What is in the earth, what is in heaven, what is in lightning, what is in the eyes, what is in dreams, what is at the end of dreams.

Yama’s enumeration continues, now including subtler realms: bhūmi (earth), div (heaven), vidyut (lightning), akṣi (eyes), svapna (dreams), and crucially svapnānteṣu (at the end of dreams, that is, dreamless deep sleep).

This progression is intentional and subtle. It moves from the gross (earth) to the subtle (heaven), then to the momentarily brilliant (lightning), to the organs of perception (eyes), to modified states of consciousness (dreams with content), and finally to the contentless state (deep sleep).

Svapnānta (end/extremity of dream) technically refers to the state of suṣupti (deep dreamless sleep). In Advaita Vedānta philosophy, this state is significant because it represents the experience of pure existence without objects — similar but not identical to the experience of the Ātman. It is the “frontier” between individual and universal consciousness.

Yama, as god of death, has access to all these realms. He is offering Naciketas dominion over states of consciousness that most humans never consciously experience. But the wise young man still does not yield, recognizing that even deep sleep is a state that comes and goes, while the Ātman is the permanent witness of all states.