Story of Lavana - A King's Dream

Rama: "Venerable Vasishtha, you say time is not what it seems. Can a man truly live a lifetime in a moment?"

Vasishtha: "Indeed, Rama. Let me tell you of King Lavana of Uttara-Pandava. One day, as he sat upon his throne surrounded by ministers and courtiers, a magician entered his court. This illusionist waved a bundle of peacock feathers before the king's eyes, and in that instant, the king fell into a strange trance."

Rama: "What did the king experience?"

Vasishtha: "In that trance, Lavana saw himself riding a horse that carried him far from his kingdom. He became lost in a dense forest where, exhausted and starving, he was rescued by a woman of the chandala caste—the outcaste community who live by cremation grounds. She nursed him back to health, and in time, having lost all memory of his kingship, he married her."

Rama: "A king becoming an outcaste—what a fall!"

Vasishtha: "He lived with her for many years, Rama. They had children together. He worked as a laborer, endured poverty and hardship, experienced the death of loved ones, suffered famine and desperation. He grew old in that life, weathered by suffering, his royal past utterly forgotten. Then one day—"

Rama: "He woke?"

Vasishtha: "The king's body gave a start, and his eyes opened. He found himself still on his throne. His ministers asked, 'Your Majesty, are you unwell? You closed your eyes for but a moment.' Only seconds had passed in court time, yet Lavana had lived sixty years in his trance."

Rama: "This is extraordinary! But which was real—the royal life or the outcaste life?"

Vasishtha: "Here is where wisdom deepens. Lavana, troubled by his vision, sent men to investigate. They traveled to the exact forest and village from his trance-experience. There they found the very hut he had lived in, the old woman who had been his mother-in-law, the remains of his dream-family. Others remembered the chandala man who had lived and died there."

Rama: "But how can this be? Was his dream actually real?"

Vasishtha: "Both were equally real, and equally dreamlike. The king's consciousness, through the magician's power, entered a reality-stream that already existed. Or perhaps his trance-mind created it completely, yet created it so thoroughly that it persisted even after he awoke. The teaching, Rama, is this: the distinction between 'real' and 'dream' is itself part of the dream. Consciousness is so powerful that it creates not only inner experiences but the outer world we call real."

Rama: "Then we cannot trust even our most certain experiences?"

Vasishtha: "Trust them as you would trust a dream—useful while you are in it, but never forget that you are the dreamer. King Lavana's suffering was real within its context. But once he knew himself as the dreaming consciousness, he could hold both lives with equanimity—neither denying nor grasping either one."