Dr. G. H. Mees, a young Dutchman, was here for a few days. He asked Śrī Bhagavān: “I have an impression that in deep sleep I have something akin to . Is it so?”
M.: It is the waking ‘I’ that asks the question— not the ‘I’ in sleep. If you attain the state of wakeful sleep which is the same as , while still awake, doubts will not arise.
is one’s natural state. It is the undercurrent in all the three states. This—that is, ‘I’—is not in those states, but these states are in It. If we get samādhi in our waking state that will persist in deep sleep also. The distinction between consciousness and unconsciousness belongs to the realm of mind, which is transcended by the state of the Real Self.
D.: Is the Buddhist view, that there is no continuous entity answering to the idea of the individual soul, correct or not? Is this consistent with the Hindu notion of a reincarnating ego? Is the soul a continuous entity which reincarnates again and again, according to the Hīndu doctrine, or is it a mere mass of mental tendencies— ?
M.: The Real Self is continuous and unaffected. The reincarnating ego belongs to the lower plane, namely, thought. It is transcended by Self-Realisation.
Reincarnations are due to a spurious offshoot. Therefore it is denied by the Buddhists. The present state is due to a mixing up of the (sentient) with jada (insentient).