WAKING, DREAM AND SLEEP

Self realized beings will understand this that all that we see is a dream, whether we see it in the dream state or waking state. Just before waking up from sleep, there is a very brief state, free from thought. That should be made permanent. In dreamless sleep there is no world, no ego and no unhappiness, but the Self remains. In the waking state there are all of these. Yet there is the Self. One has only to remove the transitory happenings in order to realize the ever-present beatitude of the Self.

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There is no difference between the waking and dream states except that the dream is short and the waking long. Both are the result of the mind. Our real state is called turiya, which is beyond the waking, dream and sleep states.

The Self alone exists and remains as It is. The three states owe their existence to avichara (non-enquiry), and enquiry puts an end to them. However much one may explain, this fact will not become clear until one attains Self-realization,and wonders how he was blind to the self-evident and only existence for so long.

All that we see is a dream, whether we see it in the dream state or waking state. On account of some arbitrary standards about the duration of the experience and so on, we call one experience a dream and another waking experience. With reference to Reality both the experiences are unreal. A man might have an experience such as getting anugraha (grace) in his dream, and the effects and influence of it on his entire subsequent life may be so profound and abiding, that one cannot call it unreal - whilst calling real some trifling incident in the waking life that just flits by, which is casual, of no consequence and is soon forgotten. Once I had an experience,a vision or a dream, whatever you may call it. I and some others, including Chadwick, had a walk on the hill. Returning,we were walking along a huge street with great buildings on either side. Pointing out the street and the buildings, I asked Chadwick and others, whether anybody could say that what we were seeing was a dream, and they all replied, ‘Which fool will say so?’ We then walked along, entered the hall and the vision or dream ceased, or I woke up. What are we to call this?

Just before waking up from sleep, there is a very brief state, free from thought. That should be made permanent. In dreamless sleep there is no world, no ego and no unhappiness, but the Self remains. In the waking state there are all of these. Yet there is the Self. One has only to remove the transitory happenings in order to realize the ever-present beatitude of the Self.

Your nature is bliss. Find that on which all the rest are superimposed and you then remain as the pure Self. In sleep there is no space or time. They are concepts, which arise after the ‘I-thought’ has arisen. You are beyond time and space. The ‘I-thought’ is the limited ‘I’. The real ‘I’ is unlimited, universal, beyond time and space. Just while rising from sleep and before seeing the objective world, there is state of awareness which is your Pure Self. That must be known.

- Gems from Bhagavan

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{Dreamless] sleep is not ignorance, it is one’s pure state; wakefulness is not knowledge, it is ignorance. There is full awareness in sleep and total ignorance in waking. Your real nature covers both and extends beyond. The Self is beyond both knowledge and ignorance. Sleep, dream and waking states are only modes passing before the Self: they proceed whether you are aware of them or not. That is the state of the' jnani' (one who is self-knowledge), in whom pass the states of 'samadhi', waking, dream and deep sleep, like the bulls moving, standing, or being unyoked, while the passenger is asleep. These answers are from the point of view of the 'ajnani'; otherwise such questions would not arise. 

(Bhagavān in 'Maharishi's Gospel': Book I, Ch. I)

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Question: If the jnani and the ajnani perceive the world in like manner, where is the difference between them?

Sri Ramana Maharshi: Seeing the world, the jnani sees the Self which is the substratum of all that is seen; the ajnani, whether he sees the world or not, is ignorant of his true being, the Self.

Take the instance of moving pictures on the screen in the cinema-show. What is there in front of you before the play begins? Merely the screen. On that screen you see the entire show, and for all appearances the pictures are real. But go and try to take hold of them. What do you take hold of? Merely the screen on which the pictures appeared. After the play, when the pictures disappear, what remains? The screen again.

So with the Self. That alone exists, the pictures come and go. If you hold on to the Self, you will not be deceived by the appearance of the pictures. Nor does it matter at all if the pictures appear or disappear. Ignoring the Self the ajnani thinks the world is real, just as ignoring the screen he sees merely the pictures, as if they existed apart from it. If one knows that without the seer there is nothing to be seen, just as there are no pictures without the screen, one is not deluded. The jnani knows that the screen and the pictures are only the Self. With the pictures the Self is in its manifest form; without the pictures it remains in the unmanifest form. To the jnani it is quite immaterial if the Self is in the one form or the other. He is always the Self. But the ajnani seeing the jnani active gets confounded.

Question: Does Bhagavan see the world as part and parcel of himself? How does he see the world?

Sri Ramana Maharshi: The Self alone is and nothing else. However, it is differentiated owing to ignorance. Differentiation is threefold:

Of the same kind

Of a different kind; and

As parts in itself

The world is not another Self similar to the Self. It is not different from the Self; nor is it part of the Self.

Question: Is not the world reflected on the Self?

Sri Ramana Maharshi: For reflection there must be object and an image. But the self does not admit of these differences.