Q: I do not seem to be aware at all in deep sleep. If awareness never goes then where does my awareness go in deep sleep?
A: When you say, “my” awareness you are referring to the reflected/personal awareness. A stone may have no reflected/personal awareness at all but stone is within the impersonal/pure awareness which never goes. Stone is an expression of pure awareness. When we say awareness never goes, we refer to the pure awareness, not the reflected one. Incidentally, even “your” awareness does exist in dormant form in deep sleep. Had it not been the case then nobody would get up from the deep sleep after hearing a loud noise or nobody would get up from deep sleep due to mosquito bite. Also, consider the following verse:
[Panchadasi, Chapter 11, Verse 39]
Implied Meaning: If there is no comfort in deep sleep then why great effort is made to set up soft bedding and other conveniences?
Meaning: Whether my body worships the Gods, takes bath, goes to the toilet or goes begging, whether my voice does AUM japa or chants Vedantashastra, whether my intellect wishes to remember Vishnu or disappears in bliss, I am neither the doer nor the owner of all these acts. I am the witness to all these.
Atman (Self) is often defined as Sat-Chit-Aanand. Sat implies forever/permanent/existence, Chit implies self revealing consciousness and Aanand generally implies bliss. Definition of something means all conditions should be satisfied at all time.
Emotions come and go so how can an emotion like bliss always be permanent? For example, bliss cannot be experienced while watching horror movie or while watching a bad dream. Also, Atman is everywhere whether we speak of living beings or non-living objects. How can bliss be associated with a non-living entity like stone? How can bliss be associated with living entity not capable of experiencing bliss for example certain microbes/insects/animals etc. Also, Atman is the knower of everything including bliss, how can it itself be bliss?
If Aanand is considered as Anant which means limitless/infinite, this confusion would not be there and Atman indeed is limitless/whole/infinite. The word bliss when used in the context of Atman should be seen in this light. It is true that the more mind abides in Self, the happier it is. So, the words bliss & aanand can be used in their general sense also but they cannot be the direct representative of permanence when used this way.
Perhaps a Sanskrit scholar can look into the origin of the words Anant & Aanand.
Comments: Consciousness that is surrounded by physical and subtle bodies is called Kootastha (anvil like) because just like the Koot (anvil, see fig. below) of blacksmith which remains unaffected even when iron is beaten keeping on top of it, consciousness remains unaffected. While changes take place in physical and subtle bodies, consciousness remains unchanged. One way to seek the truth is to find out that which remains unchanged in you.
A neurosurgeon (Dr. Eben Alexander), who used to have the view that consciousness exists due to brain earlier, now has completely different perspective after his NDE. Continue reading A Neurosurgeon on Consciousness→
Q: How does the individual sense of awareness/consciousness dissolve?
A: When you say, “my awareness” there is an individual sense. This is different from saying, “I am awareness” where the individual sense is lost. Awareness, like love, is a quality (abstract noun). When we say, “Love is blind”, it is not about X’s love or Y’s love. There is nothing personal attached to the quality love when used in this way. So, when you say that you are awareness, so is everybody else. There is no individual sense attached to the quality awareness here. The individual sense of awareness dissolves when the understanding that you are awareness gets deep rooted. You feel comfortable saying, “Aham Brahmasmi” (Translation: I am Brahman, Meaning: I pervade everything).
PS: Awareness and consciousness words have been considered to mean the same.
A: Creation is the dream of consciousness in which consciousness itself is present in many forms. Here is an analogy to understand this:
Consciousness is (say) Vishnu, Vishnu sees a dream (say, Brahma) in which he himself is present in many forms. So, you the questioner is a dream object in Vishnu’s dream. When this dream is over one can say that Shiva has destroyed the world. Here Vishnu, Brahma and Shiva are used as symbols meant for explanation purpose. Vishnu symbolises pure consciousness, Brahma symbolises creation (i.e. consciousness in dream or under ignorance), Shiva symbolises destruction of dream/ignorance. One can use different symbols if one wants to.
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