States of Consciousness
In his exposition of the Mandukya Upanishad, Swami Sivananda
gives the following account of the Jiva as constituted of certain states of
consciousness (Principal Upanishads, vol. I, pp. 420-32):
The Jiva is the supreme
consciousness appearing to undergo the three states of waking, dream and deep
sleep. Waking is the condition where the consciousness is associated with
external objects having a pragmatic existence for the Jiva. The experiences of
the waking individual are made possible by the operation of nineteen powers
that form the subtle body within. The distinguishing feature of the waking
consciousness is that its contents are physical objects. The nineteen
principles become for the Jiva the means of the enjoyment of objects, as well
as of the suffering of mortal life.
From a study of the waking
state one will have to proceed to the study of dream and deep sleep. When we
begin to analyze the universe for the sake of realizing the Atman, we will have
to deal with the wakeful state first, and understand the nature of the gross
objects in the beginning. It is then that we can gradually enter the subtle and
the causal nature of things (p. 422). The Jiva in the waking state goes by the
names of Visva, Vijnanatma, Chidabhasa, Vyavaharika-Jiva, Karma-Purusha, etc.
Dream is the second quarter,
where the Jiva is called the Taijasa, and where it is conscious of internal
objects and works by means of similar nineteen avenues of knowledge and action.
The objects of the dreaming consciousness are subtle in comparison with those
of the waking state. The mind in dream creates various objects out of the
impressions produced in it by the waking experiences. The mind can reproduce
the whole of its waking life, through the force of Avidya, Kama and Karma. In
the dream world the mind is the perceiver as well as the perceived. It creates
objects without the help of any external means.
Here the external senses are
at rest, there is only a manifestation of the knower and the known with
affinities to things enjoyed in the waking condition. The dream phenomena are
nothing but the states of the mind alone, though the Jiva here considers the
externality of experience as real. The dream world is objective only to the
dreamer.
That is the state of deep
sleep wherein the Jiva does not desire any object, nor see any dream. This
third quarter of the Jiva is termed Prajna, whose sphere is ignorance, in which
all experiences become one, which enjoys bliss and provides a key to the
knowledge of the other two states. Sound and the other objects of sense are not
felt here due to the cessation of the objectifying function of the mind. Even
the ego is here at rest. There is only Avidya or the veil of nescience.
An analysis of dreamless sleep
leads us to the recognition of the existence of the Atman in all the three
states. The remembrance of sleep, when one returns to the wakeful state,
indicates that the witness of the three states is one. This witness is the
Atman. The bliss of sleep, however, is not to be confused with the bliss of the
Atman. As the mind is in a state of quiescence, due to the absence of desire
and activity, it is wound up in sleep into an unconscious condition of absence
of all pain and an unwitting proximity to the Absolute. Our impassioned craving
for sleep, even if it may mean the rejection of all other pleasures of life,
gives us an inkling of there being a positive bliss underlying it.
As the soul in the state of
waking, dream and sleep is called, respectively, Visva, Taijasa and Prajna, the
Universal Soul animating the physical, the subtle and the causal universes is
designated Virat, Hiranyagarbha and Isvara. The Virat, having entered the
microcosmic gross body and having the Buddhi as its vehicle, reaches the state
of Visva. Hiranyagarbha, having entered the microcosmic subtle body and having
the Manas as its vehicle, reaches the state of Taijasa. Isvara, who is coupled
with the Avyakta, having entered the microcosmic causal body and having Avidya
as His vehicle, reaches the state of Prajna. In the macrocosm, Virat is the last
manifestation of Isvara, while in the microcosm, Visva is to be considered the
first manifestation of the Jiva. In a sense, the waking state of the Jiva forms
a link between itself and the manifestations of Isvara. Hence in the waking
state the Jiva is supposed to be at its best.
Fill a pot with the water of
the sea, tie a rope to the neck of the pot, and immerse it in the sea. Though
the water of the pot is one with the water of the sea, it appears to be
separate on account of the limiting adjunct, viz. the pot. When the pot is
drawn out by means of the rope, the water of the pot gets differentiated. But
the ether, which is contained in the pot and is also outside it, forms a single
homogeneous whole, and cannot be distinguished thus. Even so, the pot of the
subtle body which is filled with the water of ignorance and to which is tied
the rope of the impetus of past good and evil deeds, gets involved, in deep
sleep, in a collective causal state, which is the adjunct of Isvara in the
cosmic plane. With the individual ignorance, which is its own adjunct, the Jiva
in dreamless sleep gets immersed in this vast sea of stillness. It appears to
be discrete due to its containing in itself, potentially, the subtle body. When
the Antaryamin, or the Inner Ruler, draws the rope of Karma, it gets
differentiated, and comes back to the waking state. But the Atman remains a
silent witness of the three states, as a support for the pot of the subtle
body, which is the vehicle of individual ignorance.
The Atman is the real witness
of the three states, even of the contingency of Jivahood. This witness-state is
called the Turiya or the fourth state of consciousness.
In Moksha, or the final
liberation of the soul, when all objective perception is overcome in the
consciousness of Brahman, even the character of being a witness drops from the
self, and it realizes its majestic independence.
The Kaivalyopanishad says that
the states of consciousness are appearances of one Brahman, and that one who
knows this is freed from all bonds (Verse, 17).
Continue to
Read:
States of Consciousness: Chapter 10 – The Philosophy of
Life by
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.png "The three states - Wake, dream, deep sleep & Pure Consciousness or Turiya")