Blissful Sleep

Dinesh Singh Sleep is the most blessed gift of Nature to all living beings, especially humankind. It may be a point of debate whether living beings other than humans enjoy sleep or not, but there is no doubt that human beings enjoy sleep very much it acts like balm to their sore minds. Shakespeare has described sleep in his famous play, Macbeth in the following glowing terms! The innocent sleep, Sleep that knits up the ravelld sleave of care, The death of each days life, Sore labours bath, Balm of hurt minds, Great natures second course, Chief nourisher in lifes feast. "araphrased in modern #nglish prose, the above poetic outpouring should read as follows! The innocent sleep that straightens out the tangled silken thread of care sleep !ith !hich terminate activities of the day sleep that brings relief to a tired labourer sleep !hich is a healing medicine to the troubled mind, and the most nourishing dish served by "ature in the ban#uet of life. Sleep is a blissful e$perience only when it is unruffled % undisturbed by agitating thoughts of the mind. &uman mind is always at work, even in sleep when the unconscious part of the mind is at play with its funny games sometimes playing its most villainous part to torment the sleeper. Such a sleep can hardly be called as blissful. 'n the contrary, it is an agoni(ing and stressful e$perience called a nightmare. So which kind of sleep is blissful and how to get it should be a matter of interest to mankind. In )edantic philosophy, all human e$perience has been broadly divided into four states! *. +aking state when the conscious part of the mind is at work with the sub, conscious part playing a secondary role to it. -. .ream state when the unconscious part of the mind is at its full play. /. .eep sleep which is undisturbed by dreams and is blissful. 0. Turiya state in which one enjoys the blissful state of deep sleep in ones waking state.

1n analysis of the above four states will reveal to a man of common sense that thoughts are the chief tormenters of mind. 2houghts originate in the mind and also torment it in its waking state as well as in the state of dream. In our waking state, we e$perience all sorts of agitating and agoni(ing thoughts which result in tensions often too stressful to bear, which further result in dreadful diseases like high blood,pressure and brain hemorrhage. #ven if one goes to sleep in such conditions and doctors do advise such patients to sleep, sometimes even with sedatives, the resultant sleep is not likely to be blissful rather it would be agoni(ing and stressful. So let us find out what sort of thoughts are agoni(ing and disturbing to the human mind. In this conte$t, let us have a brief appraisal of the three types of mental tendencies which are ingrained in our nature. 1s described in great details in the Samkhya school of Indian philosophy and later incorporated in the 3ita, these tendencies are called gunas 4loosely translated as 5ualities for the constrains of #nglish language6. 2hey are known as Sattva, $a%as and Tamas. Sattva denotes goodness and sublimity, which result in wisdom and serenity, $a%as denotes passion and feverish activity which result in tension and agitation, and Tamas denotes lethargy and heedlessness which result in delusion and ignorance. 2heir influence is so overpowering that nobody can escape it. In Sanskrit the term guna also means rope. 1ll beings of the universe are shackled by these ropes called gunas. 1nother thing to be understood about these gunas is that they are present in all beings in varying degrees or proportions and at a given time one of them is predominant over the other two. 2he particular guna, which predominates, determines the nature of an individual at a given time. It is also possible that different gunas predominate a mans nature at different times. 7or e$ample, in a man of saintly nature, generally the sattva guna predominates and he is called a man of sattvik nature but at a given time and in a different circumstance, he may get very angry for some reason and may go wild with rage. 1t this particular time, his nature would be called ra%asik, though generally he is a man of sattvik nature. 3oing by the same e$ample, a man of tamasik or ra%asik nature can very well sublimate his nature and transform himself into a man of sattvik nature. 2hat is why the proverb goes that every saint has a past and every devil has a future. 8evering to the subject in hand, in order to have a good and blissful sleep free from agoni(ing tensions and agitations we must strive in the right earnest to sublimate our nature % from tamasik to ra%asik, and further from ra%asik to sattvik. It is 5uite possible by means of perpetual practice and detachment. 1ttachment to sense,objects is the root cause of mental agitations. 2herefore, practice and cultivation of the spirit of detachment is necessary, which is a long drawn process and calls for mental discipline and self control. In spiritual terms, it is called sadhana. #ven if we look at it from the point of view of the modern 2heory of #volution, we find that human specie has been ever evolving at all levels % physical, mental and spiritual, and it is possible for man to evolve to the ne$t level i.e. divinity. 9ans spiritual journey, as a matter of fact, consists not in moving from error to truth but from lower truth to

higher truth from less perfection to greater perfection. :et us achieve this perfection and enjoy blissful sleep.
&The author is the editor of #uarterly print maga'ine (Science of Soul)*