The System of the Vedanta according to Badarayana's Brahma-Sutras and Cankara's Commentary c8.s7.t2.5.1

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.