Bhagavatam-daily 161 – 11.10.03 – Sense objects are insubstantial like dream objects

नानात्म कत्वार् विफलस् तथा भेदात्मा धीरे गुणे सुक्तस्य When one is sleeping, विशयालोको विशयालोको विशयालोको is विशयालोको When one sees the sense objects, ध्यायतो and one meditates on them, gets absorbed in them, वामनोरतह According to the way the mind’s chariot moves, नानात्म कत्वार् विफलस् नानात्म कत्वार् A variety of sense objects one sees, विफलस्, it’s all in vain.
तथा भेदात्मा Similarly, भेदात्मा When the soul is separated from reality, divorced from his own spiritual identity and relationship with God, धीरे गुणे The intelligence when it is cut off from reality and is obsessed along with the senses and the sense objects. So the point of this verse is that just as a sleeping person sees various objects in the dream and gets obsessed in them, but such objects are simply वनोरतह, they are creations of the mind and they do not give any real pleasure and thus they are ultimately useless. Similarly, the sense objects are useless for the soul who is actually asleep to his spiritual identity and they are of no ultimate value to the soul.
सुक्तस्विशयानोको It’s a recurrent theme that comes in the Bhagavatam that actually our present identity is something like a dream. So now, our present life’s life is something like a dream. So, the soul goes to four different levels of consciousness or states of consciousness, we could say.
There is सुषुप्ति, deep sleep. There is स्वप्न, that is, dream state. सुषुप्ति is deep dreamless sleep.
Then जागरति is the present wakeful state. And then there is तुर्य, or समाधि, which is the state of spiritual wakefulness. So we are all awake material right now, but we are asleep spiritually.
Now, when we are asleep, when we are materially asleep, then we are asleep both materially and spiritually. But material wakefulness and material material sleepfulness, material sleep and material wakefulness, both are two phases of spiritual sleep only. And because of this, the soul who is trapped in this condition can never realize this eternal identity, can never attain, cannot attain anything eternal.
So, when we when we have dreams now, depending on the different kinds of karma that different people have, some people have very vivid dreams, some people have relatively vague dreams, some people have dreams, some people they just can’t get their dreams off their, some people, now when we say we don’t have dreams, many times we have dreams but we forget them also. So, some people just don’t forget their dreams at all. So the point is, sometimes they have nightmares and they are haunted all the way by their nightmares.
So this, Baldevidya Bhushan explains in his commentary on the Vedanta Sutra, in the Govinda Bhashya commentary, that actually hmm hmm hmm it was actually the soul who is he says that the dream state is also actually what we get, what we experience in the dream is a result of our minor karmas. The major karmas and their reactions come to us hmm through the body, through the, at the gross level, at the bodily level, but the minor karmas reactions come to us at the mental level. The point is, relevant to our discussion is that, actually when we are in this world, we are caught by various material infatuations.
And when we are thus caught by material infatuations, the only thing we can do to get out of those material infatuations is recognize our spiritual identity and strive for spiritual realization. Just as a person who is caught in a dream has to wake up. Within the dream state, one just cannot come out of the dream.
The way is to wake up. So, similarly, we do need to wake up spiritually and the way to wake up spiritually is by practicing sadhana. So, when we chant and we hear shastra, we are all doing things which will gradually wake us up spiritually.
And, step by step, when we try to wake ourselves up, one of the temptations that we have to resist is just as a person when we are sleeping, we often don’t feel like waking up because sleep seems to be comfortable, sleep seems to be enjoyable and on the other hand, waking up seems to be irritating. But, just as if somebody has a nightmare, then waking up is joyful. So, it’s a relief actually.
Oh, it’s not real. So, depending on our state in material existence, if we are suffering in material existence, then often coming to the spiritual level of consciousness, waking up spiritually is a welcome relief. It is something which we seek.
On the other hand, if we are enjoying materially, then often the impetus, just like when we are having happy dreams, then we feel very comfortable lying in a bed, maybe with a comfortable bed with a cozy blanket around us, dreaming sweet dreams, then we feel waking up to be an interruption. So, like that, when we are in this world, if we are caught up in the pleasure of this world and we often don’t work towards getting out of this world, we don’t work towards getting out of this world because we feel this world itself a nice place. So, when miseries come, they are, literally speaking, often when this phrase is used, misery is a wake-up call.
But when people use the wake-up call, they usually refer to it that you are sleeping, you are unaware of some particular material thing, now become aware of that material thing. But we need a spiritual wake-up call and material misery can strive to act as a spiritual wake-up call. Otherwise, now the problem is that with respect to wanting to enjoy our dreams is that the dream can morph into a nightmare at any moment.
We may be wealthy, we may be successful, we may be happily having a good family life and suddenly one accident, one heart attack, one crime can devastate us completely. So, rather than waiting for something like that to happen, we can take the initiative in our own hands and strive to wake ourselves up beforehand. That way, when we focus on our spiritual identity, it is not because we are frustrated with our material identity, but because we understand the inevitable frustration that will come upon us and we want to pre-empt that frustration.
We understand that whiffle us, that ultimately whatever we seek at the material level, it will turn out to be futile, it will whiffle us and therefore, there is no need to get caught in it, there is no need to be infatuated by it, rather it is much better that we march onwards in our spiritual journey and get out of Christ spiritual consciousness where there is eternal happiness waiting for us. So, the consistent message of Uddhava Gita is one of detachment and that message is conveyed through various examples and here the example of dream is used. This is a person while dreaming the things of various objects.
Aaloka means to see those objects, one sees those objects of sense gratification. But they are, although one may perceive them, one may get absorbed in them, they are simply products of the mind and they have no real value. Although we may see a variety of objects, they all have a commonality that they have no utility.
The variety of sense objects has the commonality that it has no ultimate utility. So, when we understand that what applies to the dreams also applies to our waking state which is also a kind of dream. Then the Bheda, oh this is attractive, this is not so attractive.
We don’t get infatuated by that Bheda, but instead we persevere towards getting self-realization and attaining real happiness in connection with Krishna at the spiritual level.