perception to be a merely apparent
one.--But how (to restate an objection raised above) can the
Vedanta-texts if untrue convey information about the true being of
Brahman? We certainly do not observe that a man bitten by a rope-snake
(i.e. a snake falsely imagined in a rope) dies, nor is the water
appearing in a mirage used for drinking or bathing[282].--This
objection, we reply, is without force (because as a matter of fact we do
see real effects to result from unreal causes), for we observe that
death sometimes takes place from imaginary venom, (when a man imagines
himself to have been bitten by a venomous snake,) and effects (of what
is perceived in a dream) such as the bite of a snake or bathing in a
river take place with regard to a dreaming person.--But, it will be
said, these effects themselves are unreal!--These effects themselves, we
reply, are unreal indeed; but not so the consciousness which the
dreaming person has of them. This consciousness is a real result; for it
is not sublated by the waking consciousness. The man who has risen from
sleep does indeed consider the effects perceived by him in his dream
such as being bitten by a snake, bathing in a river, &c. to be unreal,
but he does not on that account consider the consciousness he had of
them to be unreal likewise.--(We remark in passing that) by this fact of
the consciousness of the dreaming person not being sublated (by the
waking consciousness) the doctrine of the body being our true Self is to
be considered as refuted[283].--Scripture also (in the passage, 'If a
man who is engaged in some sacrifice undertaken for some special wish
sees in his dream a woman, he is to infer therefrom success in his
work') declares that by the unreal phantom of a dream a real result such
as prosperity may be obtained. And, again, another scriptural passage,
after having declared that from the observation of certain unfavourable
omens a man is to conclude that he will not live long, continues 'if
somebody sees in his dream a black man with black teeth and that man
kills him,' intimating thereby that by the unreal dream-phantom a real
fact, viz. death, is notified.--It is, moreover, known from the
experience of persons who carefully observe positive and negative
instances that such and such dreams are auspicious omens, others the
reverse. And (to quote another example that something true can result
from or be known through something untrue) we see that the knowledge of
the