The universe is equal to dream and waking: it is neither the universe nor anything else.

The equation of jāgrat (waking) and svapna (dream) is not original to Vāsiṣṭha; we already find it in the Bṛhadāraṇyaka and in Gaudapāda. What Vāsiṣṭha adds is the double negation: it is not the universe, nor is it something else. It is not sat, nor asat, nor sat-asat. It is anirvachanīya, indescribable, and this indescribability is not a flaw of language but the very constitution of the object. The viśva—the manifold, the multiple—is nāma-rūpa, name and form, and every name implies duality (namer-named), every form implies delimitation (inside-outside). Brahman has no name because there is no other to name it; it has no form because there is no outside in which to be delimited. The practitioner who meditates on this experiences a strange lightness: the world remains functional—bills are still paid, children are still cared for—but its ontological weight has vanished. It is not that the world is irrelevant; rather, its relevance no longer depends on its absolute reality.