Deep Sleep and the Self | Why Consciousness Never Dies

What Remains in Deep Sleep? | The Enigma of Deep Sleep: The Mystery of Pure Consciousness

From Seeing God As He Really Is: The ‘Doctrine of the Three Bodies,’ ‘Sarira Traya,’ postulates that a human being is composed of the three bodies, which constitute the five koshas that manifest through nescience. These three bodies are, 1. Sthula Sarira (the mortal body that eats, breathes and moves, the waking state, gross), 2. Sukshma Sarira (the subtle body that constitutes the mind and vital energies; the dream state; subtle), and 3. Karana Sarira (the transmi-grating seed of the former two sariras; karma; the deep sleep state; causal). However, the three exist as long as the I-thought exists.” Sri Bhagavan revealed, “And all alike, if and when they get sound, dreamless sleep, are supremely happy. To make sure of the undisturbed enjoyment of sleep we provide ourselves with every available artificial aid; soft beds and pillows, mosquito-curtains, warm blankets or cool breezes and so on. The loss of sleep is accounted a grievous evil; for its sake men are willing to poison the very source of life, the brain, with deadly drugs. All this shows how much we love sleep; and we love it, because in it we are happy.” “Let the sensible man consider if he knew his body in deep sleep. Why does he feel it in the waking state? But, although the body was not felt in sleep, did not the Self exist then? How was he in deep sleep? How is he when awake? What is the difference?” Do we believe in the fact that we are happy or blissful in the absence of our ego, in the absence of the world? Do we harbour any doubt or do we deny the fact that we are actually happy or blissful in deep sleep in the absence of the ego and the world? What happens in deep sleep? There is no time, no name and no form, nor a knower of name, form or time. There is no separateness. The whole caboodle ceases to exist in deep sleep. I know and I don’t know cease to exist in deep sleep. Yet, we still wake up knowing who we are. This is puzzling. So, although this knower is not continuous, yet there is something continuous within us that supports the rise and setting of the knower. We cherish, prepare and look forward to being formless daily, do we not? In fact, the truth is, we look forward to being egoless. In the state of deep sleep, wherein we are not conscious of our form, can we see the form of the world and God and how?  In deep sleep, we when the five servers-projectors of our mind are arrested in deep sleep, simultaneously, the sense-knowledge-form of our body and the world disappears with the disappearance of the senses, and the mind draws a void. We are formless, so to speak, because we are egoless. This is true worship! So, even an atheist is not an atheist, because he is an unwitting devout worshipper in deep sleep? We perceive the world via our eyes but known in our mind in our waking state, but exclusively, only through our mind in the dream state who is the seer of the dream. The reflected image of the world remains unmanifest in deep sleep. We add value to I-ness (body and mind), which has no intrinsic value at all in reality, like we add value to a time-piece which has no real intrinsic value in reality apart from displaying movement of time. Conceit and self-importance do neither arise in deep sleep nor in a corpse. When thoughts appear, it is called the mind, in the absence of the thoughts, the world disappears in deep sleep when the mind becomes unconscious. The world appears again with the rise of the conscious mind. in the absence of the sense of our form, in deep sleep, when we are not aware of ourself as form, who can see forms and how? When the sense and knowledge of our form held in our mind is arrested in deep sleep, we have no sense of the form of the world or God. In the absence of the ego in deep sleep, all forms disappear. We have no idea about the world, God and soul in deep sleep! So, these three appear and disappear with the appearance and disappearance of the seer-thinker. In the absence of the mind in deep sleep, the three do not arise. If they were real independent entities, they would exist continuously, because that Resource exists continuously. That which is aware of the world as the world, which is real, sentient and happy, is not the world itself but that Resource. The world is not aware of itself like we are aware of ourselves; that Resource, which abides in our Heart that makes us aware of ourselves, is real, sentient and happy and it is continuous even when the mind is unconscious in deep sleep. When we become unaware of the gross and subtle bodies in deep sleep, the world simultaneously disappears from view. Therefore, both, the body and the world simultaneously blossom in the waking and dreaming states when our ego is attentive and active, but disappear when the ego is arrested. The world is desire only. Karmic imprints of desire and fear in our mind arises through our primal error. Ignorance must admit to an ego, the I-thought. A respite from the disorder of ignorance, the state of deep sleep, is agreeable to all in which the I-thought ceases. No one disputes about the bliss of the egoless state during deep sleep. There is neither gains nor losses, additions nor subtractions in the state of blissful sleep. Disputations and debates are unpeaceful if our aim is to quieten our mind; having given up our notions of the world, can anything be added onto the state of blissful sleep, wherein our ego is absent? We can only think of the past or the future in the present, but importantly, in the presence of a thinker. Since the thinker ceases to exist in deep sleep, so the past and future cease to exist in sleep. Is it not miserable enough to constantly face the chatter in our own mind, notwithstanding, the thoughts of others impinging on our mind? Say, we all look forward to deep sleep and prepare for it because we are all free from the chatter of our mind in deep sleep. Daily we become deeply engrossed and become deeply rooted attending to “others” and the world when we place all our emphasis on our ego and our body, which appears real to us. Even in dreams we are engrossed with the world. We know that deep sleep will invigorate us; at least for a few hours we will temporarily gain respite from the disorder that arises by virtue of our ego. In dreams, our mind is happy to remain in a pleasant dream, but wakes up terrorized in a nightmare. But all fears and hopes, desires and expectations, satisfactions and sufferings, lay dormant in deep-sleep when the I-thought ceases. When sleep overpowers us, the mind and the senses are arrested; with the cessation of our ego, i.e., in the absence of the sense of our body, the I-thought, all our attention ceases on the world, objects, disputes and disorder, i.e., our attention ceases on words, notions, acts, experiencing, memory, and knowledge. Debates about the world and thoughts about non-duality and duality disappear. I and you disappear. The chase stops. The purpose stops. The disorder stops. Can we add or subtract, gain or lose anything in deep sleep? We must admit this is indeed blissful. So, why not endeavour to get rid of the I-thought permanently, straight away, instead of debating about the world whether it is this or that? So why not make our goal to get rid of the ego fore-most instead of wasting time debating about the world since we must all admit the egoless state of sleep is Happy. Misery exists in the waking and in the dream states, but does not exist in the state of deep sleep because the ego does not exist in deep sleep. The body is the root of fear and desire, but we are happy in the absence of the sense of our body in sleep. Deep sleep is agreeable to all because we are happy to be in it in the absence of our body thought, because the primal I-thought is arrested. The debates about the world and thoughts of the world disappear with the disappearance of the ego. But in deep sleep, in the absence of our ego, i.e., in the absence of the sense of our body, there exist no sense of the form of you and others, the world and God; relationship ceases to exist when the seer-knower is absent. If we keenly witness, even in the state of dreaming, the ego forges relationships in the subtle realm. We must realize and know that our body, like the world, is an object of our cognition as a thought form of the mind. This is why, since the body is a thought, it disappears when the mind disappears. It is the latent seed of form(s) or vasanas held in deep sleep that creates a corresponding subtle form, which in turn creates a corresponding gross form. This is the primal bondage. If we cling to the idea, ‘I am this body,’ we will see other forms, i.e., we will project other forms, like we do in our dreams. Remember, projections, concealments, and confusions are common in both states, waking and dreaming, or gross and subtle, so both of these states, are acknowledged to be of the same nature. Therefore, you, them, and all else seemingly exists in the view of our erroneous sense of individuality only. When the first-person idea ceases to exist, in deep sleep, the second and third person, simultaneously, cease to exist. In the absence of the first-person form, second and third person forms cease to exist. So, the quest is to erase the ignorance from our mind of the sense, ‘I am the body,’ through inquiry into the nature of I, i.e., into the nature of the I-content of our conscious mind. When mind is non-active, as in deep sleep, our sense of I does not leave the non-active mind and go elsewhere, nor does the sense of I merge in it. The seed of individuality is sensationalized within our own mind when active. There is no fate nor free-will in deep sleep but latent in causal format, for the fruits have been realized prior to sleep, and so it’s done for the day, until the next batch unfolds to wake us up the next day and the cycle is repeated. The idea or the sense of our name and form, the ego, does not cease to exist in sleep although we are not ourself aware of our name and form in sleep, so no one disputes the fact that they did not exist in deep sleep. Like the idea of an apple tree remains in the apple seed since it does not sprout a coconut tree. So, the idea of ourself as such and such remains in a seed form in sleep. So, when we awake out of sleep, the stored idea of I, the ego, revives from latency of the ignorance of sleep.  With the appearance of the I after sleep when we awake, all else appears. With the disappearance of the I in deep sleep, all else disappears. But the real Self does neither appear nor disappear. The real I is continuous who is our true nature. Therefore, when the I emerges, all else emerges. But waking after sleep is false waking and sleep after waking is false sleep. Since our real nature exists in sleep, we must make the effort to know the Self in waking state before we can realize the Self continuously present in sleep, because it is not easy to recognize the Self in the ignorant (unconsciousness) of sleep. Is the state of being in deep sleep or death that Consciousness? The answer is no. In the states of deep sleep and death and others like coma there is no cognition or attention, but the I remain in inactivity or latency before reviving. Sleep and coma and death are not to be regarded as self-extinction because the imprints of tendencies, desires and duality held in the mind revive after sleep or in a new body after death. Death is not unlike sleep; the respite is longer in death than in sleep that’s the only difference.  Deep sleep and death are states of the non-emergence of I, which has to be admitted, but we must also admit that they are overwhelmed by the darkness of our primal ignorance, like sunlight is obscured by dark clouds in space, although, its inherent light is present. Like the clarity of a mirror is obstructed by smearing dark tar on its surface, although, its inherent reflectiveness, remains unbroken, which reflects the blackness of the smeared tar. Sri Bhagavan revealed, “You have to convert the state of ignorant deep sleep in which one becomes formless and unattached into a conscious deep sleep. You should never forget that this experience will come only through long practice. This experience will make it clear that your real nature is not different from the nature of God.” Our mind, which is meant to merely magnify the Light of that Abstract Intelligence, through habit, projects, deliberates and deludes itself via the senses that it is separate from the world, which is the cause of desire and fear. The mind does not even realize the whole caboodle is reflected from itself, like in a dream. Our mind does not realize the unreality of the world as in a dream nor does it realize the unreality of itself. Even the unconsciousness or the void of the mind is reflected during deep sleep in the clear mirror of Abstract Intellect. The fear of death arises because we identify our self with our body, our primal ignorance is this identification only. Death is unavoidable. The event of Death, by itself, is not fearful, but the thought of dying, fills most with dread. Is it not strange that we do not fear from falling into deep sleep, which is a kind of death, is it not?The event of death is like deep sleep; it is nothing other than a moment of liberation, a respite from thoughts generated by our ego-mind complex of the sense related world of desires, impressions and possessions with associated miseries and suffering. What do we learn from the state of sleep; if we keenly investigate our state of deep sleep, in fact, we all know it is indeed a blissful state without investigation, because there is no world to discuss or disputations, nor notions, nor disorder, nor conflict in the absence of the I-thought and the world. So, we must admit that in the absence of name and form, the I-thought, the egoless state, is a happy state. Our seeming individuality does not emanate from Consciousness, for our false nature is not that of the true substance. Neither the ego nor the mind is an independent entity, viz, they have their existence dependent on the substratum of Consciousness; because they are merely sensations or ideas, and like all ideas, they vanish in deep sleep. Also, being keenly sought, they will disappear, and Consciousness will shine forth by itself. This is the direct method to destroy the non-self, duality and variety. Consciousness is that Truth alone; the tagged so and so, individuality, or becoming, is not the truth. The two cannot coexist. In the instance, ‘I Exist as Dippack,’ but “I Exist” is the truth alone, for Dippack is an unreality, a seeming and reflected falsity. For when we no longer identify ourself with our body, the world does not arise, like a corpse does not give rise to the world nor do we in deep sleep nor in Samadhi and neither does a Sage who has realized the Truth. But the bliss of deep sleep in the absence of the world and the ego is transient. So, we must aim at knowing and realizing the permanent bliss of the egoless state or Samadhi or our Natural State through self-inquiry. Having given up or attending to the thoughts of the world and renouncing it, and keenly attending to “being” only, unlike in deep sleep, is indeed blissful. We must attend to being thoughtless, meaning, we must attend to get rid of the I-thought if we want to win eternal Happiness. Only discovering and knowing that Resource within our Heart removes all doubts and misconceptions; in fact, doubts don’t exist in reality nor in deep sleep, and so, of what use is arguing about the world whether it is this or the other? Doubts only arise with the rise of the ego and subsides with the subsidence of the ego. Sri Bhagavan revealed, “Of what use are disputes about the world, saying that it is real, that it is an illusory appearance, that it is conscious, that it is insentient, that it is happy, that it is miserable? All men alike love the egoless state of deep sleep, and that state of Reality, which is won by turning away from the world and knowing the untainted real Self, which transcends the assertions that It is one or that It is dual.” Sri Bhagavan said, “The thought, ‘I-am-the-body’ has two components. One is the body and the other is I. The body being of transient nature is subject to change, and it depends on external factors for its existence, such as food. But the nature of ‘I’ is different from that of the body. What exists in truth should be existing always. The body does not exist all the time, so it is not the truth. The ‘I’ exists in all states including waking, dream sleep, and deep sleep. Hence ‘I’ is the truth; the body is untrue. Both of these combined cannot exist as one entity. How can night and day, light and darkness co-exist? Similarly, there is no entity that has as its basis the co-existence of ‘I’ and the body. So, ‘I-am-the-body’ thought has no basis in truth. If we examine the world with this untrue thought as the basis, how can we learn of the Truth?” Revelation: The body does not say ‘I.’ No one will argue that even in deep sleep the ‘I’ ceases to exist. Once the ‘I’ emerges, all else emerges. With a keen mind inquire whence this ‘I’ emerges. Sri Bhagavan said, “Waking, dream and deep sleep are mere phases of the mind, not of the Self. The Self is the witness of three states. Your true nature exists in sleep. That sleep which alternates with awaking is not the true sleep. The waking which alternates with sleep is not the true awaking. Are you awake now? No. What you have to do is to wake up to your true state. You should neither fall into false sleep nor remain falsely awake. Though present even in sleep, the Self is not then perceived. It cannot be known in sleep straight-way. It must be realized in the waking state for it is our true nature underlying all the three states. Effort must be made in the waking state and the Self realized here and now. It will then be understood to be the continuous Self uninterrupted by the alternative of waking, dream and deep sleep.”Jnana or true Knowledge is infinite Consciousness devoid of knowledge and ignorance. It is not deep sleep wherein the mind disappears leaving a void. Jnana reflects the oblivion of deep sleep, but it is not oblivion Itself, like a mirror smeared with tar reflects the tar within itself. Utter annihilation or dissolution or nothingness does not abide in that Resource. In the writer’s honest opinion, Truth be known, deep sleep is the greatest of all prayers, devotion, or worship! Seeing God As He Really Is.