*Day 18*
However, we are like a drunken man or a monkey. Our waking state is not wakeful at all. We act like a monkey that has been forced to drink alcohol and then eat asafetida.
In moments when you feel afraid or when your life is in danger, you wake up fully and become aware of everything around you.
A beginner cyclist spots each and every rock in the road, and as he sees rocks, he shouts, "Rock, Rock," and then in mid fall, he yells, "Falling, falling".
If someone who is afraid of cockroaches gets out of bed,
switches on the light and glimpses even a small cockroach, he will scream.
He imagines it is a big cockroach. However, at that moment he is really awake. Similarly, if a person sees a snake, it is the worst.
He might even faint. We are not aware of the differences between the waking state, dreaming state and sleeping state.
When we get up in the morning, our eyes look drowsy. After having breakfast, we go out to work with sleepy eyes, and in that very condition all work gets done.
If someone has a masala dosa or some other heavy food for breakfast before going to class, you can understand his condition.
We find 75% of students are asleep or dreaming, especially if the subject is history or geography. They are all imagining that they are competing in the Olympics or sitting in some cinema or somewhere else.
If we understand the differences between these three states, then we will be able to experience the fourth state of consciousness.
We can realise the fourth state of consciousness in between waking and dreaming or in between deep sleep and waking.
It is called "the fourth state"; they have not named it. It is the state where the mind is awake though the body is resting, and you know you are present, but do not know where you are.
This is meditation - I know I am
meditating, and I am not dreaming or doing something else. It is not the waking state, dream state or even the state of deep sleep.
If you start to enter that state where you are not dreaming or sleeping, you start to enter the state of samadhi, where you will be free from worries and have a sense of innocence.
So where should you search for Shivatattva? Search for it in between the states of waking and dreaming, not far away in Mount Kailash.
In the moments right after you wake up, but are not yet fully awake, close your eyes and start to meditate. At that time, the mind is free from worries and the thought process.
You will begin to experience the fourth state of consciousness, which lies in between the other three. The consciousness and enthusiasm expressed in a new-born baby are missing in a very learned person.
The atma, self, is nothing but consciousness. This quality of consciousness gradually reduces with education. Why is that?
Are we really living or do we only seem to be? Our smile has disappeared, and we lead a mechanical existence.
It is said that a child laughs 400 times a day, a youth just 17 times and an adult does not even laugh. Professors not only do not laugh, but they make laughter an offence.
What is a sign of consciousness? It is our enthusiasm, joy and creativity. Even if you cause some problems for others or make mischief, it does not matter.
Keep doing something. Mischief is also a sign of consciousness. Where there is consciousness, there is no laziness.
Do not sit around moping. That indicates a lack of consciousness. The knowledge of the external world is available only in the waking state.
The definition of the waking state is given in this sutra. Many of us do not wake up in order to experience the world.
Although the eyes are open and the ears listening, the mind is somewhere else. Such a state is not the waking state.
