Letters from Sri Ramanasramam, by Suri Nagamma

(88) SLEEP AND THE REAL STATE

Prev Next 4th February, 1947
This afternoon somebody handed a slip of paper with a
question on it to Bhagavan. The purport of it was: “What
happens to this world during sleep? In what state is the Jnani
during sleep?” Affecting surprise, Bhagavan replied, “Oh!
Is that what you want to know? Do you know what is
happening to your body and in what state you are when you
are asleep? During your sleep you forget that your body is
here, in this place, on this mat, in this very condition, and
you wander about somewhere and do something. It is only
when you wake up that you realise that you are here. But
you are always existent during the sleeping state as well as
during the waking state. Your body is living inert, without
any activity during your sleep. Therefore you are not this
body during the sleeping condition. Then, to what are you
attached during sleep? There must be something which is
the prop for these comings and goings. You lie down with a
view to sleep. But you get dreams; next you sleep, knowing
happily nothing. It is a very happy sleep. So you admit that
you were there in the sleeping state. And yet you say that
you are aware of nothing in that state. What is real, you say
you do not know. What is unreal and fleeting, you say you
know. But in truth you know what is real. These fleeting
things — let them come and go — they will not touch you.

You do not know about yourself but you ask what happens
to the world? What does the Jnani experience in the sleeping
state? If you first know what happens to you, the world will
know about itself. You ask about Jnanis; they are the same in
any state or condition, as they know the Reality, the Truth.

In their daily routine of taking food, moving about and all
the rest, they, the Jnanis, act only for others. Not a single
action is done for themselves. I have already told you many
times that just as there are people whose profession is to
mourn for a fee, so also the Jnanis do things for the sake of
others with detachment, without themselves being affected
by them.”
Another devotee took up the conversation and asked,
“Swami, you say the real state must be known, and that
meditation is necessary to realise that. But first of all what is
meditation?” “Meditation means Brahman,” Bhagavan
replied. Conitnuing, he said, “To get rid of the evils that are
created by the mind, it is said that some nishta (religious
practice) must be adopted, and meditation based on that
must be practised. As you go on doing it, those evils will
disappear. And, after they disappear, the meditation itself
becomes fixed as Brahman. Tapas also means the same thing.

When you ask how to get rid of all these vasanas, they say,
‘Do tapas.’ But what is the reward of tapas? It is said, ‘tapas
itself is the reward.’ Tapas means swarupa (realisation of the
Self). What is real is the swarupa, that is Atma, the Supreme
Self, that is Brahman. That is everything. Of course in
technical language you have to say. ‘Do meditation’ but these
doubts do not arise if you know who it is that is really
meditating.” The same idea is conveyed in Bhagavan’s
“Upadesa Saram”:
Ahmpetk< injivÉankm!,
mhidd< tpae rm[vaigym!.

The Realisation of That which subsists when all trace of ‘I’
is gone is great tapas. So sings Ramana.

Upadesa Saram, verse 30