Suṣupti | Deep Sleep

Sushupti

Suṣupti (IAST)
Translation: "Deep Sleep"
From Mandukya Upanishad (Verse 5, 11)

A Concise Dictionary of Indian Philosophy

Sanskrit: सुषुप्ति

Transliteration: Suṣupti

Translation: "deep sleep; sleep without dream"

1. The state of deep-sleep consciousness. There are no objects present – neither of external things of the world nor of internal ideas; thus, there is no apprehension of duality, though ignorance (Avidyā) still persists in a latent state.

Mundaka and Mandukya Upanishads (Swami Sharvananda)

Sanskrit: सुषुप्ति, सुषुप्त, सुषुप्तम्

Transliteration: Suṣupti, Suṣupta, Suṣuptam

Translation: "the deep sleep"

Definition: "i.e., neither the awakened state where will is active, nor the dreaming subconscious state, but the unconscious state where all activities of the mind are completely stopped is here referred to."

Mandukya Upanishad (James Swartz)

"The deep sleep state is free of both waking and dream egos and objects because the Vāsanā [Saṃskāra] projecting them have become dormant; hence, it is referred to as the “seed” state. When the “seeds” sprout, one becomes a waker or a dreamer and experiences the appropriate world.

Because we don’t remember being conscious in it, the sleep state is often thought to be a void by metaphysicians and philosophers. In fact, Sanskrit literature refers to it as “the womb,” because our waking and dream worlds emerge from it. When you wake up in the morning, your whole life is neatly laid out consistent with the day before, the same language you spoke yesterday on the tip of your tongue, indicating that previous experience had simply entered a dormant state. The dormant potential of the sleep state containing the macrocosmic Vāsanā [Saṃskāra] is called Īśvara, the Creator, in Vedantic literature. With reference to the microcosmic Vāsanā [Saṃskāra], the sleeper is called Prajñā.

The sleep state is also known as the gateway between the waking and the dream states because it functions as a kind of closet with two doors where the dream can don the guise of the waker to appear on the waking stage. And vice versa. Though a minor point, even in cases where one seems to be awakened directly out of a dream by a noise, for example, the dreamer passes through the sleep state. A motion picture image of a stationary object is actually dozens of individual images passing so fast they seem to be a solid object. Similarly, we can’t trust our experience in this case because the change is so fast we don’t notice it.

The Māṇḍūkya Upaniṣad (Swami Krishnananda)
Sanskrit: सुषुप्ति
Transliteration: Suṣupti

Commentary: "The waking world and the dream world, from the point of view of the Jīva, are two aspects of the function of the mind. The mind projects itself in perception, both in waking and dream. The mind is active, and it gets tired of activity. It ceases from activity when it is too much fatigued. The complete cessation of the activity of the mind, due to exhaustion, is sleep, known as Suṣupti.

That is called Suṣupti, or deep sleep, where – Na Kaṃcana Kāmaṃ Kāmayate – one desires nothing, because the mind has withdrawn itself from both the physical and subtle objects. Na Kaṃcana Svapnaṃ Paśyati: It does not dream also, because even psychic activity has ceased. Tat Suṣuptam: This is complete absorption of the mind into itself. But this absorption is of an unconscious nature...."

"The third foot of the Ātman the third phase of its analysis, is deep sleep, where all perceptions and cognition converge into a single mode of the mind – Ekī-Bhūtaḥ. It becomes a mass of consciousness, which is not projected outside – Prajñāna-Ghana. There is no modification of the mind, and so there is no external consciousness. We are not aware of the world outside in the state of sleep because of the absence of Vṛtti, or psychoses, of the mind. Only when the mind becomes extrovert can it have consciousness of the outer world, whether in dream or in waking. But, there is no agitation of the mind, of that nature, in sleep. It is as if there is a homogeneous mass of all perceptions, where all the Saṃskāra, Vāsanas, commingle into a single mode, or condition, instead of there being many cognitive psychoses. Ānanda-Mayo Ānanda-Bhuk Ceto-Mukhaḥ Prajñaḥ: It is all bliss. The happiness of deep sleep is greater than all other forms of happiness or pleasure born of sense-contact. It is filled with Ānanda, bliss, delight, satisfaction.

From where has this happiness come? From where has this Ānandamayatva come to you? This subject is dealt with in the Mantra which describes the third phase of the Ātman. Your real nature is aloneness, not sociability. Your real nature is Kevalata, not Indriya-Saṃyoga with Viṣaya, objects. Your real nature is singularity, not multiplicity. Your real nature is a total transcendence of all sensory and mental phenomena, not contact with objects. Therefore you are Ānandamaya, Ānanda-Bhuk: filled with bliss, enjoying bliss.

Consciousness of sleep is equal to Samādhi. If sleep is to be coupled with consciousness, it becomes Ātma-Sākṣātkāra, the realization of the Ātman. This is what they call Superconsciousness. This is Nirvāṇa, Mokṣa, Kevalata - Liberation. This is your real nature. This is why you are full of Ānanda in sleep. You go to the blessedness of eternity and infinity in sleep, but you are not aware of it...."

"Ānanda-Mayo Ānanda-Bhuk Ceto-Mukhaḥ: What is the instrument through which you enjoy this Ānanda? Not the senses, not the mind. While there were nineteen mouths for you in the waking and dreaming states, there are no such mouths in deep sleep. Here, the mouth is not the mind or the senses, but consciousness alone is the mouth – Ceto-Mukhaḥ. Consciousness enjoys bliss. Who enjoys bliss? Consciousness alone is the answer. It is Cit that experiences Ānanda, not the Indriya or the Mānās, the senses or the mind. In deep sleep there is only Ānanda experienced by Cit. You experience Saccidānanda, here, Consciousness-Being, as such."

Lessons on the Upanishads (Swami Krishnananda)

"There is a third state called sleep, where not only are you not aware of the body, but even the psychological functions are not there. The mind does not think, the intellect does not decide and you do not know that you even exist there. Your existence itself is abolished, as it were. It is a state of nothingness, but you are not even aware that it is nothing. To be aware that it is a nothing would be something, but you are not even aware that it is nothing. It is pure, unadulterated nothing. But, what is happening there? Are you dead? No, you are very much alive. Who told you that you were alive in sleep, when it was a nothing and your awareness was totally obliterated by something? You are totally oblivious of all things happening there. When you did not even know that you were existing, how did you come to the conclusion that you were alive at that time? Nobody told you. You yourself conclude, “I am the same person now that I was before I slept yesterday. I am not another person. Therefore, I must have been existing during sleep.” But how do you know that you are the same person? You may be another person. Every day you could change and become somebody else, but this does not happen.

A continuity of consciousness is maintained between yesterday’s experience and today’s experience. Is this not interesting and surprising? You are very certain that today you are the same person that you were yesterday and your consciousness continues through even the sleep condition, making you feel that you exist today in the same way as you existed yesterday. That is to say, you did exist in the state of deep sleep. The proof of it is only your conviction that you are the same person today as you were yesterday. You have a memory of having slept. Now, if consciousness must have existed in the state of deep sleep, you must have existed as consciousness only. You did not exist as a body, mind, intellect or anything else. You were not even aware of the act of breathing at that time. You existed as consciousness only.

So, do you believe that your essential nature is consciousness? Even minus all these appurtenances of body, mind, intellect, if you can exist nevertheless, why should you imagine that you are the body, mind, intellect, etc.? If I can exist minus something, that thing from which I am withdrawn is not me, really speaking. If I can be safe without something, that something is redundant. Therefore, the body is a redundant thing, and the mind and intellect are also not us. You are pure Śuddha Caitanya, as it is called – Pure Consciousness. In that state you existed. There is no other thing that can be regarded as an attribute of your being in that condition. Consciousness was your essential nature.

What were you conscious of? You were conscious of nothing; it was conscious of consciousness only. It was a consciousness of existence, about which we discussed earlier. It was not a consciousness of something; it was a consciousness of consciousness existing. You were aware that you were aware, that is all – nothing more, nothing less. It was Being-Consciousness, and you were very happy, so it was Bliss also. You know how happy you are after having gone into a good sleep. You rub your eyes and you would like to continue to sleep a little more. You were so free in sleep that you would like to go to sleep again. All the botheration, the turmoil of this world is no longer there. Sometimes you feel: “Let me go to bed and forget the devil of this world.” Thus, in the state of deep sleep you existed as Pure Consciousness. Saccidānanda was your real nature in the state of deep sleep.

This Consciousness, which is Saccidānanda, was not merely inside the body, as you may wrongly imagine once again, even after having deduced this wonderful conclusion that you were Pure Consciousness. It is a wonderful conclusion, indeed, that you are essentially Pure Consciousness, but again you may commit the mistake of thinking that it is inside the body. Pure Consciousness is not inside anything; it is all things. We have already concluded in earlier sessions that consciousness is all-pervading; it cannot be confined to one individuality only. To be conscious that it is only in one place and not in another place is to virtually accept that consciousness is in another place also. Otherwise, how would consciousness know that it is not in some other place unless it has already been there? Hence, the negation of consciousness in some other place is actually an affirmation of it in that place. Negation is determination.

Therefore, the second conclusion that we draw by this analysis is that in the state of deep sleep we existed as Pure Consciousness – not a little consciousness inside the body, but a pervading consciousness which is everywhere. Cosmic consciousness was there; Universal-consciousness was our essential nature in deep sleep."

The Upanishads: Volume IV (Swami Nikhilananda)
Chāndogya Upaniṣad: Chapter VIII, Verses 1 and 2

"Uddalaka, the son of Aruna, said to his son Svetaketu: "Learn from me, my dear, the true nature of sleep. When a person has entered into deep sleep, as it is called, then, my dear, he becomes united with Pure Being (Sat), he has gone to his own Self. That is why they say he is in deep sleep (Svapiti); it is because he has gone (Apita) to his own (Svam)."

"Just as a bird tied by a string to the hand of the bird-catcher first flies in every direction and then finding no rest anywhere, settles down at the place where it is bound, so also the mind (i.e. the individual soul reflected in the mind), my dear, after flying in every direction and finding no rest anywhere, settles down in the Prāṇa (i.e. Pure Being); for the mind (the individual soul) is fastened to the Prāṇa (Pure Being)."

References:

1. Grimes, John (1996). A Concise Dictionary of Indian Philosophy: Sanskrit Terms Defined in English. Albany: State University of New York Press
2. Sharvananda, Swami (1920). Mundaka and Mandukya Upanishads: With Sanskrit Text; Paraphrase with Word-For-Word Literal Translation, English, Rendering and Comments. Mylapore, Madras: Sri Ramakrishna Math
3. Swartz, James (1996). Mandukya Upanishad: An ancient Sanskrit text on the nature of Reality. Retrieved from https://www.holybooks.com/mandukya-upanishad-an-ancient-sanskrit-text-on-the-nature-of-reality/.
4. Krishnananda, Swami (1996). The Māṇḍūkya Upaniṣad. Retrieved from https://www.swami-krishnananda.org/mand_0.html. 71-74.
5. Krishnananda, Swami (1991). Lessons on the Upanishads. Retrieved from https://www.swami-krishnananda.org/upanishad.html. p. 104-106.
6. Nikhilananda, Swami (1959). The Upanishads: Volume IV - Taittiriya and Chhāndogya. New York, New York: Harper & Brothers Publishers