by Sri Bimal Mohanty
VOL No. 35
January. 2004

ATTEMPTS TO DESCRIBE BRAMHAN - Part 9

"Based on the lectures by Sri Bimal Mohanty"

As we saw in the last issue, the dream state ruled by the mind is not able to take us to Bramhan. So the next ascending journey is possible only when the limits of the mind is overcome,- when the mind becomes powerless and inactive. When the ahamkara and the mind are set aside, only then further movement is possible.

We have still not reached the state of Bramhan. The waking state was dependent on our senses, as well as mind, viveka and ahamkara. The dream state is dependent only on the mind, viveka and ahamkara. So both these states are anitya or impermanent, hence are not Bramhan which is essentially permanent. We are not looking for something which is anitya. We are searching nitya.

So one has to transcend further. The influence of mind intellect and ahamkara has to be subdued to reach a higher state of sustained changelessness. The indriyas or sense organs- the antahkarana- i.e the mind intellect and ego- which were the companions of the soul so far, must now stay behind. For the next journey of the soul, the Bramhan or The Lord himself is the only companion.

In this process we enter the susupti or deep sleep state. A mere concentrated sleep is not susupti as it is most often explained by ignorant people. Susupti is qualified by describing the state of jiva's consciousness, when the influences of sense organs have been overcome and the mind, intellect and the ego have been brought under control.

Yatra suptah na kanchana kaamaam kaamayate na kancana svapnam pasyati tat susuptam.

It is the state of total absence of all desires of the sense organs and the mind. When the mind is subdued, the nature of mind to go for desires is overcome. Na kancana kaamaam kaamayate. It is also the state where no dreams are dreamt. Na kancana svapnam pasyati. Dreams are indeed projections of unsatisfied desires of the mind. With desires under control, the ego no more orders the mind to go after dreams.

Susuptasthaana ekibhutah prajaanaghana eva aanandamayah hi aanandabhuk cetomukhah prajnyaa tritiya paadah.

Earlier, if you recall, we said that the sense organs, the mind, the intellect and the ego, are all temporary companions of man. The only permanent companion we have is the individual self or jivatma, which is the projection of Bramhan himself . Our sense organs are our companions only when we are fully awake to the gross world around us. We subdue them and enter into the mental dream world. We are left with, mana, the mind, buddhi or viveka, the discerning power, and our ego self -the ahamkara. But they also lose their importance and can not give us company, if we want to go higher and nearer to Bramhan. We enter the deep sleep or susupti stage without any of these temporary friends of ours.

In this susupti state only the self remains and every thing is now centred in the self, whose character is consciousness and gnosis (cetana and prajnaa). It is the state of intense awareness of the presence and knowledge of Bramhan. We are cetomukhah (inwardly conscious) and praajnah (aware). The jiva is now face to face with the great discovery it has made, its own omnipotent character, its original identity. When the desires were bubbling within us as in the previous two states, we were miserable and unhappy. Unfulfilled desires are the source of unhappiness. The susupti state being a state of no desire, the source of unhappiness is gone. Imagine a water pond with wind blowing over it. The surface of water is full of ripples. Now, if the wind which causes the ripples stops completely, the water becomes calm like the surface of a mirror, which happens to be its natural state of the water pond. Once the source that causes unhappiness for the jiva is dormant, its natural state is returned. It is now full of happiness and dwells in happiness- anandamaya and anandabhuk.

Is it then the state of Bramhan? No, not yet. Because, even this state, is unsustainable and unstable. We return back again to the waking state into this gross world of ours. Why is it so? Because the individual self has still not severed its karmic chains acquired through present as well as past lives, he is pulled back into the world of Maya.

The self in susupti, stood between two worlds. One is the world of bondage to which he must return to fulfill his Karmic influences, and obligations, and the other the world of absolute knowledge and absolute freedom, a world transcending all the bondage, where the bliss is sustained and everlasting, the world to which he aims to return