How does Vedanta say that the world is unreal? I can touch, feel, taste, smell and see everything. Does it not exist? Yes, it does. The dream tiger chasing you in your dream is as real as the you yourself in the dream. The reality of the dream is “dependent” on the dreamer’s mind alone. It is projected and sustained by the mind and then disappears in the mind. It has a borrowed existence. In a semi-dark room, when you see a rope and your mind projects a snake, how real is the snake? Very real for him who sees it. When a torchlight is thrown on it, the snake’s existence that was dependent on semi-darkness, vanishes.
The snake never was. Similarly, cold, black iron in the fire looks fiery red and hot to touch, this is borrowed glory from the fire. Removed from fire it again becomes cold black and hard.
Don’t we all know that a bundle of bones, flesh, blood, and filth, beautifully gift wrapped in a bag of skin cannot breathe, move, nor talk intelligently? All action is dependent action.
The eye being taken for a transplant cannot see anything on its journey to the recipient. Once implanted in a living man, it can see.
Isn’t it dependent on something? The Kena Upanishad calls that something “The eye of the eye, the ear of the ear.”
All our actions, outer and inner, live a borrowed existence. We are powerless to start or stop any biological functions, whether they are heartbeats, digestion, pulsebeat, hunger, or thirst. Can you imagine our condition if we had to remember to breathe on our own?
All the above, in fact the whole universe is dependent on that supreme power that enlivens all. Dependent reality is called (Mithya) in Vedanta.
Prarthna Saran, President Chinmaya Mission Delhi.