Question and answer 12

Disciple: If that is so, the waking state does not end except through knowledge of Brahman; why then does a dream end even without knowledge of Brahman?

Guru: It is true that a dream does not end finally, in waking, without knowledge of Brahman. But when its cause, the defect of sleep, ends, through the arising of waking, which is opposed to it, the dream can end without knowledge by dissolving into its cause, avidyā.

Disciple: If so, as with waking, not without knowledge of Brahman, why does the dream end even without knowledge of Brahman?

Guru: Though the final ending of the dream cannot be in waking without knowledge of Brahman, by the ending of the defect of sleep, its cause, through the arising of the opposed waking, an ending in the form of dissolution in avidyā, its cause, can be without knowledge.