Namaste. Experience is SELF + Object.
Sundari: Yes.
GS: In deep sleep, the Causal body is the object, and it is tamasic.
Sundari: The Macrocosmic Causal body (Maya) = deep sleep. Both are objects known to Awareness. Prajna = Awareness operating as the jiva experiencing the Macrocosmic Causal body in deep sleep. Prajna is Awareness experiencing its own nature as bliss minus objects because all vasanas are dormant, so no mental activity. Therefore, Bliss of Awareness minus the knowledge = deep sleep = ignorance, which is the presence of tamoguna, alone. Rajas and sattva are dormant.
Note that the ignorance in deep sleep is Maya, Universal Ignorance, it is not avidya. Avidya is the personal ignorance of one’s nature as Satchitananda Atma and belongs to the waking state jiva which doesn’t exist in deep sleep. The ignorance in deep sleep is the nature of the tamasic aspect of Saguna Isvara, (karana sarira) or Macrocosmic Causal body. Shankara distinguishes Maya from avidya to clear this doubt. There is no avidya in deep sleep because the Subtle body is withdrawn into the Causal body.
GS: Self-knowledge does it happen in Causal body?
Sundari: Self-knowledge is not a happening; this is an important point to assimilate. It is your true nature revealed when ignorance is removed from the Subtle body by Self-knowledge, i.e., by nonduality. Thus, Self-knowledge does not have an origin or locality, because the Self is not in time or space being nondual. It is all that is and what always Exists. The Causal Body, the reflective medium or Maya, is ‘below the line’, in mithya. So how can Self-knowledge, which is not an object of knowledge, happen in the Causal body (Beginningless ignorance) if the CB is an object known to you, Awareness?
GS: Viveka and Vairagya are they at Subtle body level?
Sundari: Yes, they are qualifications for the assimilation of Self-knowledge, but they are mithya.
GS: Vasanas are in Causal body. Am I right?
Sundari: Yes. All vasanas originate from Isvara, the Macrocosmic Causal body or Beginningless Ignorance.
GS: What I am observing is in wakeful state?
Sundari: Who does the ‘I” refer to? There seems to be some confusion reading this email. Are you referring to the experiencing entity or Awareness? The Self, nondual Awareness operating as Isvara observes all three states available to the jiva, waking, dream, and deep sleep. If Awareness was not there observing the dream or deep sleep state, how would you know you dreamt or slept?
The experiencing entity, viswa identifies with the objects, the body/mind/sensory construct in the waking state. The dream state jiva, taijasa, also identifies with the objects while in the dream state, but it does not identify with them upon waking because it knows it was a dream. Whereas the waking jiva who is in a dream when awake takes the dream to be real and suffers.
However, the important point here is how does the jiva know anything whether it is awake, dreaming, or that it slept? Because of the presence of Awareness.
GS: The senses are withdrawn in the deep sleep state and there is no mentation and hence bliss is there effortlessly.
Sundari: Yes, see above. In the deep sleep state, everything is resolved and goes back to its seed form. That is why it is experienced as bliss, which is why deep sleep is called the bliss sheath, anandamaya kosa. But because there is no knowledge it is not known that you are experiencing the bliss of Awareness. You just feel blissful when you wake up not knowing the real reason.
Om
Sundari
