MAN THE UNKNOWN: 

 

PSYCHOLOGY OF DEEP SLEEP:

 

 

The complete cessation of the activity of the mind, due to exhaustion, is deep sleep known as sushupti. Āchārya Ṡankara defines this state thus: “The state about which one says that ‘I did not know anything, I enjoyed good sleep’ is the deep sleep state” (Tattvabodha). In both the waking and dream states the ‘ego’ interacts with objects either of the waking world or the objects conjured up in the dream world. In the deep sleep state the human personality does not experience the feeling of egoism and is not aware of the objects. Actually the sense of “I” gets temporarily suspended. That is why a person in deep sleep is completely oblivious of his surroundings and even his own body. However, when he wakes up his report about his sleep is “I slept soundly and I knew nothing.” In this state which is normally described as unconscious state from the reports of the deep sleep later, it is obvious that the person was conscious of a blissful experience deep within the recess of his mind. As Ṡankarāchārya says in Vivekachūdāmani (0), “In profound sleep we experience the bliss of the Ātman independent of sense objects. This fact is clearly attested by ṡruti, direct perception, tradition and inferenc

1. The mind, which appears to be a little conscious in dream, and more conscious in waking, is not conscious at all in deep sleep. The erroneous conclusion of the Nyāya and Vaiṡeshika schools of philosophy, that consciousness is possible only when there is contact of the mind with objects, is an offshoot of this observation. In deep sleep all perceptions and cognitions converge into a single mode of the mind. It becomes a mass of consciousness, which is not projected outside. Mind in deep sleep is without any modifications so that there is no external consciousness. Man is not aware of the world outside in the state of deep sleep, because of the absence of agitations, psychoses (vṛttis) of the mind. When mind becomes extrovert it regains consciousness of thexternal world. The happiness one experiences in deep sleep is greater than all other forms of happiness or pleasure generated by the contact of the mind with sense objects, and this bliss is the same experienced by a king or a beggar. This bliss or ānanda one experiences is the reason for the feeling of refreshment and renewal that one feels when one gets up from such a sleep. “Consciousness of sleep is equal to Samādhi. If sleep is to be coupled with consciousness, it becomes ātma- sakshātkāra, the realization of Ātman. This is what they call super-consciousness. This is nirvāṇa, moksha, kevalata - liberation” (Swami Krishnānanda, Mandukya Upanishad, p.0).
2. In deep sleep one does not know whether one is a man or woman, tall or short, black or white, learned or otherwise. All miseries of the waking or dream state are forgotten along with the worldly joys. There is only a uniform state of unconscious bliss. It is said that during deep sleep the personality is withdrawn and it merges in the Absolute Bliss, as rivers go into the ocean, a mental state akin to the state of samādhi attained by spiritual seekers at the end of their spiritual endeavour, where the individual spirit merges into the Absolute Spirit.