Pure Existence
"Give up all your
prejudices and preconceived notions, and consider what are you in deep sleep.
It is your own experience, so it cannot be difficult to know. It is our own
experience; everyday we are having it. Yet, we throw it away and dismiss it as
‘only deep sleep’. No one will say that he did not exist in deep sleep. Body is
not there. World is not there. Thoughts are not there. There is no ‘I and you’,
‘God and world’, ‘pleasure and pain’, ‘good and bad’, ‘existence or
non-existence’. All the pairs of opposites have gone. It appears to be an
unconscious state because there are no objects there of which to be conscious.
You existed in deep sleep. You must have been there. Remembrance always follows
experience and there is no experience unless there is consciousness. So, in
deep sleep, you exist not as the triad (experience, experiencing, experienced
), but as the one homogeneous Consciousness. In the deep sleep state, nobody
sees any objects. The whole creation, including one’s own body and mind, are
not seen because they have dissolved. There is no proof to show that when you
are asleep, there is a world outside. Your friend, the world he saw while you
were sleeping, including your sleeping body lying on the bed, all are thoughts
in your mind that occur only during the waking state. During deep sleep, there
is no world. So, every moment there is dissolution, and the next moment
creation, and the next moment dissolution again. And in between is the
existence of the world. This goes on incessantly; this is manifestation,
manifestation of the unmanifest. In fact, these are not two. These are all
words and ideas formed by us to explain the Truth that is beyond all words. The
manifest state ( dream and waking states) and the unmanifest state ( which is
called deep sleep or the moment between two thoughts ) are not two. There are
no two states here, but they appear as two. The Absolute is neither manifest
nor unmanifest. But one thing is certain: throughout all these apparent
changes, ‘you’ are there; the ‘real- I’ in you is there. Who is this ‘I’ – that
you must know. So, we begin our analysis with the deep sleep state, as we were
‘before creation’, as it were. In the beginning, scriptures say, ‘I alone was’.
Body is not there. World is not there. Thoughts are not there. But ‘you’ are
there, which no one will deny. Remember, you go into the state of deep sleep
everyday willingly, consciously, voluntarily, making all necessary preparation
like a comfortable bed, soft pillow and saying ‘good night, please don’t
disturb me now’, even to your dearest one. You like that state. You enjoy it,
leaving everything behind, possessed by you. Everyday you exist very happily
without body and world. We now come to the dream. You saw it. But now you know
it was not. Your dreamed body-mind is as real or unreal as are the other
objects in the dream. It is the ‘I’ of deep sleep that projected the dream
world. Upon awakening (into the dream world or waking state ), the
undifferentiated Consciousness of deep sleep divides itself, as though, into
the observer who sees and the observed that is seen. First comes the ‘me’ and
then immediately comes the ‘you’, meaning the whole world. The whole world
appears as an object to me, the subject. But every object thinks itself as the
subject. Are we subject or object? We are neither. Both come under phenomena,
both are appearances only. Do we regard ourselves as wholly present in sleep or
partially present in sleep? We cannot say that only a part of ourselves was in
sleep. We are sure that the whole of ourselves was present in sleep. The whole
of us was present in deep sleep – not a part of us. Then what is it that we
call ‘I’ in waking and dreaming states? Do we add to the whole? Nobody can add
to the whole. When we say, “I was wholly present in deep sleep,” we do not add
anything to ourselves when we come into the waking condition. So many things
attract us and confront us, and we are obliged to pay attention to them. Is the
body a part of ourselves? Are the senses a part of ourselves? We may say ‘yes’.
Then we must say that in the state of deep sleep, we were not wholly present,
because a part of us was outside! The body, the senses, our friends and
relationships – they were all outside. If we are wholly present in sleep,
unrelated to anything else, then the unrelated condition is wholeness – not the
related condition. So, relationships are essentially false! This is what is
implied in an analysis of deep sleep. Relationships are not true because they
do not belong to the whole. What does not belong to the whole cannot even
exist. What can be outside the whole? This is why some people say that the
world does not really exist. Why were we not conscious in sleep, and yet seemed
to be conscious in sleep? This enigma is what is called ‘ignorance’. Ignorance
is not an absence of consciousness. Ignorance is rather a difficulty in knowing
a situation – that is what is called ‘ignorance’. Our true nature seems to be
undivided, and at the same time a state of consciousness without which memory
is impossible. What then am I truly? I am unrelated consciousness, not related
consciousness, because one cannot have relations with whole. Our true nature
is, by implication we learn, unrelated wholeness of consciousness. It is not
part consciousness, but whole consciousness, unconnected with anything else.
The whole earth may be ours, but if we are not able to sleep, which would we choose
– sleep or emperorship of the earth, because we cannot exchange sleep with
emperorship; and no one can! The emperor is not made happy merely through
relationship." …………………..Om Shanti!
