Only One State

Sri Ramana Maharshi

11-1-1946 Afternoon

Another young man from Colombo asked B, "How are the three states of consciousness inferior in degree of reality to the fourth? What is the actual relation between these three states and the fourth?"

B: There is only one state, that of consciousness or awareness or existence. The three states of waking, dream and sleep cannot be real. They simply come and go. The real will always exist. The "I" or existence that alone persists in all the three states is real. The other three are not real and so it is not possible to say they have such and such a degree of reality. We may roughly put it like this. Existence or consciousness is the only reality. Consciousness plus waking, we call waking. Consciousness plus sleep, we call sleep. Consciousness plus dream, we call dream. Consciousness is the screen on which all the pictures come and go. The screen is real, the pictures are mere shadows on it. Because by long habit we have been regarding these three states as real, we call the state of mere awareness or consciousness as the fourth. There is however no fourth state, but only one state. In this connection B quoted verse 386 from parApara kanni of Thayumanavar and said this so-called fourth state is described as waking sleep or sleep in waking - meaning asleep to the world and awake in the Self.

Mr. O. P. Reddiar asked B, "But why should these three states come and go on the real state or the screen of the Self?"

B: Who puts this question? Does the Self say these states come and go? It is the seer who says these states come and go. The seer and the seen together constitute the mind. See if there is such a thing as the mind. Then, the mind merges in the Self, and there is neither the seer nor the seen. So the real answer to your question is, "Do they come and go? They neither come nor go." The Self alone remains as it ever is. The three states owe their existence to non-enquiry and enquiry puts an end to them. However much one may explain, the fact will not become clear until one attains Self-realization and wonders how he was blind to the self-evident and only existence so long.