Panchadasi-Chapter 1-Verse 4

Hari Aum

Prostrations to my Guru. Prostrations to All.

SLOKA 4:

tathaa svapne .atra vedya.n tu na sthira.n jaagare sthiram.h .
tad bhedo .atas tayoH sa.nvid eka ruupaa na bhidyate .. 4..

Similar is the case in the dream state. Here the perceived objects are transient and in the waking state they seem permanent. So there is difference between them. But the (perceiving) consciousness in both the states doesn’t differ. It is homogeneous.

In this sloka Vidyaranya talks about the dream state. In the waking state, the sense organs get in contact with the sense objects and give the knowledge about the object. The mind gets the impression of these objects that are perceived during the waking state and is projected out as dream during sleep. In the dream state, the body and the sense organs are not there and hence only the mind exists in that state. As the dream world is the impression formed on the mind through of interaction of sense organs during the waking state, the dream world is similar to the waking world. Vidyranya starts this sloka by telling similar is the case of dream state. In the dream state the objects in the dream are perceived, this time it is not the sense organs but the mind. The difference between the dream state and the waking state is mentioned in the second half of the first line. The objects of the dream world are short lived only during the time of sleep, but the objects of the waking world seems to be permanent when compared to the objects of the dream state. Thus there is difference between the dream world and the waking world.
The Consciousness which is responsible for the perception of objects during the waking state is also responsible for the perception of objects of the dream. It is only same Consciousness which illumines the objects for the experience.

A question may come of why can’t there be a separate Consciousness during the dream state different from that of waking state?
It cannot be so. The experience of the waking world and the dream world occurs to the same person. A person who is the waking state says “I dreamt”. This can be said when the Consciousness that was present while he was dreaming is present while he is saying this in the waking state. If it is considered as two different Consciousness one for the waking and one for the dream, then it would lead to a stage for a person that he may be in both waking and the dream state which cannot happen. Thus there can only one Consciousness.
During the waking state the knowledge of the object is got from the sense organs. Though the sense organs give the perception of the sense objects, it is the mind which perceives the object. Thus though there are 5 senses there is only one mind which perceives the sense objects. It is Consciousness which illumines the mind to get the knowledge about the objects during the waking state. During the dream state, the sense organs doesn’t function but it is only the same mind which sees the dream world and the same Consciousness that was present during the waking state illumines the objects of the dream state. Thus we can infer that it is the same Consciousness that is present in both the waking and the dream state.

Prostrations to all

Hari Aum

Thanks,
Rajesh