From the chapter PART III Diary of the book “Guru Ramana – Memories and Notes” by S. S. Cohen.
28th June, 1948
8-30 a.m. The morning is very cool and fresh after last night’s shower. Incense is burning in profusion near Maharshi’s couch. The peace, like the perfumes of the incense and the flowers, is all-pervading. The Tamil paper comes. Maharshi opens it and sees a caricature of Sri C. Rajagopalachariar, our Governor-General, wearing the naval uniform and cap of Lord Mountbatten, his predecessor. Everything, except the face, is Mountbatten’s. Bhagavan utters a loud chuckle and turns to us to explain the joke. We enjoyed more his innocent joy than the artist’s sketch. In the end Maharshi remarks: “This resembles the work of maya – the Real is hidden in the unreal sheaths, just as Rajaji is hidden in Mountbatten’s clothes.”
* * * *
Mr. C. sat near the Master’s couch and read aloud the following verse from Vivekachudamani:-
“The blissful sheath (Anandamayakosha) has its fullest play in deep sleep, whilst in the dream and waking states it has only a partial manifestation, occasioned by the experience of agreeable objects.”
Sri Bhagavan commented:- “In sushupti (deep sleep) one enjoys a whole ocean of bliss like a king; whereas in the other two states the range of bliss is as wide as are the classes of men, from the king down to the penniless.”
Mr. C. Sushupti is often characterised as the state of ignorance.
Bh. No, it is the pure State. There is full awareness in it and total ignorance in the waking state. It is said to be ajnana (ignorance) only in relation to the false jnana (knowledge) prevalent in jagrat. Really speaking jagrat is ajnana and sushupti prajnana (wisdom). If sushupti is not the real state where does the intense peace come from to the sleeper? It is everybody’s experience that nothing in jagrat can compare with the bliss and well-being derived from deep sleep, when the mind and the senses are absent. What does it all mean? It means that bliss comes only from inside ourselves and that it is most intense when we are free from thoughts and perceptions, which create the world and the body, that is, when we are in our pure Be-ing, which is Brahman, the Self. In other words, the Be-ing alone is bliss and the mental superimpositions are ignorance and, therefore, the cause of misery. That is why samadhi is also described as sushupti in jagrat, the blissful pure being which prevails in deep sleep is experienced in jagrat, when the mind and the senses are fully alert but inactive.