---
type: Concept
bundle: upanishadic-core
bundle_version: "0.6.0"
id: sushupti
title: "Suṣupti"
iast: "Suṣupti"
devanagari: "सुषुप्ति"
description: "The deep dreamless sleep state — the third of the three states (Avasthātraya) — in which the experiencer (Prājña) rests in undifferentiated bliss without any object-awareness; not unconsciousness, not anesthesia, not a state of ignorance — the nearest natural approximation to non-dual experience available to the ordinary person"
darshana:
  - Advaita Vedānta
  - Vedānta
school_scope: "Third of the three states analyzed in the Māṇḍūkya; Suṣupti's Prājña experiencer corresponds to the Ānandamaya Koṣa (bliss sheath) in the Taittirīya's analysis"
text_source: "Māṇḍūkya Upaniṣad 5"
tags: [sushupti, avastha-traya, mandukya, advaita, deep-sleep, prajna, ananda, witness]
not:
  - term: "unconsciousness"
    why: "Unconsciousness implies the total absence of awareness. Suṣupti has awareness — of the absence of objects, and of bliss (Ānanda). The evidence is retrospective: on waking from deep sleep, one reports 'I slept well; I knew nothing; I was happy.' This retrospective report requires that something was present to know the bliss — the Sākṣin witnesses Suṣupti, just as it witnesses Jāgrat and Svapna."
    instead: "Read Suṣupti as awareness without object — the witness persists; only the object-field (and the ego-identity) is absent"
  - term: "anesthesia or medically induced unconsciousness"
    why: "Clinical unconsciousness is typically characterized by the absence of all reportable experience and the disruption of neural function. Suṣupti in the Vedāntic sense is a natural state with a specific phenomenology (the bliss without object that is reported retrospectively) — it is not a pathological or drug-induced absence."
  - term: "a state of ignorance (Avidyā)"
    why: "Suṣupti is sometimes read as the state where Avidyā ('the cause of the world' per Māṇḍūkya 5) is at its thickest, since there is no discrimination in deep sleep. But the Vedāntic analysis is more careful: Avidyā is the material cause (Upādāna Kāraṇa) of the manifest world, and in Suṣupti it is present in its causal, undifferentiated form (Avyakta). This is not ignorance as a fault — it is the seed-state of the manifest world, prior to differentiation."
  - term: "liberation or Samādhi"
    why: "Suṣupti is not liberation: on waking, the ego-identity and object-world reappear intact. The Prājña of Suṣupti does not know 'I am Brahman' — it simply has no object at all. Liberation (Jīvanmukti) is the permanent recognition of the Turīya even in waking and dream, not the temporary dissolution of objects in deep sleep."
related:
  - /concepts/jagrat.md
  - /concepts/svapna.md
  - /concepts/turiya.md
  - /concepts/sakshin.md
  - /concepts/anandamaya-kosha.md
  - /concepts/avastha-traya.md
timestamp: "2026-07-01"
okf_version: "0.2"
license: "CC BY-SA 4.0"
---

# Suṣupti — सुषुप्ति

**Not:** unconsciousness, anesthesia, ignorance, liberation or Samādhi

## Source

Suṣupti is analyzed in Māṇḍūkya Upaniṣad verse 5. The experiencer in deep sleep is Prājña (प्राज्ञ) — "the one who knows" — from Prajñā (wisdom, awareness), referring to the Jīva in its most contracted experiential state, resting in the Causal Body (Kāraṇa Śarīra). Suṣupti from *su-svap* — to sleep deeply.

## The Deep Sleep State's Structure

In Suṣupti:
- **Instrument**: Kāraṇa Śarīra (causal body) — the undifferentiated Ānandamaya Koṣa
- **Field**: No objects — the object-field is fully withdrawn
- **Experiencer**: Prājña — described by the Māṇḍūkya as *ānandabhuj* (enjoyer of bliss) and *ceto-mukha* (with the mind-door closed)

## The Philosophical Significance of Suṣupti

Suṣupti carries three distinct arguments for the Advaita position:

**1. The Persistence of the Sākṣin**: On waking from deep sleep, the person reports: "I slept well; I was happy; I knew nothing." This retrospective report is possible only if some awareness was present to record it. That awareness is the Sākṣin — it witnessed Suṣupti even when Prājña had no object to experience. This witness is not Prājña itself; it is Turīya.

**2. The Nature of Ānanda**: The bliss of deep sleep is not caused by any object — there are no objects present. Advaita uses this as evidence that Ānanda is Brahman's intrinsic nature, not a quality produced by the presence of pleasant objects. The Suṣupti experience offers a foretaste of the Ānanda that the recognition "Ahaṃ Brahmāsmi" makes permanent and unobstructed.

**3. The Dissolution of the Ego**: In Suṣupti, the Ahaṃkāra (ego-sense) dissolves completely — yet the person wakes up as themselves, not as someone else. This shows that the ego is not the Ātman — the Ātman persists through the ego's temporary absence.

## The Limit of Suṣupti

Suṣupti is not liberation because on waking, everything returns — the ego, the object-world, the saṃskāras. The Prājña of Suṣupti does not know "I am Brahman" in the liberated sense; it simply has no objects at all. The liberation that Advaita seeks is the *recognition* of the non-dual nature even while functioning in waking and dream — the permanent Turīya-awareness that does not require the absence of objects to be present.

## Connection to Ānandamaya Koṣa

The Taittirīya Upaniṣad's Pañcakośa analysis (see anandamaya-kosha.md) identifies the Ānandamaya Koṣa (bliss sheath) as the deepest layer of apparent individuality, correlated with the Suṣupti state. The Prājña experiencer in Suṣupti operates through this sheath. The Ānandamaya Koṣa is the nearest layer to Ātman but is still an Upādhi — not the Ātman itself.

## Audience Metaphor

A traveler on a long journey stops at a rest house. While resting, they are unaware of the road, the destination, the luggage. When they wake and resume travel, everything is exactly as before. The rest was real and beneficial; the traveler was real throughout; but the road-awareness was temporarily suspended. Suṣupti is that rest-stop — the witness (the traveler's identity) was never absent, but all the content of the journey was temporarily set aside.

## Citations

1. Māṇḍūkya Upaniṣad 5 — Suṣupti and Prājña; see [references/mandukya-upanishad.md]
2. Māṇḍūkya Kārikā 1.9–14 (Gauḍapāda) — analysis of the deep-sleep state; see [references/mandukya-karika.md]
3. Taittirīya Upaniṣad 2.5 — Ānandamaya Koṣa as the causal sheath corresponding to Suṣupti; see [references/taittiriya-upanishad.md]
4. Pañcadaśī 7.1–10 (Vidyāraṇya) — witness of Suṣupti as evidence for Sākṣin; see [references/panchadashi.md]
