Mandukya_Upanishad

dream, vanishes, when there is waking, in which the dreamsubject and the dream objects coalesce, come together toform a more integrated consciousness. A similar uniontakes place in Īsvara-sākshātkāra, or God-realisation. Theworld that you see outside, and you yourself as the beholderof this world, come together in a Universal Consciousness.It is called omniscience or all-knowingness in almost thesame sense that the waking mind can be said to be aware ofeverything that is in dream. The world of dream was notoutside you really, and so also is the world of waking notoutside God. And, just as you withdraw the dream-worldinto the waking mind, the waking world may be said to bewithdrawn into the Cosmic Mind of Īsvara. And,individually, microcosmically, from the viewpoint ofjīvatva, the dream experiences may be regarded as theconsequences of the impressions of waking perception, thatis, dream may be considered an effect of waking. But, it is adifferent matter altogether when you judge this conditionfrom the point of view of the macrocosm. Even as you havethe states of individual waking and dream animated by aconsciousness called, respectively, Viśva and taijasa, thereare, from the cosmic point of view, Virāt and hiraṇyagarba,pertaining to the cosmic waking and cosmic dreamingstates. While the dream world of taijasa may be regarded,tentatively speaking, as an effect of the waking world ofViśva, we cannot say that hiraṇyagarba is an effect of Virāt.This is the difference between individualistic perceptionand Cosmic Knowledge. While Viśva may be said toprecede taijasa, Virāt does not precede hiraṇyagarba. Onthe other hand, the reverse is the case in the cosmic state.78