[Advaita-l] Sleep, tamas and brahman

[Anand Hudli]

Here is my shloka attempt to summarize the discussions, appealing to the
heart with a simile rather than the head with cold reasoning!

सुषुप्तेर्न तुरीयत्त्वं मायाबीजयुता यतः।
सदृशयोर्न साम्यं हि पौण्ड्रकस्य न विष्णुता॥

Since deep sleep is associated with mAyA in seed form, it is not turIya,
the fourth. There is no equality of things that are similar (in this case
suShupti and turIya, due to the absence of duality), just as (there is no
equality between) PaunDraka and Krishna.

Here, I have used an analogy from the bhAgavata, where the fake VAsudeva
krishna aka PaunDraka, who imitates Krisna, challenges the real Krishna
with disastrous consequences for himself. The story is found in bhAgavata
10.66.

Anand