Mumukshu

Sleep is a fascinating and complex experience, but little do we know that
there is a profound mystic experience lying beneath.

Mandukya Upanishad and Nrisimha-uttara-tApanIya-upanishad talks about
the different states we move on during our sleep. “Mandukya” in sanskrit
means frog. Just like the frog leaps from one place to another, we leap
from one state to another in sleep. Mandukya talks about 4 quarters
experienced.

The first quarter is “vaisvanara”, which is the waking state or “jagruti”.
During this quarter all our sensory faculties turn outward. It is within this
plane of jagruti that we live and experience all the gross objects of the
external world, including thoughts, desires and passions arising out of
them as well as the consequences (joy or pain).

The second quarter is “taijasa” or dream state into which we slip when
we go to sleep. In this quarter all our sensory faculties are turned inward.
They continue to perform their respective functions in an introvert mode.
In this state, not the gross objects of waking world that is experienced,
but their subtle impressions or images as imprinted upon our subconscious.
We do not carry with us into the dream state all of the objects of our desire,
hope, passion or fear. Only a residual part, the strongest of them follows us
into this state. As we start interpreting our dreams we will comprehend the
relationship between these two different states. It is also possible that our
dreams foretell in some vague way the events yet to happen in the waking
world. Heard of Dr. Sigmund Freud’s “Theory and Method of treating
psychological disorders through clinical interpretation of dreams?
It is all Mandukya.

What is common between these two different states? It is the desire.
Our desires in the waking state are multitudinous and multifarious.
A residual portion of it carried ahead. A subliminal baggage with only
the most deeply rooted elements of our desires cling to us like a shadow.

The third quarter is “Prajna” or “Prajnya” which is a real and mystical
part of sleep-experience. This is not the same as the shuttling between
the first two quarters. “Prajna” is experience of sheer unending ‘atmic’
bliss readily available at a certain exclusive spot en route the journey
of sleep. This spot is called “sUshUpta-sthAna” – a virtual locus of
mystical delight to be found beyond the first two quarters.

In “Prajna”, unlike “taijasa” or “vaishvAnara”, there is no trace of
desire or “kAma”. The residual portion of our dream state would not
be able to penetrate or infiltrate into this quarter. Since there is no
desire here, there is no use for the sense organs which withdraws
and retracts into the mind. The mind itself then lies absolutely still.
This state is “Prajna”, says the Upanishad. Where one, being fast
asleep, does not desire any desire whatsoever, that is deep sleep.
The sleeper is not conscious of this.

This is lord of all; This is the inner controller of all;This is the cause
of every other thing and place of origin and end of all beings.

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” called “Prajna”. Conveyed thus within the sighting
distance of “Prajna”, both our body and spirit begin to experience
the faint whiff of sheer spiritual bliss wafting across to us from
the “sUshUpta-stAna”.

Just at the moment when sleep is about to take us beyond
the dream-state of “taijasa” and to the very door steps of
blissful “prajna”, we are suddenly turned back. We head
right back again into the uneasy and motley world of dreams.
And there we remain meandering and maundering for few more
hours until the morning.

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 “taijasa” and approach the very doorsteps of “prajna”. 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 bliss
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 fourth quarter is the “turiya”. According to Mandukya, this state
is not what which cognizes the internal, not that which cognizes the
external, not a mass of cognition. It is unseen, incapable of being
spoken of, unnameable, the essence of the knowledge of the one self,
that into which the world is resolved, the peaceful, the benign. The
absolute experience of Brahman in the transcendent abode (“parama-pada”)
of the Almighty. According to Nrisimha-uttara-tApanIya-upanishad,
we have to go deeper to understand its nature. “Turiya” means “fourth”
or “final” or “the highest”. Beyond that there is nothing. According to
Advaitis, the jiva realizes it is Brahman itself. Nothing else exists.
No world, no life, except the Brahman.

In the deep sleep state (prajna), the person has only the breathing
which can be noted by others. But in the “turiya” state, it is just like
swooning where even the breathing is difficult to be known by others
but the body is alive.

What is this “turiya” state actually? No one can know it exactly,
as the person who is in this state will not be able to describe his
experience later after the “turiya” state, that is after he regains
consciousness.

However, we have been blessed with hundreds of verses of Azhwars
who have poured their own experience for us to gain knowledge about
Sriman Narayana’s grace. We have already noted that in the “turiya”
state, individual travels beyond consciousness. Azhwars have recorded
their experience going beyond this state. This is called “turiyat-turiyam”
mentioned in the Nrisimha Upanishad. In this ultimate state, the blessed
muktatma has a vision of the Lord and experience His company. There
also exist two levels – self-centred and selfless. At the self-centred level,
the individual muktatma derives pleasure from its being with the Lord and
its kainkarya to Him. Here, there is self-centredness in that there is
self-enjoyment for the mukta along with the Lord.

The final step is self-less level. In that level, the muktatma does not
bother about his own pleasure, but he is totally dedicated to the Lord’s
pleasure alone. He does not care whether he derives pleasure or pain.
His only, exclusive aim is to ensure that there is no pain for the Lord,
or to put it properly, there is no reduction in the Lord’s enjoyment. For
that purpose, the individual atma is prepared to undergo any suffering,
for that matter, even to live in the worst of hells. This can be known
from the Srisukthis of Sri Nammazhvar.