"Swa" means 'in oneself', that is to say, 'in Brahman'.
'Apyayaath' means 'since it merges'. The two words convey this
meaning. They tell us, "since it is said that the individual Jivi
merges in Brahman", what happens to the Jivi during deep dreamless
sleep is its resumption of its real nature, Sath or Being. Since
the self attains the Self which is itself, it is then the Atma and
nothing else. The Atma which appeared as if enclosed in name and
form discards the name and form and merges in the Universal Atma.
The wave has merged in the ocean. It had Become; now it is just
Being, Sath.
The core of all Vedantic texts and teachings is this truth:
- Brahman is both the efficient and material cause of the
Jagath, the Cosmos, which merges and emerges (Ja and Ga) and
- Brahman is one and one only and so, there is nothing in the
Cosmos apart from Brahman, without consciousness. There is
nothing jada or inert and inactive. Brahman is, according to the
scriptures (Sruthi) and the Vedanta texts, not only Sath but
also Chith, Consciousness awareness.
Sleep is very necessary for every living being. Without sleep,
man as well as other beings cannot live. Of all the joys that the
world provides, sleep is the most rewarding. All the rest are arid
and dry, trivial and wasteful. When a living being sleeps, the
five vital airs - Prana, Apana, Vyana, Udana, Samana - do function
along with the five fires in the body conferring warmth. The
inhalation and exhalation of the breath proceed serenely, as the
Samana in a serene Vedic series. The 'Prana' vital air acts like
aahavaneeya fire (consecrated fire perpetually burning in the
household) of the Vedic rite. It energises us in the same steady
manner. Vyana is as the Dakshinagni lit on the southern side of
the altar in the Vedic rite. Udana helps the mind to "reach the
Brahma-loka which the person has earned by his Karma to attain."
In other words, it enables the person to experience the taste of
mergence with the Supreme. For, that which rests in sleep, is
happy during sleep, is refreshed by sleep and derives Bliss while
sleeping is the Jivi, the embodied Atma. The Jivi is the deity
enshrined in the body, its temple. The Jivi experiences all that
is seen, heard and contacted by the mind in the outer world, as
well as the impact of all that it could not see, hear or contact
by the mind. Besides these, the Jivi might construct and
experience in dreams and witness such experiences undergone during
previous lives. It depends on the activities stamped on the mind
of each one. Or, it might happen sometimes, the person gives up at
one stroke the association with the body and the senses and gets
immersed and lost in his basic principle - the Param-Atma, the
Omniself. The Bliss that fills the Jivi is the authenticity of the
Param-Atma.
During dreamless sleep, the Jivi enters and revels in the
Anandaloka, the region of Bliss, led thereto by the splendour of
the Udana prana, the vital air that elevates. That region is known
also as Brahma Loka, the Ananda Loka. This is the splendid chance
that man gets effortlessly during sleep, the chance to enjoy the
proximity of the Param-Atma which is the prime source and
substance of the five Basic Elements, the five senses and the
Inner Instrument of Awareness - the Five Bhutas, the Five Indriyas
and the Antahkarana.
But this experience doesn't last; it is quite temporary. The
person who has gained the Awareness through the purification of
the mind and the clarification of Buddhi (Intellect) will have the
unchanging Bliss of Mergence in Param-Atma. He alone can become
omniscient, who is ever in the region of Akshaya (undecaying),
merged in the Akshara (imperishable) Parabrahma (the Supreme
Vastness), the Param-Atma. When he is aware that all is He, that
there is nothing without him or outside Him, he becomes all or
Brahman.
In deep sleep, the Jivi is in the thamo guna or dull ignorance.
To the realised person, however, even dreams will award as much
bliss as the consciousness does while awake. Even when awake, this
person gets rid of the impact of the body-sense-reason complex and
is saturated with the bliss of his authentic Reality. The
particularised self shares the chaithanya or Consciousness of the
Universal and it can merge only in that Param-Atma, the Supreme
Chaithanya. Therefore, this Sutra emphasises for us the truth that
the 'Sath' or 'Is-ness' (which 'becomes' and 'subsumes' all
creation) refers only to Para-Brahman, the Supreme Consciousness
and not to any entity derived from it and dependent on it.