The System of the Vedanta according to Badarayana's Brahma-Sutras and Cankara's Commentary c8.s7.t2.5
The System of the Vedânta according to Bâdarâyana's Brahma-Sûtras and Çankara's Commentary c8.s7.t2.5
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c8.s7.t2.5.1
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.
c8.s7.t2.5.2
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.
c8.s7.t2.5.3
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);
c8.s7.t2.5.4
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).