In a dream there is only one dreamer, and if the one dreamer wakes up the entire dream will come to an end

A friend recently wrote to me:

I understand that there is one ego, which creates the illusion of many people and a world. If one person in this illusion, i.e. you or I, becomes realized, how is that going to destroy the ego as a whole? When Ramana became realized, this didn’t stop the world appearing for me. I know Ramana when asked about others said there are no others and if all is a dream of course he is correct, but others myself including continue to dream we exist despite Ramana becoming enlightened. Is realization a gradual breaking down of the ego individual by individual?

My second question: What is Shakti? I have looked it up and it seems to say it is energy which creates and that it is part of who we naturally are. This seems contradictory to how I now see realization as being. I now see realization as a kind of nothingness, not dissimilar to deep sleep. Can you remind me is this correct? Is shakti the same as ego and the cause of illusion?

The following is adapted from the reply I wrote to her:

In a dream there is only one dreamer, the ‘I’ who projects and perceives everything, and this is ego. Though ego is aware of itself as if it were a particular person in its dream, it is not that person, because like all the other people it perceives, that person is just a part of what it has projected. Ego is the subject, the one who perceives the entire dream, whereas the person it seems to be is an object, one among all the phenomena it perceives.

According to Bhagavan our present state is just another dream, so there is only one ego who projects and perceives all this. Though this ego now seems to be a person, that person is just one of the objects it perceives.

The person we mistake ourself to be is therefore insentient and hence does not perceive anything, but it seems to be sentient and to be perceiving because in our view it seems to be ourself. Because we as ego (the subject or perceiver of all phenomena) mistake ourself to be a person, we mistake all other people to be egos, and hence they seem to be perceiving the world just as we are.

Since people are not aware, none of them can ever realise what they actually are, so there is no such thing as a self-realised person, except in the deluded view of ego. Bhagavan seems to us to be a self-realised person, but if he is self-realised he is not a person, and if he is a person he is not self-realised. We mistake him to be a person because we mistake ourself to be a person, but as a person he is just one among the many phenomena we see in this dream of ours. Though he seems to be a person, he is actually just pure self-awareness, which is our real nature (ātma-svarūpa).

As a person he appears in our dream in order to teach us to investigate and surrender ourself, because only when we do so will we be aware of ourself as we actually are. When we are aware of ourself as we actually are, we will no longer be this ego or any of the people who we as ego seemed to be, and as we actually are we are always aware of ourself as we actually are, so nothing new will have been achieved. What never existed will have ceased to exist, and what always exists will exist as it always was.

You say that Bhagavan became realised, but it is only in our dream that he seems to have become realised. He is what is real, and what is real is always real, so it never becomes anything. The story of his life as a person is intended to illustrate to us how we should investigate ourself and thereby surrender and eradicate the one and only ego, namely ourself.

This is our dream, so we ourself need to wake up from it. No one else can wake up for us, because everyone else is just a person appearing in our dream. We need to wake up in such a way that we can never dream ever again, so since the dreamer of all dreams is only ourself as ego, we need to wake up by investigating and thereby eradicating this ego.

Since this ego, the one who now perceives this dream, is the only ego there is, if it investigates itself keenly enough to know what it actually is, that will be the end of all dreams, because there will be no ego left to dream anything.

Regarding your second question, śakti is a Sanskrit word that means power, so what it refers to depends on the context in which it is used. The power of self-ignorance, which brings this or any other world into existence, is called māyā, which is ego or mind, and which is the power Bhagavan refers to in the fourth paragraph of Nāṉ Ār?:

மன மென்பது ஆத்ம சொரூபத்தி லுள்ள ஓர் அதிசய சக்தி. அது சகல நினைவுகளையும் தோற்றுவிக்கின்றது. நினைவுகளை யெல்லாம் நீக்கிப் பார்க்கின்றபோது, தனியாய் மனமென் றோர் பொருளில்லை; ஆகையால் நினைவே மனதின் சொரூபம். நினைவுகளைத் தவிர்த்து ஜகமென்றோர் பொருள் அன்னியமா யில்லை. தூக்கத்தில் நினைவுகளில்லை, ஜகமுமில்லை; ஜாக்ர சொப்பனங்களில் நினைவுகளுள, ஜகமும் உண்டு. சிலந்திப்பூச்சி எப்படித் தன்னிடமிருந்து வெளியில் நூலை நூற்று மறுபடியும் தன்னுள் இழுத்துக் கொள்ளுகிறதோ, அப்படியே மனமும் தன்னிடத்திலிருந்து ஜகத்தைத் தோற்றுவித்து மறுபடியும் தன்னிடமே ஒடுக்கிக்கொள்ளுகிறது. மனம் ஆத்ம சொரூபத்தினின்று வெளிப்படும்போது ஜகம் தோன்றும். ஆகையால், ஜகம் தோன்றும்போது சொரூபம் தோன்றாது; சொரூபம் தோன்றும் (பிரகாசிக்கும்) போது ஜகம் தோன்றாது.

maṉam eṉbadu ātma-sorūpattil uḷḷa ōr atiśaya śakti. adu sakala niṉaivugaḷaiyum tōṯṟuvikkiṉḏṟadu. niṉaivugaḷai y-ellām nīkki-p pārkkiṉḏṟa-pōdu, taṉi-y-āy maṉam eṉḏṟu ōr poruḷ illai; āhaiyāl niṉaivē maṉadiṉ sorūpam. niṉaivugaḷai-t tavirttu jagam eṉḏṟu ōr poruḷ aṉṉiyam-āy illai. tūkkattil niṉaivugaḷ illai, jagamum illai; jāgra-soppaṉaṅgaḷil niṉaivugaḷ uḷa, jagamum uṇḍu. silandi-p-pūcci eppaḍi-t taṉ-ṉ-iḍam-irundu veḷiyil nūlai nūṯṟu maṟupaḍiyum taṉṉuḷ iṙuttu-k-koḷḷugiṟadō, appaḍiyē maṉamum taṉ-ṉ-iḍattil-irundu jagattai-t tōṯṟuvittu maṟupaḍiyum taṉṉiḍamē oḍukki-k-koḷḷugiṟadu. maṉam ātma-sorūpattiṉiṉḏṟu veḷippaḍum-pōdu jagam tōṉḏṟum. āhaiyāl, jagam tōṉḏṟum-pōdu sorūpam tōṉḏṟādu; sorūpam tōṉḏṟum (pirakāśikkum) pōdu jagam tōṉḏṟādu .

What is called mind is an atiśaya śakti [an extraordinary power] that exists in ātma-svarūpa [the ‘own form’ or real nature of oneself]. It makes all thoughts appear [or projects all thoughts]. When one looks, excluding [removing or putting aside] all thoughts, solitarily there is not any such thing as mind; therefore thought alone is the svarūpa [the ‘own form’ or very nature] of the mind. Excluding thoughts [or ideas], there is not separately any such thing as world. In sleep there are no thoughts, and [consequently] there is also no world; in waking and dream there are thoughts, and [consequently] there is also a world. Just as a spider spins out thread from within itself and again draws it back into itself, so the mind makes the world appear [or projects the world] from within itself and again dissolves it back into itself. When the mind comes out from ātma-svarūpa, the world appears. Therefore when the world appears, svarūpa [one’s own form or real nature] does not appear; when svarūpa appears (shines), the world does not appear.

The power of self-knowledge, which is what eradicates ego, is called grace, which is the infinite love that we as we actually are have for ourself as we actually are. This is the supreme and only real power, in front of which the unreal power called māyā cannot stand. This power of grace is what is personified as the goddess Śakti, who is the consort of Śiva, but who is actually none other than him. In other words, God and his power of grace are one, indistinguishable and indivisible.

In verse 19 of Upadēśa Taṉippākkaḷ Bhagavan says:

சாந்தியதே யுண்ணோக்கிற் சத்தி புறநோக்கால்
ஆய்ந்தறிவார்க் கொன்றா மவை.

śāntiyadē yuṇṇōkkiṟ śatti puṟanōkkāl
āyndaṟivārk koṉḏṟā mavai.

பதச்சேதம்: சாந்தி அதே உள் நோக்கில் சத்தி புற நோக்கால். ஆய்ந்து அறிவார்க்கு ஒன்று ஆம் அவை.

Padacchēdam (word-separation): śānti adē uḷ nōkkil śatti puṟa nōkkāl. āyndu aṟivārkku oṉḏṟu ām avai.

அன்வயம்: உள் நோக்கில் சாந்தி அதே புற நோக்கால் சத்தி. ஆய்ந்து அறிவார்க்கு அவை ஒன்று ஆம்.

Anvayam (words rearranged in natural prose order): uḷ nōkkil śānti adē puṟa nōkkāl catti. āyndu aṟivārkku avai oṉḏṟu ām.

English translation: [What is experienced as] śānti [peace] in inward look itself is [what is experienced as] śakti [power] by outward look. For those who investigate and know, they are one.

That is, both infinite power and infinite peace are our real nature, so the true form of power is only peace, which is a state not of doing anything but of just being. As Sadhu Om used to say, the motionless power of a dam holds water in the reservoir in a calm and peaceful condition, but if the dam is not sufficiently strong, it will crack, thereby disturbing the peaceful state of the water and allowing its power to flow out through the crack and create havoc. Likewise, the supreme power is the state of self-abidance, which is the peaceful state of just being, and the rising of ego is like a crack in the dam, which disturbs the peace of just being and releases its power to create phenomena, which cause endless havoc.

Therefore the power of creation, which is ego or māyā, is not the supreme power but arises only due to weakness. The supreme power is the power of absolute peace, which never allows any room for ego to rise and create phenomena. Ego and its creation do not actually exist, but they seem to exist in the view of ego so long as it does not investigate itself keenly enough to see what it actually is.

Therefore having risen as ego, the only wise course for us now is to surrender ourself entirely by investigating who or what we actually are.