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The System of the Vedanta according to Badarayana's Brahma-Sutras and Cankara's Commentary c8.s7.t1: 1. Dream-Sleep

The System of the Vedânta according to Bâdarâyana's Brahma-Sûtras and Çankara's Commentary c8.s7.t1

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1. Dream-Sleep

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Sûtras 3, 2, 1-6.

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In the principal passage, Brih. 4, 3 (a knowledge of which from Chap. XII, 4. above p. 189 we shall in what follows assume in the reader) it is said: "there are no chariots, no "teams, no roads, but he creates for himself chariots, teams. "and roads." The question is (p. 778, 7) whether a real creation is here to be understood or one depending on illusion (*mâyâ*).

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The first view might be taken, for it is said: "he creates;" and further: "for he is the creator" (p. 779, 6). Moreover another passage (Kâth. 5, 8) says of dream-sleep:

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"The spirit that in the sleeper never tires
"And gives the form he will to his desires,
"He is the Brahman, he the stainless one,
"Immortal is his name.
"And all the spheres
"Repose in him; beyond him there is none."

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It might be imagined that by wishes here as before (Kâth. 1, 23-24) real objects are to be understood, and that by the creating spirit (Kâth. 2, 14) the world-creating highest Soul (*prâjna*) is meant (p. 780, 1. 5), so that the dream-creation is to be conceived as real just as much as the actual creation (p. 780, 10).

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To this is to be replied: the dream-creation is a mere illusion, and not a reality (p. 780, 17) because it is not consistent with time, space, and causality and is refuted by them (p. 781, 3). 1) Not with space: for there is no room for chariots, etc. in the limited confines of the body (p. 781, 5). It might be imagined that the soul leaves the body in sleep because it is said (Brih. *loc. cit.*) "it soars from the nest and "hovers where it will" and because in dreaming, going and standing still are only possible on this supposition (p. 781, 6). But that is not so; for it is not possible to pass over the space of a hundred miles in a moment; besides a man who goes to sleep in the country of the *Kurus* and reaches in his dream the country of the Pañcālas, ought to be able to wake up there too; but in reality he always wakes in the country of the Kurus (p. 781, 10, 14). Moreover objects in foreign countries are in reality not at all the same as they were in the dream (p. 782, 1). The above mentioned passage is therefore to be taken figuratively, and the going and standing still in dreams are an illusion (p. 782, 5. 7). The dream is just as unreconcilable with 2) the conditions of time; for one sleeps at night and believes it to be day, and often a dream that lasts an hour seems like a number of years (p. 782, 8); and the dream is in conflict 3) with causality; for one grasps chariots without hands, sees them without eyes, builds them without wood; besides their existence is refuted by the awakening (cf. above p. 247), and not by this alone but also by the course of the dream itself, for the chariot suddenly turns into a man, and a man into a tree (p. 782, 11).

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True the dream is not completely illusory, for it is prophetic of good or ill luck. For thus says the Scripture (Chând. 5, 2, 9):

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"For him who dreams of happiness in love,
"Good fortune when he wakes is near at hand;"

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while (according to Ait. ār. 3. 2, 4, 17) a black man with black teeth indicates a speedy death (p. 783, 7). Again those skilled in dream-books (*svapna-adhyāya* p. 783, 10) explain the dream, when they for example teach that riding on an elephant is a foretoken of riches, and on a donkey of poverty. Here what is presaged is true, but what presages, the dream namely, is not true (p. 783, 14; cf. above p. 270). Besides it is the purpose of dream-pictures to excite joy and fear, and that as a result of the good and evil that one has done (p. 784, 7).

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Therefore the passage as to the creation of the chariot is to be understood figuratively (p. 784, 2) and serves to elucidate how far the spirit is its own light (p. 784, 9). The individual soul is in the first place to be regarded as the creator of dream-pictures (p. 785, 3); and if the context of the Kāṭhaka-passage we have cited indicates the highest soul, this depends on the two being properly speaking identical (p. 785, 6) in the sense of the words *tat tvam asi* [it would have been more appropriate to recall the words etad vai tat which we find not far from these cited. God directs all things and therefore dreams too; but the dream-creation is not a real one in the same sense that nature is. "Further the creation of nature "is not an absolute reality (ātyantikaṃ satyatvam); for on the "basis of the words of scripture referring to its depending on "words (above p. 262) we have proved its identity with Brahman (chap. XX), as well as that the whole extension of the "world is a mere illusion (māyā); ¹²¹ its difference from the "illusion of a dream consists only in the continuance of the "extension of the world until the soul is recognised as Brahman, while the extension of the dream is refuted daily" (p. 785, 10).

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¹²¹ The theory of the extension of the world as māyā, the occurrence of which in Śaṅkara is doubted by Colebrooke, and in Bādarāyaṇa by Cowell (Colebrooke, M. E.³, p. 400) is quite clearly expressed in Śvetāśvatara-Up. 4, 9—10 which is accepted by both of them; from Śaṅkara's Commentary the following passages are applicable: pp. 120, 16. 269, 2. 342, 12. 406, 6. 432, 8—13. 472, 9. 484, 11. 785, 12; cf. above pp. 100, 187, 228, 254, 276, 277, 299.

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"But are not God and the soul related as fire and sparks; "and does not the soul therefore of necessity share in God's "omniscience and omnipotence, as sparks have their share of "light and heat; and cannot it therefore at will (saṃkalpa) "create in a dream?"

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—Reply: the homogeneity of the soul and God is a fact, but is concealed by Ignorance, and only becomes manifest to him whose eyes are opened by the grace of God.

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"But does it come about that this homogeneity is "hidden from us?"

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—It is, like fire under the ashes, hidden in consequence of the connection with the Upādhis, to wit the body etc. which are produced by the world of names and forms dependent on Ignorance.

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"But if the soul does not possess the omniscience and "omnipotence of God, it is essentially heterogeneous from "Him, and does not need to become so by the connection "with the body?"

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—By the connection with the body it comes about, that the soul's (own) omniscience and omnipotence are concealed from it, and that is why it cannot create at will in a dream. If it could do so, no one would have an unpleasant dream, for no one creates what is not pleasing to himself (pp. 786 to 788).

Cites (7)