Ramana Maharshi/More on dreams

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Speaking of dreaming and waking states in response to the questions of a

devotee (Sadhu Arunachala) who insisted that the waking state was more real

than the dreaming state as the dreaming state appeared discontinuous, Sri

Ramana said,

 

"They (the dream experiences) seemed perfectly consistent and real to you

then (in the dream sleep). It is only now, in your waking state that you

question the reality of the experience. This is not logical."

 

With his characteristic simplicity and eloquence, pregnant with overwhelming

potency, Bhagwan added, "You now study one limitation from the point of view

of another limitation. Could anything be more absurd?"

 

Ramana devotees will enjoy the following account of that incident.

 

Dreams

By Sadhu Arunachala (Major Alan Chadwick)

 

'We are such stuff

As dreams are made of and our short life

Is rounded by a sleep.

 

SHAKESPEARE really did know what he was talking about and it was not just

poetic effervescence. Maharshi used to say exactly the same.

 

I suppose I questioned Bhagavan more often on this subject than any others,

though some doubts always remained for me. He had always warned that as soon

as one doubt is cleared another will spring up in its place, and there is no

end to doubts.

 

"But Bhagavan," I would repeat, "dreams are disconnected, while the waking

experience goes on from where it left off and is admitted by all to be more

or less continuous."

 

"Do you say this in your dreams?" Bhagavan would ask. "They seemed perfectly

consistent and real to you then. It is only now, in your waking state that

you question the reality of the experience. This is not logical."

 

Bhagavan refused to see the least difference between the two states, and in

this he agreed with all the great Advaitic Seers. Some have questioned if

Sankara did not draw a line of difference between these two states, but

Bhagavan has persistently denied it. "Sankara did it apparently only for the

purpose of clearer exposition," the Maharshi would explain.

 

However I tried to twist my questions, the answer I received was always the

same: "Put your doubts when in the dream state itself. You do not question

the waking state when you are awake, you accept it. You accept it in the

same way you accept your dreams. Go beyond both states and all three states

including deep sleep. Study them from that point of view. You now study one

limitation from the point of view of another limitation. Could anything be

more absurd? Go beyond all limitation, then come here with your doubts."

 

But in spite of this, doubt still remained. I somehow felt at the time of

dreaming there was something unreal in it, not always of course, but just

glimpses now and then.

 

"Doesn't that ever happen to you in your waking state too?" Bhagavan

queried. "Don't you sometimes feel that the world you live in and the thing

that is happening is unreal?"

 

Still, in spite of all this, doubt persisted.

 

But one morning I went to Bhagavan and, much to his amusement, handed him a

paper on which the following was written:

 

'Bhagavan remembers that I expressed some doubts about the resemblance

between dreams and waking experience. Early in the morning most of these

doubts were cleared by the following dream, which seemed particularly

objective and real:

 

'I was arguing philosophy with someone and pointed out that all experience

was only subjective, that there was nothing outside the mind. The other

person demurred, pointing out how solid everything was and how real

experience seemed, and it could not be just personal imagination.

 

'I replied, "No, it is nothing but a dream. Dream and waking experience are

exactly the same."

 

''You say that now," he replied, "but you would never say a thing like that

in your dream."

 

'And then I woke up.'

 

- From the Call Divine, March 1954