How can there be dreamless sleep and differing emotions and sensations if consciousness is the self and is permanent like in Advaita Vedanta and Kashmiri shaivism?
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2Sleep and different emotions are characteristic and needs of physical body and mind not of atman. – SwiftPushkar Oct 31 '20 at 09:40
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sushupti or dreamless sleep where there are no emotions. Obviously, no chemicals are released for you to feel emotions. Unless, there is a jolt to bring you back to waking state (jagrat). If you progress to wake up in a more circadian rythamic fashion then you will come back to REM sleep or Svapna with dreams and then to Jagrat. Supreme Consciousness exists in Turiya state( Param atma) that is supposed to pervade all the three states - not your consciousness(Jivatman) since you are distinct still and haven't entered Turiya, you try every night but then turned down and back to Jagrat :-) – Gopal Anantharaman Oct 31 '20 at 22:47
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Who then is this internal impeller that rides your consciousness to make it enter Turiya ay? Let me add that towards the end of self-realization you are asked to wait behind a veil when some one else reaches Paramatman first. you are not supposed to pass beyond the veil. what is the veil and who accompanies you? Search on johny :- ) – Gopal Anantharaman Oct 31 '20 at 22:49
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1you are confusing the waking state of consciousness when the atman identifies Itself with the individual ego with the permanent state of Super-Consciousness, the Turiya, Brahman. There are four states of consciousness. – Swami Vishwananda Nov 01 '20 at 06:06
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2Does this answer your question? Where does the four states of consciousness occurs in an individual? – Swami Vishwananda Nov 01 '20 at 06:06
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All the emotions and sensations are part of Maya, the game.Suppose your parents want to educate you and send you to some school, do they send you in random clothes and without any books with information?The world is the school for souls, parent is Supersoul, and bodies are mere world school clothes, with customs, laws and religions mere books, very few pass out or Self-realize.Body is temporary suit, consciousness is eternal Self. Its kaliyuga,age of darkness,so people have forgotten true spirituality and their spirit and created several religions & believe God sits on some heaven or mountain. – Nov 01 '20 at 07:28
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Nice question; maybe helpful to consider the word Consciousness is being used in two senses of meaning: one, more at the existential concept, and two, the word Conscious is often used to mean alert & awake during the day & aware of conventional surroundings, cf. asleep & resting etc; the word Awake is often used both ways also. Thank you :) – M H Nov 18 '20 at 04:46
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Srimad Bhagavatam 11.13.34
īkṣeta vibhramam idaṁ manaso vilāsaṁ
dṛṣṭaṁ vinaṣṭam ati-lolam alāta-cakram
vijñānam ekam urudheva vibhāti māyā
svapnas tridhā guṇa-visarga-kṛto vikalpaḥ
"One should see that the material world is a distinct illusion appearing in the mind, because material objects have an extremely flickering existence and are here today and gone tomorrow. They can be compared to the streaking red line created by whirling a fiery stick. . , . ’ , . All such varieties of perception, however, are actually māyā and exist only like a dream."
Srimad Bhagavatam 11.13.32
yo jāgare bahir anukṣaṇa-dharmiṇo 'rthān
bhuṅkte samasta-karaṇair hṛdi tat-sadṛkṣān
svapne suṣupta upasaṁharate sa ekaḥ
smṛty-anvayāt tri-guṇa-vṛtti-dṛg indriyeśaḥ
"While awake the living entity enjoys with all of his senses the fleeting characteristics of the material body and mind; while dreaming he enjoys similar experiences within the mind; and in deep dreamless sleep all such experiences merge into ignorance. By remembering and contemplating the succession of wakefulness, dreaming and deep sleep, the living entity can understand that he is one throughout the three stages of consciousness and is transcendental. Thus, he becomes the lord of the senses."
Commentary by disciples of BhaktiVedanta Swami Srila Prabhupad.
"Lord Kṛṣṇa stated that one must retire from material duality by the proper means, which the Lord now explains. One may first consider the three phases of consciousness mentioned above and then understand one’s own transcendental position as spirit soul. One experiences childhood, boyhood, adolescence, adulthood, middle age and old age, and throughout these phases one is experiencing things while awake and while dreaming. Similarly, one may, by careful intelligence, understand one’s lack of consciousness during deep sleep, and thus through intelligence one may have experience of lack of consciousness.
One may argue that it is actually the senses that experience during wakefulness and that it is the mind that experiences during dreams. However, the Lord here states, indriyeśaḥ: the living entity is actually the lord of the senses and mind, although temporarily he has become a victim of their influence. By Kṛṣṇa consciousness one may resume one’s rightful position as master of the mental and sensory faculties. Also, since the living entity can remember his experiences in these three stages of consciousness, he is ultimately the experiencing agent or the seer of all phases of consciousness. He remembers, “I saw so many things in my dream, and then my dream ended and I didn’t see anything. Now I’m waking up.” This universal experience can be understood by everyone, and thus everyone can understand that one’s actual identity is separate from the material body and mind."
Krsna Dasa
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Read the Māṇḍūkya Upaniṣad and the commentary by Gauḍapāda. They explain this clearly. They are so short you may as well read them yourself.
This is a very detailed translation with an extra verse (the opening invocation) that is missing from most translations, although it probably should be counted. (Anyone can make an account and it's free)
It would be quicker to learn by reading the Māṇḍūkya Upaniṣad and the commentary by Gauḍapāda yourself, but it is related to the nature of the fourth part of the word "Om."
Aupakarana Abhibhaa
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