PARABRAHMA SUTRAS (197-198)

197. Shantyaanandabhraantih jaagratsvapnaduhkhaabhaavasushuptiparam satyaabhaavaat.

Translation: The soul is mistaking the peace as bliss after deep sleep due to the absence of the loss of awareness as in the waking and dream. This is due to the relative experience of disturbance and peace and also due to the lack of tasting true bliss even once.

Explanation: The withdrawal from the non-eternal world and fixation of yourself in the eternal primordial energy, which in limited form is the self itself, also does not give infinite bliss. The withdrawal from the non-eternal world will certainly remove all the miseries. The removal of misery is peace but not bliss. The removal of minus is zero but not plus. The resistance of loss is not real profit. Relatively, the absence of misery may appear as bliss in comparison to misery but it is not bliss in the absolute sense. Suppose all people have lost their investments in a business and you have not lost anything from your investment. It only means an absence of loss and not the presence of any trace of profit. The Advaitins say that such self is attained in deep sleep. This is correct because it is stated by Shankara (Sushuptyekasiddhah…). But, in deep sleep, you are not having any disturbance or expenditure of nervous energy or awareness. Either in the waking state or in the state of dream, there is a lot of disturbance due to the expenditure of awareness or over work caused by the association with worldly affairs. But in deep sleep, the awareness or the work of nervous system, or the expenditure of inert energy functioning in the nervous system, is arrested. This gives a conservation of energy and it is only the prevention of loss. After deep sleep, you are enjoying this peace created by the storage of your own energy without any loss. Such enjoyment is termed as bliss, since you are not aware of the real bliss that is granted by God. You are thinking the enjoyment of peace as bliss due to the comparison with the experienced disturbance and due to lack of even a single time experience of real divine bliss. Hence, the peace is felt as absolute bliss and under such circumstances, it is also justified.

198. Sushuptyantapradhamakshanashuddhaatmaa dhyaanavat.

Translation: The pure awareness of self exists in the first moment of waking state just after the deep sleep and this is almost similar to the state of meditation.

Explanation: The immediate waking state after deep sleep is the awareness of self or blankness or space or inert energy that existed during the deep sleep. The immediate moment after deep sleep is almost the state of deep sleep and the waking state is not yet developed. This first moment contains awareness of waking state and inert energy of deep sleep. In the deep sleep, only inert energy existed without awareness. But the first moment after deep sleep can be taken as the awareness of itself (basic form) or the inert energy. This first moment is similar to the meditation state, in which the mind is withdrawn from all affairs of waking state and remains in the awareness of blankness. However, the first moment after deep sleep is a better state of meditation since all the affairs of waking state are absent naturally. In the meditation state the affairs of waking state are subsided by force and hence it is not absolutely a pure state of absence of affairs. Hence, from this point of comparison, the first moment after the deep sleep can be called as pure awareness of self. This first moment can be treated as almost the state of awareness during the deep sleep. However, you should strongly remember that the awareness is totally absent during the state of deep sleep.