The other night, because I was so tired from the day, I slept from 7pm to 8am. It was deep sleep and I woke up completely refreshed. Do you sometimes get to sleep like that? How was your sleep last night? Do you remember your dreams? Was it a dreamless sleep?
Here is a trick question, where are “you” when you’re in dreamless sleep? What about when you’re dreaming, where are “you”? Now at this moment that you’re awake, where are “you”? Yoga philosophy recognizes these 3 states: jagrat (waking), swapna (dreaming), sushupti (deep sleep). Another trick question: Which one is “real”? In the context of yoga, “real” is defined differently. It does not mean material or tangible, rather it refers to something that is unchanging. The only state that is “real” is a fourth state called turiya (samadhi) or cosmic consciousness. That is the state that does not change. To use an analogy, it’s like traveling among 3 cities, but your home— where you truly belong— is the state of cosmic consciousness. Another analogy we can use is of one actor playing different parts, the waking, dreaming, and deep sleep states are roles that the actor plays, while samadhi is his true nature. It is the only thing that is real. In the state of turiya, time and space become immaterial, the attachment to the “self” falls away, there is no longer anything “personal” because one feels completely at home in the universe, one feels united with God, one experiences the kind of consciousness that is not bound by this body, this mind, this identity, or this incarnation. This is what is referred to as enlightenment.
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