Shloka 10:
nivṛtteḥ sarvaduḥkhānāmīśānaḥ prabhuravyayaḥ
advaitaḥ sarvabhāvānāṃ devasturyo vibhuḥ smṛtaḥ
Translation:
Being free from all miseries, Turīya is considered to be the Lord, capable (of freeing one from misery.) It is immutable, effulgent, all-pervading, and the non-dual (truth) of all beings.
Explanation:
One who is free from all miseries of life is called Turiya. He is the Lord who is capable of freeing all others i.e., people who are suffering in samsara or misery. Turiya is the lord. Turiya is unchangeable, effluent, all-pervading and non-dual of all beings.
Turiya means beyond three. Turiya means beyond waking, dreaming and deep sleep state. Then you start imagining that beyond this something is there. Don’t get into that confusion. Whenever you speak of the word ‘I’, you are referring to Turiya only. When you speak of ‘I’, this ‘I’, has a changing component and unchanging component. The changing component of ‘I’ is related to body, mind and intellect. The unchanging component of ‘I’ is referring to Turiya only.
So, don’t get confused by terminologies. Whenever you speak of ‘I’, you are referring to Turiya only. Turiya is nothing but ‘I’. It is beyond time and space. That is your own experience. 30 years back, you will say “I was in Mysore” and now you say, “I am in Bangalore”. The ‘I’ has not changed. The body has changed. The mind has changed. The intellect has changed. The location has changed. So, there is the changing part of ‘I’ and the unchanging part of ‘I’. The unchanging part of ‘I’ is nothing but Turiya. This is not dependent on time. This is not dependent on place. This is not dependent on the body also. The body dies also, nothing happens to ‘I’.
The body is only an instrument. Just because you don’t have a mobile phone and cannot communicate with someone, does not mean you don’t exist. Turiyam is your real existence. The body is just an instrument to express it. So that Turiyam is ‘I am’. So, whenever I refer to Turiyam, it is always ‘I’ and don’t say Turiya is something else. When you speak of ‘I’ that means you are speaking Turiyam only.
What is the nature of Turiya? It is of pure Consciousness. This means that there are no objects in that. When I speak of ‘I’, the body, mind and intellect do not exist in that. ‘I’ does not change at all. ‘I’ does not care about it. ‘I’ does not know about the body, mind and intellect. But the changing part of ‘I’ is body, mind and intellect, which is relative and that has only referred to body, mind and intellect. The absolute ‘I’ is not dependent on body, mind, intellect, time and space.
Who is that Turiyam? ‘I am’ that Turiyam. The purpose of Vedanta is not to introduce us that there is some other concept or world of Turiyam where we should go. No. It is not the purpose. Because you will be thinking now, ‘how can I go to this Turiyam? I am in this waking state. From this waking state, how will I go to Turiyam? What sadhana do I have to do? What practices do I have to do?’. You will start by asking so many questions. You are already stressed out in life. You are already doing so many things and circuses in life. Giving you one more state which you cannot find out or reach and making you struggle to reach there is not the purpose of Vedanta. The purpose of Vedanta is to tell that you are Turiyam and removing your confusion about other parts.
Otherwise, you will start thinking that ‘one day I will become Turiyam’. No. It is not like that. Whenever you speak of ‘I’, you are speaking of Turiyam only. But Turiyam has some characteristics which you need to understand. The Turiyam, the non-dual reality, does not know anything. Because it need not know. There is nothing for it to know. It need not know. There is a need to know because by knowing something, there is a benefit. But for Turiyam, there is nothing to know. It does not know anything.
It is a state of not knowing. This not knowing is blissful because knowledge is the cause of trouble in life. Shiva sutra says, ‘jnanam bandaha’. Our main bondage comes from jnana. What jnana? How much jnana you have? You tell me about yourself. You will start saying about your resume. You will start talking about your schooling, college, work etc. This knowledge is bondage for you. The more you know, the less you know. The more knowledge you have about something, ignorance will develop. Knowledge and ignorance are shared. In Atma Jnana, knowledge and ignorance are irrelevant. Turiya is a state of not knowing. This is one characteristic of Turiya.
Turiya cannot express itself also. There is no expression possible for Turiya because expression requires an instrument. Without the mind, as an instrument and the mind creates the body and the world, Turiya is not able to express itself. The knowing, expressing, feeling, experiencing, all these things require a mind and a body. The mind and body are not separate. The mind is required for knowing, expressing, feeling, experiencing, thinking, perceiving. For knowing, expressing, feeling, experiencing, thinking and perceiving, an instrument called the mind is required. When a Turiya is able to associate with a mind, then it is able to do all this. It is as good as saying, ‘I cannot talk to my friend in America until and unless I have a mobile phone’. So, a mobile phone is your instrument. For Turiyam, these 4 are the instruments. The mind is one instrument that can perform feeling, sensing, knowing and thinking.
Turiya cannot know anything without the mind. Turiya cannot express anything without the mind. Turiya cannot say “I am Consciousness” also. But when the mind is there then it can tell that. The expression is not possible for Turiya because there is not instrument. And knowing is also not possible because there are no objects in Turiya. Knowing requires an object. There are no objects in Turiya. It is non-dual. But when the mind comes into the picture, then it is capable of knowing and all other functions.
Turiya is experiencing with the help of an instrument called the mind. The mind is an appearance in Turiya. So, Turiya is non-dual. There is no other. There is no other than Atma. The mind comes into the picture. Is there a duality that comes into the picture? Once the mind comes into the picture then the world comes into the picture. Does that mean a duality came into the picture? Does it mean duality occurred? No. There is no duality. Because the mind is just an imagination in Turiya. There is no duality there. The entire world is imagination in the Advaitha Atma. Because it is an imagination, it is mithya. It is not real. Non-duality is not affected just because the world appeared.
If Satya appears then there is duality. There is no duality because the world and the mind are Mithya. Mithya appearing in Satya is irrelevant. An example of this is that you are going, and a shadow is following you. The shadow is not creating a duality for you. The shadow is just a shadow. You are the only one real. Mithya is something which you can imagine the shadow of Satya. So, shadow does not create duality. The world does not create duality in Atma. The knowing does not create duality in Atma. But the mind is the power of Atma. What power is that? It is the imagination power. The mind appears in Atma just like a dream appears in you.
When you sleep, suddenly a dream world opens up. In a dream world, you go somewhere. You might go to Paris, Iceland or some other place. In the dream, it appears to be real. But it is not real. Nothing has happened to you. Like that, in Turiya, a dream-like state appears and this dream-like state appears called the mind. And a dream-like state called the world appears. From a Turiya point of view, it is like a dream.
But there is one characteristic here. When you are experiencing a dream, the dream appears to be very real. When you go to London in a dream, that London appears to be very real. Like that, for Turiyam, the world appears real. Even though it is a dream, it appears to be real for Turiyam. So, the Turiyam associated with the waking state is called Vishwa. The Turiyam associated with the dream state is called Taijasaḥ. The Turiyam associated with a deep sleep state is called Pragna.
The Turiya has powers called Maya Shakthi. Don’t get confused about Maya Shakthi now. Maya Shakthi is as good as imagination power. So, the Maya Shakthi manifests as the world which comes as knowing, feeling, thinking and all those things. Where did all this come from? It came from Turiya. But Turiya is not affected by any of these. It is a different thing.
We will go to one more step now. Turiyam itself is a pure Not knowing state. It is a state where nothing is known. It is very very blissful. That is told beautifully in Bhagavatam.
vatasya patrasya putesayanam
balam mukundam manasa smarami
So, pure Consciousness is a representation of balam mukundam or the child. Because the child is innocent. It doesn’t know anything. It is very blissful. The Consciousness in Bhagavatam is represented as balam mukundam who is sleeping on a leaf or vatasya Patra. And this leaf represents Vedas or all the knowledge. Sleeping on knowledge. You people also do this know? For studying for an examination, you people sleep on the books. Very blissfully, you use the textbooks as pillows. Here the Turiya Consciousness is not bothered about knowledge. It is also shown that a bala mukundam sips the thumb like a child. This is to show, he is innocently enjoying and is blissful. He is not aware of knowledge. He is not aware of ignorance. So Turiya Consciousness is not a knowing principle. It is blissful. But when it gets associated with a mind, the knowing, sensing, feeling and everything comes into the picture.
Now, the mind is nothing but a dream. Let us understand your dream. In your dream, you suddenly became a princess. There is a princess body created and this princess body starts thinking that “I am a princess. I am ruling this entire kingdom”. Now, who is a princess? You are sleeping there. You have become a princess. You actually appear to be like a princess. And this princess says, “I am this person”. But you are just sleeping there. Nothing is happening to you. So, we are clear about the relationship between sleeping you and the princess.
Similarly, in Turiyam, you appear. In Turiyam, the body, mind and intellect complex appear. Whenever you speak, you speak of ‘I’ only. You are speaking of Turiyam only. When the dream person says, ‘I am doing’, it is actually taking the identity of the sleeping person and telling ‘I am doing’. Whereas the person sleeping is blissfully unaware of the dreaming character. The same thing happens in Turiyam mind. The mind comes into the picture like a dream. In that, a character is created. In that, a body, mind and intellect complex are created. And this body, the mind is alive because of the reflected Consciousness. And that person is very confident that he was born here, he is going here, he is living here. All the while, he is referring to is Turiyam.
The dream princess is always referring to you only. But she does not know about you. Reference is about you but acting is something else. Like that, you are the waking character. You think you are the waking character. But you are nothing but an appearance in Turiyam. And all the time, you are just talking about Turiyam only. You keep telling, ‘I am drinking’, ‘I am walking’, ‘I am sleeping’, ‘I am eating’ and so on. This ‘I’ is nothing but Turiya. All the time, you are using the name of Turiya and enjoying or suffering in life. ‘I know something’, ‘I am enjoying’. Your dream character is going around all the time, doing all the things and using your name but you are just sleeping. Nothing has happened to you. It is like a proxy. In modern language, you can tell something like Facebook identity or Virtual reality.
In the waking state, the identity which you talk about is always referring to taking identity from Turiyam. While Turiyam is not doing anything. So the waking characteristic, who has taken the identity of Turiya and living his life is Vishwa. What should I say? Turiya has become Vishwa or Vishwa claiming the identity of Turiya? What should I say?
Vishwa is forgotten his real nature. But has Turiya become Vishwa? No. It appears as if Turiya has become Vishwa. Turiya has not become Vishwa. Vishwa has taken the identity of Turiya. And putting all other characteristics of the body, mind, intellect, enjoying, thinking and everything on Turiya. From Turiya point of view, nothing has happened. But from Vishwa point of view, I am the Turiya. Even though he doesn’t Turiya, he keeps telling ‘I’, ‘I’, ‘I’. Every time he refers to ‘I’, he keeps referring to Turiya only and doing everything in the world.
In one way I can say that Turiya has taken the form of Vishwa like you have a dream. In reality, nothing has happened to Turiya. But our language is limited, and we have to communicate in some way. So, Turiya has taken the form of Vishwa. And forgotten himself also because Vishwa doesn’t know Turiya. This confusion is coming because Vishwa does not have an independent existence apart from Turiya. So, I can as well say Turiya has taken the form of Vishwa or Vishwa has taken the identity of Turiya. But now, if I tell Vishwa has stolen the identity of Turiya then it seems like Vishwa has some apparent independent existence.
Your dream character, your dream princess cannot steal the identity of the sleeping person which is you. Because it has no independent existence. Now if I tell that the sleeping person which you, has taken the form of the princess in the dream, then you tell you are just sleeping and you don’t know about the existence of the dream or the princess in the dream.
To reduce confusion, we can determine some things. Turiya associated with the waking state is called Vishwa. Turiya associated with dreaming state is called Taijasaḥ. Turiya associated with a deep sleep state is called Pragna. So, language has a limitation and with this limitation, you need to understand these concepts. That’s why examples like a princess and all are given. With the example, we should understand what is happening.
So, all this drama is happening and Turiya does not know anything. He is not knowing. Vishwa has come and taken the identity of Turiya and enjoying life. Now, I have to tell Turiya is doing everything because, without Turiya, Vishwa does not exist. So, Consciousness or Turiyam is not affected by time or space. The all-pervading space is appearing in my Consciousness. Turiya is not changing. The mind which is looking outwards in the waking state is called Vishwa. The mind looking inwards in the dreaming state is called Taijasaḥ. The mind which is not looking at anything in the deep sleep state is called pragna.
Now, don’t start thinking the mind is something else. The mind is nothing but the power of Turiya. What kind of power is this? It is the imagination power of Turiya. This imagination power is able to create a dream called Maya. And in that dream called Maya, all these things are happening.
The body changes. The mind changes. The intellect changes. But the Turiyam never changes. But every time the mind speaks of ‘I’, it speaks of Turiyam only. Turiyam is the master of Samsara. Because Vishwa and Taijasaḥ have suffering in life. Pragna is not suffering. Pragna is blissful. The deep sleep state is blissful. Vishwa and Taijasaḥ are suffering in life and that suffering in life is called samsara. For Turiyam, there is no samsara at all. So, Turiya is the master of life. Turiya is Ananda Swaroopa.
So, when the Lord takes the form of the body as an Avatar, that Avatar will be subjected to the pains and pleasure of samsara. When a hunter shoots the arrow at Sri Krishna’s feet and now there is a pain in the feet. Whereas the Consciousness of Krishna or the Krishna Consciousness is not at all affected. This is true in your case also. There are pain and suffering in you but Turiyam does not get affected. Because Turiyam does not know you are there. That’s why Turiyam is the master or the Lord.
This Jiva is an identification of the body, mind and intellect. Now, who is the character who identifies with the body, mind and intellect? It is the Turiyam that identifies with the body, mind and intellect. Because in your dream, if you say a dream girl came and goes to Paris. You actually tell “I had a dream, and, in the dream, I went to Paris”. You only have to say, and you have to take responsibility. That character is a dream character. And you only have to say that you went to Paris. Even though you didn’t create the dream. And that dream just appeared to you and in that dream, the dream character went to Paris, you should still tell “I went to Paris”.
So, in that way, Turiyam is associated with the body is called Vishwa. Turiyam associated with the mind is called Taijasaḥ. Turiyam associated with ignorance is called Pragna. So, you are understanding that some confusion is happening. The confusion is happening because of Maya which is a dream-like situation and in this dream-like situation, your body has come, your mind has come, and your intellect has come. In this dream-like situation, the world has come. You don’t even know you are Turiya. But you are claiming you are Turiya by saying ‘I’, ‘I’, ‘I’ all the time and suffering in life also.
So, your problem is that you don’t know you are Turiya, but you are claiming you are Turiya. Turiya doesn’t know that the body and the world are there. A sleeping person doesn’t even know that the dream is there. Other than Turiya, nobody else is there. The Vishwa, is he Turiya? Yes. Is Turiya, the Vishwa? No. Turiya doesn’t know Vishwa. But Vishwa doesn’t know he is Turiya, but he uses the name of Turiya. Every time he uses the word ‘I’, he is using the name of Turiya. ‘I’ is the only name of Turiya. Vishwa is Turiya, using the name of ‘I’, using the power of Turiya and suffering in life.
First, try to understand the problem clearly. Without this, you cannot get the solution. This is the position of Vishwa. Turiya is not Vishwa but Vishwa is Turiya who has forgotten himself. But Vishwa is using all privileges of Turiya. Vishwa is using the power of Turiya. Vishwa is using the name of Turiya and suffering in life. But Turiya is not affected by anything. Vishwa is saying, “I am enjoying Vada pav”. Vishwa is saying, “I am enjoying the world.”. Vishwa is also suffering in life. He is always speaking of Turiya, but he is doing all the experience.
Vishwa is nothing but Turiya but Turiya is not Vishwa. It is like telling gold ornaments are nothing but gold. But gold is not an ornament. It is also like telling your dream character is nothing but you. But you are not the dream character. Now you have got into a problem. You have become a samsari. Who has become a samsari? I have become samsari. So basically, Turiya is telling Vishwa has become the samsari. Vishwa is always claiming the ‘I’ know? For example, in your dream character, the princess says ‘I’, which means the princess is talking about the sleeping person you. She has stolen your identity and claim your identity. Similarly, Vishwa has stolen the identity of Turiya and claiming everything as ‘I’.
You are suffering because you are claiming to be Turiya, but you don’t know Turiya. If you are Turiya, you don’t have to suffer. Know your true nature and understand you are Turiya. Identifying with the body and mind and claiming that I am suffering. Whereas in reality, you are Turiya. It is like gold ornament is nothing but gold. It is like a wave is nothing but water. Recognize the true nature of Vishwa.
The teaching can happen only to Vishwa. What can we teach Vishwa? You can teach him by saying, “My dear Vishwa, you are using the word called ‘I’ which is nothing but Turiya. You are consciousness. Turiya is Consciousness. You have forgotten your nature as Turiya. You are taking the identity of body and mind and suffering in life. Remember your true nature and become free” This is something you must say. That is the teaching for Vishwa.
Now, Vishwa will ask, “What should I do? I want very quick liberation. immediately I want get out”. So, the answer is Turiya has never become Vishwa. It is basically telling you are a dream character and you have no reality. You have to understand your nature and this understanding has to come through jnana only. Only through jnana, you should be able to discriminate what is Atma and what is Anatma. The body, mind and intellect is Anatma. You are claiming to be the body, mind and intellect. Know that you are not the body, mind and intellect. This discrimination is called Viveka. And dispassion is called Vairagya. These two are something which you need to develop through body, mind and intellect complex. Along with this, remember your true nature as Turiya all the time.
Through jnana only you can get this. You have forgotten your nature and nothing else has happened. You have forgotten your nature as turiya. You have to remember your nature as Turiya. Vishwa has forgotten its nature is Turiya and identified with the body, mind and intellect complex. Remember your nature as Turiya and become free from Anatma called body, mind and intellect. You cannot remove the body, mind and intellect just like how to peel the banana. Just like how you remove the outer layer of onions, you can’t do that with body, mind and intellect. Because, the body, mind and intellect are also dream characters.
So, now, is Turiya the experiencer? Is Turiya the dreamer? Is Turiya the enjoyer? No. But as Vishwa, Turiya as Enjoyer. As Taijasaḥ, Turiya is the experiences. Vishwa, Taijasaḥ and pragna as like virtual realities. They don’t have an independent existence. Now, Turiya is none of these in reality but all of these in dreamworld called Maya.
So, what is freedom for Vishwa? Only jnana. And how can jnana occur? Shravana mathrena muktih. Jnana can happen only through shravana. Why only through shravana? I don’t know something called Turiya. I don’t know there is something called Consciousness. I don’t know that there is something called Brahman. I cannot see it. I cannot touch it. I cannot imagine it. Then I need to get knowledge about Brahman. this can happen only by hearing. So, jnana is always shravana mathrena. Realization is Viveka and vairagya along with jnana and intellect. A detachment of whatever is body, mind and intellect is I am not and realizing I am Atma. Constantly remembering I am Atma and staying as Atma.
naanu naanembudu naanalla
ee deha mana buddhi naanalla
sachidanandatma shiva nanu nane
shivoham shivoham Shivoham
Pranams,
Prabhuji
References:
Mandukya Karika T9 Shloka 10 Eng 15Dec2018