Efforts Called For?

Sri Ramana Maharshi

(Continued from here)

I pressed Bhagavan, "But what is the answer to the question? Why should not the waking state also pass like our dreams without our any effort on our part and land us in jnana, as a dream passes off and leave us awake?

M.Who can say that the dream passed off of its own accord? If the dream came on, as is generally supposed, as the result of our past thoughts or karma, probably the same karma also decides how long it should last and how after that time it should cease.

I was still unsatisfied and, as the result of further talk with Bhagavan, I feel that the waking state, though a sort of dream, is clearly distinct from the dream during sleep in this, namely that during dream it never occurs to us that it is a dream, whereas in the waking state we are able to argue and understand from books and gurus and from some phenomena that it may be only dream after all. Because of this, it may be our duty to make an effort to wake into jnana. Bhagavan says that we don't deem a dream, dream till we wake up, that the dream looks quite real while it lasts; and that similarly this waking state will not appear a dream till we wake up into jnana. Still, it seems to me that, because of the above difference between the dream and the waking states, our effort is called for.