Mantralaya-2085

(What happens when we sleep every day?) 

Date : March 12 2026

Dear Devotees : Namaskara.

| Sri MannMoolaRamastu Mannmathe Moolamahasamsthhaana Mantralaya Sri Rayaramathe||
|| OM SRI RAGHAVENDRAAYA NAMAHA||

Background

What happens when we sleep every day? The scientific and philosophical insights of Sri Madhwacharyaru and Sri Raghavendra Teertharu, together with the discoveries of modern neuroscience, are explored in Mantralaya (2085).

Meaning

We often find ourselves wondering why miracles do not happen in our lives. At times, we even begin to question whether divine grace truly touches us. Yet if we pause and observe our daily existence with deeper awareness, we realize that every moment of life is sustained by countless silent miracles, each unfolding with astonishing precision by the will of Sri Hari.

The rhythms of our body, the flow of thought, the beating of the heart and the mysterious workings of the mind are not ordinary events. They are delicate processes maintained with perfect order, beyond the control of our conscious effort.

In this episode, let us reflect on one such wonder that occurs every single night when we fall asleep. What appears to be a simple act of rest is, in reality, a profound and extraordinary event. Yes, a miracle unfolds each night when we sleep, an unimaginable process taking place quietly within us, while we remain completely unaware.

Long before modern neuroscience began identifying mechanisms such as REM sleep, neural replay and the glymphatic system, the profound inner processes that occur during sleep were deeply contemplated in the philosophical tradition of Dwaita Vedanta by Sri Madhwacharyaru and Sri RaghavendraTeertharu.

Sri Madhwacharyaru’s Brahma Sutra Bhashya, his direct commentary on the sutras, together with the profound sub-commentaries written later by Sri Raghavendra Teertharu, especially Parimala and Bhavadeepa, provide a detailed philosophical map of what happens during sleep.

To understand the precise mechanics of sleep states according to Dwaita philosophy, we must turn to the third chapter of the Brahma Sutras, particularly the second section (Pada), where the states of the soul are examined in a systematic manner.

These texts describe with remarkable clarity the structure of the Dream State (Svapna) , Deep sleep(Sushupti). The Role of the Eternal Witness (Sakshi) explaining them within the theological and metaphysical framework of the Dwaita tradition.

Let’s explore the Dream State (Svapna) first. In the Brahma Sutras 3.2.1 to 3.2.6, the dream state is discussed under what is known as the Sandhya Adhikarana, the section dealing with the intermediate state between waking and deep sleep.Sri Madhwacharyaru firmly rejects the notion that the individual soul creates its own dreams. According to his interpretation, the experiences seen in dreams are brought into existence by the Supreme Lord alone. The chariots, roads, people, places and events that unfold before the dreamer are not independently manufactured by the mind of the soul.

During a dream, these experiences appear vivid and convincing. The dreamer feels emotion, fear, joy, touch and movement as though they are truly happening. For the one who is dreaming, the experience carries the same sense of reality as the waking world.In this sense, a dream can be compared to a vast and mysterious theatre orchestrated by Sri Hari. The soul becomes the viewer placed inside this moving spectacle, fully immersed in the scenes that unfold. What story appears, what emotions arise and what experiences are presented are all governed by the will of the Lord Sri Hari. The soul itself has no control over which scenes will appear or what sequence of events it will witness. It simply undergoes the experience that is revealed before it.

Sri Raghavendra Teertharu further explains how this process works. The Lord Sri Hari uses the subtle impressions stored in the mind, known as Vasanas, as the raw material for constructing dream experiences. These dream objects are not made from physical matter nor do they belong to the external world. They arise from the subtle impressions within the mind but are arranged and manifested solely through the will of the Lord Sri Hari.

The purpose behind this divine arrangement of dream is also explained in the commentaries. Every soul carries countless karmic results that must be experienced. Some of these karmas are extremely subtle and are meant to be experienced only at the level of the mind, without involving the physical body. For such karmas, the Lord creates dream experiences as a safe and temporary stage where the soul can experience pleasure, fear or other emotions necessary to exhaust these specific karmic impressions.

When dreams come to an end and the soul passes into the next stage, the state of deep sleep known as Sushupti, the Brahma Sutras 3.2.7 and 3.2.8 describe what happens to the soul during this profound condition of rest. These sutras explain how, in deep sleep, the activities of the mind and senses withdraw and the soul enters a state of complete inward stillness.

Drawing from the Chandogya Upanishad, Sri Madhwacharyaru explains that there are one hundred and one principal Nadis that radiate from the spiritual heart to different parts of the body. These channels form the network through which sensory experiences and mental activity operate.Among them, the Sushumna Nadi is considered the most important pathway. It acts as the central channel connecting the outer sensory system with the inner sanctuary of the heart.

When a person falls asleep, the Supreme Lord Sri Hari withdraws the soul’s active engagement with the senses. Sri RaghavendraTeertharu explains that the Lord gradually shuts down the outward sensory activity and guides the soul inward through the network of Nadis. The soul’s awareness is drawn into the Sushumna Nadi and finally brought into the heart where the Lord Sri Hari resides.

The texts make it very clear that in deep sleep the soul does not merely rest in the physical organ of the heart. Instead, it rests within the presence of the Supreme Lord Sri Hari who resides there. In this state, the Lord Sri Hari becomes the resting place and the shelter for the soul that has withdrawn from the activities of the waking world.

Sri RaghavendraTeertharu carefully clarifies an important philosophical point here. Even though the soul rests in the Lord Sri Hari , there is no merging or loss of individuality. The distinction between the Lord and the soul always remains. The soul remains separate and dependent. To explain this, Sri Raghavendra Teertharu gives a simple analogy. A bird returns to its nest at night for rest but the bird does not become the nest. In the same way, the soul rests in the Lord Narayana but never loses its distinct identity.

Another question naturally arises. If the soul rests so close to the Supreme Lord Sri Hari, why does it not experience spiritual enlightenment every night?.

Sri RaghavendraTeertharu explains that during deep sleep the Lord Sri Hari covers the soul’s active awareness with the veil of Tamas, the power that obscures knowledge. This covering allows the soul to receive complete rest without the overwhelming experience of divine realization. Since the soul is not yet spiritually prepared to sustain such realization continuously, the Lord grants it peaceful rest instead of full awareness.

Now comes the Role of the Eternal Witness (Sakshi). Dwaita philosophy also explains how we are able to remember that we slept well even though the mind and intellect appear inactive during deep sleep.

Sri Madhwacharyaru introduces the concept of the Sakshi, the witnessing consciousness within the soul. While the mind and intellect become inactive during deep sleep, the Sakshi never sleeps. It remains constantly aware.During deep sleep, this witnessing consciousness perceives two things. It perceives the passage of time and it experiences the quiet, subtle bliss that comes from the soul resting in the presence of the Lord. When a person wakes up and says, “I slept happily and knew nothing,” that statement arises because the Sakshi remembers this experience and conveys it to the waking mind.

After this period of deep sleep, the process of awakening begins. The Brahma Sutras also describe this transition back to the waking state in the section known as the Prabodhadhikarana, particularly in Sutra 3.2.9. This sutra explains how the soul, after resting in deep sleep, is once again brought back into the waking state and reconnected with the world of sensory experience.

Just as the soul does not fall asleep independently, it does not awaken by its own power. Sri Raghavendra Teertharu emphasizes that the Supreme Lord Himself initiates the awakening process when the period of rest has ended.

The process of waking is essentially the reverse of falling asleep. The Lord sends the soul outward again from the heart through the Sushumna Nadi and distributes its awareness across the other Nadis. As this awareness spreads through the subtle network, the soul reconnects with the sensory organs such as sight, hearing and touch. The external world then reappears instantly, and the person returns to the waking state.

A philosophical question naturally arises at this point. If the soul enters such deep rest within the Lord Sri Hari , how can we be certain that the same soul wakes up the next morning?.Sri Madhwacharyaru addresses this question carefully and Sri RaghavendraTeertharu elaborates on it with several arguments.First, the soul carries an immense store of accumulated karma that has not yet been experienced. The Supreme Lord Sri Hari ensures that the same individual soul returns to continue experiencing the specific karmic results that belong to it. Second, there is continuity of memory. When we wake up, we remember actions from the previous day, unfinished tasks and personal experiences. This continuity of memory, supported by the ever present Sakshi, confirms that the soul that wakes up is the same soul that went to sleep.

Finally, if sleep destroyed individuality or replaced one soul with another, then going to sleep would effectively be the same as attaining liberation. But sleep is only a temporary suspension of activity within the cycle of worldly existence. The soul remains bound by ignorance and karma until true spiritual realization is attained.

In this way, Dwaita philosophy reveals that sleep is not merely a biological function of the body but a profound spiritual process governed by the will of the Supreme Lord. Every night, the soul withdraws from the noise and activity of the external world and enters a state of deep rest under the shelter of Sri Hari. The senses fall silent, the mind becomes still, and the soul finds refuge in the divine presence.

Then, with the arrival of dawn, it is again the will of Sri Hari that sends the soul back into the waking world. Reconnected with the senses and the mind, the soul resumes its journey through life, continuing its path through karma, experience, and spiritual growth. Thus, every night is a sacred return, and every morning is a new beginning granted by the grace of the Lord.

Now let us look at this from the perspective of modern neuroscience and explore what contemporary science has discovered about the process of sleep.

Neuroscience describes sleep as a carefully organized cycle governed by neural circuits that connect the brainstem, hypothalamus, and cerebral cortex. As the body transitions from wakefulness into sleep, the brain gradually moves through a sequence of stages, each performing specific regulatory and restorative functions. Roughly ninety minutes after falling asleep, the brain typically enters a phase known as Rapid Eye Movement, or REM sleep. During this stage, brain activity rises sharply and begins to resemble patterns seen during wakefulness. The cerebral cortex becomes highly active, visual processing centers engage intensely, and the mind begins to generate vivid internal imagery that we experience as dreams.

At the same time, the brain activates a remarkable safety mechanism known as REM atonia. Specialized neurons in the brainstem temporarily suppress motor signals that normally travel from the brain to the muscles through the spinal cord. As a result, most skeletal muscles are effectively disabled during this stage. This temporary paralysis serves an essential purpose, it prevents the body from physically acting out the movements and events that occur within dreams, protecting the sleeper from injury while the mind remains highly active.

While the body lies still under this protective shutdown, the brain begins some of its most important maintenance work. One of the most fascinating processes discovered in recent years is the activity of the glymphatic system, a network responsible for clearing metabolic waste from the brain. During the deeper stages of sleep, the spaces between brain cells expand significantly. This expansion allows cerebrospinal fluid to flow more freely through neural tissue, washing through the brain in a cleansing cycle. Through this circulation, toxins and metabolic byproducts that accumulate during waking hours are flushed away. Among these waste products are proteins such as beta-amyloid, which are strongly associated with neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s. In this way, sleep functions as a crucial biological maintenance window in which the brain performs large-scale biochemical cleaning that cannot occur as efficiently during wakefulness.

At the same time that this cleansing process is underway, the brain is also engaged in complex memory processing. Networks of neurons replay patterns of electrical activity that occurred during the day. These reactivations help strengthen important neural connections while gradually weakening or eliminating less useful information. This process, known as memory consolidation, allows the brain to stabilize newly acquired knowledge and integrate it with existing memories. Through this nightly reorganization, experiences from the day are refined, categorized, and stored in long-term memory. In effect, while the body rests, the brain is quietly editing and restructuring the ongoing story of a person’s life.

Dreaming adds another extraordinary dimension to this nightly neurological activity. Over the course of an average lifetime, a person may experience tens of thousands of dreams. These dreams are not random fragments but complex sensory worlds generated by the brain’s networks of perception, memory, and emotion. The mind constructs images, landscapes, conversations, and narratives that often feel completely real while they are occurring. Yet when the brain returns to full wakefulness, most of these dream experiences dissolve quickly and leave only faint traces in memory. Despite their fleeting nature, dreams demonstrate the remarkable capacity of the brain to simulate entire realities without any input from the external world.

Taken together, these discoveries reveal that sleep is far from a passive or inactive state. Throughout the night the brain protects the body from acting out dreams, cleanses itself of accumulated toxins, reorganizes neural pathways, strengthens memory networks, and generates immersive internal experiences. What appears from the outside as simple stillness is, in truth, a period of intense neurological activity in which the brain continuously repairs, regulates, and renews itself.

When we step back and look at the entire picture, something remarkable becomes clear. Modern neuroscience, with all its advanced instruments and research, has only recently begun to uncover the complexity of what happens in the brain during sleep. Scientists now speak about REM cycles, memory consolidation, brain detoxification, and protective paralysis of muscles. Each discovery reveals that sleep is not a passive state but an intricate and highly coordinated process.

Yet centuries ago, long before modern laboratories and brain imaging existed, the great masters of the Dwaita tradition had already explored these deeper dimensions of consciousness. Sri Madhwacharyaru, in his commentary on the Brahma Sutras, described the transitions between waking, dream, and deep sleep with remarkable clarity. Sri Raghavendra Teertharu later expanded these insights, explaining the role of the Nadis, the Sakshi, and how the soul rests in the presence of Sri Hari before returning again to the waking world.

Modern science is still uncovering the outer mechanisms of sleep, while Sri Madhwacharyaru and Sri RaghavedraTeertharu had already reflected on its deeper nature centuries ago. Their teachings remind us that what appears to be a simple biological event is, in reality, a profound process governed by divine order. Every night the soul withdraws from the world, rests under the grace of Sri Hari and every morning it is sent back again to continue its journey through life.

The devotion towards Sri Raghavendrateertharu is the ultimate truth and is the most simple and effective way to reach Sri Hari  - "NAMBI KETTAVARILLAVO EE GURUGALA"! “Those who have complete faith in this Guru will never be disappointed.”

   || BICHALI JAPADAKATTI SRI APPANACHARYA PRIYA MANTRALAYA
   SRI RAGHAVENDRATEERTHA GURUBHYO NAMAHA||