One thought on “The Bliss of the Self, the Ego and Deep Sleep | Self-Realisation, ego and deep sleep | Advaita Vedanta | Sri Ramana Maharshi”
In some books that record Bhagavan’s answers to questions he seems to accept the existence of the causal body in sleep, but in Uḷḷadu Nāṟpadu he makes it clear that in the absence of the ego there is no body or anything else at all. For example in verse 26 he says that if the ego comes into existence everything comes into existence, and if the ego does not exist nothing exists. Moreover in verse 5 he clarifies that the body is a form of five sheaths, so all five together are included in the term ‘body’, and that no world exists without such a body. These five sheaths are usually divided into three bodies, the gross, subtle and causal, and a prevalent view in advaita texts is that the body we experience as ourself in the waking state is the gross body, the body we experience as ourself in dream is the subtle body, and what we experience in sleep is the causal body, but Bhagavan has pointed out that this view is not correct.
Firstly he says that there is no actual difference between waking and dream, and that while dreaming we seem to be awake, so the body we experience as ourself in dream seems to be as gross or physical as the body in waking. Therefore whatever body that we experience as ourself, whether in waking or in dream, is a form composed of all the five sheaths.
Secondly he says that sleep is not a state of ignorance but one of pure self-awareness. Only from the perspective of the ego in waking or dream does sleep seem to be a state of darkness or ignorance, but in sleep the ego does not exist, and in its absence what remains is only pure self-awareness. Therefore the causal body is said to exist in sleep only as a concession to the self-ignorant view of the ego.
Tom Das 
In some books that record Bhagavan’s answers to questions he seems to accept the existence of the causal body in sleep, but in Uḷḷadu Nāṟpadu he makes it clear that in the absence of the ego there is no body or anything else at all. For example in verse 26 he says that if the ego comes into existence everything comes into existence, and if the ego does not exist nothing exists. Moreover in verse 5 he clarifies that the body is a form of five sheaths, so all five together are included in the term ‘body’, and that no world exists without such a body. These five sheaths are usually divided into three bodies, the gross, subtle and causal, and a prevalent view in advaita texts is that the body we experience as ourself in the waking state is the gross body, the body we experience as ourself in dream is the subtle body, and what we experience in sleep is the causal body, but Bhagavan has pointed out that this view is not correct.
Firstly he says that there is no actual difference between waking and dream, and that while dreaming we seem to be awake, so the body we experience as ourself in dream seems to be as gross or physical as the body in waking. Therefore whatever body that we experience as ourself, whether in waking or in dream, is a form composed of all the five sheaths.
Secondly he says that sleep is not a state of ignorance but one of pure self-awareness. Only from the perspective of the ego in waking or dream does sleep seem to be a state of darkness or ignorance, but in sleep the ego does not exist, and in its absence what remains is only pure self-awareness. Therefore the causal body is said to exist in sleep only as a concession to the self-ignorant view of the ego.
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