Sushupti Avastha (Deep Sleep State)

Sushupti Avastha (Deep Sleep State) is the last state mentioned as part of Traya Avastha (Three States).

Sushupti is the deep sleep state, a dreamless, undisturbed, peaceful sleep. In this state, the Consciousness identifies only with the Karana Sharira (causal body). The Consciousness in this state is called Prajna (Consciousness, Awareness).

In the deep sleep state our ego is completely absent and all our habits, traits, characteristics, etc., are unmanifest and lie in a seed form in the Karana Sharira (causal body). When we wake up, our entire character immediately manifests. That’s why everyone after sleep does not wake up as a different person but as the same person who went to sleep.

In the sleep, we exist in our true nature which is pure Awareness but aware of nothing. Along with our body, our thinking faculty also takes rest and hence there is nothing to identify this Awareness. It is like a light illuminating an empty room. There are no objects to illuminate, there is nobody to notice this illumination and hence in that case we are forced to say that the light is illuminating but is illuminating the emptiness in the room.

Swami Sarvapriyananda very nicely says that in the deep sleep state there is “experience of absence” and not "absence of experience". That’s why when we wake up we say “I felt nothing” meaning I experienced nothing or I experienced the absence.

This experience of absence happens because of the absence of ego. When the ego, I, me and mine are not there, then the mind is not disturbed as there are no thoughts, becomes peaceful and that allows the Self, the Atman or the real nature of the human being to be experienced (Bhagavad Gita 2.71).

Swapna Avastha, the Dream State proved to us that we feel our complete I-ness in the dream though the physical body is taking rest. Thus, the dream state proved that “I” is not the Sthula Sharira, the physical body.

In Sushupti Avastha, the Deep Sleep State we do not need proof from someone else that we existed. When we wake up, immediately we say “I had a nice sleep". Thus the “I”, the real Self was very much present in the deep sleep, but the entire thinking faculty was not present as it was taking rest due to the absence of the ego. This proves that “I” is not the thinking faculty and “I” is also not our ego. Thinking faculty is part of Sukshma Sharira, the subtle body. Thus the deep sleep state proved that "I" is not the Sukshma Sharira, the subtle body.

The dream state and deep sleep state together are proving that “the real “I” is not the body, is not the mind, is not the intellect, is not the ego, but "I" is the Atman, Self, the Life Energy powering the body and the mind and which is continuously present in all the Traya Avastha, the three states.

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