The Turiya State

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SrI

The Turiya State

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There is an Upanishad on Nrisimha-tattva. It has two sections:

Nrisimha-purva-tApanIya-upanishad and Nrisimha-uttara-tApanIya-upanishad. The

Nrisimha-purva-tapaniya-upanishad mentions that SrI Nrisimha has a third eye,

which is normally attributed to Lord Siva. Persons who identify Lord Siva as

their lives’ goal may think that this is just an attempt to deny the

uniqueness of their God.

There is a background to this attribution of a third eye to Nrisimha. It is

mentioned in the Kanchi Maahaatmiya in a sloka:

Nrisimho yagnasaalayaa madhye sailasyapaschime /

Tatraivaaseen makham rakshannasurebhyassamantatah //

Meaning: When Brahma started to perform a yagna in Kanchipura, in order to

safeguard the yagna Sri Nrisimha appeared. At that time, Lord Siva came to the

site of the yagna along with several demons to create trouble. Noting this, Sri

Mahavishnu took upon Himself the signs that are exclusive to Lord Siva to create

confusion in their minds. These signs included the third eye which is normally

identified with Lord Siva.

The third eye on Nrisimha’s forehead is ‘Agni’, the other two being the

sun and the moon. This Nrisimha incarnation was much before His appearance to

save Prahlada.

Now, we come to the second part of the Nrisimha-uttara-tApanIya- Upanishad,

which deals with “turiyaâ€, the fourth state of consciousness, attained by

the jivatma. It is preceded by the waking state (jagrata), the dream state

(svapna) and the state of deep sleep (sushupti). All these are also mentioned in

the Mandukhya Upanishad.

This turiya state is a point of discussion between Nirvisesha Advaitis and

other schools of Vedanta. This was discussed by Sri Gaudapada, the Guru of Sri

Adisankara’s Acharya, Sri Govindapada. His only available work is his

commentary on the Mandukhya Upanishad in which he has discussed in detail the

four states of jivatma which he identifies itself as Brahman in the turiya

state. That is the state of liberation or moksha, where nothing exists but

Brahman alone. That incidentally happens to be the vital aspect of the Advaita

philosophy.

These four states have also been discussed in VedAnta Sootra of BhAdarAyaNa.

We may consider these states one by one. The first one, the waking state at the

gross level, is known to everyone. In this state we experience our contact with

the external objects through our sense organs which are five in number. This

sensual contact with external objects produces reaction in our mind. We

experience either pleasure or pain by a particular sense-object contact. It is

natural that we seek the contact with those objects that produces pleasure in us

and avoid those that are painful. This pleasure and pain are to us. That means

we are totally selfish in this respect.

In the second state of consciousness also, it is not a totally different case.

When we experience dreams, it is nothing but our subtle state where our sense

organs, which are too in a subtle state, establish contacts with objects which

are also subtle. In dreams too we experience pleasure and pain from the subtle

objects. It is also self-centred. In both the waking and the dream states, we

remain selfish, with the only difference being either of physical and mental

experience.

In fact, Sribhashyakara (Sri Ramanujacharya) recognizes both these states as

true and not mithya as claimed by nirvisesha advaitis. According to our Acharya,

they are created by Bhagavan for us to get the results of our previous karma.

The third state, namely, deep sleep (sushupti), requires a deeper attention to

determine the nature of our experience. In this state, we have neither physical

contact nor the subtle mental contact with pleasure or pain. At that particular

time, we are not even aware of our existence even though we exist actually.

Otherwise, we will not get up after the sleep. At this state there is breathing

only which is too automatic but there is no consciousness.

After getting up we feel we had a very enjoyable sleep. This means there was

enjoyment only bereft of any painful experience. In this deep sleep state, our

own atma enjoys without the aid of our sense organs and our mind. We are not

aware of what is happening outside our gross physical body and also in the

subtle physical body. Only our jivatma was enjoying itself. It can also be

termed as a form of selfishness. The vedantic acharyas put this state also in

the same category of the previous three states!

Now, coming to the fourth state, “turiyaâ€, we have to go deeper to

understand its nature. Turiya means “fourth†or “final†or “the

highestâ€. Beyond that there is nothing.

Here, the nirvisesha Advaitis, believers in attributeless Brahman, say that

the jiva realizes it is Brahman itself. Nothing else exists. No world, no life,

except the Brahman.

In the deep sleep state, the person has only the breathing which can be noted

by others. But in the tuirya state, it just like swooning where even the

breathing is difficult to be known by others but the body is alive.

What is this turiya state actually? No one can know it exactly, as the person

who is in this state will not be able to describe his experience later after the

turiya state, that is, after he regains consciousness.

However, we are blessed with hundreds of verses of Azhvars who have poured

their own experience for us to gain knowledge about Sriman Narayana’s grace.

We have already noted that in the turiya state, the individual goes beyond

consciousness. But Azhvars have recorded their experience going beyond this

state also. That is called “turiyat-turiyam†mentioned in Nrisimha

Upanishad. In this ultimate state, the blessed muktatma has a vision of the Lord

and experience His company. There also exist two levels – self-centred and

selfless. At the self-centred level, the individual muktatma derives pleasure

from its being with the Lord and its kainkarya to Him. Here, there is

self-centredness in that there is self-enjoyment for the mukta along with the

Lord.

The final step is self-less level. In that level, the muktatma does not bother

about his own pleasure, but he is totally dedicated to the Lord’s pleasure

alone. He does not care whether he derives pleasure or pain. His only, exclusive

aim is to ensure that there is no pain for the Lord, or to put it properly,

there is no reduction in the Lord’s enjoyment. For that purpose, the

individual atma is prepared to undergo any suffering, for that matter, even to

live in the worst of hells. This can be known from the Srisukthis of Sri

Nammazhvar.

To understand this, let us take up the popular verse from Sri Andal’s

Tiruppavai, which we are daily reciting with total dedication in our homes and

in temples. We keep the last two pasurams for sathumurai. That is, after the

Lord is offered bhoga prasadam. Of these two pasurams, the first one, sung by

Sri Andal, contains two lines which happen to be the final lines and they are:

“Undrannodu utromeyaavom unakke naam Aatcheivom

Matrainam kaamangal maatruâ€

The general meaning is known to everyone. Here, Sri Andal has left us a great

message. In the words, “Unakke naam aatcheivomâ€, the “ke†following the

word “unakku†conveys the ultimate secret. It emphasizes not only that to

the Lord alone we will do service, but also, “we will do service only for His

pleasure and not for ours. We are not concerned about the so called “the

bliss†for us, not even a bit. Your bliss alone is our concern.â€

Sri Andal, in the last line seeks from the Lord the removal of any other

desires (kaam-s), if we have (matrai nam kaaamangal maatru).

This is the state beyond the turiya state.

 

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