Mandukya_Upanishad

we see it, and we cling to it, weep over it and have variouskinds of dealings with it, even as we have dealings with thesnake that we see in the rope. But when we see anotherreality altogether, when light is brought and the rope isseen, the tremor ceases, and we sigh, ‘there was no snake’.Likewise, we shall make a statement when light is broughtbefore the world, not this light of the sun, electricity, etc.,but the light of wisdom, insight or realisation. When thislight is flashed before us, the snake of the world will vanish,and we will see the rope of Brahman. Then will we exclaim,‘Oh, this is all! Why did I, unnecessarily, run about, hereand there?’ As we speak now, after waking, in regard to thedream world, so will we say, then, in regard to this world,when we wake up into the consciousness of the Absolute.This, therefore, is the world in which we are living. We maycall it real or unreal, as we would like. Both statements seemto be correct: It is true that the world is there, because wesee it; and it is not really there, because it is sublimated in ahigher experience.This analytical understanding of the relation betweenwaking and dream will be able to throw a light on therelation of man to God. What the dream subject is inrelation to the waking subject, that man is in relation toGod; and as the dream world is to the waking subject, so isthe waking world to God. As the waking subject is thecreator of the dream world, God is the Creator of thiswaking world. And what happens to you when you wake upfrom dream into the waking life, that happens to you whenyou rise from this world to God. Do you lose anything bywaking? Then you lose something by realising God, also.76