Page 32 - Journey to Infinity

he can see by tying a cotton thread around his hand or any part of the body. The part becomes numb where the flow is stopped and becomes powerless. For the same reason when we sit, power of Atman stops flowing into hands and legs so that our limbs go to sleep. This is the state of all the Indriyas. If we pull out the flow of Atmanfrom them, then they do not have feeling and can not move and they become incapable of doing any work. The state of tongue, nose, ear etc. is same as they all depend on this flow. When a person goes to sleep, the flow of his Atman is pulled upwards and none of them works. If sweet is put into the mouth of a sleeping man, he can not experience sweetness because the flow which has got the capacity to experience sweetness is pulled inside. In the same way, during fainting or disease when the flow is pulled, the result will be same. When we deeply think, we can understand that the things which experience happiness in the human body are not Indriyas rather some other power which is in all of us and it is our Atma. We get this impressive lesson, during our waking state, on deep thinking. You can get a chance to be nearer to the Reality, if you ponder over the state of sleep. When you go to sleep the flow of Atman goes in side the body, on its own accord and the sensory Indriyas will have no work, neither hands and legs move nor the nose and eye perform their duty. The entire body lies idle and useless. But what happens inside the body? The affairs which are there in the external world are also present there. The conditions of dream state are subtler when compared to the conditions of waking state. Therefore there are subtle Indriyas in them. The connection/relation to heart improves and all kinds of things which give happiness, will be present there immediately, on mere thinking. When there is worry for an elephant for the transport, elephant will come immediately. When there is a desire to fly upwards to escape the enemy, we will be in the upper level of air. We get that kind of strength by which fishes will be swimming up and down on the layers of water. When there is thought of food, all the things will present, by themselves. Is it wrong? We understand that this condition will befall on every body and we find with difficulty a person who can not be convinced of the possibilities of dreams and do not accept the reality of dreams. From this it is given to understand that the things are produced by Atma itself.
Now lift the third curtain of the theater and see its spectacle. Third condition is Sushupti. We have given it the title of deep sleep. When ever we go into this special condition, the connection with the Indriyas is completely separated and there will be neither gross sensation nor subtle. Atma alone remains, because if any other thing is there, its knowledge will be there. It is said in the Bruhadaranyak Upanishad that “oh Maitreyi where there are two, one will hear the other, one will touch the other and one will hear the other”. Where there is only one layer, how can one hear the other etc. etc.