Mandukya Upanishad : 7. T.N.Sethumadhavan.

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Tuesday, August 23, 2022.07:00. 

An inquiry into what is Real And Unreal 

AGAMA PRAKARANA 

Post-7

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DEEP SLEEP STATE :

MANTRAM – 5.

"yatra supto na kanchana kamam kamayate na kanchana svapnam 

pashyati tat.h sushuptam.h . sushupta sthana ekibhutah prajnanaghana 

evananda mayo hy ananda bhuk.h cheto mukhah prajnas tritiyah padah."

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That is the state of deep sleep wherein the sleeper does not desire any objects nor 

does he see any dream. The third quarter (Pada) is the Prajna whose sphere is deep 

sleep, in whom all experiences become unified or undifferentiated, who is verily, a 

mass of consciousness entire, who is full of bliss and who experiences bliss and who 

is the path leading to the knowledge of the two other states. 

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The state of deep sleep (susupti) is characterized by the absence of the knowledge of 

Reality. The absence of knowledge of Reality is the common feature of the mental 

modifications associated with the perception of gross objects (waking state) 

and nonperception of them (dream state). In the sleeping state, a person does not see any dream, 

nor does he desire any object. The desire to take a thing for what it is not is absent in the 

state of sleep. The person in the deep-sleep state is called susuptasthana because his 

sphere is this state of deep sleep. Similarly this state is also called ekibhutah – the state in 

which all experiences become unified, a state in which all objects of duality which are 

nothing but objects of thought in the other two states become non-differentiated without 

losing their characteristics just as the day which reveals all phenomenal objects, is 

enveloped by the darkness of night. 

Sleep is a condition wherein the mind and intellect retire and therefore it is a state of 

living in which all these apertures are also closed. In sleep we experience a mere 

allround ignorance or complete negativity - a state which has neither form nor sound, nor 

taste, nor smell nor touch. Thus the only thing we know in sleep is that we have no 

knowledge. 

In the waking state, our awareness is dissipated and scattered over sensory objects of the 

outside world thereby registering the knowledge of the things. In the dream state, the 

awareness expresses itself in enlightening the mental thoughts. As against this, in the 

deep sleep state, consciousness doesn’t illuminate anything and it collects together in us 

and gets crystallized into one mass of awareness. Hence the Upanishad says that the 

experiences, which are nothing but forms of thought, perceived during waking and dream 

states, become a consolidated thick mass of consciousness in the state of deep sleep and 

calls it as ‘prajnanaghana’ – a mass of consciousness unified.

At the time of deep sleep state there is a total absence of any mental modifications; all 

objects of consciousness become a mass of consciousness only wherein the mind is free 

from miseries of the inter-actions between the subjects and objects. Hence this state of 

homogeneous consciousness is called ananda maya that is endowed with abundance of 

bliss. But this is not Bliss itself because it is not Bliss Infinite. It is just as we say in 

common parlance that one is happy after a night’s sound dreamless sleep. The Upanishad 

calls it as the highest bliss because of the absence of causes for the mental agitations. As 

this state is a threshold to recognize the dream and waking states it is called cheto 

mukhah. It is called Prajna because it is the knower par excellence; consciousness 

undifferentiated as against consciousness in the waking and dream states where 

awareness is associated with certain experiences. It is because of consciousness present in 

the state of deep sleep (without any break or intermission) we are aware of the states of 

waking and dream. The consciousness, which exists as prajna in deep sleep appears as 

particular (visesha) in the other two states. The prajna, thus defined, is the third quarter 

of the Atman. 

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Next-

Mantram-6.

To be continued ...

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