SAMADHI PADA

Abhava_Pratyaya_ălambana Vrittir_Nidra

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Deep sleep is then

When mind is a dulled one

When mental modifications are none

And subject matters are gone

Abhava: non existence., absence  Pratyaya: cognition, experience of wakeful state   Ălambana being in support of,  Vrittir: thought waves, mental modifications  Nidra: deep sleep

1.10 Q: What is deep sleep? The state of sleep where there is an absence of awareness. Total unconsciousness without dreams, ego, desires, and awareness.

When a person is in the condition of sleep, in Sanskrit he is referred to as being in ‚svapiti’, "He sleeps“. '‚sva’ is the self. What is made out is that one gets absorbed into oneself in the sleep. In other conditions like waking etc, one gets drawn out into the external, unreal world.

Difference between a wakeful state and a sleeping state:

When one who is asleep feels no desires, sees no dreams- that is deep sleep.  All the experiences of the waking and the dream state dissolve in the experience of deep sleep. From the consciousness  in deep sleep arise the whole phenomenon of waking and dream states.   Mandukya Upanishad

Sleep is a condition of inactivity of mental modifications. The question naturally arises as to whether sleep is then a state of Union, as by definition state of union is then when mental modifications cease. The answer is an emphatic no. The essential difference is that in sleep there is no awareness, whilst in a state of absorption there is total awareness.

Deep Sleep

	After the sleep one gets back to the same old ignorant self. The soul hastens back due to working of the karmas.
	On waking up one sees multiplicity where no exists, as earlier, as before going to sleep.
	Consciousness is submerged in the shell of the individual mind, but has not yet been able to emerge out of that shell.
	In this introverted inactive condition a slight reflection of bliss is enjoyed and on waking up forgotten, A state of forgetfulness of the world.

Samadhi - Absorption

	After Samadhi, there is no more ignorance.
	After Samadhi one sees unity in everything.
	Consciousness is fully integrated with the Being.
	Bliss is directly enjoyed with no forgetting. There is total awareness while enjoying the bliss. There is always wakefulness.

Like the tired falcon

Like a falcon that is tied with a long rope keeps flying as far as the rope permits, mind keeps wandering within its confines of images, objects and ideation. Tired and unable to go any farther, being tied to the rope, the falcon gets back to the place where its legs are tied and sleeps. Mind is also tethered to the root of the Being. But mind does not know about it. It thinks it has freedom. It searches for happiness all over. Unable to satisfy its desires it gets back to where it is tethered and sleeps.

O loved One ! as birds fly towards their shelter in trees,so all senses proceed towards and are established in the higher Self” Prasanopanishad IV .6

The special character in the dreamless state is that in this state the intellect and the senses are completely absent and do not function. The intellect remains in this state in seed form. So much so, the next morning on waking up one says: “I did not know anything” The dreamless sleep state is distinguish from the waking state by the presence of intellect and senses in the waking state. In the dream state intellect functions, but the senses are dysfunctional. But avidya, the ignorance, is present in all the states-waking, dreaming and deep sleep. Whereas in the waking and dreaming state the ignorance is patent, in the deep sleep state it is latent.

Unlike dreamless sleep state, in the dreaming state mind enjoys and suffers what is already enjoyed and suffered during the waking state. Says, Upanishad, “ The deity ( mind) enjoys greatness in dreams. He sees again what he has seen, hears again what he has heard, enjoys again what he has enjoyed in different countries and quarters of the world. Whatever is seen and unseen, heard and unheard, experienced and unexperienced, real and unreal, he being all, experiences it” (prashnopanishad 4.5)

Adi Sankara says: “ Sensuous perceptions are to be regarded as the waking state. Those very perceptions revealed in sleep as impressions, constitute the dream state. The absence of perceptions and their impressions is known to be deep sleep. The witness of these three states, one’s own Self is to be regarded as the supreme Being to be realized”

In the dream state, mind experiences greatness. Whatever was seen, it sees again; whatever was heard, it hears again; whatever was perceived in different places, it experiences again and again. It perceives all by becoming all that was seen or not seen, heard or  not heard, perceived or not perceived and whatever is real and unreal. Prasanopanishad V .5

When an impression that is stored in the subconscious as memory becomes powerful, it makes an effort to be recognized by the conscious self. Then it is  experienced and also realized in the form of a dream. The dream becomes explicit and vivid, real and actual at the time of dream.

When one is dreaming, he does not recognize the dream as a dream, but experiences it as real. It is only after waking up, one recollects and says that he had a dream. The feelings of fear, anger, frustration, are all real, while one dreams. The dreams affect the body. The experiences of trembling, sweating and jerking reported at one time or another, by most people are proof of the effect of dream on the body. Mind enjoys and suffers during dreams.

Often one wonders why he dreamt of scenes and experienced events which are in no way connected to the impressions he would have formed during his waking state. It should be noted that not only impressions formed during this life that is stored in the subconscious, but also that of earlier incarnations. Even impressions formed in earlier lives as beast or bird, fish or worm is also stored in the subconscious. That explains the unconnectedness of the dreams. All the different types of experiences in dreams are the result of impressions and memories of actual experiences obtained at different times, ages and births. They get linked during sleep when logic and will are absent and hence perform no filtering action. Dreams prove to be an exit route for the impressions.

Says Descartes: “ When I consider the matter carefully, I do not find a single charetaristic by means of which I can certainly determine whether I am awake or whether I dreaming. The vision of a dream and the experiences of my waking state are so much alike that I am completely puzzled and I do not really know I am not dreaming at this moment”

Adds Pascal: “ If a dream comes to us every night, we should be as much occupied with it as by the things we see every day, and if an artisan were certain that he would dream every night for full twelve hours that he was a king, he would just be as happy as a king who dreams every night for full twelve hours that he is an artisan”

When fantasies, fears and feelings have expressed themselves out for that day, the person slips into the state of deep sleep.

He who is awake while in deep sleep, for whom there is no waking and for whom the perception is free from past mental impressions, that is, perception is free from knowledge derived from memory; is said to be liberated  while living. Yogavaashishta