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========================================================
(continued from Part 3)

------------------------------------------------------

The Journey of "sUshupti"


When we go to sleep daily each night, little do we
realize that we also embark upon an extraordinary
journey that takes us away from the diverse world of
"vaishvAnara" far across to the frontiers of our
consciousness in "taijasa" and "praj~nya". 


It is in the vast landscape of dreams that much of our
journey of sleep is undertaken. Then for a very brief
while, no more than a few fleeting minutes, the
journey manages to leave behind the domain of
"taijasa" and advances even further. It is then that,
with tentative steps, we approach the gateway to the
wonderland of "abiding joy" the Upanishad calls
"praj~nya". 


Conveyed thus to within sighting distance of the
outskirts of the city of "praj~nya", both our body and
spirit begin to experience the faint whiff of "Ananda"
(sheer spiritual Bliss) wafting across to us from the
"sUshUpta-stAna". It is the special moment during
sleep when our breathing becomes deepest and sweetest.
It is the moment when the precious life-energy within
each of us, called "prANA", undergoes invigoration.
The muscles of our sleeping body completely relax.
(Medical science too confirms this). There are no
dreams, pleasant or otherwise, to disturb or distract
this brief but blessed state. In this near-"sUshUptic"
state there is no sensation of anything -- neither
objects of desire nor their impressions. There is not
even sensation of our individuality... This is
experience the Mandukya calls "Ananda", pure and
serene... but then it is mere intimation, not the real
experience of "praj~nya". And it is this mere
intimation of "Ananda" that we should recognize
constitutes the delight of a "good night's sleep". It
is the source of our bodily wellbeing and the reason
for our mental vitality. Like Wordsworth, we value it
more preciously than "all the morning's wealth". 


Yet, ironically, what the Mandukya reveals to us is
that the joy or vitality in a "good night's sleep" is
but mere infinitesimal fraction of the full-blown
experience of "Anandamaya" found in the inner-city of
"praj~nya" where "sarvEshwara", the Almighty Himself,
is said to reside in "sUshUpti"... 


*********


Just at the moment when sleep is about to take us
beyond the dream-state of "taijasa" and to the very
doorsteps of blissful "praj~nya", we are suddenly
turned back. We do a U-turn and head right back again
into the uneasy and motley world of "svapna". And
there we remain wandering and maundering for a few
more hours until the morning? when we finally wake up
to return to the harsh glare of common, sensory
reality: what we may call the "jAgrutic" pell-mell of
"vaishvAnara"... 


Night after night, all through our lives, without yet
being truly aware we are repeating and retracing the
same steps of this Upanishadic shuttle-journey of
"sUshUpti", we depart from the external world of
"vaishvAnara", travel across the dreamland of "swapna"
and approach the very doorsteps of the ultimate source
("yOnih") of Joy and Energy, "praj~nya". Alas, at the
very last moment, we are turned back. We never really
get to gain entry into that great city of
"sUshUpta-sthAna". All that we manage to bring back
with us every morning, as journey's poor reward for
the effort, is only so much of a whiff of divine
"Ananda" as will last us or linger with us, for a day
or two at best... no more! Come nightfall, when we are
worn out and exhausted once more by the external world
(of "vaishvAnara"), we will embark again upon the same
unconsummated trip to "sUshUpti" -- to forage for yet
another day's petty ration of energy, to gather "fresh
thoughts and joyous health"... In the Chandogya
Upanishad, Man's inability to fully seize and realize
the opportunity of "sUshUpti" is captured brilliantly
in a single line (8-3-2):


"Like strangers in an unfamiliar country

Walking over a hidden treasure day by day, 

We enter the world of Brahman while in deep Sleep

But never find it, carried away by what is false."


The Mandukya's extraordinary account of "sUshUpti"
provides us with this very valuable insight too: 


Instead of stating that Sleep is a deeply mystical
experience, it would be more accurate to say, rather,
that every night of sleep in the life of Man is a
night of missed opportunity for mystical fulfillment
-- it lies virtually round the corner? and is yet so
elusive?


The Weight of "kAma"


The line of study of the Mandukya we have followed so
far will not fail to raise some more questions in our
mind: 


· What is the reason for the opportunity of blessed
"sUshUpti" being missed again and again in the daily
journey of sleep? Even after going almost the full
distance, why do we repeatedly fall short of our mark,
the great "praj~nya"? 


· Why are we ordinary souls unable to penetrate that
third plane of human experiencing the Upanishad calls
"trutheeya-pAda"? Why are we unable to commune with
that state of "abiding joy" known to the Upanishad as
"praj~nyanaGhana'nandA"? Why must we remain content
with mere crumbs of "Ananda" in sleep when there is a
veritable ocean of bliss just beyond it? 


· Why can't we too enjoy, in the manner of AndAl's
yogis and 'muni-s', that deep and serene state of
"sUshUpti" otherwise known as "yOga-nidra"? 


The answer according to the Upanishad is simple:


If we grasp the reason why our passage from the
Waking-state to the Dream-state is easy, it will help
us see why exiting the Dream-state and penetrating
into the borders of "sUshupti" is so very difficult.
When we lie down to sleep at night, we must ask
ourselves, what happens to us? We abandon and leave
behind all frivolous desire and fears, all trifling
thoughts and feelings of our Waking world, isn't it?
What is this act of "abandoning"? It is really nothing
but shedding of "vaishvAnaric" weight and excess
baggage. We "give up", "renounce", "sacrifice",
"surrender" or "let slip" as much of "kAma" as is
necessary to wrench us out of the clutches of the
Waking world. The voluntary "load-shedding" ("nyAsa",
it is called in the parlance of VisishtAdvaita
Vedanta) is what enables the stilling of the senses
and enables our ascent to the second plane of
"taijasa", the greater experience of subtle worlds. 


In the state of "taijasa" however, we are unable to
repeat the success of the first one. The clinging
dead-weight of our deeper "kAma" is not so easily
jettisoned ("... na kamchana kAmum kAmayatE..", are
the words the Upanishad uses here suggestively). It is
inability to "abandon", to leave behind his deepest
Desire that firmly blocks Man's advance into
"sUshUpti", turns him away from its doorsteps and
seals him off from the bliss of pure "Ananda". This is
the reason why in that long journey of sleep into the
night, the city of "praj~nya" appears to Man to be so
near and yet so far... 


The Mandukya's vivid portrayal of all this is a
passage (stanza 5) that is truly immortal:


"The third state is called Praj~nya, of deep sleep

In which one neither dreams nor desires.

.......but the sleeper is not

Conscious of this.

Let him become conscious

In Praj~nya and it will open the door

To the state of abiding joy." 






(to be continued)


dAsan,

Sudarshan



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