Brihadaranyaka Upanishad Ch.2 1.14-15 Lecture 48 on 05 July 2026

Full Transcript (Not Corrected)

Opening Invocation

ओं जननीं शारदां देवीं रामकृष्णं जगद्गुरुं, पादपद्मे तयोः श्रित्वा प्रणमामि मुहुर्मुहुः.

Oṃ jananīṃ śāradāṃ devīṃ rāmakṛṣṇaṃ jagadguruṃ, pādapadme tayoḥ śritvā praṇamāmi muhurmuhuḥ.

ॐ पूर्णमदः पूर्णमिदं पूर्णात् पूर्णमुदच्यते

पूर्णस्य पूर्णमादाय पूर्णमेवावशिष्यते

ॐ शान्तिः शान्तिः शान्तिः

OM PŪRṆAMADAḤ PŪRṆAMIDAM PŪRṆĀT PŪRṆAMUDACYATE PŪRṆASYA PŪRṆAMĀDĀYA PŪRṆAMEVA VAŚIṢYATE OM ŚĀNTI ŚĀNTI ŚĀNTIH

OM That Brahman is infinite, and this universe is also infinite. The infinite proceeds from the infinite. Taking the infinitude of the infinite universe, it remains as the infinite Brahman alone.

OM Peace, Peace, Peace be unto all.

Introduction: Gārgya Becomes a Fit Disciple

In our last class, we completed all the twelve upāsanas. Gārgya had enumerated what he knew, and Ajātaśatru went on adding, and then Gārgya became a fit disciple. Now Ajātaśatru has to take him from Saguṇa Brahma to Nirguṇa Brahma.

Ajātaśatru's Question

Then Ajātaśatru, after hearing about the twelve upāsanas from Gārgya, asks him: "Etāvān nu—Only this much? Do you know anything more?" Gārgya kept silent. He lowered his head, but then he must have practised all the upāsanas. So he had developed tremendous amount of viveka, vairāgya, and humility. And he said: "I thought I knew much more, but you have opened my eyes. Now please lead me further, because I am eager to realise Brahman."

The Real Teaching Begins

Let us remember: no teacher will ever lead a person to what he cannot desire or cannot even attain. Everybody has to go step by step to that highest reality. So the real teaching starts from here. Just as a brief introduction: Gārgya becomes silent, and how he became the student.

The Fourteenth Mantra: The Reversal of Roles

In the fourteenth mantra, in the second chapter, first section, we get:

Sa ha vācājātaśatrur etāvan nu iti.

Ajātaśatru asked: "Do you know anything more than this?" And then the truthfulness comes out:

Etāvad dhīti—"I know, sir, only this much."

And Ajātaśatru rejoins:

Naitāvatā viditam bhavati—"With this much only, you are not going to become a knower of Brahman. This is only the knowledge of Saguṇa Brahma. That means you will not get mukti."

Sa hovāca Gārgya upatvāyanīti—Hearing this, Gārgya said: "Upatvāyanīti—'You.' Upāyanīti—'I am approaching you, eager to learn from you. Accept me as your student, and out of your boundless grace, enlighten me.'"

The Teacher's Duty

And when a teacher really gets a fit student endowed with all these Sādhana-catuṣṭaya-sampatti—the fourfold qualities of a true sādhaka—he would never reject. If you remember, Rāmakṛṣṇa knew very well. One day he was scolding Hāzrā: "These are the small children in spiritual life. Do you think they understand the highest truth that you are trying to inject into them?" Because this Hāzrā used to say: "I am Brahman, I am that." Śrī Rāmakṛṣṇa did not reveal the truth: "You are a fool. You are not even as much advanced as these people. You are full of egotism, and you are only thinking that you are a great spiritual person."

Swamiji's Ridicule

Swamiji used to ridicule him: "Hāzrā Dādā, elder brother, I have not seen anybody with such big, big rudrākṣa mālā—huge beads." And then this fool did not understand. Swamiji was making fun of him because the bigger the beads, the greater is the devotion and knowledge—that is what he thought. But Śrī Rāmakṛṣṇa's līlā is difficult to comprehend. So out of His infinite compassion, He kept him, and He told later on: "I keep him because without these buffoons—Jatila and Koṭila—the play will not be complete."

The Gentle Rejection

And whenever Śrī Rāmakṛṣṇa finds people who are neither willing nor capable of understanding, He used to gently tell them: "There are beautiful things in this Dakṣiṇeśvara temple compound—please go and enjoy them. You enjoy." It is not a rejection by Śrī Rāmakṛṣṇa; He is simply telling: "You will be wasting your time. I will be wasting my time."

Ajātaśatru's Training

But Ajātaśatru himself trained Gārgya by inculcating into him all these marvellous qualities through upāsana. What is upāsana? Tremendous amount of training the person to think with deep concentration on a particular quality. So whatever we think deeply, that is what we end up becoming. So Ajātaśatru must have recognised—in fact, Ajātaśatru must have found out the potentiality of Gārgya even before that. "Here is a very fit student. It is my duty to lead him."

Authorisation to Teach

Here also we have to understand: everybody and anybody, even a knower of Brahman, cannot be a teacher unless he is authorised by God. Authorisation means there will be power. There will be clarity, and the teacher understands the minds of each one of his pupils, and he will give the appropriate training. Some people you may say: "You meditate"; some people will say: "Do not meditate, just do japam." So according to the fitness, the teacher will tell—that special capacity to understand and direct. That is a great quality in any type of teacher, be it physics, chemistry, etc.

Gārgya Accepts His Limitation

So Gārgya accepted his lack of knowledge: "Let me now come to you as a student." There is a beautiful saying you might have heard: Guru mile lākh lākh, celā nāmile ek—"In this world, we may get teachers in millions, but a true disciple is extremely rare." So Gārgya realised his limitation, and he was humble enough to acknowledge this. Unlike Śvetaketu—remember, in the Chāndogya Upaniṣad, Śvetaketu, when his defects were pointed out by his own father and then he said "let us go and learn," he refused to come. So much of arrogance was there.

The Eager Student

An eager student is always open to sit under the feet of anyone who has the desired knowledge. So here something peculiar: even at that time, brāhmaṇas were what you call the teachers, and they made themselves the teachers—they authorised themselves. Some good they have done, but a lot of harm also they have done, instead of saying "anybody who knows can be a teacher." They said: "No, only brāhmaṇas can be teachers." And that is a kind of arrogance, ignorance. That is what in the Muṇḍaka Upaniṣad we get: blind people, and they do not recognise that they are blind, but they take upon themselves the role of leading others.

अन्धैव नीयमाना यथान्धाः.

andhaiva nīyamānā yathāndhāḥ.

I do not remember—it may be in the Kaṭha Upaniṣad or the Muṇḍaka Upaniṣad.

Ajātaśatru's Reaction

Now Ajātaśatru's reaction. Ajātaśatru was a realised soul, and it is unnecessary to say that he was a fit person. Every knower of Brahman will be a fit person only. He said: "The tradition is brāhmaṇas will teach, and everybody else will sit humbly and try to learn. But then you are asking me to upset the tradition. Pratiloma means the opposite way: a kṣatriya becomes a teacher, a brāhmaṇa will become a student. Yath etat brāhmaṇaḥ kṣatriyam upayāt, brahma me vakṣyatīti—'You are a brāhmaṇa. I am a kṣatriya. That day a brāhmaṇa can approach a kṣatriya: "You teach me especially about Brahman." Vā ava tvā vijñāpayiṣyāmi—But you are an earnest student. When an earnest student comes, there is a rule: he should never be rejected.

Dronacharya's Mistake

Droṇācārya committed this terrible mistake. Ekalavya was even more fitted, but in his arrogance, Droṇācārya behaved extremely badly. Not only he refused to teach, when he came to know that Ekalavya had chosen him as the guru and made a small image of his own guru out of clay, as if he was teaching (because the real teacher, we can understand, is neither Ajātaśatru nor Droṇācārya nor Śrī Rāmakṛṣṇa—it is only Mother Sarasvatī who teaches), then he demanded guru-dakṣiṇā without teaching. And what guru-dakṣiṇā? "You cut off your thumb"—without which Ekalavya would be incapable of practising archery.

Lessons from the Mahābhārata

We have to learn these lessons. In the Mahābhārata also, there are so many defects of character—even though Arjuna revered him so much, there was a defect in Droṇācārya, even in Bhīṣmācārya. But we have become blind. What do the Purāṇikas tell us? The Bhāgavatars tell us: "Oh, Bhīṣma was an unparalleled person. Droṇācārya was a great ācārya." No—Droṇācārya, for example, should never have taught his own son Aśvatthāmā, who was completely unfit, because a man of character alone can be taught this highest of the Brahmāstra. Arjuna was okay, and we know what was the result, what had happened. But because of his blind love—"This is my son"—and also the child did not learn fully. He only knew how to discharge, not how to stop.

Bhīṣma's Failure

What about Bhīṣma? Bhīṣma was supposed to be an incarnation of dharma. He knew dharma, but he was never an incarnation of dharma because he saw so many things even after knowing how much of injustice, how much of cruelty his Kauravas were practising. Either he should have joined the Pāṇḍavas, or he should have gone to a forest and lived. But neither did he do. He stuck, he fought along with the Kauravas, and then he destroyed so many of the army of the Pāṇḍavas. From a historical point of view, that is not acceptable at all. Anyway, coming back.

Ajātaśatru's Acceptance

So Ajātaśatru said: "This is not in the tradition." But there is something we have to understand. There are certain duties incumbent upon brāhmaṇas. What are they? First of all, adhyayana and adhyāpana—so a brāhmaṇa has to be engaged in continuous learning. And then whatever he understands, he should give it freely, not expecting any fees or anything. That is called adhyāpana. Then yajana and yājana—he can do yajñas etc. by himself, and if somebody, a king for example, employs him, he should do it. Yajana means he should do himself; yājana means if somebody requests him to perform, then he should perform it. Then dāna—that is, he can accept charity because he does not accumulate anything, he does not possess anything. So he should live a simple life—as Socrates tells the philosophers: very simple life—simple living, high thinking. And then tapasyā—he must always perform austerity so that he will be revered.

Kṣudirām's Example

Kṣudirām was such a person; he never expected anything from anybody. That is why God Himself wished to be born as this child of Kṣudirām. It is not only the life of Śrī Rāmakṛṣṇa; the life of his parents was unparalleled. Just meditate on Kṣudirām, meditate on Candramaṇī—then you will understand what I am talking about. Such a guileless person was the mother of Śrī Rāmakṛṣṇa. Nothing will be hidden in her—as they say pete kichu rākbenā—she will not keep anything hidden. That is the meaning. Everything she tells openly, and people used to ridicule: "You are such a foolish woman, so innocent. You should not talk to people what is in your mind." But Śrī Rāmakṛṣṇa loved that and said: "My mother is an example of what is called satya. They thought the speech and the action should be one and never deviate from each other."

Śrī Rāmakṛṣṇa on His Father

Śudhiram, he said—Śrī Rāmakṛṣṇa said: "Before this storm of spiritual sādhana, like a ghost caught hold of my head and made me go through, I used to think I will follow the footsteps of my father." Most of the ancient ṛṣis were like that. So even though a brāhmaṇa—what is it? He should learn, he should teach, he can—he has to perform special yajñas, and if he is employed, he can assist a mahārāja, a great prince, etc., and he must accept. If he has more, he can also give, distribute it with others. And at the same time, he must do tapasyā—because such a person is called a brāhmaṇa.

Ajātaśatru's Response to Gārgya

Now in this case, Ajātaśatru said: "Sā ayam ikṣatriyaḥ—even though I am a knower of Brahman, I will accept you because you are a proper person, a fit student. But you do not need to sit below me. You do not need to make praṇāms to me. On the contrary, I will just treat you as my friend, and I will tell you." Then he said: "Vā eva tvā jñāpayiṣyāmi—that is, 'I will definitely teach you. Vijñāpayiṣyāmi—I will let you know whatever I know.'"

The Real Teaching Begins

Then what did he do? Tam pāṇāv ādāya—probably both were sitting. So Ajātaśatru caught hold of the hand of Gārgya because he wanted to teach him something, and then he said: "Come with me." So anybody can be a teacher. Even from a caṇḍāla, even from a baby we can learn. From now onwards, the real teaching about the Nirguṇa Brahma starts.

The Teaching Method: Deep Sleep as an Example

What steps did Ajātaśatru take to prove that man's real nature is actually divine? Swami Vivekananda says: "Each soul is potentially divine." So that means each soul is none other than Ātman or Brahman—Ahaṃ Brahmāsmi. But "potential" means for now it is hidden, like a huge tree is hidden inside a tiny seed—like a banyan seed. So what did Ajātaśatru do to teach Gārgya Bālāki that the Jīva—everyone of us, not only Gārgya—each one of us is Brahman, the highest ultimate reality?

The Brilliant Process

So Ajātaśatru used a very brilliant process of elimination followed by practical demonstration, using deep sleep as an example. What did he do? So to demonstrate the truth that Jīva is no other than Brahman, Ajātaśatru takes Gārgya by the hand and leads him to a man who is fast asleep. When you read this particular portion, you may get the word Bālāki. So Gārgya and Bālāki—at the very beginning it is mentioned—they are one and the same person. I am using frequently the word "Gārgya," but you might come across "Bālāki" also.

The Three States of Experience

So approach a person who is deeply asleep. This, as we know, is the third state of experience. Jāgrat—waking state—where the body, mind, all the sense organs function. Then only mind functions with the impressions gathered during the waking state, either in this life or in many of the past lives. That is called Svapnāvasthā—the state of dreaming. And then we all enter—these are all our day-to-day experiences. So what is the third stage? Deep sleep.

Deep Sleep as an Illustration

So here he found a person, and then he wanted, through this deep-sleep person—that means taking deep sleep as an example—Ajātaśatru wanted to teach what happens in this state of deep sleep. Now we should not equate deep sleep with abiding in Brahman, because this is also a temporary state only. But it will do as an illustration. What is deep sleep? Absolutely, there is no mind. When we say there is no mind, no body awareness is there. No awareness of the mind—that means no awareness of the entire creation—and the person is beyond time, space, and causation, and he abides—that is the nearest state to the real state of Brahman.

Deep Sleep vs. Nirvikalpa Samādhi

So we must always keep in mind deep sleep—that is all we can say. You cannot take a person, a student, and say when Śrī Rāmakṛṣṇa was in Nirvikalpa Samādhi, "Look, this is the Nirvikalpa Samādhi person." No, even if you take a knife and pierce him, he would not be awake from that state, because deep sleep can be woken up even with a little bit of beating. But the state of Brahman—you can never wake him up. You have to understand these words properly. Because once a person enters Nirvikalpa Samādhi, it is not that like deep sleep he will come back and then act like an ignorant person.

Your Own Experience

Whenever you see a person who is awake—you take your own case. You are so peaceful. Several hours you have slept so deeply. You have gone out of time, space, and causation, and that is the real cause why you are so happy. Because there is no dvitīya—there is no second. And what happens when there is a second, whether it is in the dream state or waking state? When a person is experiencing a second—"second" means any number, not only one—then the person's mind can be happy, unhappy, and an infinite number of moods can happen. But when a person—even if he is so-called Jīvanmukta—his mind is permanently anchored in that knowledge "I am Brahman." And this state Ramana Maharshi used to call Sahaja Samādhi. Sahaja means what? Once a person gets this experience, he cannot be separated from it.

The Cinema Analogy

So even in the waking state, a Jīvanmukta perceives the waking state like you are perceiving a cinema. Supposing you yourself have acted—or a better example would be: supposing you are acting in a cinema, and in that cinema your life is being shown. So it is 10 o'clock at night, and you go to bed, and you are deeply asleep—many things happen around you, but you are not aware of it. Then you wake up. When your waking state starts, after some time you sit and go on either daydreaming, or if you go to lie down on bed, you will be having invariably some kind of dream. Imagine you are acting all these states, but you are also watching. So you are watching them, and yet you know that you are the watcher—the continuous watcher of all the three states. Which is not the case in our case: when I am in the waking state, I become a participant and a witness of the waking. So also in the dream, so also in the deep sleep state.

Consciousness in Deep Sleep

"Am I conscious of myself in the deep sleep state?" I have dealt with this subject so many times. Yes, you are completely conscious. So if somebody asks you when you are taking a leisurely walk in your waking state: "Are you in the waking state?" He says: "Of course, I can see you, I can hear you, I can reply to you." And when you are in the dream state, then in dream also you feel exactly the same thing: "I am awake." You feel only when you wake up from the dream and come back to the waking state—then you say: "That was all my mental imagination, but it is not the real waking state." But so long as we are dreaming, that is pure, just like the waking state—no difference at all. But when it comes to the deep sleep state, we have a problem because "I do not remember anything."

Remembering Deep Sleep

Do not you remember? Definitely you remember. You do not remember something, but you remember something. What is it you do not remember? That tomorrow morning I have to go to work; I have got a lot of pending work in the office, and my boss told me to complete it. That you do not remember because the entire world—both waking and dream—have disappeared. But what do you say when you wake up? "Oh, I was so happy. I did not know anything." Did you not know I was experiencing happiness? Definitely, you know it. Did you not know I did not know anything? Because to know something, and as well not to know something, only a knower can tell. Because if a knower does not know what he does not know, he cannot tell: "I do not know."

The Knower of Both Knowledge and Ignorance

But we always are telling: "Do you know such and such a person?" "No, I do not know." "Do you know such and such a person?" "Of course, I know him very well." So you are knowing one person very well and not knowing anything about the other person. "I know, I do not know"—both you are the knower of both these. When there is light, I see so many things; when there is darkness, I do not see anything. So what do you say? "I know I cannot see anything." That is a very valid knowledge.

Abhāva Pratyaya

A book, for example, is not found in a room. I discussed also this point. This is called abhāva-pratyaya. This is also a pramāṇa. Usually you keep a book in your own bedroom, but one day you do not find it. You know that nobody had taken it out of the house. That means this is a knowledge: "I know my book is here. I know my book is not here." You have complete knowledge about these experiences, and this knowledge—"the book is not there"—leads you: "Then it must be somewhere else." So usually I saw my family member reading. So you will go to that room, and invariably you find that book there. So you see, even in the deep sleep state, it is not that we are unconscious; we are completely conscious.

The Consciousness That Witnesses All States

This consciousness which is witnessing all the three states never becomes absent. That is why in the Bṛhadāraṇyaka Upaniṣad, 1.4.10, it says: this vijñāna—that is pure consciousness—will never be absent. But the secondary consciousness—that is the borrowed consciousness of the mind—is not only changing, but it is also borrowed. Therefore, the mind can have a non-conscious state, but that consciousness—pure consciousness—which the mind is borrowing, can never be absent, because it is beyond time, space, and causation. We are aware of time because of that consciousness. We are not aware of time—that is also because of that consciousness. So deep sleep also, we are completely aware. These are some of the important points we have to keep in mind. I hope you will keep them in mind; then only the teaching of Ajātaśatru becomes easier for us to understand.

The Sleeping Man Incident

So Ajātaśatru goes and finds a sleeping person. This is all for teaching Gārgya. And then he calls, addressing the sleeping man by the names of Prāṇa. We have seen in the second upāsana—Chandra upāsana—the person of the moon. These are the Bṛhat, Pāṇḍaravasa, Somarāja. These are the three epithets given to Chandra. Bṛhat means very big. Pāṇḍaravasa means pure white. Somarāja means a very enjoyable state of mind. So when we look at the moon, our joy becomes—because there is no object. "Oh, I want to eat the moon, I want to fry it and then eat"—such things will not be there. It is just a pure joy, and everybody can enjoy it—the same moon. Which is if you are enjoying a sweetmeat, everybody cannot enjoy the same sweetmeat which you have. But this moon can be enjoyed by everybody—there is no doubt about it. That is called Somarāja. That is why this somarasa they call it. Somarasa is the result of the influence of the moon, and that gives a very pleasant intoxication where you can have divine visions. That is why they used to frequently use it in the yajñas and yāgas, and there are even horrible descriptions: Indra drank so much of this wine, he became—he started talking irrelevantly. So that is also possible. There is a mātrā—there is a measurement beyond which you lose your control.

Calling the Sleeping Man

So Ajātaśatru, pointing out to the sleeping man, calls names, and by the way, the same names are applicable to samaṣṭi Prāṇadevatā also, which is Hiraṇyagarbha. So he addresses by these names. Of course, the man cannot hear. Then Ajātaśatru lightly touches the man. He strikes him lightly, and every time he increases the pressure, the force, and he did not wake up. And after some time, he shakes him very violently, and then the man wakes up. That is all the necessary event for Ajātaśatru to teach about. That incident is closed.

Ajātaśatru's Question

When Ajātaśatru asks, addressing Gārgya, he says: "Now this jīvātman—because this person—where did he go? Where was he residing when he could not respond? Either to calling his names, calling, touching, shaking—only violently shook. And how did he come? Where was he, and how did he come?"

Deep Sleep as a Hypothesis

So taking deep sleep as a model, as a hypothesis, he wants to point out: if deep sleep itself can give so much of joy, so much of knowledge—knowledge of Brahman—I will shortly come to that. Then if a person really has Brahman knowledge, how much he can gain! Because the nearest state where Brahman—pure consciousness—can manifest is this deep sleep state, and the next is the dream state. Remember, what is the difference between waking and dream state? In the waking state, time, space, and causation are heavily restricted, whereas in the dream state, you can fly to Mars, the United States; you can become anything you want; you can embrace anybody you want; you can eat anything you want; you can become a great king, etc., etc. But the moment you come to the deep sleep state—I am forestalling what is about to come. Beautiful description this Bṛhadāraṇyaka Upaniṣad gives us.

The Same Experience for All

So this person—whether a mahārāja, a great king, is sleeping; a baby is sleeping; a dog is sleeping; a sinner is sleeping; an evil person is sleeping; a mosquito is sleeping; a tree is sleeping—it makes no difference. They have exactly the same experience. So in deep sleep, there is no world. That means there is no second—ekam eva advitīyam—of course, until it lasts. And then it is a state where the person is aware that "I am." I am not a man, I am not a dog, I am not a mahārāja, I am not a baby, but just "I am." What type of "I am"? I exist, and then I am so happy, and I know I exist and I am very happy. So I am Sat, I am Cit, I am Ānanda.

Poor Man's Samādhi

This is the nearest state—that is why senior swamis call it "poor man's samādhi"—"poor man's Nirvikalpa Samādhi." Anybody, everybody, we all get it, and then we are experiencing it, but the tragedy is we never study it. And it is only these great Hindu scriptures—practically every Upaniṣad: Chāndogya, Bṛhadāraṇyaka, Māṇḍūkya especially—made it a special subject of its study, because nobody studies what is this phenomenon called deep sleep.

The Analogy of the Unknown Animal

So through deep sleep, he wants to give an example. Like: "You know, have you seen this animal?" "No, sir. But do you know anything about this animal?" "No, sir, I will tell you. This animal which lives in a deep forest looks like a cow. It is not a cow, but in many respects it looks like a cow—many similarities are there." So next time when this person goes into the forest and suddenly happens to see this animal, he knows definitely this is not a cow. But he remembers the words of the wise person: "This must be that special type of animal about which my friend, my teacher told me—it looks like a cow, but absolutely not a cow at all."

The Only Way

So that is how through this analogy—taking the analogy of deep sleep—that is the only way; there is no other way. You cannot—manu ito vāco nivartante aprāpya manasā saha. So Ajātaśatru wants to give this example of deep sleep through the model of deep sleep; he wants to convey: just imagine that a person continuously will be abiding in that deep sleep state—a deep sleep state where a person does not come out of it to experience another state, and it is a state experienced with full consciousness as we experience the waking and the dream states, and yet he knows. In fact, this person experiences all the three states completely, and he watches: "I am only manifesting as the waking, I am only manifesting as the dream, I am only manifesting as the deep sleep."

The Special Characteristics of Deep Sleep

But this deep sleep has got some very special characteristics. Through them, through meditation on them, through upāsana on them, one will finally attain Brahmajñāna. So Ajātaśatru asks, pointing out—that incident was over—so is this Vijñānamaya Puruṣa. That means the real man—that means the pure consciousness within this jīvātman is called jīvātman. Vijñānamaya—pure consciousness, Caitanya—Jīva. And this is the highest manifestation in human beings, and especially in awakened human beings. Where was it buried, and from where did it return and identify itself with the physical body after this person was violently shaken? Bālāki Gārgya was unable to comprehend the mystery; he admits he simply does not know.

Waking and Dream States Analysed

Waking state, dream state were analysed. Why are we not able to understand this deep sleep state? Ajātaśatru tells, teaches Gārgya: that discovering the true human being or the true Self is an exceptionally difficult task because it is not something visibly or easily intelligible. He clarifies why he specifically chose a sleeping man rather than a waking person or even a dreaming person to illustrate the knowledge of Brahman.

The Waking State

What happens in our waking state? During our waking hours, our consciousness is scattered outward, behaving much like sparks of fire spread over millions of different things. We become acutely aware of external space, the passage of time, and we identify with myriads of objects outside ourselves. And this is a point we have to clearly understand. When I see a man, I become that man. That means my eyes go and take an impression of that object and present it to the mind, and the mind becomes one with that photo, so to say, and then for the time being it becomes—when a person says, when we say "I know this person," whenever we say that, we have to identify ourselves with that person, our vṛtti and the object outside—artha and jñāna—vāk and artha—iva sampṛktau—inseparable. Mentally you can separate discriminatingly; actually you cannot separate. So we become identified. Then we may like—we may become attached, or we may become—we may hate, we may not like that person. Whatever it is: "I like this person. I do not like this person." Then I become love of that person; I become hatred of that person—love and hatred. Then we forget—our consciousness forgets "I am pure consciousness"—and then remains identified, thinks in that delusory way, and reacts with that delusory knowledge. That is why the waking state cannot be a right model to describe consciousness.

The Dream State

So then the waking state is constant distraction, fragmentation—time, space, and causation, everything is fragmented. That is why waking state is not a good example to teach about Brahman. What about the dream state? So during deep withdrawal of ourselves into the dream state, there also we create—our own mind creates—exactly the same physical world. We get attached there also. We get attached to places, persons, events, emotions, experiences—everything. And that is complete opposite knowledge to Brahma knowledge.

The Deep Sleep State

But when a person withdraws himself from the waking, from the dream, and enters into deep sleep—the state of deep sleep serves as the perfect symbol for understanding the true Self or the Ātman or Brahman. So in both waking and sleeping, the individuals possess the self, and then we separate ourselves: "I am different, everything else different." In deep sleep, the central consciousness withdraws all external experiences into itself, and not only that, along with that, the mind—all our sense organs excepting the prāṇa—completely withdraw inwards. Senses such as speech, sight, hearing—all other things cease to function entirely, and even the thinking mind is deactivated. All transactions and communications with the external world are definitely put to an end.

The Self Rests in Its Own Pristine Purity

The self no longer wanders; it rests in its own pristine purity within the cosmic space—the dhārākāśa—ether of consciousness located in the centre of the heart:

हृदय-कमल-मध्ये राजितं निर्विकल्पं सदा सदिकाल-भेदातीतं एकस्वरूपम्.

hṛdaya-kamala-madhye rājitaṃ nirvikalpaṃ sadā sadikāla-bhedātītaṃ ekasvarūpam.

In this profoundly quiet state, there is a practical non-existence of the individual, because an individual is an individual only in comparison with the world. When there is no world, I do not think "I am an individual." For all conceivable external purposes, the self alone remains.

Temporary vs. Permanent

But remember, even here also, that awareness is broken temporarily, as if we are in Nirvikalpa Samādhi. So temporary Nirvikalpa Samādhi is called Suṣupti, and permanent Suṣupti can be called as Nirvikalpa Samādhi.

Conclusion: The Circulation of States

Beautiful thoughts—some more are there. So let us take our own time to understand this properly. What we are talking is not theory; it is what we are experiencing every day of our life. We are circulating from one state to the other—not only at night we go into deep sleep, but in between two thoughts, we also go into that same state, about which we will talk in our next class.

Closing Prayer

ॐ जननीं शारदां देवीं रामकृष्णं जगद्गुरुम् ।पादपद्मे तयोः श्रित्वा प्रणमामि मुहुर्मुहुः

Om Jānānāṃ Śāradāṃ Devīṃ Rāmakṛṣṇaṃ Jagadgurum Pada Padme Tayo Śṛtvā Praṇamāmi Muhur Muhuh

May Rāmakṛṣṇa, Holy Mother, and Swami Vivekānanda bless us all with Bhakti.

Jai Rāmakṛṣṇa!