Excerpt from Philosophy of Dreams by Sri Swami Sivananda

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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 & #65533; 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 & #65533;s play

Even as dream is mind & #65533;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 & #65533;

The original head is farthest from the reflected head, & #65533;

That which is lowest appears as highest & #65533;

The original feet are nearest to the reflected feet, & #65533;

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.

 

 

Excerpt from the book Philosophy of Dreams by Sri Swami Sivananda a sage well

rooted in the vedic sciences and traditions. The book gives a quite different

view on the analysis of dreams and their cause compared to the ones by western

psychoanalysts. The meaning of dreams and interpretation of dreams are important

concerns also for the spiritual seeker and can give valuable information on the

path towards spiritual growth and enlightenment.

 

http://www.experiencefestival.com/a/Relative_Reality/id/10404