V (c) Analysis of States of Consciousness in the Tradition of Zen

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Views of Seng-ts’an, the Third Chinese Patriarch

To sum up in the words of Seng-ts’an, the Third Chinese Patriarch who refers to a state of consciousness which is akin to the Fourth – turiya. According to him it is eternal, blissful and is of the nature of prakasa and vimarsa as well as beyond all polarities. Though it creates these polarities, it is beyond both. He says:

"The Great Way is not difficult for those not attached to preferences. When neither love nor hate arises, all is clear and undisguised.

…

If you wish to know the truth, hold no opinions for or against anything. To set up what you like against what you dislike is the disease of the mind. When the fundamental nature of things is not recognised, the mind’s essential peace is disturbed to no avail.

The Way is perfect as vast space is perfect, where nothing is lacking and nothing is in excess. Indeed, it is due to our grasping and rejecting that we do not know the true nature of things."
(Hsin-hsin Ming: Verses on the Faith-Mind by Seng-ts’an, Third Chinese Patriarch – Translated from Chinese by Richard B. Clarke.)

He also states that one should neither live in the entanglements of outer things nor in ideas or feelings of emptiness but one should be serene and at one with things and erroneous views will disappear by themselves. If one tries to stop activity to achieve quietude, he says, the very effort fills one with activity. Thus, one will not be able to know Oneness.

If we deny the reality of things, he says, we shall miss their reality since their reality is dependant on that One Reality. According to him, the entire phenomena of the world are contained in this One Reality and are experienced when the discursive mind ceases to exist. So does the thinking subject. The arising of the other gives rise to the self and giving rise to self generates others. One should know these seeming two as facets of the One Fundamental Reality. He further adds that when all things seen without differentiation, the One Self-essence is everywhere revealed. This is realised through non-duality, he asserts.

Finally, he says:

Each thing reveals the One,
the One manifests as all things.
To live in this Realisation,
is not to worry about perfection or non-perfection.
To put your trust in the Heart-Mind is to live without separation,
and in this non-duality you are one with your Life-Source.
Words! Words!
The Way is beyond language,
for in it there is no yesterday,
no tomorrow,
no today. (Ibid.)

The Heart-Mind of Hsin-hsin Ming is hrda manisa of the Veda.

Concluded

V (b) Analysis of States of Consciousness in the Tradition of Zen

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Views of Lin-Chi, Founder of Rinzai School of Zen

Similar view is held by of Lin-Chi, founder of famous Rinzai school of Zen, that the human being is bound by sequential cognition, a persistent tendency of one thought to the next. Whether a particular sequence is a rambling or a result of a vigorous logical exegesis, all these streams of discursive consciousness hide the real man behind it. He also held that whether the mind is involved, dabbles in an endless series of gross pleasures, or ambition, or seeks power, or fame, or pursues sublime spiritual doctrines, these chains of discursive thoughts veil the truth.

Wisdom, according to him, is not the product of some kind of discursive mentation but is the sundering of the chain, the stopping of the process. Thus, enlightenment will always appear suddenly, even though it involves long and careful preparation before it but it will always happens suddenly.

He used to warn his students against the subtle tricks of the discursive mind and the Ultimate Reality, according to him, is neither subjective nor objective but chains of thoughts attempt to make it one or the other. The real man or the universal mind, however, is beyond both. He held that Mind-reality is universal and omnipresent and each human being is that mind-reality in an individual locus.

The human nature hides the truth as much as it reveals the same. This means that the human being is both the universal mind-reality and the concrete person simultaneously. This is the paradox.

To realise that which witnesses everything in each individual, and that which is seen, the nothingness of the pure seeing without “I” or the whole process of an “I” seeing the world is to gain illumination.

For Lin-Chi, Mind-reality is not a metaphysical doctrine, or an article of faith or a goal to be attained. It is a fact in Nature and in Man. Nothing else is real. To understand it, is to experience it, and to experience it, is to live it. He says that one cannot think about it, for doing so, one objectifies what is not objective. Nor can one simply deny it for that subejctivises what is not subjective. Rather one has to be simple.

The true Man, according to him, is the man of no rank. The mind-reality is lost through conditionality and qualification as soon as one thinks about it and to give this Buddha Nature a form, or to associate it with an image is to impose conditionality, rank, etc. on the Mind-Reality. By doing so, is to confine and limit it within the shrunken thought of discursive consciousness.

He says, “Followers of the Way, this thing called mind has no fixed form; it penetrates all the ten directions. In the eye we call it sight; in the ear we call it hearing; in the nose it detects odours, in the mouth it speaks discourse; in the hand it grasps, in the feet it runs along. Basically it is a single bright essence, but it divides itself into these six functions. And because this single mind has no fixed form, it is everywhere in a state of emancipation…”

To Be Concluded...

V (a) Analysis of States of Consciousness in the Tradition of Zen

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Boddhidhrma in his Lankavatara Sutra, in the dialogue between Buddha and Mahamati, says that everything is Mind only. When Mahamati asks about the nature of existence, Buddha says again and again to his disciple Mahamati, “Mahamati, this is only Mind. Hell is Mind. Heaven is Mind. The world is Mind. Enlightenment is Mind.”

Mahamati asks again and again, “Just Mind? Just Mind? Even nirvana or enlightenment is just Mind?”

And Buddha says, “Just Mind, Mahamati.”

Here mind stands for that state of consciousness which is beyond all opposites and is the cause of the entire manifestation. This could only be the fourth state of consciousness. In it there is no desire and the whole world which was seen earlier in pair of opposites is like a magical world, a city of Gandharva. As if a magician has created it, everything appears to be there, but it is there only because of the thought form.

To Be Concluded...

V. Analysis of States of Consciousness in the Tradition of Zen

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Acarya Vasubandhu in his Trimsikavijnapati-karika describes the turiya state of consciousness as the fifth stage of attainment of final realisation – bodhi, which means abiding in anuttarasamyaksambodhi – supreme enlightenment. A yogi gets out of veils and attains complete enlightenment and is capable of striving for transformation of all sentient beings until the end. The verse states:

"Such pure dhatu is unimaginable, good and eternal. It is a state of bliss, an emancipated body, called the famous law of the great sakyamuni." (Vasubandhu's Trimsikavijnapti-karika, Verse 30).

This is called pure dhatu (anasravadhatu) because it destroys all evils or defilements; is not a sphere where vices and passions can attach themselves; by nature it is immaculate (suddha) and is complete and luminous, sublime and infinite. The Mahabuddha possessed of supreme qualities of muni (silence) is called Mahamuni. This svabhavikakaya (pure dharmadhatu) is absolutely real, eternal, blissful, supreme and pure. It is free from all impurities and is the support of all that is good and is possessed of unconditioned qualities; hence it has neither the characteristics nor the activity of rupa, citta and caitta. It is for the personal benefit because it is peaceful, blissful. It is also for the benefit of others because it is the sovereign condition which causes the sentient beings to obtain well-being and happiness.

It further adds that consciousness is exclusively internal while objects are both internal and external. Apprehending that people may admit the reality of the external objects, Buddha, therefore, teaches vijnaptimatrata. Since the ordinary human being misunderstands and becomes attached to artha, and produces klesas and karman. He is sunk in the samsara and exercises efforts to obtain deliverance by the contemplation the mind. Therefore, Buddha teaches vijnaptimatrata to help them to attain liberation from samsara by contemplation of mind and it does not mean that internal objects are absolutely non-existent like the external objects are. Therefore, it recognises only consciousness itself. Internal objects have consciousness itself as their essential nature. Tathata is the real nature of consciousness and therefore, there is no dharma outside consciousness.

To Be Concluded...


IV. Role of Five Pranas in the Different States of Consciousness

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State of deep sleep is characterised by the absence of outer physical and inner mental activity. It is one of silence (tusnibhava) in which there is neither object nor means of knowledge (Tantraloka, 10.258). According to Utpaladevacarya in his Isvara-pratyabhijna-karika, in this state the absence of object of knowledge characterises the sunya pramata, who is nothing more than not-being of Buddhi, etc. and who experiences subjectivity as ‘I’, which is related only to the vague and absolutely formless residual traces. In this sunya resides the power which sets prana, etc., in motion and is the internal activity of the senses (indiryas). This power is called life (jivana). Another view of life is that it is nothing but self-consciousness, identified with the prana which is identical with the group of eight (puryastaka). Deep sleep, therefore, consists in the rest of self-consciousness in sunya or prana and is like the state of dissolution resembling the world situation during cosmic dissolution. Deep sleep (susupti) is of two kinds – (i) that in which the objective consciousness persists and (ii) that in which there is no objective consciousness. In the former, the subject has the impurity of Maya, but in the latter, one is free from it (Utpaladevacarya's Isvara-pratyabhijna-karika, 3.2.13-15).

Susupti is also a state of potentiality said to be the seed of the universe (Tantraloka, X.262)where everything is merged within the subject in the form of latent impressions (samskara) which give rise to the world of differentiated perceptions when the individual wakes up. Thus, it is the microcosmic equivalent of universal destruction (pralaya) (Utpaladevacarya's Isvara-pratyabhijna-karika, 3.2.15) where tattvas or the categories of experience in the realm of diversity dissolve. Though the same cognising subject that is present in the waking and dream states persists in this state of consciousness but he appears to be absent because the object and the means of knowledge, with which he formerly identified, are no longer present (Tantraloka, X.258).

In this state of consciousness, impurity of individuality (anavamala) continues to operate which contracts consciousness and deprives it of its awareness and freedom and is therefore not supported by the other impurities, thereby leaving the subject in a state of emptiness (sunya). Consciousness is present here as sunyapramatr or void subject which is the source from which the powers of the senses and the prana spring when one rises from this state.

This state of consciousness presents itself in two forms in an individual – one is totally without object in which an individual recalls when he awakes and thinks – I knew nothing at all. This type of experience is called apavedyasusupti.

The second type of experience is that of impurity of maya (mayiyamala) which continues to function in a subtle way and has some objective content. This is known when an individual awakes from this state and thinks – I slept well. This state is called savedyasusupti.

For Yogis this state of deep sleep is closer to the state of universal consciousness than the waking or dreaming, for in this state of consciousness, the subject alone exists and the yogis call it established in form (rupastha) since, here the cogniser is the creator of forms rupayati and is therefore in pure form (Tantraloka, X.261). For the average man, it is an experience of inconscient sleep but for the yogis, deep sleep is samadhi in which he is in a state of transcendental aloofness, free of the awareness of distinction between the subject and the object. But for the seeker of knowledge, this state is the state of great pervasion (mahavyapti) because, established in subjectivity of consciousness, they are free of the restrictions imposed by the object (Tantraloka, X.262).

Utpaladevacarya is of the view that the trinity of these states of consciousness have to be given up because of the supreme importance it gives to prana (the animating life-force) and the secondary place it allots to the Ultimate Nature – pure Consciousness and also because of the occurrence of pleasure, pain, and so on, which represent precisely its rise and fall (Isvara-pratyabhijna-karika,3.2.18). The purpose behind this is that the body, the mind, and the system of breathing, as well as the void-like awareness, attain particular importance for human beings in the waking, dream and deep sleep states of consciousness whereby the pure Consciousness is pushed into the background of human awareness with the result that this Consciousness is suppressed and forgotten leading to experiences of pleasure and pain, among others, tend to dominate. Therefore according to him, these three states of animated awareness should be given up and the fourth state – turiya, is worthy of being awakened since it is pure divine Consciousness and is the supreme master of all knowing and doing in accordance with its free will.

He further adds that the principle of life, prana, manifests itself primarily as inhaling (prana) and exhaling (apana) in the waking and the dream states of consciousness. While in the state of deep sleep, prana is called samana which suspends both the earlier forms of prana. Therefore, samana is called visuvat (Isvara-pratyabhijna-karika,3.2.19). Samana is like the time, and is characterised by the equality of the movement of prana and apana and the rest of the principle of life in the cavity of heart i.e. neither moving to the right or to the left for a while; exactly as the time (Abhinavagupta's Isvara-pratyabhijna-vimarisi, 3.2.19).

Finally, in the state of turiya, prana moves through the mid-passage susumna and as such it is called udana. In it, the dissolution of the objective world starts. While prana in the form of vyana is present in the state of turiyatita state of consciousness (Isvara-pratyabhijna-karika,3.2.20)which is nothing but the climax of the turiya.

Abhinavagupta in his commentary on verse 3.2.20 of the above mentioned karika, states that prana means the being of the principle of consciousness – cidarupa as prana and apana, the characteristic of life and is essentially nothing more than the universal motion (samanyaparispanda) that brings consciousness to the inconscient body. When the freedom (svantarya), self is imposed on it, it is apprehended as “I”. This very being of cit, manifesting itself in the particular forms of movement such as those of prana, etc., assumes five different forms and shows in itself the particularity of prana and that of apana in succession in the form of inhaling and exhaling. These two movements are very clear in the waking state because here the prana proceeds from the body and rests on the external object and from there comes back to body and rests on the internal object. Therefore, prana and apana are distinctly cognised.

In the dream state of consciousness, both are present because the cogniser clearly sees prana and apana in the form of inhaling and exhaling of a person who is asleep and the sleeping person also realises their existence in the form of leaving and coming back to the heart. So the principle of life, Prana, has two movements inhalation and exhalation in the waking state as well as in dream state. But when, this state grows very strong then there is a subject in deep sleep, susupta, and it is of two types and both the types are characterised by the possession of the principle of life called samana. In the savedya susupta, the movement of prana and apana is perceptible, yet in reality, deep sleep consists primarily in the rest of the principle of life in between the two movements in which the hrdayasadana, -- the spatial point, which is beyond the reach of the senses.

Thus, the suspension of activity of prana and apana, for a while, is the feature of samana whose primary function is to produce equality in the vital fluids in the higher as well as the lower animals and is responsible for the digestion of food, because it brings about the opening of the lotus of the heart and is like the time called visuvat because it is equality of prana and apana which are like day and night and rest in the cavity of the heart for a while.

Finally, Abhinavagupta states that when the activity of the principle of life abandons the left and right passages and follows the upward central path, then that movement brings about melting away of all duality like that of melted Ghrta and produces a state that is characterised by unity. In this state of consciousness, prana is called udana. It is technically called turiya. But when duality completely disappears, the activity of the principle of life (pranavrtti) assumes the form of vyana inasmuch as it operates in the body, consisting of the mass of elements and worlds, which constitute the entire sphere of objectivity. This is known as turiyatita state. It is the Ultimate Reality, which is essentially the cause as well as whole universe itself. Thus, the subject is nothing more than the principle of life – pranarupa that assumes the forms of prana, apana, udana, samana, and vyana.

Although in the states of turiya and turiyatita, the principle of life exists, otherwise there would be no rise from them as there is destruction of duality in these states of turiya and turiyatita and are characterised by rest on unity, therefore, there is no variety of pleasure and pain in them. These two states of consciousness are states of the highest bliss, characterised by perfect rest on the Self. Hence, they are ought to be acquired.

Thus, the Ultimate Reality whose body is the whole universe appears as prana, apana, udana, samana, and vyana. (See Abhinavagupta’s commentary on verse 3.2.20, pp.216-218.)

3 (d) Analysis of Experience of States of Consciousness Described in Mandukya Upanishad

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Turiya State of Consciousness

Against the background of these three states, is the fourth one called turiya. According to Mandukya Upanisad, it concerns the Supreme Being directly and has been clearly distinguished from these three. The Upanisad distinguishes this state of consciousness from the waking, dream and deep sleep. It is a state which cannot be categorised as it transcends all opposites. It is inconceivable, it surpasses mind and expression, is sublime and profound and no mundane comparison can give idea of this state of consciousness. It is pure consciousness because it is the cessation of all ideas and is the causes of bliss and beatitude. In the words of the Upanisad:

"He who is neither inward-wise nor outward-wise, nor both inward and outward-wise, nor wisdom self gathered, nor possessed of wisdom, nor unpossessed of wisdom. He who is unseen and incommunicable, unseizable, featureless, unthinkable, and unnameable, Whose essentiality is awareness of the Self in its single existence, in Whom all phenomena dissolve, Who is Calm, Who is Good, Who is the One than Whom there is no other, Him they deem the fourth: He is the Self, He is the object of Knowledge." (Mandukya Upanishad 7)

Thus, being distinguished from the three states of consciousness, the fourth state of consciousness is imperceptible, free of involvement in behaviour, incapable of being grasped by the intellect, shorn of properties of inference, unthinkable, inexpressible and confined only to the experience of non-duality between the individual self and the Ultimate Reality, absolutely away from diversity or duality.

It is also distinct from the third state of consciousness. While the third state is characterised as prajna or prajnaghana, that is consciousness in its aloneness or lump of consciousness, the fourth is distinguished by exclusion as neither a lump of consciousness nor consciousness in its aloneness, nor intensively conscious or devoid of consciousness.

Like all the three lower states, turiya also has four states which include the state of turiyatita. They are as follows:

1. Turiya-jagrat (Turiya in Waking):

In this state, the mind as we know it, retires completely and its function ceases and the unmana or supermind becomes. It is called manonmana.

2. Turiya-svapna (Turiya in Dreaming):

It is that state in which a Yogi crosses all boundaries of limitations of knowledge and enters into the region of unlimitedness. This state is, therefore, called ananta or unlimited.

3. Turiya-susupti (Turiya in susupti):

The experience of this state of the Fourth is called sarvartha because in this state everything appears as a form of divine Sakti.

The common man simply calls it turiya because it is beyond the three known states of waking, dream and deep sleep and he has no experience of the turiya state. The Yogis call this state as rupatita because in this state common form of both the object and the subject is transcended. The jnanins call it pracaya or collectivity for they experience in this state that everything is steeped in the divine delight.

4. Turiyatita:

It is that state which is full of uninterrupted divine rapture of Consciousness and there is no question of phases of this state since it is a state of complete realisation and once in this state of consciousness, Yogi no longer requires any Yogic practice. The jnanins call this state mahapracaya. In it all distinction between the transcendent and the immanent disappears.

It may also be mentioned that the discovery of five kosas by Bhrgu, namely, annamaya kosa, pranamya kosa, manomaya kosa, vijnanamaya kosa and andamaya kosa are nothing but the fives states of consciousness – jagrat, svapna, susupti, turiya and turyatita.

Concluded

3 (c) Analysis of Experience of States of Consciousness Described in the Mandukya Upanishad

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State of Consciousness in Deep Sleep

The third is that state of deep sleep which is distinct from the dream inasmuch as though in a state of sleep. Here the individual concerned does not see any dream nor does he have any desire for anything. This is a state of perfect slumber (Mandukya Upanishad, 5). Desirelessness with the state of deep sleep bears out that desires are fundamental cause of dreams. Unfulfilled desires of the past give themselves expression in the form of dreams while desirelessness of the deep sleep is due to the self returning to its subjective being without having left any trace of its projection in objectivity. This state of the self is recounted in the Brhadaranyaka Upanisad through an analogy of an eagle or falcon:

"But just as there in the aerial space a falcon or an eagle after having flown about, gets tired, folds together its wings and proceeds to a squatting or crouching position, so also the self hurries to that state in which, while asleep, it experiences no desire any more and sees no dream images. ...

It is the essential form of the same, in which, raised above the desires it is free from evil and is devoid of fear because just as one, embraced by a beloved woman, has no consciousness of that which is outside or inside, so also the self, embraced by consciousness of the self has no consciousness of what is outside or inside. That is the essential form of the self in which it is one with all its desires appeased or fulfilled, one desiring its own self, one without desires and free from desire.

Then the father is not the father and the mother is not the mother, the worlds are not the worlds, the gods are not the gods, the Vedas are not the Vedas; then the thief is not the thief, the murderer is not the murderer, Candala is not the Candala, ….the ascetic is not an ascetic, the performer of austerities is not the performer of austerities, because in this state, consciousness is unaffected by good and unaffected by evil, since it transcends all the torments of the heart." (Br. Up. IV.3.19; IV.3.21-22)

It shows that the state of deep sleep is not absolutely shorn of consciousness and joy. The joy of this state is of a higher order than one normally has in the state of waking or dream. This is why Mandukya Upanisad describes this state as one of self-contained consciousness, blissful within, inclined to awareness and yet completely ignorant. (Man. Up. 5)

This deep state of consciousness also has four stages:

1. Susupti-jagrat (Deep sleep in the Waking):

In this state of consciousness, emptiness of deep sleep rises up to obliterate all objective consciousness. But when the subject awakes from this state of consciousness, he remembers nothing except that he was completely asleep in which he had lost all sense of himself and the world. It is a state in which the entire objective world is in a latent form. Thus, it is called udita or emergent state.

2. Susupti-svapna (Deep sleep in dreaming):

This state is known vipula or extensive because in this state latent impressions begin to proliferate and mature. The subject or pramata is more aware of his nature. Subtle traces of perceptions appear within him at one with his own nature and he rises closer to the state of universal consciousness.

3. Susupti-susupti (Deep sleep in Deep sleep):

It is a state in which the subject experiences a subtle, uninterrupted, awareness of his own subjectivity at rest within itself and when he awakens, he remembers this state as being one of spiritual bliss. Every time he regains it, it becomes more intense, until he reaches the deep sleep in the Fourth state. In susupti-susupti the residual traces of objective experience becomes subdued and tranquil. Therefore, this state is called santa or peaceful.

4. Susupti-turiya (Deep sleep in Fourth State):

This state is called suprasanna or blissful wherein an individual continues to abide in that state, fully aware of his own subjectivity and of its blissful nature. This becomes samadhi for a yogi who on the collapse of this consciousness, enters into the Fourth state of consciousness.

To Be Concluded...



3 (b) Analysis of Experience of State of Consciousness Described in Mandukya Upanishad

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Dream State of Consciousness

Instead of taking it as the playground of unconscious, the Upanisadic sage regards this state as that of consciousness itself and very much akin to its state of wakefulness. What differentiates it from that of waking state is that it is shorn of active participation of the outer senses in its operation but is taken over by inner senses. In this state of consciousness, mental modifications and discernments continue to operate as they are operative in the waking state with certain variations in its spatio-temporal status. This is due to the autonomy of the space and time the dreaming consciousness is placed in. It perceives inward and has the same limbs and mouths as that of waking state. Being distinct from the waking state, it is called Taijasa because there is absence of sensory data; its proceedings are dominated by the innate luminosity of consciousness.

Brhadaranyaka Upanishad gives a detailed exposition of this state of consciousness when King Janaka places before the Sage Yajnavalkya, a query regarding the light helping us in seeing things. The king begins his query with the source of light in which normally we see things and finally the query centres on that source of light, if one, put in such a situation, were dumb and mute. Sage Yajnavalkya suggests the self as the centre of consciousness as the ultimate light (Brhadaranyaka Up.IV.3.1-6).

With the introduction of consciousness as the ultimate light, he expatiates the states of consciousness. He explains the self as the essence of the personality which, while remaining itself, moves from the waking to the beatific taking a pause in the state of dream. While staying in the state of dream, Yajnavalkya observes that the self has the privilege of observing this world of the waking state on the one side and the beatific one on the other.

He further observes that in the state of dream, the self, having withdrawn itself from its involvement in the affairs of the world, comes to itself and starts operating in the light of its innate consciousness. This consciousness gets concentrated well within itself and becomes highly creative, as is evident from the fact, according to Yajnavalkya, there are neither chariots nor horses nor even roads actually in the perspective of the dreamer lying in his bed and yet in his dream he is prone to become aware of presence of all these without any doubt about their reality at the moment. So is the case with a world of other images coming to him on other occasions, which may be familiar or unfamiliar, connected or disconnected with one another. Yajnavalkaya explains the appearance of these images as the creativity of the self which, having delegated the responsibility of taking care of the physical world to the pranas, and thus made itself free of its physical involvements, moves around in its psychic environment resulting in the creation of these images (Br. Up. IV.3.9-13).

It is a state that obscures the true nature – svarupa of the individual by constant emergence of thought constructs each of which performs its own functions and whose contents are diversely manifest forms such as towns, mountains, forests, etc., generated inwardly in the absence of external objects and independently of them when the waking state ceases. The subject is not a perceiver but one who thinks and turns on himself, reflects (vimarsati) on the mental impressions (samskaras) previously formed in his consciousness by outer objects and orders them into thought constructs (vikalpa). Therefore, this state of consciousness (Br.Up.10.247-250) occurs not only while we are asleep, but also during the phase of perception in which the external object (see Utpaladevacarya's Isvara-pratyabhijna-karika,3.2.16) is represented mentally. Here the impurity of Karma (karmamala) persists only as a latent trace while the objects so perceived inwardly are illusory creations of the consciousness generated in the individual subject’s mind and hence not perceivable by all.

The practice of dhyana, in which the object of meditation is represented mentally in such a way that the yogi achieves absorption, is said to take place in the dream state. Here the yogis’s prana and all his ideas are then drawn together into one place in which his awareness is firmly established, Thus, they call the dream state as established in one place (padastha) and from their point of view, it is a higher and subtler level of consciousness than the waking state and hence it is easier to rise from it to a state of absorption. Those who tread the path of knowledge, jnana, call this state pervasion (vyapti) due to its correspondence to autonomous cognitive awareness which is not conditioned by the object of knowledge and is free to pervade everywhere. (Tantraloka, 10.255)

Like the four states of waking consciousness, the dream states of consciousness also has four states:

1. Svapna-jagrat (Dreaming in Waking):

This state is experienced when one mistakenly believes that his mental projections are actual objects appearing before him. In this state of consciousness, such a person is caught in the flux of objective perceptions and at other times by the waves of his own mental impressions without being able to distinguish between them and is constantly coming and going from one sphere to the other. It is the world of vikalpas (ideations). It also gives the experience of clear, precise and stationary dreams. Malinivijaya Tantra calls it gatagata or coming and going. Here the movement of prana and apana are prominent.

2. Svapna-svapna (Dreaming in Dreaming):

In this state of consciousness, the entire dream-phenomena appear to be hazy, vague and disorderly. The individual’s awareness is here carried hither and thither by the mental images which arise within him without his being aware of either their cause or purpose and he is in a world where one thing may be transformed into another without seeming strange. The individual has little control over what he sees, despite the fact it is a creation of his own consciousness. It is called the state of suviksipta or well-dispersed.

3. Svapna-susupti (Dreaming in Deep Sleep):

It is a state of coherence because here subjectivity (pramatrbhava) is intensely felt so that the dreamer establishes a clear connexion between one dream object and another. At that time, he realises that the objects before him are not really a part of the external world and that he must be dreaming. The dreamer enjoys full, peaceful sleep without feeling any incongruity among his dream objects. He, as the subject, is able to experience a subtle touch of universal consciousness while dreaming. The jnanins call this state as samgata or consistent.


4. Svapna-turiya (Dreaming in the Fourth):

When the dreamer experiences the Fourth State while dreaming, in the susamahita or attentive state, he is completely awake to himself as the dreamer and can rise directly from the dream state to that of contemplation. It is a state in which the dreamer does not lose his self-consciousness despite entire phantasmagoria of his dream state and knows that he is only dreaming. This state is called svapna turiya. It is a state in which the dreamer is fully integrated individual.

For a common man, the dream state is just a svapna or dream state in which he views the various vikalpas of his dream without any contact of the external world. But a Yogi includes all these four states in one blanket term called padastha, because he, by means of yoga, abides in the pada or state of his own Self in all these conditions.

To be Concluded...

3 (a) Analysis of Experience of States of Consciousness Described in Mandukya Upanishad

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Waking State of Consciousness

Waking state of consciousness has been described in this Upanisad as having seven limbs and nineteen mouths or modes of expression. These limbs as recounted in Chandogya Upanisad are the heaven, the sun, air, space, water, earth and a combination of all these put together (Ch.Up.5.18.2,[Sankara]). The mouth, according to the Upanisad, is nineteen. Shankara interprets them as ten indiryas, five pranas, manas, buddhi, ahamkara, cittam. In this state Brahman or Consciousness is called Vaisvanara – the Universal Person and He is the first who feels and enjoys gross objects.

Thus, consciousness in the state of wakefulness is supposed to be capable of taking in its purview the entire physical universe on account of this serving as the body of it. In this state, all knowledge obtained by direct contact with the external world is included when the subject is in contact with the objective world around him on any plane (Siva Sutras, verse 8). Gaudapada in his Karika describes it as Vishwa being the Lord who pervades and is conscious of the external (Gaudapada's Mandukya Karika).

This state is bound by space-time. In other words, waking state of consciousness is that in which knowledge is produced in people by means of external senses, and the objects have a common connotation for all. This is in reference to a common man.

It is a state of that form of awareness which prevails when the knowing subjectivity is totally absorbed in the sensations which come to it through the senses (Abhinavagupta's Tantraloka, 6.83). All living beings, gross elements and the words which denote them manifest outside the subject (Tantraloka, 10.232-233)and in which the objects are perceptible by everybody (Utpaladevacarya's Isvara-pratyabhijna-karika, 3.2.1,7). Since this state arises through the activity of the wakeful body and senses, the yogis, call it established in the body -- pindastha and for them it is the state of awareness they experience when they concentrate one-pointedly (dharana) (see Tantraloka, 10.242)on an object. While those who have gained insight into reality (jnanin) express its nature in metaphysical terms as everywhere auspicious (sarvatobhadra) because for them it represents the state of consciousness manifest as the ubiquitous fullness of objective being – vedyasatta (Tantraloka, 10.244).

Malinivijaya Tantra, Chapter II.25-46, and Tantraloka (Ahinika, X.217-300) describes varieties of waking state and other states of consciousness with reference to a yogi. According to it waking state of consciousness has four stages, which are as follows:

1. Jagrat-jagrat (Waking in waking):

It is state technically called unawakened (abuddha) in which the awareness of the individual is entirely centred on the body and totally given over to objectivity – prameyabhava. Here the pramata is unconscious of his own subjective nature and never asks who he is. Whenever, he sees an object, he immediately identifies with it and totally forgets himself as the cogniser.

2. Jagrat-svapna (Waking in Dream):

It is called awakened (buddha). This state arises when the subjective consciousness enters into the objective consciousness and looses its awareness of outer objectivity while continuing to perceive the mental impressions created by it. This state can be experienced when one finds himself staring at something absent-mindedly, carried away by his own thoughts. In this state knowledge – pramana of the object is prominent in consciousness.

3. Jagrat-susupti (Waking in Deep Sleep):

This is a state which one experiences when one looses consciousness of both the outer physical and inner mental environment. There arises for a moment complete blankness, totally absent from the present situation. This is the experience of an ordinary individual.

But for a Yogi, it is a state in which the pramata, the knower or the subject is prominent in consciousness, for here the yogi rests in this state of absorption for longer periods of time, enjoying the subtle bliss of unity and hence is called well-awakened state – prabuddha. The cogniser is awake in regard to the subject but asleep to the object.

4. Jagrat-turiya (Waking in Turiya):

When the Yogi is completely well-awakened, he experiences the fourth state when awake and continues to perceive and function in the midst of diversity, maintaining an awareness of his true conscious nature. In this state of consciousness, there is predominance of consciousness as such – pramiti and is known as suprabuddha or perfectly awakened state.

To Be Concluded...

2. Vedic Discovery of States of Consciousness

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States of consciousness is not the discovery of the Upanishadic period but goes back to the Vedic Samhitas.

Consciousness as a principle makes an appearance in the Samhita in a mantra seen by Dirghatamas who states:

"Who could have seen the event when the boneless gave birth to the bony. No doubt, the vital and the physical are born of the earth but wherefrom the Atman. Who may approach the knowledgeable to inquire?" (RV.I.164.4)

Narayana Rishi in the Atharvaveda describes that this body is the Brahmapura and the Brahman that resides in it has divided itself into three cords. These three cords represent the three lower states of consciousness from the point of view of Brahman.

References to Turiya also occur in a hymn seen by Atri wherein it is stated that by means of the fourth Brahman, Atri found out Surya which was kept concealed in darkness. Sun, as a matter of fact, represents the Self in the Vedas. This darkness is samudra arnava of the Vedas and susupti of later texts.

Another reference to the fourth state of consciousness is found in a mantra seen by Ayasya, one of the sons of primeval seer Angirasa. The wisdom is described here as magnificent, seven-horned and as having its origin in Rta (universal dynamics). The mantra says:

"This wisdom, seven horned and born of the universal dynamics was found out by our father. The fourth, inexplicable, was discovered by Ayasya out of the universality of his vision in course of his communication with Indra." (RV.X.67.1)

Universality is a pre-requisite of entry into the fourth state of consciousness. This is evident from his oneness with Indra which could not have possibly happened if he had not mastered the annamaya (jagrata), pranamaya (svapna) and the manomaya (susupti).

How Angirasas reached the fourth state of consciousness is narrated in the next mantra of the same hymn:

"Meditating and having communion with the principle of universal dynamics – Rta, the sons of the divine and heroes of the Mighty, the Angirasas, by virtue of having attained the position of the enlightened, could come to contemplate on the status of the initial sacrifice of the Supreme Being. (RV.X.67.2)

According to this mantra, the knowledge of principles of universal dynamics is necessary for the entry into the fourth state of consciousness apart from intensive meditation.

Besides Angiras and Ayasya, name of Brhaspati, the one of the sons of Angiras, occurs in the hymn. Brhaspati is represented in the hymn, at times, as a seer and as well as a god. If Ayasya becomes coincident to prana owing to his meditation on the vital, Brhaspati becomes the Lord of mantras. His expertise lies in the formulation of higher experience of mantras after going through those experiences. This type of meditation, experience and expression is recounted in the remaining mantras of the hymn in the form of arduous task of entering into a cave, removing the heavy boulder, taking out the cows that were kept concealed in the cave besides coming to know of the dawn, the sun and light as revealed to one as if with a flash of lightning followed by thunder.(RV.X.67.5)

I. Consciousness As The Fundamental Principle of Creation

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As countless rays emerge from the sun and ripples from the surface of the sea, so emerge from consciousness infinite worlds including our own. Consciousness manifests itself in two forms – the objective and the subjective. While the objective is the result of objectification of consciousness, the subject is the consequence of restoration of consciousness to itself. The parallelism of the objective and the subjective gets graded into four as manifest in the four states of human consciousness, namely, the waking, dreaming, deep sleep and what in the Veda is called the fourth – turiya.


Due to the parallelism of both subjectivity and objectivity and their coincidence in consciousness, every act of perception presupposes the corresponding sense organ while the latter perceives anything has its source in manas or Mind. Mind in its turns, is dependent on the real cogniser lying behind it and whose nature is consciousness.


In this creation, nothing exists outside consciousness, since its activity is universal throughout. It is the very nature of the universe consisting of both actual objects and imagined ones, such as sky-flower, etc.


Every appearance in this cosmos owes its existence to the light of consciousness and nothing can ever have its existence without that light. Consciousness experiences itself in the light of consciousness because it is identical with that light. This is expressed in Ucchusmabhairava:


"Oh dear one, as long as there are no knowers, how can there be anything known. In fact, the knower and the known are really the same principle. Therefore, there is nothing, which is inherently impure." - Ucchusmabhairava as quoted by Ksemaraja in his com mentary on Siva Sutras, p.13.

Thus consciousness is the fundamental principle of creation and the entire creation resides in it and it itself pervades the creation. The paradox is that it takes many roles and yet maintains its identity. Consciousness is the whole of reality because all existents derive their being from It, and in the process of knowing, the Known gets identified with it. It may be contended that if the nature of universe is consciousness consisting of empirical selves and inert matter, then how bondage can be explained. Bondage is nothing but ignorance of the reality.

When Consciousness delimits itself in knowledge and form, it gives rise to the drama of the world. The prologue is formed by the veiling of Its essential nature. In the prologue, it undergoes the process of involution to the extent of assuming the form of matter. This process is called the arc of descent. At the acme of this descent begins the process of evolution resulting eventually in the emergence of the principles of life and mind. Having thus got evolved, man questions about his being and gets to know himself in his true nature. This marks the arc of ascent or evolution.


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