What is this Universe? The 3 Levels of Reality

Speaker A [00:00:00]:

What is the universe? Is this universe real, or is it an illusion? Today, let us understand this universe. Let us understand the world in which we are living in, and let us understand what is the reality of this universe. Before we go ahead, let us talk about our dreams. We all dream different dreams. Now imagine that you are in your dream, and you are walking in the forest. You are feeling the breeze on your skin. You're looking at the beautiful trees and plants and animals. You are looking at the sunrise, and you are enjoying the environment of the dream.

Speaker A [00:00:46]:

Everything is calm. Everything is serene, and you are totally immersed in the dream. Now suddenly, you hear a roar of a tiger, and you are afraid. And from afar, a tiger appears, and it is running towards you. And you are absolutely frightened, and you start running for your life. And you run and run and run, and you eventually wake up to your current reality, which is the waking state and consciousness. Now what really happened in the dream? When you were within that dream, whatever you were experiencing was actually real to you. Those trees were real trees.

Speaker A [00:01:31]:

Different people in the dream were real to you. The animals, the environment, and the tiger. They're all real to you. That is why you were scared. That is why you ran for your life. It was only after you woke up, you realized that it was all a projection within your mind. But when you were within the dream, you were totally immersed with the senses and you were immersed in the dream and you thought that it was an actual reality. Now what I start telling now might sound strange for some of you, but this is what the universe is also about.

Speaker A [00:02:12]:

This universe that we look at with trillions of galaxies within which there is our solar system, within which there is our planet and then there is our society, politics, religion, etcetera. All of this is just a projection. Today, we are talking about the 3 levels of reality as explained in Vedanta. The ancient Upanishads tell us that there are 3 levels to this reality. One is paramarthika satya, which is the ultimate reality. This is pure awareness or consciousness or God. Then there is which is the transactional reality. This is where our entire world exists.

Speaker A [00:02:56]:

Our world in its entirety and all of our experiences happen within this 2nd level of reality, which is the transactional reality. Then there is which is an illusory reality. The dream example that we looked at earlier comes under this level of reality. Now to understand this clearly, what we need to know is that just like how when we were within the dream, we thought the dream environment was real. And only after waking up to a higher level of reality, which is the waking reality, we realize that whatever we experienced in the dream did not actually happen. We also need to look at the waking reality in that way. The waking reality in which we are in right now is also an illusion, says Vedanta. This is a projection shun of maya and this is a projection in consciousness.

Speaker A [00:03:54]:

There is a universal consciousness, which is called as Brahman who is dreaming this dream of this universe. And once we wake up to that reality, to that ultimate reality, to the first level of reality, then we are said to be awakened. Until we wake up to that reality, we are stuck in the maze of samsara, which is birth and rebirth because of our identification with our bodies and our minds, end because of our identification with this level of reality. So this universe, no matter how real it seems with all of its complexity from a tiny atom to this magnificent galaxies. All of it is a mere projection. None of it truly exist. It is an illusion and it is an appearance to consciousness. So all of it is just consciousness itself.

Speaker A [00:04:55]:

That pure consciousness that Brahman is experiencing itself through this universe and through this world. So this entire world is an appearance in consciousness and it is a dream of consciousness and it is being experienced by consciousness. And this is the ultimate reality of this universe. I hope this was valuable to you. If you want to learn more about these teachings and if you want to learn these teachings in more depth. You can check out my book decoding God on Amazon. Thank you, and I'll see you on the next one.