Mandukya_Upanishad

We can have a dream property acquired after winning acase. We can have a dream office in which we may be bigofficers. We may become dream kings in a dream world.What is the difference, whether we are in dream or inwaking, when the relations between us and the worldoutside us are the same in both the states? What makes yousay that the dream world is unreal and the waking world isreal? The comparison that you make is unjust. You are nota good judge of the parties, and so you pass partialjudgments. Sometimes you pass ex-parte judgments,without considering the cases of the two sides. Now, here,the Māndūkya Upanishad is not willing to accept theproposal of any ex-parte judgment. You have todispassionately go into the root of the matter, and cannottake sides, either on the part of waking or on the part ofdreaming. A philosopher said: If a king in the waking stateis to dream for twelve hours every day that he is a beggar,and if a beggar in the waking state is to dream everyday fortwelve hours that he is a king, what is the differencebetween the two persons? Who is the king and who is thebeggar? You may say that the waking king is the real king.Here, again, you are making a wrong comparison. Suchcomparisons will not hold water, because they areprejudiced by partisanship. It is the waking mind thatpasses judgment on the waking world and says that it isreal. It is like one party in a case saying, ‘I am right’, notconsidering the rights of the other ‘party. The dreamingsubject may make an equally valid assertion in relation tothe dream world. You regard the dream world as unrealbecause you have woken up. When you are in dream, you72