‘TURIYA’ OR SIMPLY THE ‘FOURTH’, SHOULD BE THE ULTIMATE GOAL

The other three states are waking, dreaming and deep sleep. Your waking is nothing but a state in which your individuality or mind is at play, all the time, since you wake up, until you go to sleep. Mind is unconsciousness. In your waking, you are not an expression of your original nature i.e. of consciousness but you are an expression of your mind because, all the time, you are busy reacting to the physicality. Individuality is because of the physical. You are an individual because of your body only. So, individual existence is unconsciousness. Individuality is an idea, which exists in your imagination or mind only and hence is not the reality. Taking physical as real is behoshi or unconsciousness because in consciousness, which is your nature, there is no physical or sense of individuality. Consciousness, is the real doer and yet it has no sense of ego or of individuality about it. Thus, what you know, as waking is nothing but just a state of your mind or a state of unconsciousness or behoshi only.  

The same is true for dreaming, too, because your dreaming, which you experience in your sleep is also a result of your individuality only. In dreams, your mind is fully functional because all dreams, are about the physical only. Please know that, there can’t be any dream about the nonphysical or the emptiness. In fact, your waking state, too, is nothing but dreaming only, with a difference that, your normal dreaming is, with eyes closed and waking is, dreaming with eyes open. Thus, dreaming, too, is nothing but another state of mind or of unconsciousness only. 

The third one, is Sushupti or deep sleep. Now, in deep sleep or Sushupti, there are no dreams because in Sushupti, your mind is absent. Though, the mind doesn’t get obliterated in Sushupti but it disappears temporarily. Sushupti, thus, is your natural state because in deep sleep, your mind is not there and hence, your individuality is not operative. That’s the reason that, one who experiences Sushupti, he wakes up fully rested and feels very fresh because deep sleep is your natural state. A natural state, means nothing else but only your nature, which is integral to your existence, alone is present. 

In deep sleep, nothing else i.e. the world, body mind etc don’t exist, for you, but only the reality alone, does exist which keeps you alive. Deep sleep or Sushupti is experienced very rarely. Not all human beings, do experience that. However, the unfortunate aspect of Sushupti is that though, it’s your natural state and yet, you are unable to experience this state because in deep sleep, though, the mind is absent but your consciousness or awareness, too, is absent. In deep sleep, you are not aware, you are not conscious. That’s the reason, that in deep sleep, you do not know whether you exist or not. You are not aware of your existence, in your deep sleep. That’s why, upon waking up, you can’t recall or describe your experience of deep sleep, because awareness wasn’t there. 

Now, most of the human beings live and pass their lives in these three states only which are nothing but different states of the same mind or of unconsciousness only. In deep sleep, though, the mind is absent but the awareness too is lacking and hence a state of behoshi. Thus, most of us, too, live like other creatures because all other creatures exist in total unconsciousness only. Only, the rare ones, dare to go beyond these three states of unconsciousness which traditionally is known as Turiya or simply the ‘Fourth’ because, this is not a state but a state beyond the three states and is the underlying and basis of all other states. The ‘Fourth’ is, the opposite equivalent of Sushupti but with one big difference which is that Sushupti is a state of total unconsciousness whereas Turiya is pure consciousness. You exist, all the time, fully conscious and fully aware and you are, thus, able to experience your natural state which others can’t because of the unconsciousness. 

A realised being, is the one who exists as the ‘Fourth’ or simply as pure consciousness or awareness or just as a presence. Like consciousness, he has no sense of individuality or ego about him. He doesn’t exist, as an individual or as a body but as pure presence i.e. as nonphysical. For a realised being, the dreams disappear totally because mind is annihilated fully for him and with that individuality too. For him, nothing else, i.e. the world, the body, the mind etc exist because physical or others are a result of mind or ego. He exists, as pure presence or awareness and does what’s needed. He is always connected with the real Self which is nonphysical and deathless and does, as needed in this moment. All that is extraneous i.e. that which is not innate to his existence, has dropped. He exists, as one with this existence. He becomes an expression of the existence or of the consciousness. The existence, thus, finds expression through him. 

Turiya is a state of samadhi too, because you are moved not by your individuality or by the mind but by the reality. Other three states are states of mind or of physical and hence, you continue coming and going in different bodies. Only, when you realise the ‘Fourth’, while you are in this body, you can go beyond physical because, pure energy or consciousness doesn’t have any reason for taking new body but merges with the existence which we know as nirvana or moksha. Thus, Turiya or simply the ‘Fourth’ is the ultimate and hence, should be your only goal. Meditation is a practice to realise the ‘Fourth’ or the Turiya. (my wish, that you realize n become an expression of the ‘Fourth’ in 2023)