स वा एष एतस्मिन्संप्रसादे रत्वा चरित्वा, दृष्ट्वैव पुण्यं च पापं च, पुनः प्रतिन्यायं प्रतियोन्याद्रवति स्वप्नायैव; स यत्तत्र किञ्चित्पश्यत्यनन्वागतस्तेन भवति; असङ्गो ह्ययं पुरुष इति; एवमेवैतद्याज्ञवल्क्य, सोऽहं भगवते सहस्रं ददामि, अत ऊर्ध्वं विमोक्शायैव ब्रूहीति ॥ १५ ॥
sa vā eṣa etasminsaṃprasāde ratvā caritvā, dṛṣṭvaiva puṇyaṃ ca pāpaṃ ca, punaḥ pratinyāyaṃ pratiyonyādravati svapnāyaiva; sa yattatra kiñcitpaśyatyananvāgatastena bhavati; asaṅgo hyayaṃ puruṣa iti; evamevaitadyājñavalkya, so’haṃ bhagavate sahasraṃ dadāmi, ata ūrdhvaṃ vimokśāyaiva brūhīti || 15 ||
15. After enjoying himself and roaming, and merely seeing (the results of) good and evil (in dreams), he (stays) in a state of profound sleep, and comes back in the inverse order to his former condition, the dream state. He is untouched by whatever he sees in that state, for this infinite being is unattached. ‘It is just so, Yājñavalkya. I give you a thousand (cows), sir. Please instruct me further about liberation itself.’
He, the self-luminous being who is under consideration, and who has been pointed out in the dream state, (stays) in a state of profound sleep, ‘Samprasāda’—the state of highest serenity. In the waking state a man gets impurities due to the commingling of innumerable activities of the body and organs; he gets a little joy by discarding them in dreams; but in profound sleep he gets the highest serenity; hence this state is called ‘Samprasāda.’ The self in a state of profound sleep will be later on described as, ‘For he is then beyond all the woes of his heart’ (IV. iii. 22), and ‘Pure like water, one, and the witness’ (IV. iii. 32). He stays in a state of profound sleep, having gradually attained the highest serenity. How does he attain it? After enjoying himself —just before passing into the state of profound sleep—in the dream state itself, by having a sight etc. of his friends and relatives, and roaming, sporting in various ways, i.e. experiencing the fatigue due to it, and merely seeing, not doing, good and evil, i.e. their results (pleasure and pain). We have already said (p. 633) that good and evil cannot be directly visualised. Hence he is not fettered by them. Only one who does good and evil is so fettered; one certainly cannot come under their binding influence by merely seeing them. Therefore, being identified with dreams, the self transcends death also, not merely its forms. Hence death cannot be urged to be its nature. Were it so, the self would be doing things in dreams; but it does not. If activity be the -nature of the self, it will never attain Jiberation; but it is not, for it is absent in dreams. Hence the self can get rid of death in the form of good and evil.
Objection: But is not activity its nature in the waking state?
Reply: No, that is due to its limiting adjuncts, the intellect etc. This has been proved on the ground of apparent activity from the text, ‘It thinks, as it were, and shakes, as it were’ (IV. iii. 7). Therefore, since the self wholly transcends the forms of death in dreams, death can never be urged to be natural to it, nor is liberation an impossibility. ‘Roaming’ in that state, i.e. experiencing the resulting fatigue, and afterwards experiencing the state of profound sleep, he comes back in the inverse order of that by which he went. i.e. retracing his steps, to his former condition, viz. the dream state. It was out of this that he passed into the state of profound sleep, and now he returns to it.
It may be asked, how is one to know that a man does not do good and evil in dreams, but merely sees their results? Rather the presumption is that as he does good and evil in the waking state, so he does them in the dream state also, for the experience is the same in both cases. This is being answered: He, the self, is untouched by whatever results of good and evil he sees in that dream state. If he actually did anything in dreams, he would be bound by it; and it would pursue him even after he woke up. But it is not known in everyday life that he is pursued by deeds done in dreams. Nobody considers himself a sinner on account of sins committed in dreams; nor do people who have heard of them condemn or shun him. Therefore he is certinly untouched by them. Hence he only appears to be doing things in dreams, but actually there is no activity. The verse has been quoted: ‘He seems to be enjoying himself in the company of women’ (IV. iii. 13). And those who describe their dream experiences use the words ‘as if’ in this connection, as. for instance, ‘I saw to-day as if a herd ot elephants was running.’ Therefore the self has no activity (in dreams).
How is it that it has no activity? (This is being explained:) We see that an action is caused by the contact of the body and organs, which have form, with something else that has form. We never see a formless thing being active; and the self is formless, hence it is unattached. And because this self is unattached, it is untouched by what it sees in dreams. Therefore we cannot by any means attribute activity to it, since activity proceeds from the contact of the body and organs, and that contact is non-existent for the self, for this infinite being (self) is unattached. Therefore it is immortal. ‘It is just so, Yājñavalkya. I give you a thousand (cows), sir, for you have fully shown that the self is free from action—which is a part of the meaning of the term “liberation.” Please instruct me further about liberation itself.’