Sushupti - Deep Sleep
- Daniel McKenzie
- 2 days ago
- 4 min read
Updated: 1 day ago
When dream subsides, a greater silence rises. The lights of perception go out one by one: sight, sound, memory, the sense of “I.” What remains is not nothing, but everything unmanifest — a vast, undifferentiated stillness in which both the world and the one who knew the world have dissolved.
Vedanta calls this state sushupti (suṣupti), deep sleep. It is the most mysterious of the three: in jagrat (waking state), consciousness looks outward; in svapna (dream state), it looks inward; in sushupti, it does not look at all. The mind and senses are withdrawn; the intellect is at rest; individuality vanishes. Yet we do not cease to be. Upon waking, everyone says, “I slept well; I knew nothing.” The very memory of that blankness proves presence.
The deep sleeper experiences the bliss of the Self without knowing the Self — like a mirror in a dark room, capable of reflection but unlit. The Mandukya Upanishad names this experiencer Prajna, “the wise one,” because in that state all is resolved into potential, resting in the causal body (karana sharira) .
Swami Dayananda likens it to laya, dissolution: just as the cosmos withdraws into maya at the end of a kalpa, the individual dissolves into the causal sheath each night. No subject–object distinction, no doer, no enjoyer — only total ignorance and latent potential.
James Swartz clarifies that deep sleep is not personal ignorance (avidya) but universal ignorance (maya) — the tamasic aspect of Ishvara in which the individual mind is temporarily merged. The Self is never absent; it simply does not shine through the intellect, which alone can recognize it. Thus, the sleeper is “almost enlightened,” enjoying limitless awareness without knowing what is enjoyed.
When waking returns, the seed of individuality (vasanas) sprouts again, and with it, the world.
Root & Meaning
Sanskrit: Suṣupti (सुषुप्ति)
Root: From √svap (“to sleep”) with the prefix su- (“good, complete”) → “good sleep,” “deep rest.”
Literal meaning: The condition of dreamless sleep; total absorption of the mind.
Scriptural References
Mandukya Upanishad (Verse 5):
Yatra supto na kamchana kamam kamayate na kamcana svapnam pashyati tat sushuptam.
→ “When one, being asleep, neither desires nor dreams — that is deep sleep.”
Commentary (Shankara):
“In that state, the mind and senses are merged; the self is one mass of consciousness and bliss; yet, owing to ignorance, it does not know itself.”
Swami Paramarthananda:
“During laya [individual deep sleep/dissolution] and pralaya [cosmic deep sleep/dissolution], the whole universe remains in seed form within maya. The deep sleep of the individual mirrors the cosmic sleep of Ishvara.”
Traditional View
In deep sleep, both the gross (sthula) and subtle (sukshma) bodies are resolved into the causal (karana). The intellect and ego are inactive; hence there is no individuality or perception. It is said to be the same for everyone, because the personal subconscious dissolves into the macrocosmic causal body of Ishvara.
Sushupti is governed by tamas, while rajas and sattva remain dormant. The experience is one of peace and ignorance (sukha-ajnana-anubhava) — blissful unawareness. It is the only state where all distinctions collapse: time, space, and individuality rest together in seed form.
Vedantic Analysis
Experiencer: Prajna — “the wise one,” or sleeper, identified with the causal body.
Enjoys bliss (ananda-bhuk) but lacks awareness of that enjoyment.
Symbolizes Ishvara in the microcosm — omniscient in potential, but not functioning.
Nature of Experience:
No subject–object division.
Presence of consciousness without objects — nirvikalpa vritti (subtle, non-dual thought-form) .
After waking, this experience is inferred: “I slept well; I knew nothing.”
Ignorance Debate:
Avidya (personal ignorance) does not exist here; the sleeper’s intellect is absent.
What remains is maya — cosmic ignorance, the unmanifest state of the three gunas.
Hence, sushupti is universal, not individual.
Ontological Role:
Deep sleep represents potential existence (sat-karya-vada) — nothing new is created upon waking; the unmanifest simply becomes manifest again.
Macrocosmic Parallel:
Individual sushupti = laya (mini dissolution)
Cosmic sushupti = pralaya (total dissolution)
Both are expressions of Ishvara's causal aspect, where all names and forms lie dormant.
Common Misunderstandings
“Deep sleep is unconsciousness.”
Not true. If it were, there could be no memory of it. What is absent is not awareness, but the reflecting medium — the mind.
“Ignorance is destroyed in deep sleep.”
No. Avidya is dormant, not destroyed. Knowledge alone removes it.
“Deep sleep is liberation.”
The bliss of deep sleep is experiential and dependent on tamas; liberation (moksha) is knowledge-based and available even while awake.
Vedantic Resolution
Sushupti shows that bliss is natural — not created by experience but revealed when thought ceases. Yet it also reveals the price of ignorance: peace without knowledge. The Self shines unopposed, but because the intellect is absent, it is not recognized.
The sage’s peace is like deep sleep — without agitation — but with full awareness. Swami Dayananda called this “sleep with eyes open.”
“The sleeper is almost enlightened,” writes Swartz, “because he experiences the limitlessness of awareness, but lacks the knowledge of what he is experiencing.”
Thus, deep sleep becomes both metaphor and mirror: the return of all manifestation into silence — and a nightly reminder that peace belongs to the Self, not to its absence.
