Question:
In deep sleep there is absence of the mind, absence of the subject-object
duality, absence of the knower, the pramata. Yet when we wake up, we say ‘I
slept well, I knew nothing’ – so who knows this, as consciousness is not a
pramata and there is absence of mind in deep sleep.
Swami
Brahmavidananda (of Mumbai) answers: You are struggling with this as you are
trying to categorize it.
When the
sakshi (witness consciousness) functions through the mind, it is called as the
pramata or the knower. The sakshi with
reference to itself is atma- sat-cit-ananda…. (ever-present, changeless,
timeless, infinite consciousness-being). The atma or sakshi is present in deep
sleep. Sakshi is the term given to atma with reference to the fact that it
illumines everything, witnesses everything – yet it does not record. Recording,
memory is the function of the mind. In
deep sleep the mind is asleep, but because mind is there is potential
condition, subtle vrittis (thoughts) are there. On waking when the pramata is
up, the memory of witnessing of the deep sleep experience is there in the mind
because of the extremely subtle vrittis present in deep sleep. Therefore the
witnessing of the sakshi in deep sleep is connected with the waking pramata (
the knower) and we say I slept very
well.
So in deep
sleep, the pramata is asleep, yet the sakshi is there. As mentioned earlier,
Sakshi is the term given to atma (the Self) with reference to the fact that it
illumines everything.
Questioner: Thank you
