The Sanatana Project

“Nothing exists. All is a dream. God—man—the world—the sun, the moon, the wilderness of stars—a dream, all a dream; they have no existence. Nothing exists save empty space—and you. And you are not you—you have no body, no blood, no bones, you are but a thought.”
— Mark Twain, The Mysterious Stranger

Twain’s Paradox — Or Vedānta in Disguise?

Mark Twain’s unsettling words seem to pull the very floor from beneath our feet.
If you are “not you,” if all is but a dream, what remains? Is this the voice of a skeptic drifting into despair—or the whisper of a timeless truth the sages of India have proclaimed for millennia?

For the rishis of Sanātana Dharma, the highest wisdom often wears the cloak of paradox. Twain’s line, “You are not you,” could be the opening mantra to an Upaniṣadic meditation.

Breaking Down Twain & the Upaniṣadic Echo

“You are not you… you have no body, no blood, no bones, you are but a thought.”
– Mark Twain

Vedānta nods, and adds:

• You are not the body — na’ham deho na me deho (Vivekacūḍāmaṇi 140)
• You are not the mind — mano buddhyahaṅkāra cittāni nāham (Dakṣiṇāmūrti Stotram 1)
• You are unborn and eternal — ajo nityaḥ śāśvato’ yam purāṇaḥ (Bhagavad Gītā 2.20)
• The world is an illusion — jagat mithyā
• Only consciousness is real — brahma satyam

What Twain calls a “thought,” Vedānta calls the sākṣī — the witness, pure awareness — the ātman, untouched by the rise and fall of all appearances.

The Self Beyond Name and Form

The Upaniṣads strip away the layers:

• Not body. Not mind.
• Not even the “person” you think you are.
• You are the ātman — formless, eternal.

Māṇḍūkya Upaniṣad 2: ayam ātma brahma — “This Self is Brahman.”

Bṛhadāraṇyaka Upaniṣad 1.4.10: ātmaivedam sarvam — “All this is the Self.”

In other words, that which sees, hears, and knows — yet itself cannot be seen, heard, or known — is you in the truest sense.

Twain & Vedānta — Side by Side

Theme	Mark Twain	Vedāntic Scripture
Nature of Self	“You are not you… you have no body”	na’ham deho na me deho (Vivekacūḍāmaṇi 140)
Reality	“You are but a thought”	ayam ātma brahma (Māṇḍūkya 2)
World	“All is a dream”	jagat mithyā (Vivekacūḍāmaṇi 20)
Ultimate Truth	—	brahma satyam (Vivekacūḍāmaṇi 20)
Witnessing Presence	—	draṣṭā draṣṭṛtvam āpannaḥ (Kaṭha Upaniṣad 2.2.13)

The Dream Analogy — Shared Vision

The Upaniṣads often liken waking life to a dream:

“As in dream, the mind creates many worlds, so too in waking, the Self projects the universe through māyā.”
— Bṛhadāraṇyaka Upaniṣad 4.3.9

“As a man casts off worn-out garments and takes new ones, so the embodied Self discards old bodies and enters new ones.”
– Bhagavad Gītā 2.22

The message? The body and world are fleeting garments — but the Self is the unchanging wearer.

The Spell of Māyā

Here Twain and Vedānta meet completely:

• “You are but a thought” → You are not matter or form.
• “All is a dream” → The universe is not as it appears.

“When all has become the Self, by what and whom would one see?”
– Bṛhadāraṇyaka Upaniṣad 4.5.15

All separation is illusion. Only advaita — non-dual consciousness — remains.

From Idea to Realization

Vedānta isn’t just philosophy — it’s a path of practice:

• Viveka — discern what is real from what is not
• Vairāgya — release attachments
• Dhyāna — abide as pure awareness

“The yogin, established in oneness, sees the Self in all beings, and all beings in Self.”

–Bhagvad Gita 6.29

That Thou Art

Twain’s challenge is not destruction — it’s an invitation.
Let go of what you think you are, and you awaken to what you have always been.

tat tvam asi — “That Thou Art.”
-Chandogya Upanishad 6.8.7

Closing Reflection

The “you” that Twain dissolves is the mask. The Self Vedānta reveals is the sky behind all masks — vast, boundless, untouched.

Perhaps the real question isn’t whether life is a dream.
The question is: Will you wake up?