SAMSARA A DREAM WORLD ATMA BODHA 6
“Samsara --Swapnatulyo Hi Ragadweshadi Sankulah
Swa—Kale Satyawat Bhathi Prabodhe—Satyasat Bhavet.”
“The world replete with attachments and aversions is similar to a dream. As long as it continues, it appears to be real but appears unreal when one is awake ( i. e. when true Wisdom dawns)
According to Sankara the world is like a dream! It is inextricably mixed with Raga and Dwesha and various other impurities. Inner enemies or the Arishadvargas torment it endlessly. Kama, Krodha, Lobha, Moha, Mada, Matsarya create situations from which man can never escape! One of the Azwars says “Bhava jaldhi magadham dustaram nisthareyam” “ Samsarakhye mahati jaladhau majjatam nastridhamam” I am totally drowned in the great shoreless ocean of Samsara! Sankara himself had a bitter experience during the course of his confrontation and argument with Bharathi Devi, wife of Mandana Misra. Unable to corner Sankara in debate, She begins questioning him on Samsara , family life. Sankara, being a Sanyasi has no experience of it and requests time to answer her questions. By his spiritual powers, he transmigrates into the body of Kasi Raja who had just died. The king wakes up to the horror of the palace members and the queen! But Sankara keeps aloof and observes what family life is. Suspecting the strange and unattached behavior of the king, the minister orders that all dead bodies of men and animals be burnt forthwith. Sankara’s disciples, guarding the body left by Sankara, are overpowered and the body is seized! They send an alert to Sankara and he leaves the King’s body immediately and wakes up in his own body! By that time his llimbs are burnt! He prays to Lord Lakshmi Nrusimha and gets back the limbs. In His “ Karavalamba Stotra” Sankara wonderfully describes the nature of Samsara and how he suffered untold miseries. He says that Samsara is an ocean
alive with dark crocodiles that have caught him up! He laments that he is drenched totally in passions, attachments, aversions and other things. He prays Lord Lakshmi Nrusimha for restoring his partially burnt limbs! “ “Lakshmi Nrusimha! Mama dehi karavalambam”
The Vedas and the Upanishads proclaim “BRAHMA SATYAM JAGAN MITHYA” Brahman is Real. The world is an Illusion. How can we say that the world in which we live and the wives, children, kith and kin, riches, and property are all unreal? The argument appears meaningless as we are closely associated with and experienced many situations with them. We come across in our dreams our own unfulfilled desires, passions and emotions. Sometimes when we experience nightmares, we are terrified and blabber. When we wake up we are relieved to know it was only a dream and unreal.
In the dream world we have a variety of experiences. Experiences exist even in our waking state. The wonder is that we are not ready to accept the waking state as a continuous dream! What is the reason behind this attitude? It is because of the firm grip of ‘ avidya’ – ajnana, ignorance over us preventing us from accepting the reality of the Real! This ‘avidya’ can also be called Maya or illusion. This has the unchallenged capacity to show the Real as UnReal and the Unreal as the Real. Is it impossible for man to recognize the Real as Real? Man has not fully qualified himself to understand and realize the ephemeral nature of mundane objects around us and our own exact relationship with our body, mind and intellect.
Our feeble mind is responsible for the wild dreams we experience. One who has a balanced mind and who has brought it well under his control, who is unaffected by the ‘Arishadvargas’ or the Inner Enemies will not be affected by wild dreams. The dream is quite real to us so long as we are in it! The moment we wake up we experience the unreality of the dream. In the same manner, when we go deeper and experience the All- pervading Spirit, the plurality of our existence drops off even as we awaken ourselves to that Supreme Self which alone is the Real! Therefore it is the duty of everyone of us to wake up from this unreality by tearing off the ‘Avidya’ superimposed on Real Knowledge and realize the bliss of our own Self!
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