World of Philosophy

Author(s): Christopher Key Chapple, Intaj Malek, Dilip Charan, Sunanda Shastri, Prashant Dave
Publisher: Shanti Prakashan

Page 104

the promise of the assurance with which the dialogue between Uddalaka and Cvetaketu begins. A person who knows clay can claim that she knows all the objects made out of clay, because all of them, whatever be their names and forms, are clay and nothing but clay. It is the clay that appears as pot, pan, elephant, and so on. Likewise, it is Being (Brahman/Atman) that appears as the world of becoming. Just as clay alone, which is the cause, is real, even so Being alone which is the final cause or ground of the world is real. It follows that to know Being is to know everything. That is why Uddalaka asks his son whether he has known that "thing" by knowing which he could say that he knows everything.
The analysis of the three states of experience, waking, dream, and deep sleep, finds an important place in the teachings of the Upanisads. It brings out the nature of the Self vis-à-vis the mind and the senses. In our normal waking state, we experience objects through the functioning of the mind and the senses. Of course, the Self which is the revealing principle supports the work of the mind and the senses. As distinguished from the waking state, the dream state is a condition in which the senses do not function, but the mind is active getting the support of the Self. But in the state of deep sleep, both the mind and the senses do not function; only the Self is present as the revealing principle even though there is no object, external or internal, to be revealed by it. It is quiet and peaceful as it is not disturbed by the mind. According to the Upanişads, the states of dream and sleep provide us with great metaphysical and epistemological insights. The Upanisads make use of the dream experience for establishing the unreality of the objects of waking experience. Just as the objects perceived in dream are unreal, even so the objects perceived in the waking state are unreal. It is not necessary to go into the details about the similarity between dream and waking states. Again, the Upanişads make use of the state of deep sleep in order to show how we have access to the Self-in-itself in sleep and enjoy happiness without knowing it. In the state of sleep we remain as the Self losing all distinctions because of the absence of the functioning of the mind and the senses. It is to this experience that Uddalaka refers when he says that, even though we get absorbed in the Self in sleep, we do not know it. The moment we wake up, all kinds of distinctions such as colour, caste, gender, and so on arise because of the functioning of the mind and the senses. The moral that is suggested by this analysis of the triple states of experience is obvious. The happiness that we enjoy in sleep is only temporary; it has been possible only because of the absence of the functioning of the mind and the senses. One who controls the mind and the senses through moral discipline and transcends the empirical life with the help of knowledge attains eternal bliss, which is characterized as the state of liberation.
There are two kinds of texts in the Upanisads: they are called subsidiary texts (avantara-vakyas) and major texts (maha-vakyas). The Upanisads
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