Three states are well known : waking, dream and deep sleep. Daily, they come and go in every body. Every person knows their coming and going, as well as their sport (vilaasa). But he never investigates them or of the knower of these, which is himself. In this investigation lies the seed of self-realization. An examination on the lines of the Maandookya Upanishad is presented.
Waking, dream and deep sleep - these are the three states of the mind or chitta, and are the scene-only (drishtimaatra) of the chit, the witness self.
When all five sheaths are active in the body, at that time, with the aim of deriving happiness from the ignorance-oriented-thought-flows, the witness identifies with the internal organ. Also, it experiences sounds, touch, form, taste and smell, these five objects of sense - which are the endeavours of the mind, senses and body. It also enjoys the gross objects. The state of this experience is the waking state. We are not asleep, not immersed in compulsive thinking, not engaged in meditation, and know the goings-on of the senses, body and our surrounding environment, then our state is called the waking state. The earth, oceans, rivers, towns, cities, sun, moon, fire, wind, space and our scriptural science, prior births, future births etc., the entire individual soul-Ishvara created world is the play of the waking state.
When the body is asleep, the food sheath is inactive. But the the vital force, mental, intellectual and bliss sheaths are active, then without the activity of the bodily sense organs, the witness, like in the waking state, directly sees his body and the play outside his body. He also enjoys the subtle enjoyments in there through the sense organs of his dream body, The state of this experience is called the dream state.
The play of the dream state is just like that of the waking state. The only difference is that the enjoyment of the waking state is gross, and that of the dream state is subtle. The impressions of attraction-aversion, acceptance-rejection in the waking state require actions to achieve fruition. But in the dream state, they come to fruition by desire alone. Therefore, the enjoyment in the dream state is purely desire-driven (vaasanaaamaya).
In the waking state, when the person gets immersed into compulsive thinking and forgets the sensation of the gross body and his environment, then that state is comparable to the dream state.
There is no memory of the waking state in the dream state. But there is memory of the dream state in the waking state. This leads us to conclude that the arrogator (abhimaanee) of the waking and the dream states is not one. Yet, both states appear to one witness alone.
The name of the waking state arrogator is "vishva" and that of the dream state is "taijasa". Vishva is the arrogator of the external organ, and taijasa of the internal organ. When the food sheath becomes inactive during the dream time, the external organ arrogator vishva resolves (leena) entirely into taijasa, due to which there is no recollection of the waking state in the dream state. The internal organ is active in the waking state also, that is why taijasa does not entirely resolve into vishva, and there is recollection of dream in the waking state.
When, due to the abundance of sleep, the food, mental and intellectual, all 3 sheaths sleep (become action-less) and only the vital force and bliss sheath remain active, at that time, the witness does not experience the gross or subtle play of either the waking or dream states. To such an extent that "I am the same one who sees both the waking and dream states" such a thought-flow does not remain. This is because, when he wakes up after sleeping, he then says "I was happily asleep, I did not know anything". This state of ignorance and happiness is called deep sleep.
The arrogator of the deep sleep state is called "praajnya". Vishva and taijasa are completely dissolved (pralaya) into praajnya, due to which there is no recollection of the waking or dream states in deep sleep. But prajnya becomes one with vishva in the waking state, that is why when the person wakes up, the recollects the ignorance and happiness of his sleep.
In the waking state, all three gunaas are present. The waking state is sattva-dominant since it alone contains all kinds of knowledge and happiness. This is one view. Another view says that the waking state is rajas-dominant since there is knowledge and happiness in dream also, but the activity of the gross body is the specialty of the waking state. There is tamoguna in the dream and deep sleep states due to the fault of sleep. Deep sleep is a tamas-dominant state.
In the waking state, if we reject I-this-notions due to the dominance of sattva guna, then the state of samaadhi will be attained. Samaadhi is a sattva-dominant state of deep sleep. But it is attained through human effort, whereas sleep is attained naturally.
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