Creation is Like a Dream

Rama: "The story of Leela has shaken my understanding of what is real. But sage, what then is this creation that appears so vast, so ancient, so complex?"

Vasishtha: "Creation, Rama, is nothing other than a dream. But not an ordinary dream—it is the dream of the Infinite, dreaming itself into infinite forms."

Rama: "How does this cosmic dream begin?"

Vasishtha: "In the Absolute, there arises a subtle vibration—the first thought, the first stirring. This thought has no cause external to itself. It simply arises, as a dream arises in deep sleep without any external stimulus. This first vibration says, as it were, 'Let there be.' And from that single intention, all multiplicity unfolds."

Rama: "But in a dream, things are insubstantial. This world seems solid."

Vasishtha: "Tell me, prince—when you dream at night, do the mountains in your dream feel insubstantial to the dream character? Does the dream water not quench dream thirst? Within the dream, everything follows its own logic, its own laws. The dreamer believes completely. Only upon waking does he say it was merely a dream."

Rama: "Then we are dream characters in God's dream?"

Vasishtha: "You are the dreamer, pretending to be a dream character. That is the great illusion. The same consciousness that dreams the universe is the consciousness that looks through your eyes right now. You are not a part of the dream—you are the dreaming itself."

Rama: "If all is a dream, why does it persist? My dreams end when I wake."

Vasishtha: "Because the cosmic dreamer has not woken up—or more precisely, has no reason to wake up. The Infinite delights in its own creation. It is not a nightmare from which escape is needed. It is play, lila. The universe is Brahman at play with itself, forgetting and remembering, losing and finding, veiling and revealing."

Rama: "Then is liberation simply waking from this dream?"

Vasishtha: "Liberation is realizing you were never asleep. The dream character does not wake up—the dreamer realizes he was never really the character. You do not escape the dream by becoming something other than what you are. You escape by recognizing what you have always been—the consciousness in which all dreams arise and dissolve."

Rama: "What happens to the world when one awakens?"

Vasishtha: "The world continues, just as the sun continues to shine whether you see it or not. But your relationship to it changes utterly. Before awakening, you were trapped in the dream, tossed about by its events, fearing its terrors, grasping its pleasures. After awakening, you watch the same dream with equanimity, knowing it for what it is—a magnificent display that cannot bind you, cannot harm you, cannot add to or subtract from what you truly are."

Rama: "This is the most liberating thing I have ever heard."

Vasishtha: "It is liberating because it is true. The prison never existed. The chains were made of thought. The warden was your own mind. And the freedom you seek is not in some distant future—it is the very nature of this present moment, waiting only for recognition."