स वा एष एतस्मिन्स्वप्नान्ते रत्वा चरित्वा, दृष्ट्वैव पुण्यं च पापं च, पुनः प्रतिन्यायं प्रतियोन्याद्रवति बुद्धान्तायैव ॥ ३४ ॥
sa vā eṣa etasminsvapnānte ratvā caritvā, dṛṣṭvaiva puṇyaṃ ca pāpaṃ ca, punaḥ pratinyāyaṃ pratiyonyādravati buddhāntāyaiva || 34 ||
34. After enjoying himself and roaming in the dream state, and merely seeing the effects of merits and demerits, he comes back, in the inverse order, to his former condition, the waking state.
It has been shown (par. 9) that the individual self becomes itself the light in dreams. Further on it has also been shown, by a reference to its moving between the dream and waking states, that it is different from the body and organs, and by the illustration of the great fish, that it is free from desire and work, on account of its non-attachment. Again the effects of ignorance in the dream state have been shown in the passage, ‘As if he were being killed,’ etc. By implication the nature of ignorance too has been ascertained as the superimposition of attributes other than the true ones, and as not being a natural attribute of the self. Similarly the effects of knowledge too have been shown in the dream state, by a reference to one’s experience, as identity with all, in the passage, ‘When he thinks, “This (universe) is myself, who am all,” that is his highest state’ (IV. iii. 20). It has also been stated that identity with all, which is its nature—its transcendent form, in which it is free from all such relative attributes as ignorance, desire and work—is directly experienced in the state of profound sleep. The Ātman is self-luminous and is the supreme bliss; this is the subject-matter of knowledge; this is the perfectly serene state, and the culmination of happiness—all this has been explained by the foregoing passages. And they are illustrations of liberation and bondage, which are the effects of knowledge and ignorance respectively. These two have been indicated with their causes and effects. But Janaka, mistaking that all that has merely been an illustration, thinks that liberation and bondage, which are the themes they seek to illustrate, are yet to be explained together with their causes by Yājñavalkya, as coming under his wished-for questions covered by the boon. Hence his further request: ‘Please instruct me further about liberation itself.’
Now it has been said that the same self-luminous Ātman moves unattached like a great fish between the dream and waking states. As it moves like the great fish between these two states, alternately relinquishing and taking up the body and organs, which are the forms of death, so at the time of death and birth it is alternately disconnected from and connected with those very forms of death. Its journey, referred to in the passage, ‘It moves between the two worlds,’ was barely indicated as the theme that was illustrated by its moving between the dream and fwaking states. That journey with its causes has to be described at length; hence the rest of this section. In a preceding paragraph (par. 17) the self has been spoken of as going from the waking to the dream state, and thence to the state of profound sleep, which is the illustration for liberation. The present paragraph is related to that, since it seeks to show how, coming down from that state, it goes through the relative activities of the waking state. The Jīva, passing from the waking to the dream state, and thence to the state of profound sleep, stays there for a while; then he comes slightly down, and after enjoying himself and roaming in the dream state, etc.—all this has been explained—he comes back to the waking state.