Mandukya Karika Lecture 080 on 07 December 2022

Full Transcript(Not Corrected)

OM JANANEM SHARADAM DEVEM RAMAKRISHNAM JAGAD PURAM PADAPADMETAYO SRIDHWA PRANAMAMI MUHURMUHUR OM BADRAM KANYE VISHRUNAYAM DEVAH BADRAM PASHYE MAKSHAVIRYA JATRAH STHIRAI RANGAYE TUSHTU VAVAM SASTANUBE YASHEMA DEVAHITANYADAYO SWASTHINA INDRO VRIDHASRAVAHA SWASTHINA POSHA VISHWAVEDAHA SWASTHINA STARKSHO ARISTANIMI SWASTHINA OBRIHA SPATIRDADHA OM SHANTE SHANTE SHANTE HARE OM OM O Gods, may we always hear with our ears what is auspicious. O worshipful ones, may we with our eyes always see what is auspicious. May we live our allotted life, hale and hearty, offering our praises unto Thee. May Indra of ancient fame bestow auspiciousness on all of us. May the all-nourishing potion be propitious to all of us. May Garuda, the destroyer of all evil, be well-disposed towards all of us. May Brihaspati ensure all our welfare. OM PEACE PEACE PEACE BE UNTO ALL We have entered into the second chapter of this Mandukya Upanishad which is called Vaithathya Prakaram. This second chapter has 38 karikas or verses. In my last class, I mentioned some of the fundamental principles of Vedanta. I will have to recollect probably some more times also or as many times as necessary in order to make sense of what Gaudapada, what Advaita Vedanta wants us to understand. First, whatever I see is not me. Second, every object is experienced in terms of its qualities only. Three, the qualities of any object belongs to that object and not to me. Four, every object depends for its very existence on the experiencer. No object exists independent of the experiencer. So whatever is dependent is called Mithya. Remember, Mithya is not non-existence. It is neither existence nor non-existence. That is, it distorts the existence for some time temporarily. That is called Mithya. Seven, I can only experience only one object at any given time. Eight, it means all the other objects in the whole world do not exist for that particular observer. It means objects are temporary. They come and go. So whatever is dependent, whatever comes and goes, whatever changes and that is called Mithya. And with this background, we have to understand. In the last class, we also have seen the categorical statement of Gaudapada in the fifth karika. What does this fifth karika say? Svapna jagarita sthane ekam ahur manishinah bhedanami samatvena prasiddenai vahetuna. Thoughtful persons speak of the sameness of the waking and dream state on account of the similarity of the diverse objects perceived in these two states and on the well-known grounds already described. Very briefly, because we already discussed it, let us just summarize it. There are people who are wise people. Who are wise people are endowed with discrimination. What is discrimination? That whatever we stated earlier, whatever is experienced is not me and I experience only one object. So when I am experiencing one object, that alone seems to be real. Every other object doesn't exist at all. And therefore, whether it is experienced in the dream or experienced in the waking state, the status is exactly the same. Because what is the common thing? They are experienced by pure consciousness. And therefore, that which is experienced is mithya and there is no difference between dream and the waking state. And this is what is being told here. This is what is being slowly told here. Svapna jagarita sthane. Both these states are waking as well as dream states. Manishinah ekam ahur. The wise people say they are but one. Ekam means what? Both are unreal. Mithya is unreal. So both are unreal. Vedanami samatve. Because they differ from each other. What is real in the waking is completely unreal in the dream and vice versa. And both states are experienced. Both come and go. This is one of the reasons given. And he gives some other reasons also. Another reason also. This is what we discussed as the summary. What is the summary? The waking state is unreal. The dream state is unreal. And you extend it. Even the sleeping state is unreal. If everything is unreal, who is saying that this is unreal? There must be somebody who is observing, who is an experiencer and who is telling this comes and goes, that comes, then this goes, this comes, that goes. So when this comes, that is unreal. When that comes, this is unreal. So both are completely unreal. There is no reality at all. Then who is real? I, the witness. I alone am the real. And how many witnesses are there? You cannot say you are separate witness. I am separate witness. No. When there are different objects, you are experiencing different objects. The objects differ. But the witnessing consciousness is only one. Experience is only one. This is the summary. And then of course some people, they go on objecting to this. And we see at least five objections. That is we ourselves are the objectors. Remember, whenever Lodhapadacharya or Shankaracharya is raising some objections and trying to squash their objections, it is the future doubts that are possible for the followers of Advaita Vedanta. We are not bothered about others. But we might have those doubts. Before those doubts even arise within us, these commentators praise them for us. Forever say, my children, you may get these kind of doubts and they can unbalance your mind. Then you think what is unreal is real. What is real is unreal. Therefore I want to help you by bringing up these objections. So in future you don't need to worry because you already have dealt with, studied these objections. Got the answers. Your mind will not be agitated. You can go ahead with your Upasana. So the next verse also is same reason is being given but in different words. This is verse number six. आदव अन्तेचे यन्नास्ति वर्तमानेपि तत्दधा वितधै सद्रुषाः संतः अवितधा इवलक्षिताः What a marvelous truth is being said. And one thing I want to add here. Whenever we are studying these statements and this particular chapter is especially focusing, you don't even require the help of a scripture just by if you are sharp minded enough, if you are a deep thinker, if you have that capacity to discriminate rationally, then you yourself should be able to come to this conclusion. So here the same thing what has been told earlier that whatever is temporary, whatever is dependent, whatever is changing, it is called Mithya. And that is being put here in slightly different words in this Karika number six. आदव अन्तेचे यन्नास्ति Suppose there is something was not there and suddenly it comes into being and after sometime it will not be there because there is a law. That law is whatever has a beginning will have an end. I will explain it a little later. So आदव in the beginning, अन्तेचे at the end, यत्नास्ति that is when you combine यन्नास्ति it will come यत्नास्ति that which is not there. But वर्तमाने अपि Even though it seems to be there for the present as long as it is experienceable तत्तथ. तत् means that वर्तमानकाल, that experienceable time it appears to be real because if something is not there you cannot experience it. Since it is there we can mistake it as real. But no, तत्, whatever we experience that आदव नास्ति, it doesn't exist. What did not exist in the past, what would not exist in the future even though being experienced at present its state is as good as non-existent. For example, a couple get married, man and woman get married, there is no child. Suddenly a child is born and the child grows up and then the child dies. And child means child may grow up into an old man and he dies. When this old man dies, after death nobody knows what happened. Before death, before birth we don't know what was that person. But in between, don't say hundred years, don't say thousand, million, billion years, it will come to an end. This is the rationality. Whatever is not permanent, whatever is permanent it is beyond time. You can't say it was, you can say of course it was, it is and it will be but it is redundant, unnecessary. Because that which is ever, that first of all it is something that is permanent. Not only permanent, it is eternal. What is eternal? Eternal means time means change. Timelessness means no change. So God alone, Atman alone is changeless something and everything else is vikatha. So I explained it, this chapter is called Vaithathya. Tathya means as it is. Vaitathya means that which is not as it is. As if it is appearing something else. The famous example is, so you see a snake and it appears. So it is not real. Why? Because in fact it is the rope. So you don't see the rope. But even when you are seeing the snake, the rope has never become the snake. The rope appears to be a snake but it is, the mistake is in the perceiver's mind and individual perceiver's mind. Why do I say it? If a hundred people see it, the 99 persons may not experience it as a snake because some fellow says that I have myself put this rope here. I know it looks like a snake. One can easily mistake it. But I myself have put it. So I cannot be deceived by it. So everybody doesn't experience a snake but others can experience it as something else. So everything in this world is fleeting. Young person becomes middle-aged. Middle-aged person becomes old. Old person will die. That is one type of change. Every millisecond every object is changing. And not only that, what is considered to be pleasant will be changing into unpleasant. What has been considered as unpleasant is considered as very pleasant. So everything is changing. One important example, a young person. You ask that person, don't walk so fast, confine yourself to bed, only necessarily very carefully walk to the bathroom. He will laugh at you. He will call you mad. So taking slow steps and being very careful and if necessary take the help of a stick is completely laughable for that young person. But the same young person when he becomes old, that is the most desirable thing in the world, every shaking step he takes very carefully so that he need not cause suffering both to himself and to other people also. That means in this world you will not see anything that is not changing. Everything is subject to time and everything is subject to changing. Time means change. So when you are in the waking state that dream had come, dream had gone. So that is what is called temporary, that is dependent upon you and if you are not there, there is no dreamer is there, no dream will be there. So it is dependent upon you, upon me, upon each individual dreamer. That is the logic. So I hope you understand it. That which doesn't exist in the beginning and doesn't exist in the end is equally so in the present. That means at the present time even though I may be experiencing it, you may be experiencing it. So though they are on the same footing with the unreal yet they are considered as though real. When we are in the waking state, even though we know when we are in the dream state, waking state was in the past. When we are in the waking state, dream was in the past. Even though that which has is being enslaved by time, influenced by time. Time means everything is changing. At the time of experiencing we consider them as absolutely real. So this is the meaning of it. Everything that is experienced. And what do we experience? The whole world. How do we experience? We call it waking state, dream state and deep sleep state. All three are changing. All three have a beginning. Therefore all three have an end. But in the middle for a short time all the three are experienced. But at the time of experiencing we disregard. We say that for example when I am in the waking state I say this is real and I measure everything through the measurement of this waking state. This idea is going to come in future. So the dream is unreal. The deep sleep is unreal. But waking is real. But when we are in the dream state do we say it is a dream state? No. For the dreamer the dream state is not a dream state. But it is a real, very real waking state. But if he remembers through memory the waking state experience he says that was a dream and deep sleep was a dream and they are completely separate, they are unreal. Every state makes us feel that alone is real and the other states are unreal. This is the meaning. Every state of experience seems to be real only so long as we continue to experience it. But even though they are changing we consider them as absolute reality. What is meant is temporary reality absolutely fine. Permanent reality no, not at all fine. So that solves the problem. You consider this is what Shri Ram Krishna tells to him. Treat your wife, treat your parents, treat your family members as if they are real. Do not neglect your duties because they are real at this stage. But know for certain God alone is real and none belong to us. Live with this knowledge you will not be affected. And this is what is called in psychological language CBT. And this verse number six is what we have learned. This is a very important verse, the very foundation as it were of Advaita Vedanta. So what is it? That which did not exist, that which will not exist but in the middle appears to exist is completely unreal. That is whatever is temporarily existent is called Nitya. But if there is something which is appearing to be existing where from did it get the existence? That is the question that comes. You are saying temporarily experienceable object is unreal. But it's, that means it doesn't exist. But we feel it is existing. How come? That means it is a temporarily borrowing its existence from somewhere. So where from it is borrowing? From me. Because if you are, you are existent. If you are existent the object borrows your existence just as the mirror shows your reflection. You get away from the mirror, reflection disappears. So temporarily there is a existent likeness of you in the mirror. How did it come? Because we know there is nothing in the mirror. But still it appears because the mirror as if has borrowed temporarily. It has taken a little bit of your existence and claiming it as its own. One popular example is there. Fire is always hot. It will be hot whether it burns or something. It doesn't burn. Fire is always fiery only, hot only. Supposing one day you put a pot on firewood, lit the fire and then boil. The water becomes very hot. Was the water hot when you put the water? No. Will it be hot when the fire is taken off? No. And yet it has temporarily borrowed its heat from the fire. But we know, everybody knows water is not fire. It doesn't have the quality called heating, hotness. But it has borrowed temporarily from the firewood. That is what Sri Ramakrishna puts in his own unique language. A housewife is preparing a curry and she is boiling the vegetables. And the vegetables are jumping up and down because of the changing water bubbles, hot water bubbles. And they dance in mad joy that we are dancing. Look we are dancing. They do not understand they are not dancing. They are being danced by the borrowed heat by the water. The water becomes hot and when it becomes sufficiently hot it creates a lot of bubbles. What is bubble? The cold water goes down and the heated water comes up. And this movement makes the vegetables also go up and down and they are jumping as it were in delusion that we are jumping, we are dancing, we are playing. Take off the fire. Everything becomes cool. Everything becomes. So this is an example. Apply this to everything. So anything that exists only temporarily it doesn't have permanent existence. So it must have a borrowed existence. And how do we know it has borrowed existence? Because it is experienceable. You cannot experience a non-existing thing. But if it is existing either it is permanently existing or temporarily existing. That which is permanently existing can never be experienced because it must be only the experiencer. That which is temporarily existing is borrowing from the existence of the observer. That means what a marvelous conclusion is reached if you can understand what I have just now stated. That is to say my existence is taken temporarily borrowed by every object that I am thinking. That means I am that existence. There is no object apart from me. That object is me. To understand this any number of times I have given and I will give that example. You are dreaming. The whole dream world borrows its existence from whom? From you. That means you have become the objects in the world and the instruments of your body. You have become your body. You have become your mind. You have become as an individual. You create other individuals also dividing the world into the living and the non-living. And a dog is madly running to bite you off and then you start running which is very improper. Because if you are being chased by a mad dog in your dream, your dream personality needs to run away in the dream. So who has become the dog? You. Who became that chased object? You. And who is experiencing it? The witness. The Sakshi is experiencing it. So this is the conclusion. What is it? The waker is me. The dreamer is me. And the sleeper is me. I am all the three. They are experiencing because of me but I can also be independent of them. It depends upon me. I can create an illusion and I experience that illusion as we experience on your mobile phone. Everything you experience is nothing but your own creation. That is the point. So one thing, don't mistake. When we are in the waking state, we should behave like the waker. If you are a Jeevan Mukta, your behavior will be separate. But if you are an ordinary person and you are thinking you are the waker, you should behave like a proper waker. When you are in the dream state, similarly you must do what is right. You must never do anything wrong. Why? If it is unreal, what is wrong with experiencing? After all it is unreal because as I said when we are experiencing it is not unreal. That means the effects of experiencing is also not unreal. That is to say if somebody comes and gives you a big blow with a sharp stick, big stick in your dream, even though it doesn't affect the waker but it will affect you in the dream, you will feel equal pain. If you are eating a very desired sweet, you will experience that pleasure of eating the sweet. But if you are aware this is all my creation, you can enjoy the blow, you can enjoy the sweet. Both become sweetest experienceable things. That is the point a Jeevan Mukta enjoys everything. If he beats somebody, he enjoys it. If he kills somebody, he enjoys it because he doesn't really kill. He knows there is no killer, there is no killed. Until you reach that state, don't try it. But so if somebody is, if someone is beating a Jeevan Mukta as that wandering monk used to, does father bless, he enjoys it. Suppose it gives pain, yes, he enjoys that pain also because he knows really this is a state of experience. And that state of experience where you enjoy, as you enjoy a drama or a cinema is called Jeevan Mukta's state of liberation. So you have to take note, every state is real, that is a condition. What is the condition? So long as you are in the waking state, you are the waker. So long as you are waker, waking state is real. So long as you are in the dream, as a dreamer, the dream state is real. So don't say it is Mithya while experiencing. When you get out of all the three, then you can say yes. So what is the reason we call, even though we are experiencing Mithya, that I have already mentioned it, but I will again mention. So two reasons are given by Gaudapada to establish that the whole universe that we experience, either in the waking or dream or deep sleep, are all Mithya and real. What is the first reason? Both the waking and the dream worlds are Mithya. Just now we discussed, I don't want to repeat it. From the waking point of view, the dream is Mithya. From the dream point of view, waking is Mithya. So if you get away from both, both are Mithya. Both are dependent upon the experiencer. So whatever is dependent, whatever comes and goes, whatever is changeable, that is Mithya. Because all the three states are objects of experience. So what is the second reason? The second reason is going to be in verse number 6. Whatever is objectified is Mithya and the subject Atman alone is Satya. This is the second reason. What is the first? Whatever is experienced is Mithya. What is the second reason? Whatever, whoever experiences any object, he is called the subject, the experiencer, the Sakshi, the knower and he alone is Satya. Thus objectifying ability is the first reason and experienceability is the second reason. And this is being given here. So everything is temporary. So in Aparoksha there is a book by Shankaracharya himself that is called Aparoksha Anubhuti. Direct experience of I am Brahman and he gives some examples. See, we see blue sky. Whenever you look up at the sky and it is pale blue, blue sky or black sky, some kind of, then you can see that you never see the earth moving, always stationary. But you go and be a satellite and observe the earth continuously going round. At what speed? Mind-boggling speed it is going round and round, round itself as well as round the sun. And then you see the stars and the distance, according to the distance, some stars. For example, the sun appears to be very big but a faintest star because of the distance appears to be very small. And you ask any child, which is big? He says the sun is bigger and the next some star is big and some star is small, some are very smaller. What is the reality? When you go nearer to that, then some of the stars are even much, much larger than our sun itself. So everything is mistaken that we experience these things. So it is all temporary thing. But the reality is everything is changing. I alone am the creator. So going by this logic, both waking state and dream states are objects and temporary and therefore they are called Mithya. So Shankaracharya as well as Godapada says whatever is objectified is Mithya. Whatever is experienceable, that is Mithya. And they are borrowing their temporary existence from me, which is Atman and that alone is the reality. Now come doubts. Okay, this is what you are saying. Why am I bound to accept your objections? So there are some objections are raised. Remember, when I say objections, they have no validity actually. There is no strong ground. These are some kind of doubts that can arise either by in other people's mind or most often if we are deep thinkers in our own mind. And therefore some objections are covered here. I will just first give you an outline of these objections. First objection is utility. What does it mean? First of all, it says in the waking state, so I eat Rasagulla, I feel my hunger gone and it has a utility value. If I earn money and my money is in the bank balance and then I know my bank balance. But what happens is when I am eating in the dream, it doesn't fill my stomach and this is called the theory of utility. Waking state is a state of utility, dream state is not at all a state of utility, not to speak of deep sleep state. But even deep sleep has a utility. You know what is the utility? First of all, you are very happy and secondly, most important, without doing anything, you make other people also very happy. So that is the greatest benefit. Without doing anything, without spending time, money, energy, you are making other people very happy. Is that not a great utility? Wonderful. That is the time, deep sleep state, when your mind becomes absolutely fully concentrated, absorbed, one-pointed, almost like a state of Samadhi. Okay, this is the utility. On the grounds of utility, dreams are useless but the waking state is very full of utility. But what Godfather has to say, again I am telling briefly and when we come to those verses, we will go into some more detail. He says, you are a stupid fellow. He doesn't say outright, you are a stupid fellow. When you are eating a sweet in your dream, when a young man is embracing a young woman in the dream, is he experiencing pleasure, happiness and in ecstatic state or not? Yes, of course, nobody can deny the experience, result of the experience, yes. When somebody is beating you up, don't you cry with pain, please come and save me, don't you beg people, yes. Again, dream experiences have a complete utility, 100% utility in the dream state so long as the dream lasts. But supposing that you have a lot of bank balance in your waking state and in your dream state your bank has become Diwala, what good is it going to do to you? I hope you are getting the trend that is waking state experiences are valuable only in the waking state. Dream experiences are valuable and full of utility and they give equal pleasure. That is the answer Godfather is going to give, Shankaracharya is going to support it. And one more I want to add and this is in the form of a question which I have put to you earlier also. Suppose you have eaten, you are eating a most beloved sweet in the waking state, naturally you have to say I am very happy. Suppose in the dream you are doing exactly the same thing, you have to say in dream I am very happy. My question now is, is there any difference between the happiness of the waking state and the happiness of the dream state? And I have to give the answer it is exactly the same because the object is Kalpita and both objects are Kalpita, imaginary. But the result, the effect is on the mind and it is the mind which works equally both in the waking state as well as in the dream state. The mind's reaction is exactly the same. So the pleasure and the pain in both states through whatever object experiences is exactly the same. Now second objection. So sometimes we say in dream state that somebody has gone to America, somebody has gone to Svargaloka and what is the theory? We experience in the dreams whatever we experienced in the waking state through the waking state experiences which are stored in the form of memories alone or we experienced in an imaginary form in dream state. But this fellow in this world, in this life has never gone to heaven. Svargaloka has gone to Mars, he has met his Pitru Loka, he went and met his ancestors. So many dreams he has. This is a unique type of experience. So the objector comes, every one of us experience some type of unique experiences which are not seen in the waking state in this life. For that Godpadacharya says why do you say that the states are unique? After all every state whether you are going to America in the waking state, you are going to America in the dream state, you are going to the moon or Mars or Pitru Loka or Brahma Loka, it is all thoughts in the mind. As thoughts in the mind, there is nothing separate from them. The value is exactly the same. This is a very important point, please find out. Suppose you go to America or let me say suppose you are unconscious and somebody carries you to America or hospital or cremation ground. Will you know that I am being taken to America or to a first class hotel or to a crematorium? You must have the mind. And the mind will say oh now I am being taken to America, I am being taken to a first class hotel, I am being taken to the crematorium. This mind must cognize then only it becomes a state of experience because experience can be done only through the mind. So what Gaudapada wants in countering this objection of the objector, unique experiences are real. He says you go to Chandra, you go to Pitru Loka, it is nothing but your imagination and I tell you it is nothing but your imagination. So supposing your Pitru Purushas, very interesting, Tamasha. Suppose thousand years back your father's parents, your mother's parents, their parents, their parents thousand years back and then maybe they have led a good life and according to our scriptures they all go to Pitru. And you think that those wonderful people having led such marvelous life are waiting to see your moon face after thousand years? They will be, the moment they come to know that you are about to visit them, the first thing they will do is how quickly can we get out of this? I am just joking. What is important is nobody is going to stay in Pitru Loka forever. You have to get into your heads the proper idea. My grandfather is forever waiting in Pitru Loka. He may be in Naraka Loka, Yama Loka, how do you know? Only great people will go to higher Lokas for a temporary period of time and once that experience is over, they will take rebirth and continue their further journey towards God. But if you are imagining that you went to Pitru Loka, it is only your imagination. Indras are changing, Brahmas are changing, everybody is changing. A funny story was there, once Brahma had some problem and he wanted to consult Vishnu and he had the idea that I am the only Brahma, I am a very privileged higher officer and Vishnu had no choice but to say. So he went to Vaikuntha and there was a big reception office. A beautiful lady was the receptionist and this Brahma went there. I want to meet Vishnu immediately. She smiled sweetly and said, Sir, here is your card. It is five trillion billion years hence, your time will come. We will call you, this billboard will announce you. You please kindly take yours. He got very angry. What do you mean by such a long time? Sir, please open the next door. And then he opened and he saw there that a trillion, billion, billion Brahmas are all waiting before him for interview with Vishnu. Then he understood that it is not one Loka but there are billions and billions of uncountable, I don't know, unaccountable Brahmas are there. So all those fellows are there. Don't think I am a unique person. So what I am trying to tell you that if you imagine that you are in Swarga Loka, you are with Rambha, Urvasi, Tilottama, pure imagination. But if you can bring the same imagination in this, what is called mortal world, say my wife, the most beautiful lady, she is Lakshmi, she is Saraswati, she is Parvati, she is a chaste lady, then you are in Brahma Loka. You don't need to go. But if you have any wrong idea about your wife, then you are in the wrong Loka. So applies also to husbands, everything. So unique experience is the creation of your mind. Therefore whether it is waking state is a creation of the mind. Dream state is a creation of the mind. Any unique experience is a creation of mind. This deep sleep is a creation of the mind. Everything is a creation of mind. The whole universe, Srishti, Sthiti, Laya is creation, imagination of the mind. So this cannot be a valid reason for saying waking state is real. Now third objection, very interesting. Take the example of waking state. Now we all know when I see, suppose I see a mango tree and that mango tree is real, it is outside me, I am able to see it. But supposing I see, I sit and close my eyes and go on imagining I am sitting, I have gone to a most marvellous mango orchard and my favourite mangoes are hanging within my reach and I am going and getting those mangoes and I am going on eating them. Now even the stupidest person knows I am only imagining, there is no reality. But since I am experiencing something which is outside that is all absolutely real. Now I will summarize this. What I experience as if something is existing outside me is real and what I am thinking in my brain that is called unreal and that is what Gaudapada Acharya wants to say this is complete nonsense. Because when a person wakes up and then he recollects a dream and says the whole dream is unreal. Now please pay attention because this is a very deep point. Suppose you are dreaming exactly like the waking state, you experience both things inside and outside. In your dream you are seeing a mango tree and you think this mango tree is real because it is outside. I am experiencing. Suppose you close your eyes in your dream and imagine I am enjoying first class mango. You also know in your dream state I am kidding myself, I am playing with myself, I know that this is all a trick of my mind. Nothing wrong with imagining nice things but it is unreal. So what is in my mind is unreal and what is outside is real. This experience is exactly the same whether you are in the dream state or in the waking state. Therefore the objector is telling that since dream is the work of the mind, waking state is real because here there is something real we are experiencing even though what we think in our mind is unreal. Gaudapada's thought reply is that the same phenomena takes place. What is the first thing? A dreamer doesn't say it is a dream, he says it is a waking. For him like waking state there is an outside, there is an inside. For him like the waker outside is real, existing independent of me whereas inside me what I am thinking is my thoughts, my imaginations, it is unreal. So this cannot be a reason for saying waking state is real and dream state is unreal. Now there is other objections are there. So you should not, the objector says you should not treat the waking world and the dream world equally. Why? This is the fourth objection and very powerful objection. What is the reason? The reason says, I already mentioned it, I hope you will recollect it. What is it? No man enters into the same dream state or dreams the same dream twice. In fact in one night, doesn't matter, dream doesn't mean only night. Right now you may, some of you also may be dreaming that you are somewhere else. So in the dream state you can experience things exactly like the waking state. But what happens? One dream ends, second dream comes. Is that second dream continuity of the first dream? No, it is something totally different. The third dream, it is totally different. So every dream is very temporary and it ends there. This is the objector's way of stupid thing. But coming to the waking state, what is it? So yesterday night I had hundred dreams, every dream is different. I know it is a dream and every dream is unreal. But when I come back, my house before my dream was exactly the same. So a contractor came, half finished some repair and then he went away in the evening and then I went to bed and then I dreamt the contractor completed the job and then when I wake up, where do I find? Just exactly yesterday where the contractor had left it, half completed. So you see from birth to death there is a continuity. The same parents are there, same family members are there, same friends are there, same temples are there. It is a continuous something. This continuity of experience is real whereas that which is changing every millisecond in the dream state, this is the fourth objection because this is our objection, this is our practical experience every day. We say 100% and we are one with Godapada. In fact if Godapada doesn't say also, we say dream is unreal. Nobody says dream. Dream is completely unreal because it comes and it goes. It is just an imagination of my mind. How many of us say this waking state is real? So therefore why? Because it is continuing but one factor is there. Supposing there is somebody, it may not be everybody, there is one person and supposing his dream also continues like the waking state, he will be in the same house, he will be having same family members, he will be continuing. So from year 3, 4, 10, 50 years and then he becomes a young man, he attends the college, he has friends, he gets married, he gets children, he becomes middle aged, his children grow up, then he slowly becomes old, his children settle down and they marry and they have grandchildren. It seems to be continuous exactly like the waking state. What am I talking about? Supposing somebody's dream, it is a continuous dream, then he will be in terrible dilemma because whether his existence is real in the dream state or his existence is real in the waking state, he will get terribly confused. And this is what a Chinese philosopher says. Yesterday night I dreamt I was a butterfly. Now I am confused. Was I a butterfly? Who is dreaming now that I am a man, a Chinese philosopher? Or am I a Chinese philosopher dreaming that I was a butterfly? We will talk about this because what Goda Pada is telling this fourth objection, we think this waking cannot be unreal because it is continuous. Whatever is continuous, that is real. The brief answer is what you say continuous, it is like a river. Every drop in the river is changing. Even when you put your legs, you are standing in the middle of the river, every millisecond, every water drop appears to be the same, but there is a continual change and that continual change, if you take notice, then you cannot say it is real because what is this? Whatever was not before, whatever is not going to be and whatever appears to be continuing, the very word continuing means what? Continuously changing. Whatever is changing, that is unreal. Keep this in mind. Whatever is changing is unreal. I will stop here. If any questions are there, I will be happy to talk about them. Om Jananem Sharadam Deveem Ramakrishnam Jagadgurum Pada Padantayo Sritva Pranamame Mohan Mohoh May Sri Ramakrishna, Holy Mother and Swami Vivekananda bless us all. Jai Ramakrishna