If Life is But a Dream, then WHO Dreams It? Perspective of Advaita Vedanta

Many great philosophers have boldly declared that the world is like a dream. But did they really believe that SOMEONE is actually dreaming the world? Dream metaphor according to Advaita Vedanta.
0:00 Dream as a Metaphor
4:47 Creation and Creator
10:15 God: Immanent and Transcendent
20:13 Avatara: Divine Incarnation
This idea can be traced back to Plato in ancient Greece and the enlightened rishis of ancient India. Later, this idea became highly refined in the philosophy of idealism taught by Berkeley and Hegel, and in the works of famous Vedantic and Buddhist scholars like Shankara and Nagarjuna.
Use of the dream metaphor is particularly striking in Hindu philosophy. Just like Brahma, Vishnu, and Shiva are responsible for the creation, sustenance, and destruction of the universe, in a similar way, for the world you create in your dreams, you are responsible for its creation, sustenance, and destruction. And just like the universe returns or merges into Ishvara at the end of time, so too, your dream world, along with everyone and everything in it, merges into you when you wake up.
Unlike a potter who needs clay to make a pot, Ishvara doesn’t need an external source of material. The Mundaka Upanishad gives a wonderful example of a spider that creates a web from material found within its own body. The spider is both maker and material for its web, and Ishvara is both maker and material for the universe, like you are both the maker and material for your dream world.
The immanent aspect of God is called saguna brahman, brahman with attributes, attributes like being the creator, sustainer, and destroyer of the universe. That means, saguna brahman is really just another word for Ishvara. Some people refer to saguna brahman as the personal God, to distinguish it from nirguna brahman, the impersonal God. Nirguna means without attributes. Nirguna brahman is pure being, existence itself, the underlying substratum because of which everything exists. The sleeper who lies in bed represents nirguna brahman. Because of the sleeper, dreams can be dreamt. And so too, because of nirguna brahman, everything here exists.
When you dream, you usually project yourself into the dream world as the main character. But during the dream, you don’t know that you’re dreaming. That’s why it seems so real. Yet it’s possible to have a lucid dream, a dream in which you’re fully aware that it’s just a dream. The projection of yourself into your dreamworld represents the Hindu doctrine of avatara, in which Ishvara projects himself into the world as a divine incarnation like Krishna or Rama.
Swami Tadatmananda is a traditionally-trained teacher of Advaita Vedanta, meditation, and Sanskrit. For more information, please see: www.arshabodha.org/

[@alandunlap4106]

When I was 4 years old, I was walking down the street and I found myself, saying out loud, "I'm really here! I'm really HERE!!" Why I thought that was so profound, I don't know. But, suddenly I experienced Life as a Dream, a Lucid Dream, and I was the Dreamer. It was like I went from being an actor on a stage lost in the part, to being in the audience. I thought about telling my parents but I knew it would be a waste of time. They thought Life was REAL. It lasted for a few moments. Took 30 years and some nice drugs to experience it again.

[@mysteriousworld9723]

😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂,

[@putunova7124]

i😮o 😅moomk

[@user-mm8pm7ol3r]

Nice story. What substance(s) helped you remember?

[@alandunlap4106]

@@user-mm8pm7ol3r Just sitting silently under the stars with a friend after smoking some nice weed laced with free-base cocaine. :-)

[@mtmind6560]

Amazing

[@AdarshSingh-fi7pd]

Please make a series on Ashtavakra gita.🙏🏻

[@coolsai]

Yes please 🥺

[@prithiphillips4746]

Agreed!!

[@rahul7090]

Yes please Swami ji. Kindly make videos on Asthavakra Geeta ❤

[@kmanoham]

I have to say this.... Swami Tadatmananda and Swami Sarvapriyananda are my spiritual guides. It reminds me of my University days where i had fantastic lectures who excited me gave me breadth of knowledge and tutorials that gave me depth and real insight . I am eternally grateful to these two swamis both from the Advaita Vedanta Tradition.

[@skylarjon3464]

This may not have been your intention, but this really helped me understand the films of David Lynch

[@rishikesannair9792]

So clearly deciphered a complex philosophy

[@sandeepbhan1893]

We are being thought by a thought

[@maruthikaranth7152]

How very simply the teachings of Vedanta is put forth with so much clarity and insight. My humble pranamas to Swami Tadatmananda.🙏🙏🙏🕉🕉🕉

[@artisttemple8268]

Thank you. 🙏🏽✨

[@gridcoregilry666]

Thank you so much for all your effort towards making Vedanta known in the world!

[@sumanth42564]

So well explained! Really enjoyed it

[@wighatsuperreggie]

I really appreciate the clear simplicity of your teaching, so thank you.

[@quake3quake3]

Just brilliant! A thousand thumbs up! Om Namo Bhagavate Sivanandaya! Prostrations to my guru Sri Swami Sivananda!

[@codananda]

This is the best explanation of the concept of avatar that I came across.

[@mybabyandme08]

So happy to watch this video today 🙏🏽🙏🏽

[@dipendhruv3951]

Beautifully & logically explained !

[@onetwozeroyt]

Thanks Swamiji. So clear. You have been explaining the nature of reality through all your videos with appropriate graphics. Thanks a lot for your work in this regard. Lucky are those who get to know and watch these videos.

[@balajicanabady]

Sincere gratitude for your beautiful explanation of the dream metaphor. Your words were insightful and inspiring. I would also like to thank you for your time and dedication to teaching others. Your work is truly inspiring, and I am grateful for the opportunity to be a student of yours.

[@ragaashish33]

Wonderful video thank you guruji.

[@rram4772]

Dream metaphor is indeed insightful. Thanks Swamiji for making this aspect of Vedanta somewhat understandable.

[@vibs99]

Interesting metaphor and explanation. Thank you 🙏🙏

[@BoundlessJon]

Amazing video, thank you for spreading the dharma and keeping this nondual truth alive.

[@rakeshrockb]

Thank you swami🙏 we are indebted for all your teachings and the way you explain with soothing voice and graphics helps aspirants to advance in their spiritual endeavors. We are very fortunate.

[@BlackHermit]

Very good lecture. Thank you so much 🙏

[@kanishkajoshi563]

🙏 Thank you Swamiji.

[@rajendraprasadkandel5079]

I always be repleted with your insightful vedantic teachings in simple words. I am so much grateful for your great work…god bless you❤️🙏❤️❤️❤️

[@ravish05]

Thank you swamiji. I recall you had gone through this material during the bhagavad gita class. Nice to see this information with some pictures.

[@mtmind6560]

When I had a non-dual experience a few things I immediately understood are: 1- Without duality you cannot know you exist. 2- It cannot be experienced by itself. 3- it can be known fully. This “experience” happened spontaneously while I was talking to myself trying to understand Advaita Vedanta intellectually. Suddenly I disappeared into an blank nothing with the peculiar quality of awareness. Then a brief picture of my physical face appeared and then I was in a memory which I can only surmise was me as a child 3-4 years old. It was non-dual, physically radiant, pure awareness that did not know that it was. Although the room appeared exactly as I knew it from this memory, this time it was everything just as it was/is with no phenomenal existence. Pure beingness. As this was occurring I was also my identity/ego however like you said I was merged with what I later realized was my own current presence. like Dzogchen’s teaching of Rigpa. The appearance was developed from the primordial nature of mind which is the inseparability of awareness and emptiness. So this ‘dream’ develops into a dream through the recognition of “I Am” which begins Samasara but merges back to the primordial essence. At least that’s where I’m at right now. Does that mirror your experience?

[@mariae.antonsen2183]

Hei

[@dramolkoranne5846]

Jabardast Thank you 👍

[@Rob_132]

Thank you for your teachings.

[@frankng3111]

Thank you Swamiji ! Wonderful teaching, wondeful explaination from the Masters!

[@ytrrs]

This is an eye-opener, though all the different illustrations I find in this video, has been heard from this Great Swamiji before, in different aspects in other earlier talks. Especially, the transcendence is now within my full grasp. I plan to send this video link to all my like-minded friends and relatives. Thank you, Swamiji ! My namaskarams to you!

[@edolavika1307]

Thank you so much for the insightful explanation. It clears my confusion in understanding God as Ishvara & Brahma. It helps me to understand and know the beauty of the ancient teaching of Hindu while guide me to also understand the hidden teaching in Islam (tassawuf/sufism) & Christianity on immanence & transendence🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻

[@rajaiaf]

Sir, you are my upa-guru. I bow down to your blessed feet. ❤🙏🏾

[@dangem5022]

Masterfully explained Swamiji! Thank you 🙏🕉☮☮☮🙏

[@jsblastoff]

Super Fresh!!

[@angelarapuano1315]

Una gioia immensa ogni volta ascoltare questi insegnamenti ! É un video stupendo che studierò con attenzione e devozione 🙏🏻☀️ Grazie ❤

[@_That_which_is_not_]

Great video ❤

[@ringingthebells307]

Swamiji, whatever u have explained that can never be explained in a language and only can be contemplated as i too m finding it difficult to convert this in my own language if at all I had to explain it to others. U fantastically explained which can be easily grasped by someone if he catches the dream clue. I got it more clarified today now. After Mandukya Upanishad, I related everything to dream and got many answers and some were left which today I got. Being a hindu, I was a conventional ritualistic with the only knowledge of avataras and never got an opportunity to understand Ishwara in such a clear way. Thanks to swamijis like u. My devotion to God has become many fold now as I have understood him intellectually. Earlier such knowledge was esoteric and available thru guru shishya parampara but technology has played a major role to disseminate such crucial and most important knowledge to everyone who r seeking for truthness.My prostrations at ur feet Swamiji.

[@1stmoviefan]

I must be finally going forward on my path. After all I found you!😂🎉 Thank you. This is wonderful.❤

[@rashmibhatnagar7243]

Thanks Swamiji, almost felt like someone just gave me all the answers I was struggling with. Its been a while since I discovered about Vedanta, but could not figure out how this works. If everything is mithya, then what is the pain which I feel in my heart. So many questions, but no single answer. I have been seeing your videos for quite some time. The way you explain things is so wonderful, like a father. Wish I could meet you and learn from you. This video cleared many doubts, but Im still a long , long way. Thanks for creating such insightful content.

[@AdarshSingh-fi7pd]

I just understood that existence is called as God , and we all are one existence.

[@mathangisunderrajan3773]

Wonderful! I need to watch it again & again to assimilate it completely! Really....thanks so much Swamiji! The explanations have come at the right time.... Bhagavan Ramana is my Guru & I believe in Advaita Vedanta philosophy. At present I am listening to Bhagavad Gita classes & was a bit confused as to how Krishna & his great teachings would fit into the framework of my Guru s. Ramana Maharshi has sent me your teachings at the right moment to clarify & illuminate me. Pranams.,🙏🙏

[@vijayamohan33]

Amazing Teachings ❤❤❤ rest great great

[@vsaitta]

Thank you so very much again for all your teachings! 🙏🙏🙏🕉🕉🕉📿📿📿🤪

[@Eva-iy6vy]

Excellent teaching...and Swami so good.

[@joejoe-lb6bw]

Such a beautiful use this metaphor. Of course, it can be carried too far. For example, when the dreamed people are told by the guru/avatar that all is one, they can accept, but it remains just a philosophy for them. No amount of Sadhana will free what isn’t real.

[@beinghappy8492]

Namaskar Swami ji. Your teaching is very simple to understand. Love you.

[@Temon0942]

Amazing teaching guru ji

[@EliAbramzon]

Great.

[@makingofmandala7264]

Thank you Swamiji.🙏

[@user-sd9bc3xq5p]

Thank you. 🙏

[@sinha4423]

Pronam Swamiji ! Excellent explanation, and such skillful dissection of our dream world is just amazing ! Such discourses come out so helpful in my modest pursuit of self knowledge. Gratitude and gratefulness. Best regards 🙏

[@MP-rg8dv]

Revered swamiji very nice presentation about the dream metaphor in advaita vedanta, but i recently came across a content related to dream world by Robert Adam (disciple of Ramana Maharshi ) who interprets that the small self (ego) is living in false illusory world and all the happenings for that ego self is preordained and whatever incidents happens is predetermined with nobody's influence and he further stated that the real self is pure consciousness like screen for illusory images . ....So now my question is how the small self ego world is preordained and predetermined when we can actually take efforts, decisions and try to willingly change the situations?? Does our efforts and willingness is also a dream or preordained predetermined condition ??

[@ferdinandocoluccelli9574]

@@MP-rg8dv The characters in the dream only play a role, like actors do; they cannot change the (preordained) course of the dream. the same is true, according to the dream analogy, for the man in God's dream. It is God who "lives" what you appear to be. 🙂🙏

[@eviechris1]

@@ferdinandocoluccelli9574 , yes, I agree, and I contend that since is it God who lives what I 'appear' to be, I also contend that 'i' am not the 'doer', nor do I choose my thoughts; it is all done through me as if I were the hole in the flute through which the universe plays this song, known as 'me'.

[@ferdinandocoluccelli9574]

@@eviechris1 I agree! The analogy of the flute is very pretty 🥰

[@db8799]

If the body replaces each cell every 7 years ...( including the bones) So, how can we be the body? Because the body lives 7 times that long?.... You are the Awareness of the body... You are the Eternal, unchanging Pure Awareness...

[@joejoe-lb6bw]

The body parts are not all simultaneously replaced at same moment. So, not the best argument.

[@vijayasenthilraj849]

My respects to you Swami, I am fortunate to have found you ❤

[@Fokrey1955]

Enjoy his presentation.

[@cctvyoges]

Om namasivaya gurudev

[@nineteen1986.]

Thank you 🙏

[@rajukunjukrishnan472]

Pranam Guruji 🙏

[@thrijeshlakshman8615]

Namaste guruji

[@EliAbramzon]

I really appreciate the Vedantic ability to contain philosophical concepts, while not losing the religious theistic language and attitude.

[@girishnanoti954]

Pranam Swami ji

[@swamivedantanandapuri1322]

Pranaam🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏

[@Hocusbogus28]

Swami ji. Thank you for this knowledge. May i please request you to add the link/source for the wonderful music you use in your videos?

[@DenzilPeters]

very nice intro music, can you please provide a link to the album?

[@maruthikaranth7152]

Swamiji Tadatmananda is an enlightened soul. He has a Universal outlook of seeing everything as it is. HARIOM TATSAT. 🙏🙏🙏🕉🕉🕉🕉

[@vik24oct1991]

Excellent metaphor, even the concept of reincarnation and subtle body be explained by this dream metaphor, the atman are your neurons, the subtle body is the memory imprint in the neurons, reincarnation is basically resource allocation of neurons to simulate another character, when this resource allocation happens the previous memory sometimes remains due to deep imprints cresting plasticity in the neurons hence people remember their past life, also Brahman is the unified field, atman is point on the unified field, subtle body is the temporary distortion on the field and so on.

[@delaramwakefield3989]

Yes, please and also on the incredible Avadhuta Gita. Wish had the company of these authors rather the contemporary people.

[@knowthetruth311]

Wow swami Tadatmananda ❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤

[@Lucyelle]

What makes us, the characters in nirguna brahman's dream, realize our dreamer/the nirguna brahman? Are we saguna brahman ourselves?

[@meditatedeeperwithvenky]

Wow. A truth as profound as who is the Lord of the Cosmos, explained with such clarity. Thank you for your guidance Swamiji! With greetings and gratitude from www.youtube.com/@meditatedeeperwithvenky/about.

[@jokerjokerrr1264]

❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤

[@sashpdhar]

Pranams Swamiji , kindly whats the background music name used for this video ?

[@hariharan4922]

🙏🙇‍♂️🙇‍♀️🙏

[@tejsingh1546]

🙏✨️0m shanti shanti shanti

[@ManojDas-lb4lu]

🙏🏼🌸🌼🌺🕉

[@alcosmic]

So THAT'S what Lovecraft was talking about, now I get it!

[@yanhuachen8632]

🙏❤🙏

[@NavDeepDhim4n]

🙏👍❤

[@Rivulets048]

That thumbnail goes so hard

[@SrikantNaladala]

❤🙏🙏

[@yogini3424]

Pranam Swamiji, when "I" die is that the form and mind which I seem to be, disappear from Ishwara's dream ?

[@MP-rg8dv]

Revered swamiji very nice presentation about the dream metaphor in advaita vedanta, but i recently came across a content related to dream world by Robert Adam (disciple of Ramana Maharshi ) who interprets that the small self (ego) is living in false illusory world and all the happenings for that ego self is preordained and whatever incidents happens is predetermined with nobody's influence and he further stated that the real self is pure consciousness like screen for illusory images . ....So now my question is how the small self ego world is preordained and predetermined when we can actually take efforts, decisions and try to willingly change the situations?? Does our efforts and willingness is also a dream or preordained predetermined condition ??

[@angelarapuano1315]

Bella domanda!

[@stephanesylvestre7143]

Even Christianity acknowledges this teaching via the famous song: He hold the whole world in his hands😉

[@renukabsr6035]

🙏🙏🌹🌹

[@arunavakundu4314]

Sorry just like sleep possess the power to create dreams, can Maya be likened to sleep ? And does Maya act in two steps to produce the creation. And the dream metaphor has only one step with the sleep and mind like Maya producing an altered state of consciousness ?

[@1Aksharasatiyam]

Concluded?😮🤔😔🔱

[@reemamer1237]

Where are you located to attend your meditation. Thank you 🙏

[@gridcoregilry666]

New Jersy

[@netineti3901]

I rarely remember my dreams.

[@mukeshdesai2862]

8:30 11:33 ❤️

[@thomaskuhl4336]

Can one do without Ishvara by assuming that the Atma collectively create the universe (or all possible universes)?

[@AlanPhan128]

TLDR: Advaita Vedanta offers a nuanced understanding of reality through the dream metaphor, emphasizing our responsibility for creating and sustaining the universe and the distinction between Ishvara and brahman. 1. 00:00 🔍 Many philosophers, from both the East and West, concluded that the world is not as real as it seems and can be compared to a dream, but their teachings were more nuanced than simply stating that the world is an imaginary realm in someone's dream. 2. 01:37 🔮 The world is not absolutely real and resembles a dream, and just like in dreams, we are responsible for creating, sustaining, and destroying our own world, which merges into us when we wake up, and similarly, the universe exists within Ishvara according to Advaita Vedanta teachings. 3. 04:05 🔮 Ishvara, the divine reality in Vedantic teachings, can be understood through the dream metaphor, which clarifies its role as the creator, sustainer, and destroyer of the universe, as well as its responsibility for the orderly behavior of everything and its incarnation as divine beings. 4. 06:21 🧠 Ishvara is the creator and material of the universe, like how we are the creator and material of our dreams, showing how Ishvara pervades existence, leading to a changed worldview and appreciation of Ishvara's presence in the world and in life. 4.1 Ishvara is both the creator and material of the universe, similar to how we are both the creator and material of our dreams, and this illustrates how Ishvara pervades the universe as the underlying fabric of existence. 4.2 Vedanta presents Ishvara as a reality to be understood, which changed the speaker's worldview and led them to appreciate Ishvara's presence in the world and in their life. 5. 10:31 🔍 The concept of God in Advaita Vedanta is divided into two aspects - immanent and transcendent - with the immanent aspect being the creator, sustainer, and destroyer of the universe, and the transcendent aspect representing pure existence itself, which can be understood through the metaphor of a sleeper in a dream world. 5.1 God in Advaita Vedanta has two aspects - immanent (saguna brahman) and transcendent (nirguna brahman), with saguna brahman being the creator, sustainer, and destroyer of the universe, while nirguna brahman is pure existence itself, and the distinction between the two can be understood through the dream metaphor. 5.2 In the dream world, there is a sleeper who represents nirguna brahman, the impersonal God, and because of this sleeper, dreams can be dreamt and everything exists, while the dream characters are unaware of the sleeper's waking life. 6. 14:42 🔬 Science can only study physical matter and energy, and cannot explore the transcendent realm of pure existence or absolute reality. 7. 16:22 🌌 God is present in everything and needs to be discovered beyond preconceived notions, with the help of a guru, as the traditional image of an old man with a white beard is merely a figment of imagination. 7.1 The pious girl in the dream searches for the creator of her world in different places, but realizes that God is present in everything and needs to let go of preconceived notions to discover who God truly is with the help of a guru. 7.2 God is immanent and present in everything that exists, while the traditional image of an old man with a white beard is merely a figment of imagination, as there is a divine being that transcends the world and our understanding. 8. 19:51 📚 The girl's lucid dream in Advaita Vedanta helps understand the concept of Ishvara as both the creator and material of the universe, making it easier to perceive Ishvara as a reality to be known rather than a matter of belief. 8.1 The girl, representing nirguna brahman, has a lucid dream where she is fully aware that it is just a dream. 8.2 The dream metaphor in Advaita Vedanta helps understand how Ishvara becomes an avatara and how Ishvara is both the maker and material for the universe, making it easier to appreciate Ishvara as a reality to be known rather than a matter of belief.

[@omshaanti369]

Question if anyone can help... if I am a "dream", where does free will come in?

[@AdarshSingh-fi7pd]

How guru of dream knows about sleeper(the girl)?

[@meditatedeeperwithvenky]

Great question! Answer: As he is an enlightened Guru, he knows that the underlying reality of their entire dream universe (the material and the intelligence) is the consciousness of the dreamer. And that is not different from his own conscious awareness. He cannot know, and no one in the dream world CAN know the dreamer as 'an object' or as that girl sleeping in bed, as in this case. That is what Swamiji meant by Transcendent. But he does know the dreamer as consciousness. 😊

[@AdarshSingh-fi7pd]

@@meditatedeeperwithvenky how do you know that the underlying reality is consciousness?

[@meditatedeeperwithvenky]

@@AdarshSingh-fi7pd That is exactly what it means to be enlightened. The way to achieve it, as the guru did, is through sravana, manana and nididhyasana.

[@els1f]

9:42 i have that same allergic reaction😋

[@moregains9883]

Brahman is the one consciousness in which this ego, this world and dream ego ,dream world arises and subsides this one consciousness is consciousness of the nothingness of the deep sleep. Know that consciousness to be you and that is Ishvara.

[@MrRatherino]

gettint it

[@arunavakundu4314]

And the Maya can be likened to the dream Swamiji ? Just like dream possesses a genesis power to create dream, the Maya has the creating ability to produce a dream like state. Maya acts at Nirguna Bramhan to produce Ishwara ( Saguna Bramhan) to produce the creater. Then Iswara will supposedly will be acted upon by another spell of Maya to create the world as the Saguna Bramhan possesses the power to create ? The creater( Ishwara)will therefore be the sleeping girl in your metaphor Swamiji ? The difference between the girl in the sleep and Consciousness ( Saguna Bramhan- Ishwara) is that the girl will not have access to the four states of waking dreaming and deep sleep. On the other hand Saguna Bramhan has access to all the deformations in the various states of consciousness under the spell of Maya. Are mind and Maya synonymous ? Swamiji is my understanding wrong ?

[@anupriyachoudhary3797]

So ishwara exists in all of us? Or like we're the ishwara itself as in are we nirguna ishwara? Please someone clarify.

[@Thelema108]

There are not "all of us". Only Ishvara

[@abdulrashid-iy8lt]

When you don't like a sound of crow or a noisy sound When you don't want to listen a sound who listen that sound without your permission

[@mariae.antonsen2183]

Hei arsha

[@rupeshjadhav4869]

hindi subtitles