Subjective
Reality, Objective Reality and Absolute Reality
Waking experience is a perception. Dream experience is a memory. As
perception precedes memory, waking precedes dream. Whereas waking experience is
independent of dream experience and its effects, dream experience is the result
of the impressions of waking experience.
There is a kind of order or system in the waking experiences, at least
more than in dream. Every day, the same persons and things become the objects
of waking experience. There is a definite remembrance of previous day’s
experiences and of survival and continuity of personality in waking experience.
The consciousness of this continuity, regularity and unity is absent in dream.
Dream is not well ordered, while waking is comparatively systematic.
Dream is less real than waking, in as much as the direct contact with
the external world of waking experience is absent in dream. Though there is an
external world in dream also, its value is less than that of the world in
waking. Though the form of the dream world agrees with that of the waking
world, in quality, the dream world is lower than the waking world.
Space, time, motion and objects, with the distinction of subject and
object, are common to both waking and dreaming. Even the reality they present
at the time of their being experienced is of a similar nature. But, the
difference lies in the degree of reality manifested by them. The Jiva feels
that it is in a higher order of truth in waking than in dreaming.
That the waking world has relative reality does not prove that it is
real in the absolute sense. From the standpoint of the highest reality, waking
experience also is unreal. As dream is transcended in the state of waking, the
world of waking too, is transcended in the state of Self-realization.
Dream is apparent reality. Waking is relative reality. Turiya or
Brahman is absolute reality.
Waking is the reality behind dream. Turiya is the reality behind
waking.
From the point of view of Turiya, both waking and dreaming are unreal.
But, waking, taken by itself in relation to dream experience, has greater
reality than dream. To a certain extent, as Turiya is to waking, so waking is
to dream.
Dream is no dream to the dreamer. Only by one who is awake, dream is
known to be a dream. Similarly, waking appears to be real to one who is still
in the waking state. Only to one who is in Turiya, waking is devoid of reality.
Waking is Deerghasvapna, a long dream, as contrasted with the ordinary dream
which is short.
There are degrees of reality in the experiences of the individual. The
three main degrees are subjective, objective and absolute. Dream experience is
subjective. Waking experience is objective. The realization of Atman or Brahman
is experience of the absolute reality. The individual is the subjective being
in comparison with the objective world. The subject and the object have equal
reality, though both these are negated in the Absolute.
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