30 Nov 2022
Note: This article is meant for intellectuals only
[Dr. J.S.R. Prasad asked:- Sashtanga Pranams Swami. How can You say that dream is real? In the dream, I saw a lion. Compared to awaken state, I never saw a lion in this real world. Therefore, only awaken state is real while the dream state is unreal. Please comment on these remarks. - At Your Holy Divine Lotus Feet]
Swami Replied:- Why should you compare awaken state with dream state? In that case, you can compare awaken state with deep-sleep state also and say that deep-sleep is also unreal. Unreal can never be experienced. You have experienced lion in the dream state and hence, the dream cannot be unreal. The world in awaken state consists of various types of gross and subtle items. In the dream state, the dream world consists of awareness and inert energy as the basic construction materials without matter and hence, the dream state is said to be subtle. The world in awaken state consists of inert energy, matter and awareness as the basic construction materials. Since you are experiencing matter in the world of awaken state, you are experiencing the world in gross state. Both the states of gross and subtle are unreal before the world is created, but once it is created, God gifted His absolute reality to the unreal world making it as absolutely real world. In such case, both gross and subtle states of the world became absolutely real since the gifted absolute reality is related to every part of the world. Hence, the basic construction materials (inert energy, matter and awareness) of the world in awaken state become absolutely real.
Out of these three basic construction materials, two materials (inert energy and awareness) entered the dream state to construct the dream world. Hence, the dream state is made of absolutely real inert energy and absolutely real awareness. If absolutely real matter is added, the dream state of the world becomes awaken state of the world. The absolutely real matter exists in the awaken state only and does not exist in dream state. This is the only difference. Regarding the reality of these three construction materials, there is no difference between awaken and dream state. Therefore, you shall call the awaken state of the world as real-gross world and you shall call the dream state of the world as real-subtle world. In the angle of absolute reality, there is no difference between these two states except the difference of gross and subtle states. The items of subtle state exist in the awaken state of the world also and you are not calling them as unreal.
Coming to the third deep-sleep state, it does not have the absolutely real matter because the awaken state is absent here. Since the deep-sleep state crossed the dream state of the world also, there are no absolutely real inert energy and absolutely real awareness. In deep-sleep, the nervous system takes rest and awareness is not generated. The inert energy is also not experienced here as experienced in awaken and dream states. This means that all the three construction materials are absent in this state. Due to the absence of awareness, the experiencing individual soul is absent and the world to be experienced is also absent due to absence of the three basic construction materials.
It is a zero state for the individual soul and total ignorance only exists since neither the experiencing soul nor the experienced objects are absent. When the individual soul itself is absent, the concept of experience is also absent. During deep-sleep, nobody experiences the happiness of the rest thinking that he is sleeping with happiness (Sukhamahaṃ svapimi). Only after awakening from the deep-sleep, the individual soul is inferring the happiness in past deep-sleep by saying that he slept happily (Sukhamahamasvāpsam). Shankara tells that in such deep-sleep, God alone remains (Suṣuptyekasiddhaḥ). Shankara did not say here that God is remaining in the body of the soul in the deep-sleep. It means that the God existing as support of the creation remains. If God remains in the body in deep-sleep, it means that the soul is the contemporary alive human incarnation in which God merged with the soul so that even if the soul disappears, the God-component remains. In the deep-sleep, the soul is said to be God by several adjectives like ‘the source of the entire creation’ (Sarvasya yoniḥ) etc. But, the soul is not the source of this creation since it cannot create even an atom.
Therefore, the world in awaken state is gross-real, the world in dream state is subtle-real and the world in deep-sleep state is totally unreal. This reality and unreality of the world is with respect to the state of the soul and not with respect to God. With respect to God, the world containing all these three states exists giving real entertainment to God. When a person is in deep-sleep, simultaneously the second person is in dream state and the third person is in awaken state during the same time. Hence, the reality and unreality is not with respect to all the human beings and also not with respect to God, Who is entertained always.
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