Ancient Indians believed that the entire Vedic literature is the recording of visions of various sages when they were in deep states of meditation. They did not compose them. But they merely had the visions that they later recorded.
One such record of visions of a sage by name Mandukya, namely the Mandukya Upanishad, is considered to be the essence of all the Vedas by philosophers like Sankara. It is a very short record with only 12 verses. Gaud pada uses this short composition as a basis of his theory that we discussed in the previous episode. What do these 12 verses say?
1. A state called Vishva that has its senses turned outward. That means it looks at things that are outside. All its dealings are with the external world. In a way, this state subsists on gross objects that are outside. This is the wakeful state.
We are in this state when we are awake.
2. A state called Taijasa that has its senses turned inward. That means it looks at things that are inside. All its dealings are with internal world. This state subsists on subtle objects that are inside. This is the dreaming state.
We put ourselves in this state when we sleep and start dreaming.
3. A state called Prajnya that has its senses neither turned outward, nor turned inward. That means it does not interact with anything neither inside nor outside. In that state it is totally devoid of any desire for anything. But it blissfully abides in that state with its consciousness totally frozen. That means it is not conscious of anything.
We put ourselves in this state when we enter deep sleep.
We normally keep shuttling between these three states alternatively.
But there is a fourth state that is different from these three.
A state called Turiya: In that state, it neither interacts with external world, nor with the internal dream world. Nor does it keep switching between internal and external worlds.
In Turiya state, the consciousness is not frozen like in deep sleep state. Nor is it aware of either the internal or external worlds. But it is not as if there is no awareness at all. But multiplicity of things are not seen. There is a single non dual existence. The multiplicity of things that are perceived in wakeful state as well as in the dream state is just not there in the Turiya state.
This Turiya state is beyond words.
We can explain only those things that have something similar to it. But Turiya is unique and so no words can express it. There is no way it can be empirically verified either, since it is beyond sense perception.
Once this Turiya state is entered, both the wakeful world as well as the dream world just vanish.
In the Turiya state, there is no knowing of things There is no separation between knower, object to be known and the knowledge itself. All three are one. There is no separation between subject and object since there is only one thing in that state.
After having given a very abstract definition of this Turiya state, the Upanishad says that one should always try to attain this state since it is the ultimate bliss, a reliever from all miseries.
In fact, all the Upanishads that are part of the Vedic literature exhort one to attain the Turiya state and make it their aim.
This is the essence of this Upanishad.
Note that there is no mention of illusion anywhere. The Upanishad just talks about states.
This is all fine for an advanced seeker who has gone beyond the Mind. But how do we understand the world that is just staring at us? Can we explain it more logically using our day-to-day experiences?
Ancient Samkhya Philosophers of India had attempted that in their own way, while claiming it to be the real meaning of whatever is described in the Upanishads. Their views are not only closer to our mundane way of thinking but also help us in understanding Yoga better.
So, we will discuss those Samkhya views in the next episode.
A series revolving around Mind – Science of Mind, Philosophy of Mind, Notions of reality, Mind modulation, Domains beyond Mind, and so on. © Dr. King 2019
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