The Sleep of the Awakened - Part 4 of 6

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(continued from Part 3)

 

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The Journey of "sUshupti"

 

 

When we go to sleep daily each night, little do we

realize that we also embark upon an extraordinary

journey that takes us away from the diverse world of

"vaishvAnara" far across to the frontiers of our

consciousness in "taijasa" and "praj~nya".

 

 

It is in the vast landscape of dreams that much of our

journey of sleep is undertaken. Then for a very brief

while, no more than a few fleeting minutes, the

journey manages to leave behind the domain of

"taijasa" and advances even further. It is then that,

with tentative steps, we approach the gateway to the

wonderland of "abiding joy" the Upanishad calls

"praj~nya".

 

 

Conveyed thus to within sighting distance of the

outskirts of the city of "praj~nya", both our body and

spirit begin to experience the faint whiff of "Ananda"

(sheer spiritual Bliss) wafting across to us from the

"sUshUpta-stAna". It is the special moment during

sleep when our breathing becomes deepest and sweetest.

It is the moment when the precious life-energy within

each of us, called "prANA", undergoes invigoration.

The muscles of our sleeping body completely relax.

(Medical science too confirms this). There are no

dreams, pleasant or otherwise, to disturb or distract

this brief but blessed state. In this near-"sUshUptic"

state there is no sensation of anything -- neither

objects of desire nor their impressions. There is not

even sensation of our individuality... This is

experience the Mandukya calls "Ananda", pure and

serene... but then it is mere intimation, not the real

experience of "praj~nya". And it is this mere

intimation of "Ananda" that we should recognize

constitutes the delight of a "good night's sleep". It

is the source of our bodily wellbeing and the reason

for our mental vitality. Like Wordsworth, we value it

more preciously than "all the morning's wealth".

 

 

Yet, ironically, what the Mandukya reveals to us is

that the joy or vitality in a "good night's sleep" is

but mere infinitesimal fraction of the full-blown

experience of "Anandamaya" found in the inner-city of

"praj~nya" where "sarvEshwara", the Almighty Himself,

is said to reside in "sUshUpti"...

 

 

*********

 

 

Just at the moment when sleep is about to take us

beyond the dream-state of "taijasa" and to the very

doorsteps of blissful "praj~nya", we are suddenly

turned back. We do a U-turn and head right back again

into the uneasy and motley world of "svapna". And

there we remain wandering and maundering for a few

more hours until the morning… when we finally wake up

to return to the harsh glare of common, sensory

reality: what we may call the "jAgrutic" pell-mell of

"vaishvAnara"...

 

 

Night after night, all through our lives, without yet

being truly aware we are repeating and retracing the

same steps of this Upanishadic shuttle-journey of

"sUshUpti", we depart from the external world of

"vaishvAnara", travel across the dreamland of "swapna"

and approach the very doorsteps of the ultimate source

("yOnih") of Joy and Energy, "praj~nya". Alas, at the

very last moment, we are turned back. We never really

get to gain entry into that great city of

"sUshUpta-sthAna". All that we manage to bring back

with us every morning, as journey's poor reward for

the effort, is only so much of a whiff of divine

"Ananda" as will last us or linger with us, for a day

or two at best... no more! Come nightfall, when we are

worn out and exhausted once more by the external world

(of "vaishvAnara"), we will embark again upon the same

unconsummated trip to "sUshUpti" -- to forage for yet

another day's petty ration of energy, to gather "fresh

thoughts and joyous health"... In the Chandogya

Upanishad, Man's inability to fully seize and realize

the opportunity of "sUshUpti" is captured brilliantly

in a single line (8-3-2):

 

 

"Like strangers in an unfamiliar country

 

Walking over a hidden treasure day by day,

 

We enter the world of Brahman while in deep Sleep

 

But never find it, carried away by what is false."

 

 

The Mandukya's extraordinary account of "sUshUpti"

provides us with this very valuable insight too:

 

 

Instead of stating that Sleep is a deeply mystical

experience, it would be more accurate to say, rather,

that every night of sleep in the life of Man is a

night of missed opportunity for mystical fulfillment

-- it lies virtually round the corner… and is yet so

elusive…

 

 

The Weight of "kAma"

 

 

The line of study of the Mandukya we have followed so

far will not fail to raise some more questions in our

mind:

 

 

· What is the reason for the opportunity of blessed

"sUshUpti" being missed again and again in the daily

journey of sleep? Even after going almost the full

distance, why do we repeatedly fall short of our mark,

the great "praj~nya"?

 

 

· Why are we ordinary souls unable to penetrate that

third plane of human experiencing the Upanishad calls

"trutheeya-pAda"? Why are we unable to commune with

that state of "abiding joy" known to the Upanishad as

"praj~nyanaGhana'nandA"? Why must we remain content

with mere crumbs of "Ananda" in sleep when there is a

veritable ocean of bliss just beyond it?

 

 

· Why can't we too enjoy, in the manner of AndAl's

yogis and 'muni-s', that deep and serene state of

"sUshUpti" otherwise known as "yOga-nidra"?

 

 

The answer according to the Upanishad is simple:

 

 

If we grasp the reason why our passage from the

Waking-state to the Dream-state is easy, it will help

us see why exiting the Dream-state and penetrating

into the borders of "sUshupti" is so very difficult.

When we lie down to sleep at night, we must ask

ourselves, what happens to us? We abandon and leave

behind all frivolous desire and fears, all trifling

thoughts and feelings of our Waking world, isn't it?

What is this act of "abandoning"? It is really nothing

but shedding of "vaishvAnaric" weight and excess

baggage. We "give up", "renounce", "sacrifice",

"surrender" or "let slip" as much of "kAma" as is

necessary to wrench us out of the clutches of the

Waking world. The voluntary "load-shedding" ("nyAsa",

it is called in the parlance of VisishtAdvaita

Vedanta) is what enables the stilling of the senses

and enables our ascent to the second plane of

"taijasa", the greater experience of subtle worlds.

 

 

In the state of "taijasa" however, we are unable to

repeat the success of the first one. The clinging

dead-weight of our deeper "kAma" is not so easily

jettisoned ("... na kamchana kAmum kAmayatE..", are

the words the Upanishad uses here suggestively). It is

inability to "abandon", to leave behind his deepest

Desire that firmly blocks Man's advance into

"sUshUpti", turns him away from its doorsteps and

seals him off from the bliss of pure "Ananda". This is

the reason why in that long journey of sleep into the

night, the city of "praj~nya" appears to Man to be so

near and yet so far...

 

 

The Mandukya's vivid portrayal of all this is a

passage (stanza 5) that is truly immortal:

 

 

"The third state is called Praj~nya, of deep sleep

 

In which one neither dreams nor desires.

 

.......but the sleeper is not

 

Conscious of this.

 

Let him become conscious

 

In Praj~nya and it will open the door

 

To the state of abiding joy."

 

 

 

 

 

 

(to be continued)

 

 

dAsan,

 

Sudarshan

 

 

 

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