Aum

MOkshasaadhanam (Means of Liberation) – 19

Krishna Sastri

CONCIOUSNESS IN DEEP SLEEP

Sishya: I have a doubt about the existence of pure consciousness in my deep sleep.

Guru: What doubt?

Sishya: The ideas such as “I am a seer”, “I am a hearer” etc., indicating consciousness in me in my dream and in my waking state are absent in deep sleep together with the two states (of waking and dream). In my deep sleep I know of nothing, so there is no proof that pure consciousness existed during my deep sleep.

Guru: Did we not prove before that the Self which is consciousness is independent and therefore should not be understood to co-exist with another for mutual benefit?

Sishya: Sir, did you not say that the Self is always known to oneself? I was not aware of anything in my deep sleep and so I am making this statement.

Guru: You are contradicting yourself by saying that you were not conscious when as a matter of fact, you were (and you are and you will be).

Sishya: How so? I was never conscious of either myself or any object in my deep sleep.

Guru: You were definitely conscious in your deep sleep. Otherwise how can you make the statement of denial of the existence of objects in your deep sleep? Only when there was consciousness one could say that there IS or there IS NOT an object. Your own Self, the consciousness, is ‘absolute’ knowledge. It is only because the presence of this ‘absolute’ knowledge that you say that you were conscious of nothing. That knowledge of not knowing anything is also awareness, pure consciousness! If it was not for the pure consciousness you would have gone to sleep as Shankar and woken up as Bhaskar!

Bhagavan Ramana once remarked: "You wake up and say, 'I had a good sleep, I sept happily.' If it was not for the Self - the Consciousness - you would not have known of such an experience."