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Next, Deep Sleep or Sushupti. This stage is free from even dreams. One is lost in undisturbed sleep. The person will not be conscious of his limbs, or of the sounds, the smells, the forms, the tastes and the sensations of touch. All activity is subsumed by the mind and is latent in it. All experience is absorbed into the higher levels of consciousness, Prajnana. There is no feeling of either separation, or identity, the particular or the universal, the part or the whole. There is no experiencer or experience. There is only the Atma in which he has temporarily merged.

Then, the Thuriya or the Fourth Step. Here, the Vyakthi or Individual is no more so. It has attained the Basic Truth of life and of Creation - The All-pervading, All-inclusive Atma, the Peace and Power of the one and only Atmic Empire. Those who have reached this step have no concern any longer with the individual self. One cannot assert either that these persons possess knowledge or that they do not have it. For, they are ever immersed in the highest Bliss.

The Atma in which they have merged is invisible to the eye. It cannot be grasped or held by hand. One can only know that It exists and that It is Goodness and nothing else. All urges that draw one towards the objective world have to be exterminated, before faith in the Atma can take root.

The four steps of Atmic awareness are very much akin to the four steps in the recital of OM. The A.U.M and the ultimate Matra are on a par with the waking, dreaming, sleeping and merging steps already dwelt upon. The Atma is evident in the mind; in deep sleep, it reposes in the heart; in the fourth stage it is all of oneself.

To sum up, it can be laid down that in all stages of daily life, in all circumstances and conditions, and in all activities and experiences, the Atma exists in all beings. All is Atma, Atma is All - the Cosmos is manifested as One by the One, This is what the Sutra reveals. Without the awareness of this unity, there cannot be joy and peace. Without joy and peace, Truth is an empty concept. Therefore, one should know the Cosmos as full, Poorna. It is not a void or vacuum. It is Atma Itself. Next