Brihadaranyaka Upanishad Ch.2 1.15-20 Lecture 49 on 11 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: The Ajātaśatru-Gārgya Dialogue

So we have been discussing the Ajātaśatru and Gārgya conversation. Gārgya became the willing, humble student of Ajātaśatru, who was a jñānī of Brahman. Along with that, we also have to remember he was a contemporary of Janaka Mahārāja. Therefore, there may be many other kings – that is what Bhagavān Kṛṣṇa refers to in the Bhagavad Gītā: karmaṇai vaṃ saṃsiddhim āsthitāḥ, janakādayaḥ – Janaka King and many others (ādī means etc.). There must have been many great people. So there is no such rule that only Brahmins would become jñānīs of Brahman. Anybody, even a caṇḍāla, can become a jñānī of Brahman – the famous anecdote of a caṇḍāla who was supposed to be Bhagavān Himself because after the knowledge of Brahman, a person cannot be called a caṇḍāla or a Brāhmaṇa; he becomes, he is, remains Brahman only. But he appeared in the form of a caṇḍāla to create humility. And what is that humility? That feeling “I am a Brāhmaṇa superior to other people” should be gotten rid of. If one does not, then he is not only not a spiritual sādhaka; he is a deeply worldly person. So we can learn.

What is the second lesson we have to learn from this incident? Anybody can be a teacher. Even a small child can also be a great teacher. That is why there is a beautiful saying: bāla vākyaṃ brahma vākyam – the innocent truth coming out of the mouth of a baby is actually the words of Bhagavān Himself.

So we have seen that Gārgya became a truly fit disciple; otherwise a great teacher will not teach. Now Ajātaśatru wanted to take him to a sleeping man. And why did Ajātaśatru take him by hand to this person? Because Ajātaśatru wanted to teach through the analysis of avasthā traya – three types of experiences: the waking (jāgrat), the dream (svapna), and the deep sleep (suṣupti). Through the analysis of these three, one can gain a lot of understanding; one's intellect can become very purified and rid of many superstitions, wrong misunderstandings, etc.

The Significance of the Three States in Vedānta

This is a very favourite theme in the Upaniṣads and also in the Bhagavad Gītā. Where do we get it in the Bhagavad Gītā? Indirectly we get that: śītoṣṇa-sukha-duḥkheṣu samaḥ – whatever we experience through the sense organs, the knowledge we get through the sense organs – like heat and cold, happiness and unhappiness, honour and dishonour, etc. – they are all temporary, changing. Avasthāntara – so they go on changing. Cold changes into heat, heat changes into cold; happiness into unhappiness, unhappiness into happiness; honour into dishonour, dishonour into honour. All the time it is happening. So what is the point? That which is changing must have a changeless background, because without this changeless background, one can never experience what is changing – a great psychological, of course spiritual, truth. So Bhagavān is telling tāṃs titikṣasva – very profound meaning is there. The literal meaning is just “go on bearing”.

Śaṅkarācārya explains beautifully: if you really analyse the causes of heat and cold, happiness and unhappiness, these heat and cold, happiness and unhappiness are not the causes of either happiness or unhappiness. As an example, the same heat – now we are experiencing in Vārāṇasī or in the West, especially Europe – the same heat will be very pleasant in deep winter seasons everywhere. But the same cold will be most pleasant if it comes here even by a little bit of raining. If the degree of heat comes down, what a happiness we feel! What is the point? Changeful things cannot be changed, but they need not affect us. Like the Zen master says: “The cause of my constant happiness is that when it is winter, I accept it as a cold season; when it is summer, I also accept it equally as a season of terrible heat.” Once we accept, the mind would not suffer much. By accepting, things would not change, but our mind remains calm and quiet, and a calm and quiet mind is a happy mind.

That is why when we do not experience even this heat and cold – when the entire world, including the interpreting or misinterpreting mind, is absent – the greatest bliss is obtained in deep sleep.

The Witness Consciousness

So this analysis of these three states – what is the first truth they indicate? Since waking is changing into dream, dream into dreamless, dreamless into waking – how do I know? Because I, the changeless Self-consciousness, am witnessing all these three. That is the point. And to understand how, or to have a glimpse – a fore‑glimpse – of what type of experience we may possibly have if we know that we are Brahman, or in other words, when we experience nirvikalpa samādhi, the nearest example for that deeper understanding is the analogy of deep sleep (gāḍha nidrā, suṣupti, whatever you call it). What is its specialty? Time, space, and causation completely disappear. Only when they disappear do we experience deep sleep. And what are time, space, and causation? They are called the world. The world is time, space, and causation. And time, space, and causation is the world. Another name for it is names and forms; every name and every form are different. That indicates a difference in space, and past and present are experienced. That indicates that we are changeable materials – another name for the world.

But wherever there is an observation of changefulness, there must be a changeless consciousness. Consciousness is absolutely relevant. Without consciousness, we will not become aware of either time or timelessness. To say “this is an object” requires consciousness; and to say “that object is not here” – whether an object is or whether it is not – that can be witnessed only by the changeless consciousness which is separate from both the changing and changeless material. So that is the lesson we have to learn through the analysis of this avasthātraya – the three states of waking, dream, and dreamless state.

Ajātaśatru's Method of Teaching

Now, how does Ajātaśatru want to teach this? So this is what we will do. I have taken this from a senior swami beautifully – he does it, and this swami's name is Swami Krishnananda. He was a disciple of Swami Śivānanda of the Divine Life Society, and I also heard some senior swamis expounding these three states.

So here, what is the instruction? How does Ajātaśatru initiate this instruction? And in between we also confirm the teachings of Swami Śrī Rāmakṛṣṇa and, wherever possible, of Holy Mother and Swami Vivekananda.

So this story of Ajātaśatru and Gārgya explores the Vedāntic philosophy through a dialogue between King Ajātaśatru and Gārgya, specially focusing on the nature of the jīvātman (individual soul) and its identity with Paramātman. The implied meaning is: Paramātman is Brahman, God. We are aware of it, but we are also aware that the jīvātman – our individual soul, what we twenty‑four hours call “me”, “I” – we think “I am very small, my knowledge is very small, my power is very small, my understanding is very small, everything is very small. I am an infinitesimal part of that Paramātman.” Difference is there; we see a lot of differences between “I” and everything else. According to Vedānta, this is not the true understanding of the individual soul. So how do we come to know what is the real nature of the individual soul? For that purpose, Ajātaśatru is trying to analyse all the three states through the analysis of deep sleep.

The Sleeping Man

So Ajātaśatru takes Gārgya by hand, goes to a sleeping man, and first he calls him by some names: Bṛhan, Pāṇḍravasā, Somarāja. These are the names of the Prāṇadevatā. Prāṇadevatā is nothing but Candradevatā. Both are nothing but Hiraṇyagarbha. This is the way he wants to do, and for that purpose, the student has to be made fit to understand the teaching. That is why Ajātaśatru, as we have seen, had made Gārgya expand his understanding of the knowledge of Hiraṇyagarbha through the contemplation of Hiraṇyagarbha in its various aspects. Every time we progress a little, our understanding of the supreme reality becomes better and better. And for that, the mind has to be made into its original quality called sattvaguṇa (there is no equivalent word in English for this quality). So tamoguṇa has to be converted into rajoguṇa, and rajoguṇa into sattvaguṇa, and then go beyond all three – but sattvaguṇa leads one to the highest reality. What a profound story Śrī Rāmakṛṣṇa tells of the three robbers – you should apply this here.

The Three States Compared

When we are deeply engrossed in our waking state, that can be compared to tamoguṇa dominating. Tamoguṇa means not sleep; tamoguṇa means less understanding, more distraction, less concentration. But when we enter into the next subtle, subtler, higher stage – anything that is subtler is better, closer – when we come to the dream state, then the mind is free. Notice how time becomes almost infinite. You think of America – you are in America or UK or Australia. You think of anybody, however far away, he will be present. Even a dead person will be presented to you in dream state as a live person; even future persons also you can see. Such is the greatness, the glory of this dream state.

Then we come across the deep sleep state, where the jāgrat (waking) and the dream are both completely cut off, and as I mentioned earlier, time, space, and causation are gone. But this is also a state. A state means limitation; limitation is called a state. Why? Because unconsciously, time will bring an end to this, and again we wake up, and again we fall into this. So the dream state is better than the waking state, and the deep sleep state is much superior, much nearer, because the less the duality, the more near we are to the highest truth.

In the gross waking state, experiencing the world, we are in deep tamas – long distance away from Brahman. In the dream state, we are much nearer – this is a wonderful state. We can dream of gods, deities, and there is a lot of karmaphala kṣaya also can be done – destruction or exhaustion of karmaphala – because if somebody had accumulated a lot of puṇyam (virtue) and the result of it is tremendous happiness, that happiness is much superior in the dream state. So do not go on objecting: “At least in the waking state, if I have to eat a big rasagullā, it gives me at least five minutes of happiness, but in the dream it exhausts itself in a twinkling of a second.” No, that is a wrong understanding. This is our misunderstanding of the dream experience through waking‑state comparison. But when we are in the dream state, it does not look like a twinkling of a second; it looks exactly like the waking state – it may look even more. And in the waking state you have to spend a lot of money; in the dream state you just think about it, and you can have as many sweets as you want, as much happiness as you want. But for that you have to train your mind. To have happy dreams is a great sādhanā.

Dreams and Saints

If you go on filling your mind with the incidents in the lives of great saints, and sometimes deep contemplation of Jesus Christ even brings about what they call stigmata – physically it is present, as it was present when Śrī Rāmakṛṣṇa was meditating on Hanumān, as well as on Rādhā or on Kālī. So do not think the dream state is an unreal state. It is equally real – as real, if not more real, than the waking state – so long as we are experiencing it. But the freedom we get is greater. So if you train your mind, you can go where you like, you can meet whom you like, you can read what you like, you can understand what you like, and several times you can get glimpses of great truth in the dream state.

Several novelists, for example, G. K. Chesterton – he had written a book, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. The entire book came to him from the beginning to the end in a dream. And he himself said later on: “When I woke up, I vividly recollected, and all that I needed to do was to take blank paper, put a pen to the paper, and the story flowed by itself.” It is one of the classic stories of how we divide, we deceive our own mind – these are great writers.

So, the dream state – that is why Śrī Rāmakṛṣṇa asked M: “Do you have dreams about holy people?” And if you recollect, M narrated how he wanted to cross a huge ocean and there were no boats. He saw an old Brāhmaṇa – you should recollect that story. “Where are you going?” He was told by this Brāhmaṇa: “I am going to the Bhāvānīpur, to the city of the Divine Mother.” “Oh, I also wanted to go there.” After hearing this dream, Śrī Rāmakṛṣṇa's hair stood on end. He said: “You are ready now to accept a Guru, because this kind of dream indicates that he is waiting for somebody to guide him how he can cross this ocean of saṃsāra – this world, transmigratory existence.” What a beautiful interpretation! We have to understand: a dream is nothing but a symbol of what we experience, and not only what we experience but, more importantly, how we experience.

Deep Sleep as the Nearest Pointer

Deep sleep indicates it is the nearest state to the experience of the nature of Brahman. That is what Ajātaśatru slowly wanted to do. But in this process, he also gives a marvellous analysis of the waking as well as the dream state. If we understand what we are going to study now, we get the real essence of this entire second chapter – the Ajātaśatru‑Gārgya Brāhmaṇa – until the end. The next one is only an illustration of this through the dialogue between Yājñavalkya and Maitreyī. We will come to that later on.

So by observing a sleeping person, the source demonstrates that the true Self is distinct from the physical body and prāṇa, as the soul resolves into its original blissful nature during deep sleep. We have to understand – not one hundred percent resolution, but a great resolution, because there is no world first, but there is a sense of this state: “I am very happy, and I did not know how time had passed.”

Satyasya Satyam – The Truth of Truth

This explanation further also defines the secret name of the Self as Satyasya Satyam. These are the two words which are going to come in future, but briefly, what it means is: this world is also satyam (truth) – it is not mithyā – only after we attain the knowledge of Brahman. As Śrī Rāmakṛṣṇa so beautifully illustrates for us: only when a person reaches the roof and understands what the roof is made of, then he understands the whole house is made of exactly the same material with which the roof is made. So once a person comes to know the nature of Brahman – Brahman means Sat-Cit-Ānanda; Sat means existence – whatever we see, that is in existence. So that existence part of the nāmarūpa is the truth. But the forms will change; the names will change.

A beautiful illustration one of our swamis gives: suppose you know a small boy from his childhood, and you are seeing – “Oh, this is that child. This is the young man. This is the middle‑aged man. This is the old man. This is the very old man.” Even though the body is changing, the mind is changing, the person's knowledge is changing, behind all that, this is the same person – he is not different. The child is not different from the young man; the young man is not different from the old man. So also apply this to ourselves. We also say: “I was when I was young, when I was a child, when I was middle‑aged” – but a great truth we are expressing: “I” – the person – is the same. Now, how can the same and the changefulness come together? Even though we do not analyse it that way, “I”, referring to that changeless person, is referring to pure consciousness. But “I was the child, I was the young person” – these changing natures are here. By that, we are indicating the nature of the body and also the accompanying mind. So we have two knowledges: true knowledge of pure consciousness, and also the changing nature of the body and mind with which I am associated.

Same thing: “I am going through the waking state – I am called the waker. I am the dreamer in the dream state, and I am the sleeper in the deep sleep state. I am the waker... but they are all completely changeable natures – one is not the other. But at the same time, I am telling – so I am the dreamer, I am the waker, I am the sleeper, etc.” – which clearly indicates I am mistaking the subject “me” with the objects – the waking, dreaming, and deep sleep – and then mistaking and combining these two. That is what Śaṅkarācārya beautifully says in his introduction to the Brahma Sūtras: satya-anṛta-mithunīkṛtya – what is this world? A mixture of truth and untruth. Untruth means not non‑existence; untruth means changefulness. Changelessness plus changefulness are mixed together, and we think it is one and the same, even though our mind knows it is not the same. That is called adhyāsa (superimposition). In our own terminology, it is called Māyā – mistaking two separate things as one and the same.

Nothing changes when knowledge dawns. We come to know: when I am in one state, I am the changeless. When I am in the other state, I am both changeless and changeful. When I am in nirvikalpa samādhi, I am pure Brahman. But when I become the Saguṇa Brahma, I become Saguṇa – that means the unchanging Brahman and Māyā (the changing world) are both mixed together, even though they cannot be mixed. That is what is expressed here as Satyasya Satyam – that which is the real reality of the changing reality. The changing reality is called satyam; it is not mithyā. Brahma satyam, jagat satyam – mithyā is only so long as we do not have the right knowledge. Once we get the right knowledge, we see the same thing.

So Śrī Rāmakṛṣṇa illustrates: a huge garden is made up of wax – different fruits, different structures – but from one point of view, the banyan tree is different from the grass blade, but from the wax point of view, both are exactly of the same nature. One who has this knowledge is called a knower of Brahman; in fact, he is called a jīvanmukta.

So this is what I wanted before we go further. When we say mithyā – and Advaitins are very fond of using this word without understanding – mithyā means what? An unchanging reality which reflects in our mind as a changing reality – that is called mithyā. So where is the change? The change is not in the outside. Even the words “outside” and “inside” are also part of this construction of the mind only; it is part of ignorance. In deep sleep, inside and outside, good and evil – all these will be completely transcended. That is why it is the nearest state to Brahman. It is a greatest pointer to Brahman. But do not ever mistake that suṣupti is Brahman. Brahman's nature is better understood through the analogy of this deep sleep – that is all.

The Two Truths

So seeing nāmarūpa and forgetting that it is nothing but manifestation of Brahman as nāmarūpa – that is called mithyā, and it is a mistake. So the second misunderstanding we have to remove: this Upaniṣad is telling Brahman as the only reality, only satyam. But by using this word, it is “the truth of the truth”. So the first truth is Brahman; the second truth refers to its manifestation as this world. And Thākur says this beautifully, clarifies this point when he mentions that the full value of a bela fruit cannot be appreciated unless we take the entire fruit – the skin, the seeds, and the sweet pith inside. So you should not take only the essence of the bela fruit. Of course, in practical affairs we have to do that, but when we say bela fruit, it means all three. So this world is also nothing but a manifestation of Brahman with names and forms, with bodies and minds – that is called satyam. But what is that real satyam? Brahman in the form of existence, consciousness, and bliss.

So this Upaniṣad wants to clarify – Ajātaśatru wants to make Gārgya understand – that the apparent individuality of the soul is merely an incidental superimposition caused by the mind, which can be transcended again through the mind by acquiring the knowledge of Advaita (non‑duality).

The Demonstration of the Sleeping Man

To demonstrate the reality of the Self, Ajātaśatru takes Gārgya to a sleeping man, addresses the Prāṇadevatā because Gārgya thought all his knowledge about real Brahman was real. Ajātaśatru makes him understand: no, you only know about Hiraṇyagarbha. And another name for that Hiraṇyagarbha is Prāṇadevatā. And that Prāṇadevatā is manifest in Candradevatā, because these are the words used in the Gārgya upāsana: “I contemplate on Candra.” And Ajātaśatru adds three more qualities: the great Bṛhan, Pāṇḍravasā (pure as white), and Somarāja (the essence of delight). So these are all Prāṇadevatā's names – other words, Hiraṇyagarbha's names.

So if you think Hiraṇyagarbha is the final truth – real Brahman – then as soon as I touched him, he should have woken up. As soon as I called him many times, he should have woken up. But he did not. I had to shake him, and then he woke up. That is all – the story ends there. That is an illustration. What is the purpose? To analyse: where was this person when I called? He did not respond. From where did he come? So where did he go? From where did he come? We have seen this one in the Chāndogya Upaniṣad: where do the beings go, and how do they come back? This is called Pañcāgnividyā. And of course the student did not know, so the king had to teach him – that is also a beautiful story. We have already done it. These are all related. When we read one Upaniṣad, if we can keep some of the key points, then we can enjoy them because all Upaniṣads are only manifestations of truth – that is all.

The Interpretation of the Shaking

So violently shaking the man eventually wakes him up, proving that the physical body is also completely distinct from the true conscious entity. Why do we say so? Because if the physical body is the consciousness, he should have been conscious. Let me give a small illustration. Suppose there is a current – you are attending a meeting, and then somebody calls: “Such‑and‑such a person is required immediately to report at the gate.” If that person is not referring to you, you will not care. But then when your name is mentioned – “Such‑and‑such a person” – that means you; you become immediately alert. So you get up and rush. That means you are responding to your name by just hearing it. But here the sleeping person did not respond. That means the physical body is now devoid of consciousness. And he shook a little bit – that means the dreaming person, that state also did not respond. Light shaking should have brought the person up, but he did not. So he was not in the waking state, he was not in the dream state, and there is only one state left out – that is called the deep sleep state. So it took time. So Ajātaśatru wanted to say, answering his own question to Gārgya: this person was in deep sleep, and he came back to this waking state by my violently shaking him. That is what he says.

Avasthā Traya Viveka – Analysis of the Three States

So this is called Avasthā Traya Viveka – analysis of the three states every jīva, every living creature undergoes.

Waking State (Jāgrat Avasthā)

In the waking state (jāgrat avasthā), the intellect expands, creating an extended sense of ego. Very important point: we are all cidābhāsas. What does it mean? Cit means Brahman. But because we are associated with body and mind, that consciousness of Brahman – or Brahman, who is pure consciousness – reflects in the mind at first, and that reflection is called ābhāsa. Ābhāsa means reflection. Cit means pure consciousness; reflection of pure consciousness – and that pure consciousness is what we call “I” (aham). So when this cidābhāsa can associate with the waking state, also can associate with the dream, also can associate with the dreamless state – all three states.

So what happens when this cidābhāsa identifies with the waking state? Body becomes fully aware; the whole world – we become conscious of the whole world – and we develop attachments. We develop dislikes, likes and dislikes, attachment and detachment, loving and hating, liking and disliking, honour and dishonour, heat and cold, happiness and unhappiness. Our mind becomes – or the cidābhāsa becomes – completely identified and forgets who is the pure sākṣī (witness) “I”.

Dream State (Svapna Avasthā)

Same thing more or less happens when the cidābhāsa identifies. It is of course not identified with the physical body (gross body), but it identifies with the subtle body (also called mind). But the mind is not pure mind; it is full of impressions gathered in the waking state and taking all those impressions, like mixing masalas. So the mind goes on mixing, and the entire purpose is to experience happiness or unhappiness according to the karma it had done in the past. This is again a very important point. So some dreams can be very happy, some dreams can be extremely painful, and it depends upon what our saṃskāra has – what impressions we have gathered through various lives in the past. So if somebody had done puṇya karma, he will have tremendous amount of happy dreams. Somebody had done the opposite, then he will have to suffer a lot.

So the point we have to derive is: not only can we create, experience, and exhaust karmaphala in the waking state, we can also do so in the dream state. I am carried away by this actually, but it is a very wonderful analysis. Suppose there is a person who had done a lot of puṇya karma: not only when his cidābhāsa is associated with the gross body, then the whole world becomes Nandanavana – a pleasure garden – so the people whom he meets, the health, physical health, the climate – maybe he is living in a place where it is neither cold nor hot, and a lot of things grow, beautiful things, exotic things grow, etc. – and his parents are extremely good, very rich, very pure, very spiritual; his neighbours are great; and a great opportunity to learn – all these things are the resultant of how much puṇyam he has accumulated. But not only in the physical world – when he goes to sleep, his mind is deeply satisfied. He will have divine dreams, or great good, happy, pleasant dreams. And through the experience of that happiness, he is also exhausting the puṇyam. That is the point I wanted to clearly point out to you.

Dreams Exhaust Karmaphala

Not only the physical world – the dream world also – one can create desires; one can also exhaust karmaphala because what is it? Dreams have tremendous influence upon our mind. So when a person dreams, “I want to become a follower of Swami Vivekananda; I want to do a lot of good” – of course in the waking state we have to create, but in the dream state also we will be dreaming: “Where should I start? Such a beautiful place – maybe a school, maybe an āśrama, maybe a hospital, a dispensary. And how am I going to serve?” So a person's ambitions take shape in dreams. That is why it is said so beautifully: “Today's dream becomes tomorrow's reality.” These are all marvellous things we have to understand.

But then, there also the mind is entangled in this dream world, which indirectly points out entanglement with the gross world (the waking state). But there also, remember, in waking or dream, the opposites always work – heat and cold, happiness and unhappiness, honour and dishonour, profit and loss – all these things will be there.

Deep Sleep State (Suṣupti Avasthā)

But when the same person enters into that marvellous state – the most concentrated state, devoid of time, space, and causation – then... that is why, whether it is six hours or seven hours, a happy person, a virtuous person, sleeps like a small child – completely happy. He wakes up completely refreshed, completely energetic, and rearing, as we say. How many of us can really claim that “I get up and I am rearing – I feel a welling up within me”? Very difficult to understand that point.

So what we have to understand: Cit becomes cidābhāsa the moment we have a body and mind. This reflected consciousness called cidābhāsa is what we call “I”. This “I” divides itself into two – that is, the participating “I” and the witnessing “I”. As I mentioned earlier, spiritual life is nothing but transforming this participating “I” into this witness “I”. We do not give up what we have to do; we have to discharge our duties. But at the same time, like a person who goes on witnessing beautifully – like that Japanese monk who was abused (I told you this story before; I will remind you in our next class for the sake of our analysis).

Deep Sleep as Resolution into Oneself

When a person enters into this deep sleep state, he abides in himself, so to say – not really, but so to say – for some time, devoid of duality. This is again beautifully explained in other Upaniṣads, etc., that there are two powers of Māyā: vikṣepa śakti and āvaraṇa śakti. During waking and dream, vikṣepa śakti (scattering power, diffusing power) very much influences our lives. But in the deep sleep state, we do not have that problem because mind and body are absent – identity with them is absent. But āvaraṇa śakti remains – that means we truly do not know who we are, but we are very near to our own true nature; at least fifty percent of the ignorance is vanished completely. That is why deep sleep is the highest state of happiness anybody can experience, and some saints compare it even to Brahma Loka ānanda. So for a poor man's Brahma Loka ānanda – not Brahmanānanda, don't mistake – Brahma Loka ānanda is this deep sleep.

These are marvellous things, and if we understand this beautiful analysis, we understand the essence of the entire Ajātaśatru‑Gārgya dialogue.

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!