One sees a mirage in a desert, yet there is no water really there. The point is that mere sense impression cannot give one the reality of a thing, and he cannot be sure that it is really so.
In pursuit of truth the word real can only be applied to that which is changeless or which never changes.
No objects remain the same for even a second in waking/dream. Hence one can't say any particular form is real within the waking/dream. Everything constantly changes. Nothing is permanent, because the three states are impermanent. When one looks back past three years, fifteen years, thirty years, and one admits he has changed body and physical appearance. The change was gradual. Gradual means it was going on all the time whether one is aware of it or not.
No one then suspect your dreams were mere fancy. No one now suspect this was is a mere idea. The point is that it is unfair to judge dream by waking as illusory and when at the time it seemed so real, unless one is prepared to judge, waking by dream and draw the same conclusion i.e. it is idea. Dream also has appeared on its own accord like waking and both are mental, they ceases to exist without the mind. The whole waking dream is only mirage. The thoughts and imaginations are present in the both. As the dream appears as a whole waking also appears as whole.
A Gnani is not realist. He is an unrealist. Because he is fully aware of the fact except the Ataman the true self everything else is unreal. . He simply says that one has to analyze the three states into an idea. There is no difference between waking anddream. Waking/Dream appears as real, but it is only an idea/mirage. The intellectuals have seen this difference. They confuse both. Because they view, judge and conclude on the base of waking entity, which is limited to waking entity alone. One has to learn to judge it on the knower/witness of the three states in order to overcome all the confusions.
Santthosh
