Musing on Three States of Mind and Beyond

(Waking, Dreaming and Deep Sleep)

In our day to day life we see that we always get up in the morning ‘Work’ during day time and finally ‘Sleep’ at night. Also the ‘Dream ‘while sleeping is a common experience. Our ancient thinkers have classified these cycles of human life in to three categories and studied it. The three categories basically are Waking, Dreaming and Deep Sleep.

                               For simplification we can see in the figure above. In the graph the horizontal line shows the movement of time, the vertical line shows the increasing awareness of what we called our ‘World’, the gross. As time scale is moved on right we can see that, we wake up from nowhere, “crying we come to the world” as the saying goes. Till we reach the peak of waking state we do working of all sorts like eating, watching films, socializing, looking after kids etc. A point is reached where we are completely exhausted, tired and want to sleep. If we don’t sleep we may naturally become unconscious by exhaustion. None can remain working without sleep for day together. As we lie in the bed to sleep, the mind seems to slow down its thought; a little drowsiness seems to engulf us and a stage comes when we are dreaming. In this state the ego ‘I’ of ours is unconscious of outer world but it is aware of inner world, the impression of waking state, ideas etc. The dominant impression is caught by the ego and a world is created to run that impression. Then in the dream depending upon the impression we enjoy, eat, drink, dance, chased by fearful creatures etc. While dreaming everything is real, no one in dream knows that he is dreaming. It runs as if a world in itself. Only on waking up we know that it was a dream. 

Finally, the state of deep sleep is experienced where there is no particular consciousness of anything. The mind like a Shop seems to close its doors and windows of senses, ending its process of discrimination (the thought of this and that etc.). It is like enveloping of darkness at night hiding the different manifestation like tree, grass, mountains etc.  On waking up we say, “I slept nicely that, “I didn’t know anything at that time, the meaning of which is that    “I” was,  aware of my ignorance of not knowing anything.  Sleep like a container takes inside all things and again in the morning like a bud sprouting from seed, the waking state sprouts up. Thus the three states keep repeating itself whole our life time. No one person can remain on any state permanently be it Waking, Dreaming, Deep Sleep.

Madukya Upanishad a part of Athar Veda and the Gaudapada Karika beautifully describes these three stages and the way beyond it.  It tells us of Atman. When the Atman is using the gross body in the Waking State it is technically called Vaiswanara, again when the Atman in dream state is called Taijasa and the Atman in deep sleep is called Prajna.  Other than the three states of Waking, Dreaming and Deep Sleep the Mandukya Upanshad goes to indicate the existence of fourth state of Atman called “Turya”.  This state cannot be explained objectively it can simply be indicated by not this, not this. 

Sankara, the 7 th century Philosopher commenting on the 12th verse of Mandukya Upanishad about the Fourth( Turya) says, “those who have realized Brahman, the highest reality, merge the self in Turya because they have transcended the notion of cause and effect, which inheres in the third quarter of Atman. They are not born again for they have realized their identity with the causeless Turiya”

Life seems to be alternating between waking, dreaming, deep sleep and then finally death. This death phenomenon is itself a sleep for waking up in another body.  In Bhagwad Gita, Krishna says to Arjuna:-

“Even as the embodied self attains in the body childhood, youth and old age, so does it attain another body; the wise man does not get deluded at this.”

Krishna further says,

“Deathless, birthless.

Unchanging forever,

How can it die

The death of the body?”

Although the present century scientific outlook is actively unlocking the secrets of universe but it is finding more questions to be answered, more models to be constructed. Nowhere is it near to explain the mysteries of life and death.  As it is said, “the corridor of science is littered with the skeletons of discarded theories”.  The scientific knowledge depends upon the senses and intellect in its search but intellect and senses being finite how can it comprehend the infinite. Kurt Gödel proved mathematically the limitations of mathematical reasoning, and Wittgenstein argued that both language and thought have definitive limits. 

Swami Nikhilananda while writing introduction to Mandukya Upanishad describes about intellect as

“Intellectual knowledge is mediate and indirect and cannot altogether free the mind from its attachment to illusory objects, which we directly apprehend, only an immediate and direct knowledge of Reality can destroy a man’s belief in the reality of impermanent phenomena.”

The famous Nasadiya Suktam of Rig Veda wonders about the impossibility of knowing about the origin of creation and concludes:

But, after all, who knows, and who can say

Whence it all came, and how creation happened?

The gods themselves are later than creation,

So who knows truly whence it has arisen?

 Even as we are progressing in every sphere, if we can see the pages of ancient Aryan thought, there we will find that the fountain of truth is reached, the truth by knowing which nothing remains to be known. In the Mundaka Upanishad which belongs to Athar Veda we find the ancient thought where there is the inquisitiveness, the thirst to know the reality as can be seen her in the opening lines of the Upanishad:

 “Saunaka , the great householder, approached Angiras in a proper manner and said: 

    Revered Sir, What is that by the knowing of which all this becomes known.”

Expressing the ancient thought of Upanishad, Swami Vivekananda in his paper on Hinduism on 19 September 1893 at World Parliament of Religion declares the word of Sage:

   “Hear , ye children of immortal bliss! Even ye that reside in higher sphered! I have found the Ancient one who is beyond all darkness, all delusion, knowing him alone you shall be saved from death over again.”

The ancient thinkers like a dumb person try to indicate something precious found by them, the joy of which has made them Rishi.  In the Svetavatara Upanishad which belongs to Taittiriya or Black yajur Veda the sage declares,

 “I know the great Purusha who is luminous like the sun, and beyond darkness only by knowing him does one pass over death, there is no other way to the Supreme Goal.”

Thinking over all this mind boggling thought when the mind seems to go out of control we can simply pray, although in practice there are various spiritual methods but praying is common to all. Regarding praying author of Tiya and Param, Samarpan in his article on, “Prayers only prepare you for the inevitable” descirbes the efficacy of prayer beautifully, he writes that,

“Prayers have a tendency to get answered at times, and most of the time there is no response to them despite our sincere tears.

To illustrate this, Sri Ramakrishna told the story of a person whose house was being shaken and torn away in the storm. To save the house from utter destruction, he prayed fervently, claiming that it was the Lord's house. But when it finally crashed down, he said in disgust, 'It is rascal's house".

That makes us wonder why we pray at all? The answer is that without being prayerful, we never get the power to accept the inevitable. That is the irony!

God indeed is a funny fellow!”

Reference:

1) The Upanishads, Mandukya Upanishad,  Swami Nikhilananda, Volume II.

2) BHAGAVAD GITA Song of GOD,  Swami Prabhavananda and Christopher Isherwood.

3) BHAGAVAD  GITA , Swami Gambhirananda.

4) Blog, Wait a Minute, http://samarpanananda.blogspot.in/

5) Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda , Volume 1.

Musing on the Sheaths of body as on Panchadasi

The soul according to panchadasi is covered by five states namely Annamayokosh, Pranamayaokosha, Manomayokosha, Vijanmayakosha, Anandamayakosha. The sheath of Annamayokosha is the food covering, looking deeply we see that our gross body is a conversion of food we eat. Our bulk of body has grown from small size baby, what is that, that has increased; obviously the input given is food. The second sheath called Pranamayaokosha translated as life force is always working, we keep breathing in and out of various body functions. The third sheath called mind sheath, it thinks, discriminates and takes in to input from all sense organs. The three sheath i.e. Body, Life Force and Mind function together as if like a machine. Now coming to fourth and fifth sheath through the vijanayakosha and ananandamayakosha is translated as “Intellect Sheath” and “Bliss Sheath”, it is rather tricky to understand it. In our daily life we see that we usually say, “I am working”, “I am eating”, the “I” consciousness always remains. The body eats, life force works, mind works but the “I” consciousness takes the credit. It is similarly like the machine operator, although the machine does the work but when someone asks, he says, “I am working”. The Mind, Prana and Body works but the “I” consciousness seems to be working. When the body says, “Am tired” and shuts itself, the other three Sheath (Prana, Mind and Intellect) keeps working. We go in to a dream state and again when the “mind” and “I” as doer stops we are in a deep sleep state. The “I” as bliss only remains. We can by deep contemplation see that “I” always remain as “I” doer and “I” enjoyed. That’s why we say, “I had a good sleep”. Although we don’t know about how we are in a state of deep sleep can feel freshness, enjoyment etc. Also karma theory as understood explains that we wake up from sleep state and spends our karma and at night we again enjoy the casual state to wake up again with the sprout of karma seed ready to flower as work and energy to spend during the day. The process repeats itself until the body lasts. But some people in their life realize the utter uselessness of life for enjoyment and they carve for something permanent. So the search for that permanent takes us to higher state of consciousness where we realize the spiritual entity outside these five Sheaths and then say as Buddha said thousands of years ago:-  “I have realized the extreme state of ego extinction where there is no decay, disease, death and defilement.”

Awakening from sleep

As the story goes, after enlightenment Buddha was sitting silently when some one curiously came near and ask him, "Who are you?" and Buddha replied,"I am awake".  Really when we ponder deeply over this answer there comes a time when we begin to truly appreciate the answer. From the day we are born we are always dreaming this world, the ingredients being the desires which like seeds germinate as we grow older and begin to bear fruit according to our karma on the soil of mind. Life when seen from the intellectual point of view seems to be unrelated to any other phenomenon that we regularly observe around us. Although so many models has been constructed to explain this material world but the world as a whole remains still unexplained. The mind seems to ask question infinitely, there does not seems to be any point where the thinking can directly precieve a thing complete in itself. But thanks to our ancient Sages and their true followers that by reading scriptures we can at least conceive that there is something which when reached explains everything. The usual question put up by Upanishads, "What is that by knowing which everything can be known" simply shows that the way is out there to know by knowing which everthing can be known. As echoing the word of upanishad Swami Vivekananda says,".......by knowing him alone you shall be free from death". The life of great man show us the way to awake from this great dream of world and become free as we really are. When as a small boy I used to think that if there were so small thing as micro organism which we cant see with our naked eye can there be a thing which is so big that it cant be seen also. At that time I could not find the answer now when I think over this question I just know that this universe is the biggest thing which cant be seen with this naked eye. We need a divine eye, the eye of perception itself, to see all that is real behind the seen reality of material eye. When Swami Vivekananda says,"....awake from this hynotism of weakness" he is exorting people to awake to reality as he himself was awake, his thrilling call inspires people not because of words it is already there in the dictionary but due to the sheer intensity of its realisation by himself and word simply convey that power to the reader. A gigantic power seems to be inside us and trying to express fully but presently only coming through the senses but the time must come when all the obstruction of material body breaks and the God inside us will stand revealed in its own glory. And then we can truly say, "I am Awake".