The three states (was Who am I?)

[Guest guest]

Namaste.

 

I wonder if Shri Sadananda can publish again his article on who is the

sleeper which he said he wrote after contemplating on MAnDUkya kArika.

I am quite interested in seeing that article and that perspective.

 

The following analysis of the three states does not follow any advaitc

literature but is a consequence of the reading of various texts. Thus the

errors are mine and I would hope that the learned members point out any

inconsistencies and wrong arguments.

 

Humans experience the three states of waking, dreaming and deep sleep.

Also, the human experiences take place in one of these three states,

which are mutually exclusive. Of the three states, surprisingly, many

consider the waking state to be the primary. The purpose of this article

is to show that other states are as important as the waking state. For

every point to say that the waking state is primary, one can find an

equally valid and compelling argument why the dream state can be

considered to be as primary a state as the waking state. We, in our

advaita analysis, try to see the dream and the deep sleep states from the

wake-up state. That is a very useful approach which readily shows the

dream state as illusory. We come to this correct conclusion in spite of

the fact that we can infer very little about the dream state while

analysing it from the wake-up state. Our analysis in the wake-up state

of the deep-sleep state also yields very little information partly because

the mind is folded into the Self during the deep-sleep state and further

much more importantly, as the three states are mutually exclusive, any two

states cannot be analysed in the third state.

 

If we consider ourselves to be individual jeevas, we are in the ajnAna

(sleep) mode [kA nidrah mUDhatA jantoh: Shri Shankara in Prashnottara

ratnamAlikA; What is sleep for a jeeva ? mUDhatA]. The three states of

waking, dream and deep-sleep are simply classifications of that sleep

(ajnAna) mode. We slip from one state to the other. Thus the waking state

is no more important than the dream state (or the deep-sleep state), all

superposed on the sleep state. Our seeing of duality all around us is

because we wrongly consider the waking state to be the primary state. When

we "wake up" out of our sleep mode, the three states vanish and we will

regard them to be just artificial boundaries.

 

Looked from the waking state:

 

The waking state is the primary and the real state. We do all our

activities in the waking state. We see the duality all around during the

waking state. We try to analyze the dream state while we are in the

wake-up state. However, the dream-state is not available to us during the

waking state, except for a few immediate moments when we get into the

waking state directly from the dream state. That memory of the dream state

is available for a longer time in the waking state only if the thought is

re-inforced during the waking state of what happened during the dream. But

even with that fleeting memory of the dream state for a brief second, we

conclude (correctly) that the dream state is illusory. We see in the waking

state that the tiger that has chased us during the dream is not really

there and the riches that we won during the dream state are not really there

either. If we look at the deep-sleep state from the wake-up state, we see

that we have the experience of existence only during the deep-sleep state

and conclude that there is an independent witness maintaining the continuity.

But still, during the waking state, our sense organs, projected externally

and outwardly, grasp the sensations of the jagat and see the duality and

mistake that duality to be the real.

 

Looked at from the dream state.

 

We consider the dream state to be real. We go through hunger, fear, anger,

happiness and all other sensual pleasures and sadnesses during the dream

state as we do in the wake-up state. We never question the unreality of them

while still in the dream. We can have a full span of life during the dream

or may have a very short span. The dream life of one hundred years may

take only five minutes of the wake-up world time but that does not matter

to the dreamer. The dreamer in the dream has seen a life span of one hundred

years.

 

If we somehow have capability to analyze the wake-up world during the

dream state, we would find the wake-up world to be unreal as the wake-up

world does not fit into "the consistency and pattern" of the dream-world.

But somehow we do not seem to have that capability (of analyzing the

wake-up state during the dream state). I do not know why but I venture

the following possibility. The wake-up state is at the gross body level

while the dream state is at the subtle body level. One seems to have a

brief momentary recall of the subtle from the gross level, but the recall

of the gross level features seem to be built into the subtle level activity.

The point I am trying to make here (I am not too sure if I had made it

convincing enough) is: Each of these states are consistent within

themselves. But looked at from another state, the other state is readily

seen to be illusory.

>From the deep-sleep state, we cannot see either the dream or the wake-up

state because the deep-sleep state is sushhupti, where the mind and the

sense organs are folded and there is no activity either at the gross or

the subtle level. It is a state of simple existence.

 

Quite often the argument is made that the wake-up state is primary because

we consistently return back to the same state and same memories. But, is

that really so ? Has not the situation changed from one wake-up state to

the next ? The change may not be as drastic as from one dream state to the

next but still, in my thinking, a substantial change from one wake-up

state to the next. Thus, that argument cannot hold to say that the wake-up

state is primary.

 

The above are some random thoughts on the three states of waking, dream

and deep-sleep. I would be most obliged if the list-members show any

inconsistencies in my thinking. After all, the purpose of this forum is

to learn and one sure way to learn is to put forward views for discussion.

 

Regards

Gummuluru Murthy

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