Dream example in Advaita Vedanta

(Adapted from Swami Paramarthananda’s Guru Purnima talk}

Advaita Vedanta philosophy is summed up as “Brahma Satyam, Jagat Mithya, Jivo Brahmaiva na apara”-Brahman only is Real, Universe is only mithya, apparently real, Individual’s Athma is not different from Brahman”.  This contains three statements

1)    Brahman only is Real

2)    Universe is really not Real, only apparently Real, mithya

3)    Individual Jiva as Self is Brahman only

The dream example is quoted in the scriptures to clarify the second statement that Universe is only apparently Real with the explanation that the world is unreal like the dream world.   The statement as such is an emotionally disturbing statement for one feels outraged that one’s near and dear ones and all possessions that one has acquired in his life are dubbed unreal through this statement.  And this feeling gets compounded by the comparison that equates this tangible, perceptible real world to the unreal dream.  So we shall make a study of this example in this blog. 

We should remember that an example is quoted to clarify an idea or topic.  The idea is to draw attention to certain similarities between the original topic and the example that will make the topic easily understood.  No doubt there will be dissimilarities as well between the original topic and the example but one is required to focus on similarities and ignore dissimilarities when trying to understand the topic, more so in the case of a Vedanta topic.  For understanding the similarity, we have to first understand the dream properly.  Everybody understands that dream disappears with the dream objects when one wakes up and are no longer available for use and so the dream is unreal.  But there is another feature of the dream which is also to be understood for the dream example to work. When the waker was in dream, as a dreamer he was ignorant of three facts.

1)    The dreamer in dream was ignorant of the fact that the dream world was unreal and treated it as real only.

2)    Dreamer is also ignorant of the fact in the dream that the dream world is the projection of the waker.  

3)    As dreamer he was also ignorant of the fact that the dreamer only is the waker.  It is only after waking up he has realized the unreal nature of the dream world and that this unreal dream world is his projection only.

So in the dream state he is ignorant of these facts and so technically he is in Ajjnana avastha with regard to these facts.  In this Ajjnana avastha, dream-world has experienceability, transactability and utility for the dreamer and so is definitely real for him in dream-time and misunderstood as Jnana avastha.

And now let us take up the waking state.  Vedanta sastra tells the spiritual seeker that, like the dreamer in the dream state, he is also in Ajjnana avastha in the waking state and like the dreamer in dream state he is also ignorant of three facts concerning himself and the world.  They are:

1)    The world is unreal

2)    This unreal world is the projection of a super-waker, Brahman.

3)    The super-waker, Brahman, is none other than oneself, which can be discovered if one wakes up i.e. goes from Ajjnana avastha to Jnana-avastha

Just as a dreamer mistakenly thinks he is in Jnana avastha in dream state, an ordinary waker also thinks he is in Jnana avastha in the waking state.  Only when he gains Athma Jnanam, he realizes that the waking state without Self-knowledge is also Ajjnana avastha only.   Lord Krishna points out in Uddhava Gita (8-30): “Till a man’s notion of multiplicity is put a stop to by reasoning he is as good as asleep even though awake - for he is ignorant - as one fancies oneself awake in dream.”  So long as one’s goals are dharma, artha, kama  Purusharthas only he can continue his life treating the world as real and continue to be in Ajjnana avastha in the waking state as well.   But when he becomes interested in Moksha Purushartha, he should try to get out of the Ajjnana avastha, by trying to acquire Self-knowledge through the study of scriptures under the guidance of a competent Guru.  When he acquires Athma Jnanam and comes out of the Ajjnana avastha to Jnana avastha he understands the two-fold status of the waking world as well i.e. as Real during Ajjnana avastha and mithya, apparently real, during Jnana avastha.

While noting the similarities one should also note the important dissimilarities. In the dream example one wakes from dream state without doing any sadhana i.e. an effortless transition from Ajjnana avastha in dream to the Jnana avastha of the waking state.  But spiritual awakening in the waking state can take place only after great effort like Sravanam, Mananam, Nitidyasanam of Jnana yoga after acquiring chitta suddhi and chitta ekagratha through karma, upasana yogas.   Second important difference is that when the dreamer moves to Jnana avastha by waking up the dream world disappears and he cannot connect to it.  But in spiritual awakening when one acquires Athma Jnanam and realizes the external world is only apparently real, mithya, the external world will not disappear for him and bodily interactions with the external world will not cease.  During ignorance the world appeared as real during knowledge it is understood as unreal. This brings to the third difference.  In the case of dreamer there is a change in state as waker as one moves into Jnana avastha.  But in the case of a waker when moving into Jnana avastha no status change takes place and he continues as waker only.  In fact, as one requires a subtle active mind to absorb the Jnanam, Jnana avastha can take place in waking state only for in the waking state only the mind is actively functioning.  The dream example will work for a seeker/student when the similarities are properly understood along with dissimilarities.

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