#fourth state

🕉️ 🔱  Om Namo Bhagavathe Sri ArunachalaRamanaya   🔱 🕉️ 

15. The Pervasiveness of Sleep (Sushupti Vyapaka Tiran)

957. Do not be disheartened and lose your mental vigour thinking that [the state of experiencing] sleep in dream has not yet been obtained. If the strength of [experiencing] sleep in the present waking state is obtained, then [the state of experiencing] sleep in dream will also be obtained.

Sadhu Om: The words ‘sleep in the present waking state’ [anavum nanavil sushupti] denote the state of wakeful sleep [jagrat-sushupti] or turiya, the state of experiencing no differences during waking. In order to attain this state, aspirants have to make efforts in the waking state. However, some aspirants used to ask Sri Bhagavan, “Do we also have to make such efforts in dream, so that we may attain the state of experiencing no differences even during dream?” This doubt is answered by Sri Bhagavan in this verse.

The feeling ‘I am this body’ [dehatma-buddhi] rises in the subtle body during dream only because of the habit of identifying the gross body as ‘I’ during waking. Hence, if one practices Self-enquiry in the waking state and thereby eradicates the dehatma-buddhi [the habit of thus identifying a body as ‘I’] in this state, that itself will be sufficient to eradicate the dehatma-buddhi in dream also. Therefore Sri Bhagavan advises in the next verse that, until the dehatma-buddhi is completely eradicated even in dream, one should not give up Self-enquiry in the waking state. Refer here to the fourth paragraph of the first chapter of Vichara Sangraham where Sri Bhagavan says, 

“All the three bodies [gross, subtle and causal] consisting of the five sheaths (*) are included in the feeling ‘I am the body’. If that one [i.e. the identification with the gross body] is removed, all [i.e. the identification with the other two bodies] will automatically be removed. Since [the identification with] the other bodies [the subtle and causal] survive only by depending upon this [the identification with the gross body], there is no need to remove them one by one.” 

The words ‘kanavil sushupti’ [sleep in dream]), which are used in the first and last lines of this verse, may also be taken to mean ‘sleep without dream’, in which case the following alternative meaning can be given: 

“Do not be disheartened and lose your mental vigour thinking that sleep without dream has not yet been obtained. If the strength of [experiencing] sleep in the present waking state is obtained, then sleep without dream will also be obtained.”

958. Until the state of sleep in waking [i.e. the state of wakeful sleep or jagrat-sushupti] is attained, Self-enquiry should not be given up. Moreover until sleep in dream is also attained, it is essential to persist in that enquiry [i.e. to continue trying to cling to the mere feeling ‘I’].

Michael James: The ideas in the above two verses were summarized by Sri Bhagavan in the following verse.

B 19. The state of sleep in waking [or jagrat-sushupti] will result by constant scrutinizing enquiry into oneself. Until sleep pervades and shines in waking and in dream, do that enquiry continuously.

~  Guru Vachaka Kovai  (The Garland of Guru's Sayings) - Part Three - The Experience Of The Truth

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(*) A kosha, usually rendered “sheath”, is a covering of the Atman, or Self according to Vedantic philosophy. There are five koshas, and they are often visualised as the layers of an onion.

From gross to fine they are:

Annamaya kosha, “body” sheath - Anna means food, which is what sustains this level

Pranamaya kosha, "energy” sheath (Prana)

Manomaya kosha, “mind” sheath (Manas)

Vijñānamaya kosha, “discernment” sheath (Vijnana)

Anandamaya kosha, “bliss” sheath (Ananda)

ॐ

Arunachala at Sunrise Art Print

For those who experience the three unreal states of waking, dream and sleep, the one real state of wakeful sleep, which is beyond those three states, is named turiya (the ‘fourth’). However since that turiya alone truly exists and since the seeming three states do not exist, know for certain that turiya is atita - the transcedant state known as turiyatita.

— Reality in Forty Verses - Supplement  (Ulladu Narpadu - Anubandham), V. 32  

Note: 

The three states which we now experience, namely waking, dream and deep sleep, are merely unreal appearances. 

The only state which truly exists is the state of wakeful sleep, (jagrat-sushupti) that is, the state in which we remain ever awake to the real self and ever asleep to the unreal world of multiplicity. 

 Reality in Forty Verses - Supplement  (Ulladu Narpadu Anubandham) - Tamil Parayana (tuesday) - verse 32

http://www.sriramana.org/music/7daytamilparayana/23ulladhu_narpadhu_anubandham.mp3

Arunachala - Tiruvannamalai -  Intersection of Girivalam and Velore Roads, and the arch to Pachaiamman Koil Temple.

Temples and Shrines along Arunachala’s Outer Pradakshina* Route - By Richard Clarke: Living in the Embrace of Arunachala.Blog

(*) Pradakshina, or in Tamil, girivalam,  is the sacred walk around the holy hill Arunachala.

30th November, 1947        

[...] It was about 2 a.m.... Everything was quiet, and he (Kunjuswami) again began reminiscing to us: 

“Another time, during summer, after supper we started to go round the hill. There was good moonlight and by the time we reached this place, it was as now about 2 a.m. All the people in the town were asleep and it was very quiet. Being summer, all the windows of the houses were open. All the shops were closed and locked; only the watchmen were patrolling the streets. Bhagavan, pointing this out to us, said,

‘‘Do you see how still the whole town is? The streets, the houses and the lights are there, but all the people are asleep except the watchmen. Hence it is all quiet. But when the day breaks, everyone will get up and there will be activity on all sides. That is like ‘savikalpa samadhi’(*). 

Do you see those big houses and small ones? The windows are open, but the one who sees is sleeping. That is like the turiya (*), or Fourth State. It could be said that the state of the Realized Soul is also the same and could be given as an example. It appears as though the eyes see; they, however, sleep peacefully.” 

After listening to this story, we reached our homes.

Excerpt from: Letters from Sri Ramanasramam, by Suri Nagamma - Letter 162 (pdf)  

* Samadhi - Holding on to the Supreme State. When it is with effort due to mental disturbances, it is Savikalpa Samadhi. When these disturbances are absent, it is Nirvikalpa Samadhi. Remaining permanently in the primal state without effort is Sahaja Samadhi.