मायामात्रं तु, कार्त्स्न्येनानभिव्यक्तस्वरूपत्वात् ॥ ३ ॥
māyāmātraṃ tu, kārtsnyenānabhivyaktasvarūpatvāt || 3 ||
māyāmātraṃ—Mere illusion; tu—but; kārtsnyena—in toto; anabhivyaktasvarūpatvāt—on account of its nature not being manifest.
3. But (the dream world is) mere illusion, on account of its nature not being manifest with the totality (of attributes of the waking state).
‘But’ discards the view expressed by the two previous Sutras. The nature of the dream world does not agree in toto with that of the waking world with respect to time, place, cause, and non-contradiction, and as such that world is not real like the waking world. There can be no appropriate time, place or cause in the dream state. Inside the body, there is not enough space for objects like chariots, horses, etc., and in a dream the soul does not leave the body; for if it did, then one who dreams of having gone to America would find himself there on waking while he went to sleep in India. Nor is the midnight proper time lor an eclipse of the sun seen in a dream, nor can we conceive a child’s getting children in a dream to be real. Moreover, even in dreams we see objects seen being transformed, as for example, when we see a tree turn into a mountain. “He himself creates the chariots etc.” (Brih. 4. 3. 10), only means that objects which have no reality appear to exist in dreams just as silver does in a mother-of-pearl. The argument that the dream world is real because it is also a creation of the Supreme Lord, like this waking world, is not true, for the dream world is not the creation of the Lord but of the individual soul. “When he dreams . . . himself puts the body aside and himself creates (a dream body in its place)” (Brih. 4. 3. 9). This text clearly proves that it is the Jiva that creates in dreams and not the Lord.