Re Dream and Waking States
From the Bhakti List Archives
• April 13, 2000
Dear BhAgavatOttamas Re Sri Chandrasekaran's query and the ongoing discussion about the dream objects aDiyEn would like to say a few words.Basically any Vaidika,i.e., believer in what the Vedas say,believes in the Karma Theory,which says merely that everything that happens to a Jiva whether in the waking or dream state is his karma-phala.And the person who gives that phala is the Lord Himself (says the VedAnta SUtra).Just as He creates for the Jiva in the Waking state experiences good and bad according to his karma,so does He in the Dream state- - says Brih.Up.in this context.If one could believe,like most of humanity does,that the Lord created the Universe and all that there in,it may not be straining one's credulity too much to believe that He also created the extremely short-lived dream objects as well.These are the phalas for Karmas which are too small to require a longer experience in the waking state.They have a specific life-span, and a specific experiencer.But the experience during that time span is as valid as during a longer span in the waking state.Sri BhAshyakArar says in a pithy sentence,"a person may say that those dream objects are no longer there now, butno one says that he did not see them at all." The dream objects are not "real" in the Waking State,but the dream itself continues to be real.After you come out of the cinema hall can you deny that you've seen that film or that you laughed or cried at that time? This is said by Sri BhAshyakArar in this condensed form: Following the VEdAntasUtras he also clarifies that dreams are a medium for various purposes like memories or indications of future events apart from the purpose mentioned above. All the experiences of the Jiva while in the body is through his DharmabhUta GnAna; so whether it is in the Waking or Dream state the validity of the experience is the same. With this background let us consider the example posed by Sri Chandrasekharan- ---------------------------------------------------------------------- A person is presently dreaming of his house being on fire. He is still in the dream state. Rest of his family is awake, say. They all are living in that same house while only that person is seeing burning house. At this moment when two different persons are experiencing the same object (the house), which one will we choose to describe as real? The burning house that the dreamer is imagining or the intact one the person awake is living in. It would be contradicting to say both are real since the same object can't be in two different conditions at the same time. One might say burning house is real in the dream-plane and intact house is real in the waking-plane of consciousness. But I tend to feel that when we describe an object thus as real or unreal, we should do so only with respect to a common plane of objects. Otherwise, I think we don't need a word "unreal" in our language. Seriously after reading these posts, I have a question "what then is unreal in this world". Please clarify. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- the simple answer to this question is that the "burning house" is the dream object created by the Lord for a fixed period for the specific experience of the dreamer.The other family members are not seeing it because each person's Karma is different.Sometimes they coincide at a point,like when a group of people are killed in a disaster,otherwise they don't. ADiyEn would close this by giving a very interesting event which took place more than 40 years ago,and which is like a text-book illustration for the above point: One stormy night a country bus was moving in interior Tamil Nadu.The bus was totally crowded and people were hanging on to the straps.Outside there was terrible thunder and rain. About midnight one of the passengers began laughing and when the surprised neighbours asked him for the reason he said,"I'm going to to prove how false astrology is. I've been told that I'm likely to die in an accident at midnight tonight.Now there are nearly hundred people here. are you going to tell me that all of us have the same horoscope? Because If there's going to be an accident now all of you are going with me too!" The passengers noted that hardly a few minutes were left for midnight,and immediately there was panic in the bus.Suddenly the man's neighbours caught hold of him and pushed him out of the running bus.The startled driver immediately applied the brakes.A second later a huge tree broke in the wind and crashed right in front of the stationary bus. Sri EmberumAnAr TiruvaDigaLE SaraNam! aDiyEn BHARAT ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Chocolate eggs, tulips, bunnies and more... 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