Yogic Science: The Three States of Consciousness

The range of human experiences is very wide and varied. It ranges from physical experiences of sound, touch, see (form), taste and smell, to emotional experiences of desire, anger, love, compassion to intellectual experiences of ideas, innovation, imagination, and so on. These experiences continue while one is awake, or sleeping. Yogic sciences divide these experiences into three states of consciousness, namely, The Waking state (Jagrat avastha), Dream state (Svapna avastha), and the Deep Sleep state (Shushupti avastha).

To study these three states, we will consider three factors associated with each state:

• Condition of the mind
• Nature of the experience
• Dominant Medium of the experience

Waking State (Jagrat)

Waking State is the state of experience where one’s entire personality is awake and fully functioning. The senses, mind, intellect are turned outward; experiencing and interacting with the external world.

1. Condition of the Mind:

In the Waking state, all the components of the gross body and the subtle body are fully operational, working like a well-oiled machine. The senses are consuming objects, the mind is consuming emotions, the intellect is consuming thoughts and the ego is busy consuming experiences to make it happy.

2. Nature of the experience

• In Waking state, we experience the outside world.
• All the objects we are experiencing, are also available to others.
• The experiences happen via senses, mind, intellect, and ego.
• The Waking state experience is bi-directional, one receives the experience from the world as well as one responds to the world.
• In Waking state, one can make choices for their actions, thoughts, and emotions to enjoy them or to suffer from them.

3. Dominant Medium of experience

In the waking state, since we are interacting with the external world, the Gross body is the dominant medium. It is not possible to function through the gross body without the subtle and causal bodies, so though all the 3 bodies are active, but the dominant medium is the gross body.

Dream State (Svapna)

The Dream state is the state of experience where the world is created out of one’s memories based on the impressions created during the Waking state. The dreamer’s consciousness is turned inwards, there is no interaction happening with the external world. A dreamer can have a completely different identity from the waker.

1. Condition of Mind:

In the Dream state, only the mind in the subtle body is functional. The sense organs are all dormant. No new physical events are being recorded in the memory. The intellect is dormant too as in dreams one does not think right or wrong or takes decisions. Even Ego is dormant in the dream state.

2. Nature of the experience

In the Waking state, the experiences are gained through senses, mind, intellect, and ego and are recorded in the memory. These experiences form impressions (Vasanas) on the mind. Repeated experiences form deeper impressions in the mind. In the Dream state, the mind creates the dream world by replaying these impressions and memories.

• In the Dream state, one experiences an internal world, created, sustained, and destroyed by the mind based on memories and impressions (vasanas).
• All the objects we experience in the Dream state are only available to us, not to others.
• The Dream state experience is uni-directional, one receives the experience, but doesn’t respond to them.
• In the Dream state, one cannot make any choices to enjoy or suffer.
• Dreams can be unfulfilled wishes or fantasies of the Waker. Sometimes one sees a new object in a dream that one has not seen in the waking state. Remember in the Dream state, new objects cannot be created (as all senses are dormant). The seemingly new object that one sees in a dream are an amalgamation or mixture of Impressions and objects from memory e.g. a flying horse, or an elephant wearing a skirt.
• Thoughts are fluid and dreams are made from thoughts, so dream objects are also very fluid
• The subtle body continues from one life to another, so in some rare cases, dreams can be based on memories from past lives.

3. Dominant Medium of experience:

In the dream state, the dominant medium of experience is the subtle body, via the mind.

Deep Sleep State (Shushupti)

When one wakes up and says “I slept like a log. I had a sound sleep, didn’t know anything”. That state is the Deep Sleep state, a state filled with happiness, where there is no internal or external world and consciousness is formless and limitless bliss.

1. Condition of Mind:

In the Deep sleep state, only the 5 Prans of the subtle body are functioning. Sense organs, mind, intellect, ego are all dormant. There are no emotions, no memory, no objects at all. The deep sleep state is also referred to as a seed state. When seed sprouts, the sleeper becomes a waker or a dreamer and experiences the world (external or internal).

2. Nature of the experience

In the Deep sleep state, there are no experiences as the gross and subtle bodies are dormant. It is a state of total self-ignorance.

• Dream and Waking state experiences differ for everybody, but the deep sleep state is the same for all. The rich, the poor, healthy or sick, everybody experiences the same bliss in deep sleep.
• One is refreshed and rejuvenated by this state, that is why sometimes it is said that it is not how long you sleep, but how deep you sleep that matters.
• In absence of thoughts, there is no concept of time, space, or duality. That is why after waking from a deep sleep, one doesn’t remember how long he slept, etc.

3. Dominant Medium of experience:

In the deep sleep state, the dominant medium of experience is the causal body.

Conclusion

The three states help a seeker to introspect further as to Who is experiencing these three states? Just like a frog jumps from one lily pad to another, similarly, “I” jump from one state to another every day. In the Waking state, I identify with the gross body and become the doer, enjoyer, and the sufferer of the external world. In the Dream state, I identify with the subtle body and become an enjoyer of the dream world. In the Deep sleep state, I am unaware of the world and experience bliss, but I remain completely self-ignorant. The 3 states come and go, each negating the experience and reality of the other two. I am neither the waker nor the dreamer or the sleeper, as they keep changing. “I” am the witness of these states, the pure self.