Upanishads · Varāha 4.12
॥
Devanāgarī
अद्वैते स्थैर्यमायाते द्वैते च प्रशमं गते । पश्यन्ति स्वप्नवल्लोकं तुर्यभूमि सुयोगतः
Transliteration (IAST)
advaite sthairyamāyāte dvaite ca praśamaṃ gate | paśyanti svapnavallokaṃ turyabhūmi suyogataḥ
Word-by-word
SanskritIASTMeaning
अ-द्वैते स्थैर्यम् आयातेa-dvaite sthairyam āyātewhen firmness has come in the non-dual
द्वैते च प्रशमं गतेdvaite ca praśamaṃ gateand duality has been stilled
पश्यन्ति स्वप्न-वत् लोकंpaśyanti svapna-vat lokaṃthey see the world as a dream
तुर्य-भूमि सु-योगतःturya-bhūmi su-yogataḥthe fourth stage, by proper union
Translation
"When firmness has come in the non-dual, and duality has been stilled, — they see the world as a dream; the fourth stage, by proper union."
Version
be206a0fa48b · published Aug 7, 2026, 9:08:31 AM UTC
Available inRUENPage between verses with
The fourth stage is correlated with dream sleep: the world is seen as a dream. Of the comparison with dreaming and its limits, discussed when reading the second chapter (2.58) and (2.61); let us briefly repeat the main point. A dream ends of itself; the cycle does not end of itself; and hence the comparison does not serve where one must explain why a way out is needed.
Second: a dream is not shared — two do not see the same dream; but the world is shared, and on this rests every conversation, including the conversation about whether the world exists. Let us add a third point, not said before and fitting here. It is said: the world is seen as a dream after one has become established in the non-dual.
That is, the dream-like quality of the world is named a consequence of a state, not a property of the world. Read this way, the Vaishnava side does not dispute the verse at all: it agrees that, for a person whose heart is occupied with one thing, everything else comes to resemble a dream — grows dim, loses weight, ceases to hold. It has this description too, stated through viraga, "cooling": what once occupied ceases to occupy, and is remembered as one remembers a dream.
The only difference is that it does not generalize this into the structure of the world; the dream here is what the world has become for him, not what the world always was.