman remains so long as the milking goes on. (The dream is quite real when the man is dreaming). Whereas in the Jagarat state the object exists independent of the mind. The objects of the waking experiences are common to us all, while those of dreams are the property of the dreamer.

Jacob puts Gaudapada?s arguments in the following syllogistic form: ?Things seen in the waking state are not true: this is proposition (Pratijna); because they are seen, this is reason (Hetu); just like things seen in a dream, this is the instance (Drishtanta); as things seen in the dream are not true, so the property of the being seen belongs in like manner to things seen in the waking state; this is the application of the reason (Hetupanyaya); therefore things seen in the waking state are also untrue; this is the conclusion.

Gaudapada establishes the unreal Character of the world of experience:

1. By its similarity to dream state;

2. By its presented or objective character;

3. By the unintelligibility of the relations which organise it; and

4. By its non-persistence for all time.