________________
126
VIVEKACÚDAMAŅI
Therefore, being extremely dear to all creatures, the ātman is of the nature of bliss always. Grief does not attach to it at any time. This is attested by experience. Dreamless sleep is devoid of sense-object awareness. It is nirvişaya. All objects considered as giving joy, like those heard, touched, seen, smelt etc., are completely absent then. But every one enjoys at that time ātmānubhava which is inherent in that state, (not dependent on anything extraneous). sarvairapi must be understood after anubhūyate in the śloka. By referring to śruti in the sloka, it is conveyed that it should not be spoken of as a delusion like the pleasures issuing from the body. Vide śrutis: eşo'sya parama ānandaḥ; eşo'sya paramā sampat (Brh.). These declare that there is a bliss (ānanda) in dreamless sleep which is the highest when there is conditioning by ajñāna. This is so because pleasure derived from sense-objects is fraught with pain; this, however, has no such admixture.
That is why, though able to obtain sense-pleasures by the thousand, even an emperor does not wish to live without sleep though he has the capacity to obtain and enjoy sense-objects. The reason for this is that the pure bliss of the ātman is untouched by any tinge of sorrow. Hence the śrutis say: ko hyevānyät . kah prānyāt yadesa ākāśa ānando na syāt: "Who can inhale or exhale if this ātman, which like ākāśa is undefiled, does not exist?” Akāśa in the śruti-vākya means 'ākāśavat-unpolluted or unaffected like ākāśa.
It is true that in dreamless sleep the sukha or bliss is covered by tamas. Yet, it is superior to that in jāgrat and svapna, in waking and dream states. If that is so, what needs be said of ātmānanda, the bliss of ātman which shines by itself when tamas is destroyed by jñāna even as the sun shines in its native splendour when the mist covering it gets dispersed? Thus śruti-scripture, pratyakşa which is the testimony of sense-perception common to all people, aitihya, the words of the well-meaning, i.e., tradition and anumāna, inference cumulatively point to the fact that the atman is ever of the nature of bliss as it is dear beyond compare. What is of a contrary nature cannot be so. These are evidences of the ātman being always of the nature of bliss as sound etc., are of the jāgrat state, (waking state).
110
Having so far in this work distinguished the gross body pertaining to the anātman and the subtle body relating to the
