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The System of the Vedanta according to Badarayana's Brahma-Sutras and Cankara's Commentary c8.s7.t2: 2. Deep Sleep

The System of the Vedânta according to Bâdarâyana's Brahma-Sûtras and Çankara's Commentary c8.s7.t2

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2. Deep Sleep

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Sûtras 3, 2, 7—9.

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In deep, *i.e.* dreamless sleep, the soul becomes temporarily one with Brahman. In course of time this doctrine, which, in our opinion, only expressed the extinction of conscious in unconscious life, that is perceived in sleep by simple observation, assumed an essentially different meaning. According as the soul came to be regarded as an essentially intellectual potency a separation of it from the *Mukhya Prâna* as principle of the unconscious life and a closer connection with the organs of conscious life, *viz.* *Manas* and *Indriyas*, became necessary. In deep sleep this connection is temporarily dissolved in such a way that *Manas* and *Indriyas* enter into the *Prâna*, and the soul on the other hand is submerged in the Brahman who sojourns in the ether of the heart. Çañkara's statements on this point are concerned with special questions and rest on assumptions which are nowhere clearly developed; we must therefore by putting things together attempt to lay down what these were.

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In the waking state the soul, connected with the *Manas*, has its seat in the heart and from here by means of the *Indriyas* exercises its influence throughout the body.—In dream-sleep the functions of the *Indriyas* are extinguished, for (Praçna 4, 2) they are absorbed into the *Manas*; and the soul surrounded by the still active *Manas* and the reposing *Indriyas* (above p. 320) passes through the whole body, as a prince surrounded by his vassals makes a progress through his kingdom. This view based on Bṛih. 2, 1, 18 seems to hover before Çañkara's mind when he says p. 270, 8, the soul enjoys the dream-pictures which are dependent on waking impressions nāḍīcara, "as it passes through the veins."—In deep sleep, as is said in the same passage (p. 270, 9), the two illusions of waking and dreaming are destroyed, and the soul, freed from all Upādhis enters into Brahman in the ether of the heart. What becomes of Manas and Indriyas in this case? According to Chānd. 4, 3, 3 the Prāṇa absorbs them and this view is adopted by Śaṅkara p. 720, 1. On the other hand it is said in the statement to be given below, the Upādhis (i.e., here Manas and Indriyas) sojourned in deep sleep in "the pericardium (purītat) or the veins," which, 72 000 in number (according to Bṛh. 2, 1, 19) starting from the heart surround the Purītat and thence (Śaṅkara on Bṛh. p. 367, 8) pass to all parts of the body, 101 of them subserving the withdrawal of the dying soul from the body. This information leads us to believe that the veins were taken to be the main seat of the Mukhya Prāṇa; with this agrees the statement that the Vyāna acts in them (Praśna 3, 6) and that the Udāna leads the soul from the body at death by the 101 principal veins.

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After these preliminary remarks we turn to the statements of Śaṅkara, which we shall give in some detail on account of certain special difficulties.

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On the question of the state of the soul in deep sleep (suṣuptam, supti, suṣupti), as we read in the Commentary on 3, 2, 7, the scripture seems to contradict itself; for there are passages according to which the soul in deep sleep "has crept into the veins" (Chānd. 8, 6, 3), "lies in the pericardium" (Bṛh. 2, 1, 19), "has attained unity in the Prāṇa" (Kauṣ. 4, 19), "sojourns in the ether of the heart" (Bṛh. 4, 4, 22), "has entered into the Existent" (Chānd. 6, 8, 1), "is embraced by the Self of knowledge" (Bṛh. 4, 3, 21).—One might think that different places are to be here understood, because they all subserve the same end and therefore cannot be dependent on each other (p. 789, 12). That is also the reason why they are mostly in the locative, and where this is not the case, as in the passage about "the Existent" (p. 790, 3) the locative meaning is made certain by the connection and context (p. 790, 8). As the essence of deep sleep consists in the suspension of individual cognition (viśeṣa-vijñāna-upaśama), and all the spots mentioned subserve this purpose, it seems that the soul in deep sleep can enter one or the other at choice (p. 790, 10).—To this is to be replied: not at choice (vikalpena) into one or the other, but at the same time (samuccayena) into all the places mentioned does the soul enter in deep sleep (p. 791, 1), because otherwise we should have a partial denial (pakshe bādhaḥ) of the evidence of scripture.

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From the uniformity of case it does not follow that all (each for itself) fulfil the same purpose; they may fulfil different ends which require to be combined (p. 791, 7) and as a man can be at home and in bed at the same time, the soul too can be simultaneously in the veins, the pericardium, and the Brahman (p. 791, 8). Where (as in Chānd. 8, 6, 3) the veins alone are mentioned, without excluding Brahman who dwells, as we know, in another spot [in the ether of the heart], an entrance into Brahman by means of the veins (nāḍī-dvāreṇa) is to be understood (p. 791, 16); this is not in contradiction with the locative; for he who by means of the Ganges (Gaṅgayā) journeys to the ocean, has journeyed on the Ganges (Gaṅgāyām) (p. 792, 1). Moreover the passage in question is concerned with another matter, viz. the way through the veins and sunbeams into the Brahman-world [in heaven]; and in treating of this it is, to exalt the veins, mentioned that no evil touches him who has entered by them [into the heart], and that because, as Chānd. 6, 8, 3 says, "he has thus become one with heat" (p. 792, 5). By heat (tejas) is here to be understood either the juice (pittam) in the veins that surrounds the organs of cognition (p. 792, 6) or Brahman; for (p. 792, 11) that it cannot be touched by evil agrees with the facts of the Brahman-world [in the heart, cf. above p. 164] while the complex of veins issues (anugata) in Brahman, as the place of deep sleep.

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So too the pericardium is in close relationship (anuguṇa p. 793, 4) with the place of deep sleep. For the envelope of the heart is termed pericardium, purītat; what is in the heart is also in the purītat, just as what is in a town is surrounded by the walls of the town (p. 793, 8). Of the three places of deep sleep, veins, pericardium and Brahman, the two first are therefore only to be regarded as entrances (p. 793, 13). "The “veins too, or the Puritat are only the receptacle of the Upâdhis “of the soul; in them its organs sojourn [probably only the “Indriyas, and if a removal from its natural position be “assumed, the Manas]. For apart from the connection with “the Upâdhis, the soul in itself (svatas) needs no receptacle “but in its non-difference from Brahman reposes in its own “majesty” (Chând. 7, 24, 1), and thus identity (tâdâtmyam), not a relation of receptacle and contents, exists, between it and Brahman (p. 794, 2); “true the entrance of the soul into Brahman is never unrealised; it cannot give up its own nature; “but in dream and waking by virtue of its mingling with the “Upâdhis it is as though the soul had passed into a different “nature; therefore the release from the Upâdhis in deep sleep “is regarded as an entrance of the soul into its own nature” (p. 794, 7). The aim of deep sleep, the suspension of individual cognition, would not be attained by a mere entrance into veins and Puritat, for (p. 794, 14) they involve plurality (bheda-vishaya);

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and “where a plurality as it were exists, one sees “the other,” as the scripture (Brih. 4, 5, 15) says. True suspension of cognition can be effected by the great distance of the objects but only where the subject is limited, which is not the case with the soul, if the Upâdhis are left out of account (p. 795, 2); if however a removal of the Upâdhis is meant it is just this release from them of which we are speaking (p. 795, 5). We do not maintain either that veins, pericardium and Brahman are to be regarded as possessed of equal rights; for the two first do not come in question at all (p. 795, 8); the important thing is that Brahman is unchangeably the place of deep sleep, and that the Brahmanhood of the soul is adhered to, and a release in deep sleep from the activity of the waking and dream states (p. 795, 12).

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Just as deep sleep is an entrance into Brahman, so awaking out of it is a withdrawal from him (p. 795, 15).

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But how is it possible, if deep sleep is a complete union with Brahman, that each soul on awaking finds its way back to its individuality? If a drop of water is poured into a body of water and a drop taken from it again, it can hardly be assumed that you get the same drop again!122 Just so, as it seems, must we assume that after its union with God in deep sleep the same soul cannot return to its individuality; that on the contrary it is another soul or even God himself who awakes in its place (p. 796, 8—797, 1).

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But this is not so, as Çankara shows p. 797, 2 ff.; he who awakes can neither be another soul nor God but must be the same who went to sleep and that for the following reasons which the words of the Sûtram also set forth:

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1) On account of works; it cannot be assumed that a religious work begun in the evening and completed in the morning is divided between two different souls; and that ati-prasangât "because too much would follow from it;" to wit that then to every one could be apportioned the works of another and be imputed to him at the retribution.

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2) On account of remembrance; for one remembers when one wakes: "I saw this and this yesterday" and "I am so and so." This continuity of the consciousness of external objects and the Self proves that the same soul awakes as went to sleep.

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3) On account of the text of scripture; "then it hurries back according to the entrance, according to the place, into the waking state" (Bṛih. 4, 3, 34);—"all these creatures go day by day into the Brahman-world and yet do not discover it" (Chând. 8, 3, 2);—"therefore of a truth, dear one, when all these “creatures proceed out of the Existent again, do they not “know that they proceed out of the Existent again; whether “they are tigers here, or lions, or wolves, or boars, or worms, “or birds, or midges, or gnats, whatever they may be, that “they become again” (Chând. 6, 10, 2).

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¹²² The question raised above is explicable from the view that the soul as such is a completely indifferent principle, i. e. like God himself (chap. XIV, 3) nirviçeṣha without any difference, and that therefore all its individuality is to be sought in its empirical existential form. But wherein is this individuality to be found?—Not in the Upâdhis for they are only a mechanical apparatus, in themselves dead, which are alike an attribute of all. Therefore if the individual character can neither be found in the soul as such, nor in its Upâdhis, it must be discoverable in some tertium quid, and this is moral determination, which we here characterise by three expressions from Bṛih. 4, 4, 2: vidyâ, karman, pûrva-prajñâ (or as we preferred to say above p. 193 apûrvaprajñâ), knowledge, works, and previous (or newly acquired) experience. We return later (p. 374 ff.) to this question; here we had to anticipate it to make what follows intelligible.

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4) On account of the precepts as to knowledge and works, which in the absence of personal identity would become invalid; for otherwise deep sleep would mean complete liberation, and what would become then of the works that still remain and have to be atoned for, and of the (lower) knowledge? So too in the case of the other in whose person the soul would have to wake, the continuity of his actions would be destroyed. How can one even assume that any one goes to sleep in the person of A and wakes up in the person of B?— Finally the really liberated might also awake again in that case [for nothing distinguishes him from the others] and liberation would not be definitive. But this is, after Ignorance has once been destroyed, impossible; and from this it follows that God (îçvara), for whom Ignorance is eternally annihilated, cannot awake in the place of the soul.—That is; for the reason that otherwise man would suffer for what he has not committed, and not atone for what he has committed (p. 798, 12), it is impossible to assume that a different person from him who went to sleep wakes up. The comparison with the drop, which cannot be recovered from the body of water, does not agree with the facts; for the distinguishing cause is wanting in this case, but in the case of the soul it is present, namely in the shape of works and knowledge [in which therefore consists the individuality of the individual]. Moreover things which are hard to distinguish for such as we are, are still distinguishable; thus the goose (hansa, for a domestic animal must be meant here) is able to distinguish water and milk when they are mixed (p. 799, 3). “There does not exist an individual “soul different from Brahman, distinguishable from the Existent “like a drop of water from a body of water; but the Existent “itself is, in consequence of the connection with the Upâdhis, “termed individual soul in a metaphorical sense, as we have “often set forth; and therefore the matter stands thus: the “action of a given individual soul extends so far as the connection with a given Upādhi-complex exists, and where another Upādhi is present, we have the action of another individual soul; but one and the same Upādhi is in deep sleep and the waking state in the position of the seed and the plant; therefore it is the same soul which wakes up again.”

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—If in the course of these discussions it appears occasionally as if the exoteric theory could not be maintained throughout in the doctrine of deep sleep, the last remark shows that it is not so. The union with Brahman in deep sleep and death and at the destruction of the world is in every case merely apparent, for the individualities continue to exist potentially and arise again from their seed unchanged; and this is at the bottom synonymous with a real continued existence of the soul.

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