The Sleep of the Awakened - Part 3 of 6

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(continued from Part 2)

 

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The 3 states of human experience

 

 

The Mandukya, at the outset, opens our eyes to the

fundamental truth that to human beings there are only

three natural planes of experience available viz. the

Waking, the Dream and the Sleep states. (There are

other states known to man perhaps, such as the drunken

state or the drug-induced states of mind, but they can

never be regarded as natural at all. It is for this

reason why many of the findings in Aldous Huxley's

famous book, "The Doors of Perception", about "mystic

states" induced by the drug, mescaline or LSD, can

only be regarded as spurious, even dangerous

experimentation, and never genuine experience in the

true Upanishadic sense).

 

 

"vaishvAnara"

 

 

The Mandukya calls the Waking-state as 'jAgruti'. This

is the plane in which all of us experience this world

through perception via the medium of each of our

sensory faculties 'turned outward' (viz. sight,

hearing, smell, taste, touch, mind, intellect,

intuition and ego). It is within this plane of

'jAgruti' that we live and experience all the gross

objects of the external world -- including thoughts,

desires and passions arising out of them as well as

the resulting feelings of joy and pain. The welter of

all such gross sensory experiences is what the

Upanishad calls "vaishvAnara". These experiences are

common across all humanity; in other words, since

everyone has the same set of sensory organs, everyone

perceives objects in the same way; and, normally,

objects too arouse the same experiences in everyone.

 

 

 

"taijasa"

 

 

The second plane of experience is "swapna" -- the

Dream-state into which we slip when we go to sleep. In

this state all our sensory apparatus are 'turned

inward'. They continue performing their respective

functions of apperception but do so in an exclusively

"introverted mode" i.e. none else other than the

dreamer himself can experience his dream. No two

persons can dream alike since the respective

experience of it is uniquely his own.

 

 

Furthermore, in the 'swapna' state, it is not the

gross objects of the Waking world that is experienced

but their subtle impressions or images as imprinted

upon our subconscious. We do not carry with us into

the dream-state all of the objects of our desire and

hope, passion or fear as they exist in "jAgruti". Only

a residual few -- the strongest and most intense of

desires -- follow us into the "swapna" state and they

manifest there either as (a) subtle, and often very

strange image or (b) as oracular, sometimes even

clairvoyant message. The anger of one's waking

moments, for example, might manifest itself as a

hideous viper in the dream-state. Similarly, repressed

lust in the 'jAgruti' state might unexpectedly surface

as carnal dream-images. And sometimes our dreams

foretell or in some vague way anticipate events yet to

happen in the Waking world.

 

 

It is the state of such "swapna", the netherworld of

suggestive dreams, which the Mandukya recognizes as

reality and as an inalienable part of human

personality and experience. The sum-total of such

subtle experiences is called "taijasa". (What the

Mandukya recognized long, long ago became, centuries

later, in the hands of Dr.Sigmund Freud, the

pioneering science of Psycho-pathology and

Psycho-therapy: the theory and method of treating

psychological disorders through clinical

interpretation of dreams).

 

 

The experiences of both "jAgruti" and "svapna",

although very different in character, substance and

duration, have one thing in common -- Desire ("kAmA").

Our desires in the Waking-state are multitudinous and

multifarious indeed. However, when we cross over in

sleep from the Waking into the Dream state, we do not

carry with us all of such longings and latent

yearning. On the journey from "jAgruti" into "taijasa"

we take with us as subliminal baggage only the most

deeply rooted elements of our "kAma" and with which we

have identified ourselves so inseparably that it

continues to cling to us like a shadow. We cannot, or

rather we do not want to shake it off.

 

 

"praj~nya"

 

 

The 3rd plane of human experience is what the Mandukya

calls "truteeyah: pAdah:". (The word "truteeya" in

Sanskrit means "Third" and "pAda" means, "part"). In

the celebrated 5th and 6th stanzas, the Upanishad

gives us great insight into the real and mystical

nature of Sleep-experience which it calls "praj~nya".

 

 

The experience of "praj~nya" is not the same as

ordinary "nidra" that we experience fitfully during

daily sleep -- i.e. it is not our nocturnal shuttling,

in and out, between "jAgruti" and "svapna". The

Upanishad says "praj~nya" is experience of sheer

unending 'Atmic' bliss readily available at a certain

exclusive "spot" or "station" en route the journey of

sleep. The "spot" is called "sUshUpta-sthAna" -- a

virtual locus of mystical delight to be found beyond

the first and second states of Waking and Dreaming.

 

 

In "praj~nya", unlike "taijasa" or "vaishvAnara",

there is no trace of "kAma". The residual but

deep-seated desires of our Dream-state do not and

cannot infiltrate into this blessed region. Since

there is no "kAma" here, there is no work left, and

hence no use for, our sense organs which therefore

withdraw and retract into the mind. The mind itself

then lies absolutely still. The resultant state of

experience is "Praj~nya", says the Upanishad. It is

subtle mass of pure consciousness unconditioned by the

senses. It is quite unlike any sensory experience and

hence cannot be described in words. It is composed

wholly of 'Atmic' bliss... "praj~nAnaGhana

EvA-nandamaya..":

 

 

"yatra sUptO na kamchana kAmum kAmayatE

 

na kamchana svapnam pashyati tat sUshUptam I

 

"sUshUpta-sthAna Eki-bhUthah: praj~nAnaGhana

EvA-nandamayO

 

hyAnanda-bhUkchEthO-mukha: prAj~nyas~truteeyah:

pAdah:" II

 

 

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

 

In which one neither dreams nor desires.

 

There is no mind in Praj~nya, there is no

 

Separateness; 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."

(translation: E.Easwaran "The Upanishads")

 

 

 

"Esha sarvEshwara Esha sarvagnya EshO'antaryAm-yEshu

yOnih:sarvasya prabhAvApyayow hi bhUtAnAm II

 

 

"This one (i.e. the "sUshUpta-sthAna") is the Lord of

All. This is omniscient, this is the inner controller

of all; this is the cause of every other thing; this

is the place of origin and the end of all beings".

 

(translation: N.S.Anantha Rangachar: "The Principal

Upanishads")

 

 

 

(to be continued)

 

 

dAsan,

 

Sudarshan

 

 

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