To remain unaffected by change in one’s fortune is turiya consciousness, writes RAMESH BIJLANI
The Mandukya Upanishad has talked of four states of consciousness: jagrit, awake, susupti,dreamless sleep,swapna, dream sleep and turiya. While the first three are easy to understand, and physiologists have specific correlates for each of them, turiya presents difficulties. Turiya is an extraordinary state of consciousness experienced only by mystics. It is a consciousness that not only includes, but goes beyond, sensory perception. This consciousness has three principle characteristics. First,it is a consciousness that makes the person aware of the Divine, or God, as Creator of all that we can see or know about, and also of all that we cannot. Secondly, it is a consciousness that makes the person aware of the all-pervasive presence of the Divine in the creation.How can a person know, if his life is organised around awareness of the Divine? Its all-pervasive presence? Presence of the Divine as common thread running through all creation gives the rishi an abiding awareness of the basic oneness and fundamental interrelatedness of the universe.This awareness reflects in the rishi’s behaviour, characterised by love and compassion.The Supreme wisdom of the Divine gives the rishi perfect equanimity. Since perfect equanimity is incompatible with ordinary mental consciousness,it is considered the hallmark of turiya consciousness.
Prof A Satyanarayana Sastry of SwamiVivekananda Kendra,Bangalore would say that in the jagrit state,we are awake, and have all the desires,passions and attachments which disturb our peace. In susupti,we are free from ego, desires and attachments, but we are asleep. In swapna,we are asleep, but still have ego, desires and emotions. In the turiya consciousness, the equanimity of susupti,dreamless sleep, is present in the jagrit state as well. Once there was a wealthy couple.They had everything they wanted except that they did not have a child.One day,they were returning from a late night party. On the way, their car got a flat tyre.They got out of the car, and their driver got busy changing the wheel.They saw a poor boy sleeping on the pavement. They decided to take the boy home and bring him up as their son.However,the driver observed some suspicious people and alerted his masters.All of them got into the car quickly and drove away. In the process,the couple forgot to take the boy along.After a while,some people reached the same spot, and stopped near the same boy.They were robbers, and decided to divide their booty on the pavement.Then they saw the boy sleeping on the pavement.
They decided to eliminate the boy by throwing a heavy stone on his head. However, before they could carry out their plan, they heard a siren and thought it might be a police vehicle approaching. They got scared and ran away without wasting any time. In the morning, the boy got up as he did every day, quite unaware that his fortune had swung twice during the night. At one point,he was almost transported to a palatial house and a little later, he was almost dead. The swings in his fortune had not affected the boy because he was asleep when it all happened.A person who can remain equally unaffected through fluctuations in fortune while being awake is in the turiya state of consciousness.
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