Sleep well or wake up?

Where do we go when we sleep? When we wake up we say we had a good sleep. In sleep we are in ananda- bliss. But we do not know it is bliss when we sleep. No grief what so ever even when all our problems with body, family and work remain the same when we sleep. When Rama, Krishna and Givinda sleep in a room together, Rama does not know that he is Rama. It is the same with Krishna and Govinda. They are also not aware of others around. There is no difference between them. They all must have gone to the same source. They are not aware of that. It is a wonder that when Rama wakes up he knows that he is Rama the very same person who went to sleep a few hours back. It shows the continuity of mind which was not functioning while in sleep. He also knows that he is the same Rama who lived in a different City ten years back.

Sleep is a great gift we got from God but we know very little about it. We all know a lot about what is happening when we are awake and tend to think and talk only about it. We identify ourselves with our body and mind in waking state by mistake. We are different from our body and mind. We have them and use them.Sometimes we remember our dreams and many times we cannot even recollect them.

As human beings we exist in three states -wake, dream and sleep (jagarat, swapna and sushupti awasta). We conveniently forget sleep. We are worried about sleep only when we cannot get sleep. That is why we say,” I spent sleepless nights” when we are annoyed.

In fact we are with Eshwara, karana shareeram-causal body and continue to get our energy when we sleep. We are intimate with our source. Our gross physical body and subtle body- mind are on rest when we are in deep sleep. It is like a mobile phone put on charge.

When we cannot sleep for days we do not have energy to move around. It is not just food that keeps us alive, we also need good sleep to be alive. The advantage of sleep state is bliss. But we are ignorant. This is disadvantage of sleep state. We are very close to God is the advantage. We have no differences, no hatred; no grief is the advantage. The disadvantage of sleep is that we do not know anything about us and the world. We are blissfully ignorant.

Just imagine a state where we are able to be as blissful as in sleep and also aware of it!

If this is possible in sleep why will someone come out of sleep? The problem is we cannot be sleeping all the time. There should be a way to remove this ignorance and get the knowledge. Luckily in waking state we can get this knowledge. We can work to get this knowledge. We will know more about this, when we study Tatva boda of Aadi Sankara under proper guidance.

-Arasu Ramanujam