The Mandukya Upanishads - 4.4. Swami Krishnananda.

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Saturday, September 05, 2020.10:32. AM.
Section 4: The Mystery of Dream and Sleep-4.
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1.
The snake in the rope is a mysterious substance. We cannot say it is there, or it is not there. From one point of view it is there, because we really jump over it, and, from another point of view, it is not there, because it is only a rope. So is this whole world of waking. It is there as long as we see it, and we cling to it, weep over it and have various kinds of dealings with it, even as we have dealings with the snake that we see in the rope. But when we see another reality altogether, when light is brought and the rope is seen, the tremor ceases, and we sigh, 'there was no snake'.

Likewise, we shall make a statement when light is brought before the world, not this light of the sun, electricity, etc., but the light of wisdom, insight or realisation. When this light is flashed before us, the snake of the world will vanish, and we will see the rope of Brahman.

Then will we exclaim, 'Oh, this is all! Why did I, unnecessarily, run about, here and there?' As we speak now, after waking, in regard to the dream world, so will we say, then, in regard to this world, when we wake up into the consciousness of the Absolute. This, therefore, is the world in which we are living. We may call it real or unreal, as we would like. Both statements seem to be correct: It is true that the world is there, because we see it; and it is not really there, because it is sublimated in a higher experience.


2.
This analytical understanding of the relation between waking and dream will be able to throw a light on the relation of man to God. What the dream subject is in relation to the waking subject, that man is in relation to God; and as the dream world is to the waking subject, so is the waking world to God. As the waking subject is the creator of the dream world, God is the Creator of this waking world. And what happens to you when you wake up from dream into the waking life, that happens to you when you rise from this world to God. Do you lose anything by waking?

Then you lose something by realising God, also. But, if you feel that by waking up from dream you lose nothing, rather you become better, then the same rule applies to the state of God-realisation. You do not lose anything by God-realisation. On the other hand, you become better and get enhanced in being. While in dream you saw only phantoms, and in waking you feel that you see real things. In God you see things as they really are, rather than the phantasms that you see in this so-called waking life. This is the metaphysical analysis of dream experience in relation to the world of waking. The world of dream is not outside the mind; the world of waking is not outside the Absolute.

To be continued ...

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