Talks with Sri Ramana Maharshi Complete ... - BrahminVoice.org

Talks with Sri Ramana Maharshi
we proceed further let us make this point clear. Do you not admit
that you exist in your sleep?
D.: Yes, I do.
M.: You are the same person that is now awake. Is it not so?
D.: Yes.
M.: So there is a continuity in the sleep and the waking states. What
is that continuity? It is only the state of Pure Being.
There is a difference in the two states. What is that difference? The
incidents, namely, the body, the world and the objects appear in
the waking state but they disappear in sleep.
D.: But I am not aware in my sleep.
M.: True, there is no awareness of the body or of the world. But you
must exist in your sleep in order to say now “I was not aware in my
sleep”. Who says so now? It is the wakeful person. The sleeper cannot
say so. That is to say, the individual who is now identifying the Self
with the body says that such awareness did not exist in sleep.
Because you identify yourself with the body, you see the world
around you and say that the waking state is filled with beautiful and
interesting things. The sleep state appears dull because you were
not there as an individual and therefore these things were not. But
what is the fact? There is the continuity of Being in all the three
states, but no continuity of the individual and the objects.
D.: Yes.
M.: That which is continuous is also enduring, i.e. permanent. That
which is discontinuous is transitory.
D.: Yes.
M.: Therefore the state of Being is permanent and the body and the
world are not. They are fleeting phenomena passing on the screen
of Being-Consciousness which is eternal and stationary.
D.: Relatively speaking, is not the sleep state nearer to Pure
Consciousness than the waking state?
M.: Yes, in this sense: When passing from sleep to waking the ‘I’
thought must start; the mind comes into play; thoughts arise;
and then the functions of the body come into operation; all these
582