Tripura Rahasya

Sage Dattatreya

I shall now tell you briefly the difference between reality and unreality.

The existence of Reality if self-evident and does not require other aids to reveal it. Unreality is the contrary. If you say, however, that a thing is real until and unless its existence is contradicted, consider the example of a coil of rope being mistaken for a snake. The fancied snake would, according to you, be real in the interval antecedent to correct knowledge, but that is absurd. Furthermore, if contradiction means non-existence, the mental image of the thing contradicted must be admitted, and that means the thing verbally denied is mentally admitted. Therefore contradiction leads one nowhere and does not determine the unreality of a thing; nor does the appearance of a thing determine its reality. Appearance and contradiction are both intermediate. 

(According to me), there is nothing beyond the range of consciousness; even the consciousness that there is nothing cannot exist; therefore he who denies consciousness, must be nothing but a dry logician. He may as well deny himself and say, 'I am not'. Then who speaks and what does he say? If he who denies himself out of incompetence and stupidity, can teach others and remove their ignorance by the force of his logic, then this rock before me could equally do the same. Therefore the appearance of a thing and its utility do not determine the reality of a thing or otherwise. All knowledge is secondary and unreliable. There is no doubt about it.