The Separation of States of Awareness Between the Waking State, the Sleep State and the Spiritual Realms
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YouTube reference: Sri Aurobindo, Bases of Yoga, Chapter 3, In Difficulty, pg. 48
This episode is also available as a blog post at https://sriaurobindostudies.wordpress.com/2025/11/27/the-separation-of-states-of-conscious-awareness-between-the-waking-state-the-sleep-state-and-the-spiritual-realms/
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0:00 When we sleep, we are generally oblivious to our waking state of consciousness, and conversely, when we are awake we are oblivious to what takes place during the sleep state. We sometimes get a few glimpses when we are in that twilight condition between sleep and waking, or when we are aware of our dreams, but otherwise what takes place during deep sleep remains very much a mystery. People do not generally reflect on this and they just take sleep for granted without exploring the consciousness active at that time. However, technological instruments are able to measure brain wave activity during sleep, and it is quite certain that such activity takes place without our awareness of the content of that activity. Similarly, there are stages of meditation, as well as various experiences of the spiritual planes where the awareness goes there.
1:04 But when the individual returns to the waking consciousness, he does not have a clear conception of what happened during that other state of consciousness. Sometimes, as with our occasional awareness of elements of the sleep state, we bring back a feeling, a glimpse, or an idea from that other realm of consciousness. For the most part, however, there are generally partial transcriptions, but not a full understanding and awareness of the status on the other side of the border beyond the waking state. Mostly this turns out to be a lack of experience or a lack of language to describe something that is not part of the usual pattern of life. If the experiences repeat themselves and the person becomes habituated to transitioning between the two statuses, it actually becomes possible to bring the power and understanding of that experience into the waking consciousness, Srioro Bindo notes quote.
2:15 The entire oblivion of the experience means merely that there is no sufficient bridge between the inner consciousness, which has the experience in a kind of samati, and the exterior waking consciousness. It is when the higher consciousness has made the bridge between them that the outer also begins to remember. End Quote. Reference Sri Aurobindo, Bases of Yoga, Chapter 3 in difficulty, page 48.