अभावप्रत्ययालम्बना वृत्तिर्निद्रा ॥१०॥
पदविभाग: (separating individual words): अभाव-प्रत्यय-आलम्बना, वृत्तिः, निद्रा
अन्वय: (Rearranging in logical prose sequence): अभावप्रत्ययालम्बना वृत्तिः निद्रा
प्रतिपदार्थ: (word-by-word meaning): अभाव = absence (of external objects and dream objects), प्रत्यय = cognition (or conceptual basis), आलम्बना = having as its support or resting upon, वृत्तिः = a mental fluctuation, निद्रा = (is) deep sleep,
तात्पर्यम्: (final translation): Deep sleep is the mental fluctuation where you experience voidness.
Further context on the 10th Sutra from Patanjali’s Yogasutras
In IKS, sleep is considered to be the biggest obstacle for meditation. This state of nothingness is not the same as Samadhi. It’s easy to confuse the two though.
In the Raja Yoga framework given by Swami Vivekananda, the distinction between deep sleep and Samadhi is explained with an analogy that highlights why sleep is a dead end for spiritual growth.
The analogy states: If a fool goes into deep sleep, he wakes up a fool. But if a fool enters Samadhi, he emerges as a sage.
- In Sleep (Sub-conscious): The mind drops below the level of conscious reasoning. You experience a temporary pause from suffering, but you return to the waking world with the exact same ignorance (Avidya), ego, and fears you had before. No fundamental transformation occurs.
- In Samadhi (Super-conscious): The mind transcends conscious reasoning into absolute clarity. The false knowledge (Viparyaya) is permanently burned away by the light of direct realization.
If deep sleep were truly a blank, unconscious void where the mind simply switched off, you would have no memory of the experience upon waking. Yet, when we wake up, we say, “I slept deeply” or “I knew nothing.” The very fact that we have a memory (smriti) of “nothingness” proves that the mind was actively recording an experience.
The Mechanics of अभाव (Absence)
Normally, a vritti needs an object to hold onto (alambana).
- In waking life, the mind holds onto physical objects (a tree, a conversation, a cup of coffee).
- In a dream state, the mind holds onto internal, memory-based objects.
But in deep sleep (Nidra), the mind drops all forms. However, it doesn’t stop functioning. Instead, it takes the very concept of “nothingness” (abhava) and makes that its object of focus.
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