Comments: This chart should be considered from both Isvara’s point of view and the jiva’s point of view.

Isvara is pure consciousness plus maya. Isvara’s gross, subtle and causal bodies are always active when Isvara is in the waking wtate. When Isvara is in deep sleep after billions of years awake there are no gross, subtle and causal bodies. Only pure consciousness and maya remain. When Isvara “wakes” the three bodies are projected. The word “in” does not imply that Isvara is a special big jiva, a “cosmic person.”

Jiva is pure consciousness plus the subtle body. When jiva is any state, the causal, subtle and gross bodies are maintained by Isvara. Jiva is eternal. The activities of jiva’s three bodies are maintained by Isvara so jiva does not die during any state. It appears as three experiencing entities. Both the three states of experience and the three experiencing entities are created by Isvara. Jiva experiences a sense of individuality in the waking and dream states. It takes the memories and the karma it experiences to be its own when actually all are only Isvara’s projections (rajas). Because Isvara maintains the three bodies other apparent jivas in the waking state experience the gross body of an individual sleeping jiva.

Causal body: The difference between deep sleep and nirvikalpa samadhi is that deep sleep does not burn vasanas while nirvikalpa samadhi does. “In the state of nirvikalpa samadhi the causal body does not exist.” ~ Panchadasi (Chapter I, verse 41)

From the jiva’s point of view the effects of the causal body (thoughts, feelings and actions) are not experienced, because the subtle body is not active.

From Isvara’s point of view the causal body does exist or else there would be no world, no individual jivas. The heart beats and the breath flows in nirvikalpa samadhi, because Isvara maintains the vital air sheath, the physiological systems (pranamaya kosha). Other jivas can see an individual in nirvikalpa samadhi breathing. The dissolution of vasanas in nirvikalpa samadhi is called “a raincloud of dharma” because it purifies the subtle body. It is not the only useful state for burning vasanas. It can happen in the waking state when the mind is sattvic and there is sufficient dispassion (vairagya) so that the jiva need not act on the vasana appearing in it as a like or a dislike. When jiva does not act out a vasana due to vairagya the vasana gets weakened or dissolved. Karma yoga, a waking state activity, also dissolves vasanas.

In a satsang with Swami Dayananda on deep sleep, the Swami says that in deep sleep the mind is completely covered by ignorance (tamas). No other vritti (thought/experience) is there. There is an experiencer (prajna) without discrete objects of experience. Prajna experiences limitless bliss. When sleep ends prajna reconstitutes itself as a dreamer (taijasa) or as a waker (viswa).

Subtle body: In the dream state no vasanas can be removed because there is no doer to remove them. The doer appears as an object in the dream state. There is only the reflected knower (taijasa) illumining the dream. In the deep sleep state no vasanas can be removed because they are dormant. In deep sleep there is only a subtle reflected notion (prajna) that causes pure awareness to experience itself as blissfull objectless limitlessness.

Gross body: There are no experiences or states for the gross body, because it is inert.