Indian spiritual discourses are named Upanishads (800 BC – 400 BC) that discuss the inner meaning of Vedas written centuries earlier. Vedic teachers went to phenomenal lengths to explain the inner meaning of scripture to clarify the abstract form of sprit and spiritual world.

‘Prasna Upanishad’ is one in which the students requests the master to free him from ignorance by providing an answers to the questions posed. There are many interesting questions in this Upanishad. I found one of them so interesting and the translation provided below is done by Prof. Juan Masaco (born in Majorca) of Oxford University.

Souryayani Gargya asked the fourth question to his master.

Master, how many powers sleep in a man and how many remain awake? Who is that spirit that beholds the wonder of dreams? Who enjoys the mystery of sleep without dreams? Who is the spirit on whom all the others find rest?

Sage replied: As when, before darkness falls, the rays of setting sun seem all to become one in its circle of light, thought at the hour of sunrise they all spread out again, even so all the powers of the senses become one in the higher power of mind. Then a person does not see, hear, smell, taste and touch; does not speak, receive or give, move, or enjoys joys of love. Then people say ‘he sleeps’.

But in the city of the body the fires of life are burning: they sleep not. Apana is like the sacred home-fire for ever kept burning from father to sun. Vyana is like the fire of the south for offering to the ancestors. Prana is like the fire of the east lit up by the home-fire. Samana is like the hotri priest evenly distributing two offerings of expiration and inspiration. The mind is the performer of sacrifice and Udama is its fruit, since every day it takes the mind in sleep to Brahman, the Almighty.

My Notes:
It is believed that there are five types of energies that moves in our body. Prana (forward moving) Apana (that moves away), Vyana (Moving away from center), Samana (balancing) and Udama (moving upwards). Prana governs the intake of substances. Samana governs their digestion. Vyana governs the circulation of nutrients. Udana governs the release of positive energy. Apana governs the elimination of waste-materials.

Professor’s translation (continued)

And in dreams the mind beholds its own immensity. What has been seen is seen again, what has been heard is heard again. What has been felt in different places or far away regions returns to mind again. Seen and unseen, heard and unheard, felt and unfelt, the mind sees all, since mind is all.
But when the mind is overcome by its own radiance, then dreams are no longer seen; joy and peace come to the body.
Evan as birds, O beloved, return to their tree for rest, thus all things find their rest in Atman, the Supreme Spirit.
All things find their final peace in their innermost Self, the spirit: earth, water, fire, air, space and their invisible elements; sight, hearing, smell, taste, touch and their various fields of sense; voice, hands and all powers of actions; mind, reason, the sense of I, thought, inner light, and their objects; and even life and all that life sustains.
It is the Spirit of man who sees, hears, feels perfumes, touches and tastes, thinks and acts and has all consciousness, And the Spirit of man finds peace in the Spirit Supreme and Eternal.
He who knows, O my son, that Eternal Spirit, in corporeal and shadow less, luminous and ever lasting, attains that Eternal Spirit. He knows the All and becomes the All. A verse these is that says:
‘He who knows, O my beloved, the Eternal Spirit where in consciousness and the senses, the power of life and the elements find final peace, knows the All and has gone into the All’

End of sages answer as translated into English by the professor (ISBN 0-14-044163-8)