Tripura Rahasya

Sage Dattatreya

King Janaka continued,

Moreover everyone feels 'I see the objects'. If it were not for the eternal being of 'I', there would always arise the doubt if I am or if I am not, which is absurd. Nor should it be supposed that 'I' is of the body, at the time of perception of objects. For, perception implies the assumption of that shape by the intellect, as is evident when identifying the body with the Self. 

Nor again should it be said that at the time of perception 'I am so and so, Chaitra' - the Chaitra sense overreaches the 'I' sense, but the 'I' sense is never lost by the Chaitra sense. There is the continuity of 'I' in deep slumber and in samadhi. Otherwise after sleep a man would get up as somebody else.

The contention is possible that in deep sleep and samadhi, the Self remains unqualified and therefore is not identical with the limited consciousness of the ego 'I' in the wakeful state. The answer is as follows: 'I', is of two kinds - qualified and unqualified. Qualification implies limitations whereas its absence implies its unlimited nature. 

'I' is associated with limitations in dream and wakeful states, and it is free from them in deep slumber and samadhi states. In that case is the 'I' in samadhi or sleep associated with threefold division of subject, object and their relation? No. Being pure and single, it is unblemished and persists as 'I-I', and nothing else. The same is Perfection.