निगृहीतस्य मनसो निर्विकल्पस्य धीमतः ।
प्रचारः स तु विज्ञेयः सुषुप्तेऽन्यो न तत्समः ॥ ३४ ॥nigṛhītasya manaso nirvikalpasya dhīmataḥ |
pracāraḥ sa tu vijñeyaḥ suṣupte’nyo na tatsamaḥ || 34 ||34. The behaviour of the mind that is under control, i.e., which is free from all imaginations and that is endowed with discrimination, should be known. The condition of the mind in deep sleep is of another sort and not like that.
Shankara Bhashya (commentary)
It has been stated before that the mind, free from imagination on account of the knowledge1 of Truth, which is Ātman, becomes tranquil for want of external objects, like the fire not fed by fuel. Such mind may be said to be under control, It has been further stated that duality disappears when the mind thus ceases to act. The Yogis should particularly know the behaviour2 of the mind which is thus brought under discipline, which is free from all imaginations and which is possessed of discrimination.
(Objection)—In3 the absence of all specific consciousness the mind, in the state of deep sleep, behaves exactly in the same manner as does the mind under control. What is there to be known in the absence of all specific knowledge?
(Reply)—To this objection we reply thus:—Your objection is not valid. For, the behaviour of the mind in deep sleep, overcome by the darkness of delusion caused by ignorance, and still full of many potential desires which are the seeds of numerous future undesirable activities, is quite different from the behaviour of the mind well under control and free from the ignorance which produces activities that give rise to numerous afflictions, and from which has been burnt away by the fire of self-knowledge the ignorance which contains the harmful seed of all potential tendencies to act. The behaviour of the latter kind of mind is quite different.4 Therefore it is not like the mind in deep sleep. Hence the behaviour of such mind should be known. This5 is the purport.
Anandagiri Tika (glossary)
1 Knowledge, etc.—This implies the discrimination between real and unreal.
2 Behaviour—The word “Prachāra” in the text implying behaviour or activity shows that by “Nigraha” or discipline is not meant the Yogic discipline leading to Nirvikalpa Samādhi; for, in that state the mind loses all activity and movement. To a Jñāni the Prachāra or the ideation of the mind is also Brahman. Therefore these ideations should be examined or analysed.
3 In the, etc.—The opponent evidently mistakes the Vedāntic tranquillity of mind arrived at by discrimination, etc., for the Yogic Samādhi which is cultivated by controlling the activities of the mind. Hence his objection to Yogic trance, like deep sleep, is associated with absence of mental ideation. Śaṅkara in his commentary on the Brahmasūtra (2. 1. 9) and in various other places puts Yogic Samādhi and deep sleep under the same category.
4 Different.—It is because the mind of the Jñāni is always established in Brahman.
5 This, etc.—The purport is that the mind of a man, who has not known the Truth of Self, becomes absorbed in Avidyā at the time of deep sleep or Samādhi. Such mind is free from all activities and remains in a motionless, i.e., inactive condition, concealing within it all the seeds of future dual activities. But the mind of a Jñāni is well under discipline by the constant practice of discrimination. That mind is always saturated with the thought of Brahman. Hence the mind of a Jñāni does not lose its activities which are identical with the non-dual Brahman itself.