Is the world before our eyes real?

While walking at the Sukhna lake, my friend asked out of the blue, “Sanjay, Is Sukhna lake real or fake?”

Astonished by his inquisitiveness, I responded, “What’s your opinion?”

“Of course this lake is real! But I want your view?” he said.

“The lake’s water is evaporating, changing it’s form incessantly – becoming vapours. How can anything that is ever in a state of flux be real? Not only things, according to His Holiness Adi Shankaracharya ji, the entire world is only an illusion (माया)” I said playfully.

“You mean that all the beings including my wife, my children, my job are also unreal?” he asked sarcastically.

“Well, has your wife, your children, your job ever crossed your mind whenever you are in deep sleep?” I asked.

“No. But what all this conveys? Kindly elucidate.” he asked curiously.

“You see, at any given point of time one is in either of the following three states :

(𝙖) 𝙬𝙖𝙠𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙨𝙩𝙖𝙩𝙚.
(𝙗) 𝙛𝙞𝙩𝙛𝙪𝙡/𝙡𝙞𝙜𝙝𝙩 𝙨𝙡𝙚𝙚𝙥 𝙨𝙩𝙖𝙩𝙚.
(𝙘) 𝙙𝙚𝙚𝙥 𝙨𝙡𝙚𝙚𝙥 𝙨𝙩𝙖𝙩𝙚.

As the world of names and forms is created by one’s mind and body, therefore one perceives two distinct worlds :

(a) waking state world or the world before one’s eyes in which one perceives one’s spouse, one’s children, one’s family, one’s possessions.
(b) fitful/light sleep world or the world behind one’s eyes in which one sees entirely different images. In common parlance, it’s also known as the world of dreams.

The mind and body are active only during the waking and fitful/light sleep states.

In the deep sleep state one’s mind disappears, one’s body awareness is also gone. So one doesn’t perceive any world of images.” said I.

“So which of the two worlds is real – world before our eyes or the world behind our eyes?” asked my friend impatiently.

“Neither! Both these worlds are mutually exclusive. They cannot coexist together. In other words when one world appears the other disappears and vice versa. So can anything that appears and disappears continuously be considered as real?” I said smilingly, looking at my friend’s astounded face.

~ Sanjay Gargish ~