Three Dreams

“The Sage who abides as his true nature, awakens from all the three dreams:  the deep sleep, dream and waking states.” Srimad Bhagavatham

Every human being experiences the three states of waking, dreaming and deep sleep- they come and go and come again.

In deep sleep, there is no body, no mind, no world - only emptiness and rest.

When the mind stirs in sleep, the dream state appears: to the dreamer, whatever fantastic images and happenings he sees seem very real- until he awakes.

Upon awakening, he instantly cognises that all that he experienced in this dream state was unreal, an illusion, just a movie in the mind.

In the waking state , he is convinced that all he experiences is reality; even though it will all disappear once again in sleep. Now he is trapped in samsara, endlessly driven by desires and fears, thoughts and feelings, lost in misery.

Driven by dis-satisfaction and a primordial craving for true happiness, he looks for salvation and finds the sage, the Guru. Following the advice of the Guru, he dives deep into his own being, seeking the source of his own ego.
 He learns stillness, silence, freedom from mind.

At last, by the grace of the Guru, he finally discovers his true nature, the state of waking sleep, the formless, infinite, one Self.
This is the supreme, blissful and peaceful state of the sage, transcending name and form, birth and death.

Just as we all experience awakening from the dream, he now experiences the Reality beyond all the three states; he realises that even the seeming reality of the waking state was as much an illusion as the dream.

He has sacrificed his mind in the fire of jnana and become Brahman, the one true Self that is infinite, eternal, unchanging.
Now, with the Infinite Eye, he sees only the Self everywhere, in all things and creatures and places.

 Like a river flows into the ocean, he merges with the Divine.

Now he is Awake.