Sleep / Nidra ( YS I - 10)

I'm sure we are all familiar with the word sleep. Ever since we were born, we have had to sleep everyday. Sleep is a natural state of bodily rest and essential for survival.

Nidra is the Sanskrit word for sleep. So as I continue with a review of the five vrittis (the modifications of the mind) in the Yoga Sutra I-10, the fourth type is ABHAVA PRATYAYALAMBANA VRTTIR NIDRA. Translated it means That mental modification supported by cognition of nothingness is sleep. Swami Satchidananda's commentary that "Normally, we say we do not have any thought in the mind during sleep. But actually we have the thought of having no thought." He furthers says that's why we can say we slept well. He continues to say that if there were no thought and we were completely unconscious, we would not feel that we had slept. He concludes that "All other thoughts are temporarily suspended except for this one thought of emptiness in the mind, which leaves its impression upon waking." With this information we can start to ask ourselves who is the one who is watching?

Now in "Mystery of the Mind" by Swami Muktananda, he interprets this sutra as Sleep is the modification based on the absence of any content in the mind. He talks of the nidra vritti as ignorance or lack of knowledge of true Reality. He further stated that this vritti not only operates during the sleep state. This sleep can also happen when one's eyes are open and appears to be listening. I'm sure everyone may have experienced this when maybe one has not had enough sleep and is in class trying to stay awake. Also some of us who are 'waking up' or are becoming more consciously aware can begin to see that some of the people around us are literally asleep.