Life and Soul \ 3 State of Consciousness (con't.)

[MANTRALAURA at DELPHI.COM]

sarvebhyo namaH:
  So far I have only been quoting from shrii
Adi shaNkaraachaarya's "prakaarana" books,
"tattvabodha" and "aatmaabodha". In the invocation
of "tattvabodha", shrii shaNkara salutes his
personal guru, shrii govinda bhagavadpada,
govinda being a synonym for shrii vaasudeva:
(Please note that when writing Sanskrit, ITRANS
is being used, the reason for lower case letters
at the beginning of words and proper nouns)

  vaasudevendrayogiindraM
natvaa j~naanapradaMgurum.h |
  mumukShuuNaaM hitaarthaaya
tattvabodhobhidhiiyate ||

  "Having saluted shrii vaasudeva, who is the
bestower of j~naana (the knowledge of the Truth),
the "tattvabodha" (the knowledge of the Truth) is
expounded for the benefit of the seekers after
liberation."

  Both Apte's and Monier-Williams' Sanskrit-
English dictionaries agree that "aachaarya" and
"guru" mean "a spiritual guide or preceptor, holy
teacher, a religious teacher".
______

  More from Apte's regarding "taijasa":

taijasa:  "The highly refined or subtle
essence (Vedaanta phil.)"

praaj~na:  "Intellectual; wise, learned, clever;
intelligence dependent on individuality."

  More from shree shaNkara's "tattvabodha"
regarding the three states of consciousness:

  ataH suShuptyavasthaa kaa?

  "Then, what is the deep-sleep state?"

  ahaM kimapi na jaanaami sukhena mayaa
nidraa.anubhuuyata iti suShuptyavasthaa |
  kaaraNashariiraabhimaanii aatmaa praaj~na
ityuchyate |

  "That state about which one says later 'I did
not know anything; I have well enjoyed a good
sleep' is the deep sleep state.
  The Self, identifying itself with the causal
body (in the deep sleep state) is called 'praaj~na'.
(praayena aj~na: i.e. almost ignorant)."

  Further, "During this state it is only aware of
the thought 'I don't know'.  The self in this
state is designated as praaj~na, meaning the one
who is nearly ignorant. Because the consciousness
is present during this state, the self is not
totally ignorant, but nearly ignorant."

(To be continued)

dhanyavaadaH,
  Mantralaura

P.S. Please note that GY is now written as "j~n".