Brahma Knowledge

PART I: section 15. PHASES OF THE SELF.--The highest existence is thus Thought without thinking, the state in which the soul has no consciousness of any external object, or indeed of any object at all, strictly speaking, for it is itself in conscious identity with the sum of all being or Universal Idea; "whilst he seeth not a thing, yet doth he see, though he see not the thing erstwhile to be seen. He that hath sight loseth not his sight, for it is imperishable. But there is naught bes

dreams the soul is its own light, B.A. IV. iii. 9), and Prajna ("intelligent," for in deep sleep the Self is one with the Universal Idea or "intelligent Self," prajna atma, B.A. IV. iii. 21); these terms do not occur until Mand. iii. ff. On dreaming sleep see also B.A. II. i. 18 (soul wanders about within the body), IV. iii. 9-14 (two accounts, in one of which soul leaves the body, while in the other it remains in it), iii. 20 f., Ch. VIII. x. 2, Pra. IV. 2 f. Dreamless sleep, B.A. IV. iii. 19-33, Ch. VIII. vi. 3, x.-xi. Fourth State, Mand. VII., Maitr. VI. 19, VII. 11, Mandukya-karika I. 12-16, III. 33 f. See also S'ankara on Brahma-sutra I. iii. 19 f., 40 f., III. ii. 1 f. S'ankara, following Ch. IV. iii. 3, holds that in deep sleep, in which the soul is in temporary identity with Brahma, the functions of sense, together with the manas, in which they are absorbed, are merged in the "breaths" travelling through the pericardium and veins (cf. section 18), while the soul becomes one with the Brahma residing under "determinations" in the heart (in B.A. II. i. 19, it rests in the pericardium, in Ch. VIII. vi. 3 in the veins). The statement of Ch. VIII. xii. 3, that "the Calm (samprasada), rising from this body, wins to the Supreme Light, and shows itself in its own form; this is the highest spirit (purusha)" is taken by S'ankara (on Brahma-sutra IV. iv. 1 f.) as referring to the soul not in dreamless sleep, but in its final release from the body after enlightenment (see section 24); this "own form" is the existence

of the soul in its absolute selfhood, where there is no longer a distinction between individual and universal soul. For the theories of the Vedanta after S'ankara see above, section 12.