Sadhu Arunachala (A. W. Chadwick) - Dreams

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DREAMS

Sadhu Arunachala (A. W. 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, it

was not just poetic effervescence. Maharshi used to say exactly

the same. Though I questioned Bhagavan more often on this

subject than any other, 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 – there is no end of doubts.

“But Bhagavan,” I would repeat, “dreams are disconnected,

while the waking experience goes on from where it lets off and

is admitted by all to be more or less continuous.”

“Do you say that 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, he would explain.

The answer I received was always the same, however I tried

to twist my questions. “Put your doubts when in the dream

state itself. You do not question the waking state when you are

awake. You accept it in the same way you accept your dreams.

Go beyond both states, all three states including deep sleep,

and 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 the problem.” 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. I 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. 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.