When Anand is awake, he is a Physicist. Let us call him Anand-P. One day he wakes up in the morning and remembers that he was singer in the dream and that he was giving a live performance but he does not remember when the book that he was reading at bed time fell from his hands and even from the bed. Let us call Anand the singer as Anand-S. On waking it is obviously Anand-P who is associated with, “I” and not Anand-S. When Anand-S was singing, he existed as, “I” who felt real and could see the audience and hear sounds and Anand-P did not exist as, “I”. In fact Anand-P at those moments did not even know that he existed at all. Then how does Anand-P as, “I” on waking know about Anand-S who was a different, “I”? If I do not exist as I then how can I remember witnessing something? This is different from memory of waking state where Anand-P alone exists as, “I” everything else being, “other” and experiences things and remembers some of them. Clearly, something is telling Anand-P about Anand-S. It means that there is a link connecting the two Anands. This connecting link is Self or consciousness which is the real I. This real, “I” is same for both Anands. “I” that is used generally is false “I” attached with ego. One way to realise your true nature is as follows:

Notice your immediate reaction when you suddenly wake up from your dream. Do you feel that it was the same you that was present in the dream at the very instant of waking up before body senses start taking over? If it is the same non-changing I associated with you during this transient state of observation, then the real you must be consciousness. To put it mathematically,

Let t be the instant at which you suddenly wake up while watching dream, if you find that:

Then it implies that,

The above understanding* can open the door to Self-realisation.

*This is called Jnana Yoga, i.e. Self-realisation from knowledge.