I would like to share this with you all:

I would like to share this with you all:
This conversation is between Janaka (king) and Yajnavalkya from UPANISHADS:

Janaka :
Who is that self?
Yajnavalkya:
The self, pure awareness, shines as the light within the heart, surrounded by the senses. Only seeming to think, seeming to move, the self neither sleeps nor wakes nor dreams.
When the self takes on a body, he seems to assume the body’s frailties and limitations, but when he sheds the body at the time of death, the self leaves all these behind.
The human being has two states of consciousness: one in this world, the other in the next. But there is a third state between them, not unlike the world of dreams, in which we aware of both worlds, with their sorrows and joys. When a person dies, it is only the physical body that dies, that person lives on in a non physical body, which carries the impressions of his past life. It is these impressions that determine his next life. In this intermediate state he makes and dissolves impressions by the light of the self.
In that third state of consciousness there are no chariots, no horses drawing them or roads on which to travel, but he makes up his own chariots, horses, and roads. In that state there are no joys or pleasures, but he makes up his own joys and pleasures. In that state there are no lotus ponds, no rivers, but he makes up his own lotus ponds, lakes, and rivers. It is he who makes up all these from the impressions of his past or waking life.
It is said of these states of consciousness that is the dreaming state, when one is sleeping, the shining self, who never dreams, who is ever awake, watches by his own light the dreams woven out of past deeds and present desires. In the dreaming state, when one is sleeping, the shining self keeps the body alive with the vital force of prana, and wanders wherever he wills. In the dreaming state, when one is sleeping, the shining self assumes many forms, eats with friends, indulges in sex, sees fearsome spectacles.
But he is not affected by anything because he is detached and free; and after wandering here and there in the state of dreaming, enjoying pleasures and seeing good and evil, he returns to the state from which he began.
As a great fish swims between the banks of a river as it likes, so does the shining self move between the states of dreaming and waking.
As an eagle, weary after soaring in the sky, folds its wings and flies down to rest in its nest, so does the shining self enter the state of dreamless sleep, where one is greed from all desires.
The self is free from desire, free from evil, free from fear.
As a man in the arms of his beloved is not award of what is without and what is within, so a person in union with the self is not aware of what is without and what is within, for in that native state all desires find their perfect fulfillment. There is no other desire that needs to be fulfilled, and one goes beyond sorrow.
In that unitive state there is neither father nor mother, neither worlds nor gods nor even scriptures. In that state there is neither thief nor slayer, neither low caste nor high, neither monk nor ascetic. The self is beyond good and evil, beyond all the suffering of the human heart.
In that unitive state one sees without seeing, for there is nothing separate from him, smells without smelling, for there is nothing separate from him, taste without tasting, for there is nothing separate from him, speaks without speaking, for there is nothing separate from him; hear without hearing, for there is nothing separate from him, touches without touching, for there is nothing separate from him, thinks without thinking, for there is nothing separate from him; knows without knowing, for there is nothing separate from him.
Where there is separateness, one sees another, smells another, tastes another, speaks to another, hear another, touches another, thinks of another, knows another.
But where there is a unity, one without a second, that is the world of Brahman. This is the supreme goal of life, the supreme treasure, the supreme joy. Those who do not seek this supreme goal live on but a fraction of this joy.