We don’t have just one dream every night. Most of us have more than one dream. We effortlessly pass from one dream to the next, and usually it is the dream we had just before we wake up that we remember. When we pass from one dream to another, we don’t generally recall the earlier dream. Waking up is the only way for these series of dreams to come to an end.
The implication of this daily experience of ours can be staggering. If we step back a little, we might notice that our entire life can be seen as a series of dreams. Each of the three states--waking, dream, deep sleep--can itself be seen as a dream. The Chāndogya Upanishad says as much when it declares that there are three kinds of dreams: the waking dream, the dream-dream, and the deep sleep-dream.
We can go ahead and include into the “dream” category even heaven, hell, and whatever other celestial worlds there may be. If dream is defined as “the perception of things as they really are not” (a-yathārtha-darśanam), then every experience mediated through our mind and senses is a dream. It could be a pointer to a reality, but it is not the reality itself.
As in the case of our nightly dreams, we pass from one dream into another effortlessly even on the cosmic plane. The only way to end the series of dreams is to wake up.
Enlightened beings are those who have woken up. One who wakes up is called a Buddha. Swami Vivekananda’s favorite exhortation may make better sense in light of what is said above: “Arise! Awake! and stop not till the goal is reached.” The goal is stop dreaming and to wake up.
Thoughts and insights that emerge from the discussions, study, reflection, and practice of Vedanta in the spiritual community of the Ramakrishna Vedanta Society in Boston, USA, which is a branch of the Ramakrishna Order.
2 comments:
Pranam Swamiji. Its true that awakened is "Buddha". But how one could assess himself that he is awakened? What feelings he will have after awakening, Maharaj? - Himanchal Madharia, Bhilai(C.G.), India
The characteristics of an "awakened" person are described in many Vedanta texts, such as the Gītā (see the Sthitaprajña section in chapter two) and the Vivekacuḍāmaṇī. Sri Śaṅkarācārya says in his commentary that the characteristics of the enlightened become the disciplines to be practiced by those who seek enlightenment. ST
Post a Comment