there is only yourself and your real state

[Guest guest]

Day by Day with Bhagavan________8-9-45 MorningMr. Subba Rao of Bezwada asked Bhagavan, "What isthe difference between imagination and vision?"Bhagavan: One is voluntary and the other is not. But inthe ultimate analysis, though not in the immediate present,even vision must have had its origin in the voluntary sphere.Subba Rao: As dreams have their origin there?B: Yes.Another Visitor: It is said that our waking life is also adream, similar to our dream during sleep. But in our dreamswe make no conscious effort to get rid of the dream and toawake, but the dream itself comes to an end without anyeffort on our part and we become awake. Similarly whyshould not the waking state, which is in reality only anothersort of dream, come to an end of its own accord, and withoutany effort on our part, and land us in jnana or real awakening?B: Your thinking that you have to make an effort to get ridof this dream of the waking state and your making efforts toattain jnana or real awakening are all parts of the dream. Whenyou attain jnana you will see there was neither the dream duringsleep, nor the waking state, but only yourself and your real state.I pressed Bhagavan, "But what is the answer to thequestion? Why should not the waking state also pass like ourdreams without any effort on our part and land us in jnana, asa dream passes off and leaves us awake?"B: Who can say that the dream passed off of its ownaccord? If the dream came on, as is generally supposed, asthe result of our past thoughts or karma, probably the samekarma also decides how long it should last and how after thattime it should cease.I was still unsatisfied and, as the result of further talk withBhagavan, I feel that the waking state, though a sort of dream,is clearly distinct from the dream during sleep in this, namelythat during dream it never occurs to us that it is a dream, whereasin the waking state we are able to argue and understand frombooks and gurus and from some phenomena that it may beonly dream after all. Because of this, it may be our duty tomake an effort to wake into jnana. Bhagavan says that we don'tdeem a dream, a dream till we wake up, that the dream looksquite real while it lasts; and that similarly this waking state willnot appear a dream till we wake up into jnana. Still, it seems tome that, because of the above difference between the dreamand the waking states, our effort is called for.