[Advaita-l] [advaitin] Deep Sleep is Nondual Self with objections refuted, SSSS

[Bhaskar YR]

praNAms
Hare Krishna

//Thus, in suṣupti, there is no perception not because of the presence of ignorance but because of the absence of duality. //


  *   If someone is wondering that the above statement is just Sri SSS’s misguided announcement, it is better to bring to their notice that it is said by none other than bhAshyakAra himself.  Those who studied the shankara’s stand with regard to this would understand that ‘no perception’ is because of ‘ekatvaM’ and this ekatvaM, though there not known not because of existence/presence of ignorance (bhAvarUpa / kAraNA vidyA / beeja rUpa avidyA shakti etc. grand contribution of later vyAkhyAnakAra-s) but abhAva of that knowledge (jnAnAbhAva).  bhAshyakAra further clarifies : when one is alone (ekaM without second) when one is free from all qualified knowledge,  there cannot be the transaction of knowing himself. The eye does not see itself; one cannot sit on one’s own shoulder, fire does not burn itself. Now the question is if he (prAjna) is merged in brahman (para brahman) in sushupti, why he is not aware of it??  For this bhAshyakAra answers in chAndOgya shruti : the process of merging is NOT that the jeeva entering a house as an outsider in other words, the jeeva  has not entered into brahman like water in cloth.  Here the water and cloth are different though wet cloth is there duality is quite obvious.  But it is not like that, jeeva’s merging with brahman is like merging into it dissolving his individual identity like the juice of a flower (pushpa rasa) merging into the honey losing its identity. Therefore he is not aware of even that!!



  *   And this is the jeeva’s true svarUpa asserts bruhadAraNyaka.  The nature  of the Jīva in the state of sushupti when he is free from all the upAdhi-s and therefore he the jeeva is  griefless, desireless, and all alone without a second (ekamevAdviteeyaM, ekAtma pratyaya sAra ekibhUta etc.) and this is his svarUpa / real nature. Here the father is not father, the mother is not mother, the devata is not devata, the thief is not thief, the killer of bhrUna (foetus) is not killer, the chandAla is not chandAla, the sanyasi is not saNyAsi, the veda is not veda and the tapasvi is not tapasvi. Here he is connected neither with puNyA nor pApa etc.  Same thing repeated in other words by bhAshyakAra in sUtra bhAshya : sati saMpannasthAvattadekatvAnna vijAnAteeti yuktaM, it is but reasonable that jeeva merged in pure being  is not conscious because of absolute unity.



  *   And with regard the ruling statement of shankara that merging only with kAraNa brahman not pure brahman in sushupti, shankara nowhere states that kAraNa brahman is a ‘separate’ brahman resides in sushupti and Shuddha brahman is something aloof from it and that needs to be ‘seen / realized’ in some other peculiar state (according to some in samAdhi, according to some other after the physical death).  But the fact remains that there is no time when jeeva has not become one with brahman, it is because it is his (one’s) intrinsic nature which cannot be alienated.  ONLY in the view of the seeming foreign aspect (qualified knowledge) which he assumes in Svapna and jAgrat due to contact with upAdhi-s it is proposed to say that he attains his own form on the dissolution of that foreign aspect.  Again this is not the declaration of Sri SSS but bhAshyakAra himself clarifies this in sUtra bhAshya.



  *   Having said all this Sri SSS in detail explains what is the difference between prAjnA and tureeya etc. with the detailed references from maNdUkya, kArikA, bruhadAraNyaka, chAdOgya etc.  paramArtha chitAmaNi a Kannada book is very relevant here to understand Sri SSS’s stand point on avasthA traya.


Hari Hari Hari Bol!!!
bhaskar