Continued from Verse Twenty-Two
23. The body does not say 'I'. No one will argue that even in deep sleep the 'I' ceases to exist. Once the 'I' emerges, all else emerges. With a keen mind enquire whence this 'I' emerges.
Commentary: The body, being insentient, cannot actually believe anything, any more than rocks can believe anything. So “I“ am not rooted in the body. And even in deep sleep, we have a rudimentary sense of our existence, which is why we know, when we wake up, that we slept, and didn’t just cease to exist from the moment we fell asleep at night to when we opened our eyes the next morning. So “I“ exist even in deep sleep.
We should note here that the I that remains the same between deep sleep and waking is the true I, whereas all that we have access to in the waking state is a modification of that true I, namely, the waking I, which gives a sense of division and separation. That is the I we are forced to look for, and when we do, we will find that it is merely a reflection and modification of the true I, which watches over all the states of consciousness (waking, dreaming, and deep sleep), and can either be experienced with or without a sense of duality and separation. The senses of duality or the lack thereof — which we call being conscious or unconscious, respectively — are merely thoughts.
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