Deep Sleep is Non-different from Liberation
The teaching of Swami Iswarananda follows the ‘Rationalist Tradition’ which sticks “to reason of the conscious state to the very end for the highest realization.” Glimpses from his teaching were presented by me in my last Post (here). However, Scholars more inclined or accustomed to the formulation of “the three states (awake, dream and deep sleep) plus Turiya” Model raise principally two questions:
1. Is this ‘Rationalist teaching’ in conformity with Sankara’s interpretation of the Upanishads and how does one explain the apparently contradictory stand of the Mandukya Upanishad and the Karika of Gaudapada there on?
2. If the individual jIva is completely merged in Brahman in deep sleep and it is Brahman alone present in deep sleep with no ‘other’, how does one awake again to be the same that he was before going to sleep?
Giving primacy to the second question, and the seeming inability to explain in any other way why a person awakes to be what he was, some of the Pundits, in the past as well as in the present time, take the position that the merger in deep sleep happens with a saguNa Brahman and not Pure Brahman. Otherwise, they find it hard to reconcile with the Bhagavad-Gita statement,
‘yadgatvA na nivartante tad dhAma paramam mama’ – BG, XV – 6.
The first part of the sloka is okay as it says that neither the Sun nor the moon nor fire illumines there. The second part assures that one does not return from that transcendental abode of His, when once reached.
In fact, Sankara himself anticipates this objection in his commentary on the above verse through the words of the Opponent: “How is it said that there is no return for those who come to that Abode when it is well known that all goings end, verily, in returning, and all unions are followed by separation?”
This question is, however, IMHO, linked to the more fundamental question of how creation itself takes place. But to invoke two levels (Pure and mAyAsabalita/ prakRti-associated) of Brahman, taking recourse to BG VIII – 18, looks to me to be more of a post hoc ergo propter hoc situation. The cit to cetya conversion is an explanatory gap and deserves a detailed Post all by itself. I hope to do it one of these days. So I shall, for the present, restrict myself to post here extracts from Part II of Swami Iswarananda’s book giving the citations from Upanishads as referred to by the Swami Ji to answer the Question (1) above.
********
Extracts from Part II:
Brihadaranyaka Upanishad:
This Upanishad and Sankara’s commentary on it give a very elaborate analysis of deep sleep. In the mantra II.i.19, the jIva is said to attain the acme of bliss.
atha yadA sushupto bhavati, yadA na kasyacana veda …. Sa yathA kumAro vA mahArAjo vA mahAbrahmaNo vA ‘ tighnIm Anandasya gatvA sayItai ‘ vam evai ‘ sa etacchete.
Meaning: When he goes into deep sleep, he knows nothing …… verily as a youth or a great king or a great Brahmin might rest when he has reached the summit of bliss.
The commentary says later on:
yadA yasmin kAle sushuptah samprasAdam svAbhAvyam gato bhavati, salilam iva anyasambandha kAlushyam hitvA svAbhAvyena prasIdati. na hi sushupti kAle sarIrasambandho ’ sti.
Meaning: When in deep sleep the jIva attains to its natural serenity, it gives up, like water, the impurity due to contact with other things. The Self is again said to have no connection with the body.
The Upanishad repeats in II.i.20:
It is from this Atman of deep sleep that all energies, worlds, gods, and beings arise and that it has the secret name of “The Real of the real”, satyasya satyam.
Mantra 19 says:
yatra supto na kancana kAmam kAmyate na kncana svapnam pasysti.
that the Self in the state of sushupti is free from desires and free from all kinds of particularized forms of perception, i.e., svapnam (which includes, according to Sankara, the waking state also).
It is further said in the commentary:
sarva samsAra dharma vilakshaNam sarva kriyAkAraka phalAyAsasUnyam svam AtmAnam pravisati.
Meaning: The Atman in this state is said to be distinct from all relative attributes and devoid of all exertion caused by action with its factors and results.
An important question is whether avidyA is natural to Self, or is it only adventitious, like desires, activities etc.? Liberation is possible only if avidyA is adventitious. How does one establish this? The next section is begun to ascertain the real nature of avidyA which is the cause for all misery.
avidyA is said to be Agantuka – that which comes and goes. When it is said to be anAdi, beginningless, it means that we cannot trace it beginning; for beginning implies time, and time is experienced only in the waking when there is avidyA. Time-sense is within avidyA, and in this sense alone can avidyA be said to be beginningless.
Mantra IV.iii.21 teaches:
tad vA asyai ‘ tad aticchandA apahatapApmA ‘ bhyam rUpam ……. ayam purushah prAjnenA ‘ tmanA samparishvakto na bAhyam kincana veda nA’ ntaram tad vA asyai ‘ tad AptakAmam AtmakAmam akAmam rUpam sokAntaram.
Meaning: The Self in this state goes beyond all desires, beyond all imperfections, beyond dharma and adharma and all fear, that it knows neither inside nor outside, that in this state of sushupti it has attained to all its desire, that the Self alone has become its own object of desire and is beyond all miseries.
From the commentary that follows, we can note that sushupti is the attainment of totality of existence by the Self, sarvAtmabhAva and that it is the state of liberation. It can also be understood that the ignorance of deep sleep is not due to avidyA, but due to unity.
[The difference between ajnAna and avidyA:
ajnAna – not knowing anything, Self or non-Self. It is same as agrahaNa.
avidyA – knowing something as other than Self. This consists of adhyAsa or superimposition.]
The question why the Self alone is the object of desire in deep sleep is answered thus:
anyatvapratyupasthApaka hetor avidyAyA abhAvAd AtmakAmam. ata evA ‘ kAmam etad rUpam kAmyavishayAbhAvat.
Meaning: It is said to be desiring its own Self, because there is no avidyA producing a second thing to desire. Therefore, this form of the Self is free from desire, because of the absence of any object.
The commentary on the mantra IV.iii.22 emphasizes that Atman which is self-effulgent, is free from avidyA, kAma and karma and its non-perception in deep sleep even while retaining its self-effulgence is not adventitious but is due to attainment of unity, and this again is said to be directly experienced by us.
Sankara says clearly in Vivekachudamani, verse 405:
mAyAmAtram idam dvaitam advaitam paramArthatah
iti brute srutih sAkshAt sushuptAv anubhUyate.
Meaning: This duality is mAyA. The Reality is Non-dual. The sruti declares that this is directly experienced in deep sleep.
The same clarity shines through the verses 107 and 403:
yat sushuptau nirvishaya AtmAnando ‘ anubhUyate
srutipratyaksham aitihyam anumAnam ca jAgrati – (107).
Meaning: In profound sleep we experience the bliss of Atman independent of sense-objects. This is clearly attested by sruti, direct intuition, tradition and inference.
ekAtmake pare tattve bhedavArtA katham vaset ?
susshuptau sukhamAtrAyAm bhedah kenA ‘ valokitah ? – (403)
Meaning: How can the talk of diversity apply to the supreme Reality which is one and homogeneous?
Who has ever noticed any diversity in the unmixed bliss of the state of profound sleep?
At p: 95, the Swami Ji asks: Is this experience of deep sleep an experience of moksha?
He answers: If deep sleep is an experience of Brahman, as is repeatedly insisted on by sruti, and by Sankara, then it follows that in deep sleep we experience moksha.
In deep sleep no kind of bondage is felt by anyone.
You lose your identity as father, mother, BrAhmin, candAla, meritorious or sinful etc. Where there is no individuality, personality or ego, there can be no room for bondage.
We actually experience moksha in deep sleep. If there were no sushupti, there would be no way of ascertaining that moksha is possible. In other words, sushupti is the proof of moksha.
To get a reflection or expression of this experience in the waking also which is known as Jivanmukti.
The study of the experience of deep sleep in helping us towards the realization of moksha is well brought out by Sankara in his commentary on IV.iii.34:
tatra ca sarvAtmabhAvah svabhAvo ‘ sya, evam avidyAkAmakarmAdi sarvasamsAra dharmasambandhAtItam rUpam asya sAkshAt sushupte gRhyate ityetad vijnapitam. Svayamjyotir Atmai ‘ sa parama Anandah.
Meaning: It has also been stated that identity with all which is its nature – its transcendent form – in which it is free from all such relative attributes such as ignorance, desire and work – is directly experienced in the state of profound sleep. The Atman is self-luminous and is the Supreme Bliss.
(To Continue)
