[Advaita-l] Sleep, tamas and brahman

[Venkatraghavan S]

Thanks Kalyanji.

Swami Madhavananda translates this as "The form of the self that is
directly perceived in the sate of profound sleep is free from ignorance,
desire and work". All this is saying is that the self is perceived as free
from ignorance - this does not mean is that ignorance is absent. Why?

The relationship between ignorance and the self is what is being denied
here (if you see the first sentence of this bhAShya), Swami Madhavananda
says - "It has been said that the self-effulgent Atman which is being
described is free from ignorance, desire and work, for it is unattached,
while they are adventitious". Again, the focus of the teaching is the
freedom of Atma from ignorance, not the absence of ignorance.

The very nature of ignorance in deep sleep is agrahaNam, non-perception, so
how can it be perceived? The failure to perceive it does not mean that it
does not exist.

Kind regards,
Venkatraghavan



On Fri, May 4, 2018 at 9:51 AM, Kalyan via Advaita-l <
advaita-l at lists.advaita-vedanta.org> wrote:

> //Thus Shankara is not saying that ignorance is absent in deep sleep, but
> that the Atma is absent from ignorance can be understood from the
> experience of deep sleep.//
>
>
> Dear Sri Venkatraghavanji,
>
> Your reading is not correct. The bhAshya means that the form of the self
> that is free from ignorance is experienced in deep sleep. You are welcome
> to check translation of Swami Madhavananda.
>
> In fact, the whole teaching stands because the self is free from ignorance
> in deep sleep. Otherwise, ignorance will become the nature of the self.
>
> By observing the 3 states and showing that in deep sleep, there is no
> ignorance, it is shown that the self can achieve liberation, as ignorance
> is not in the nature of the self.
>
> Regards
> Kalyan
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