7(b). The Four States of Consciousness

The states of consciousness enumerated generally by the Indian philosophers are the wakeful state (jāgrat), the dream state (svpna), the deep sleep state (suṣupti) and the super conscious (turīya). Every human being experiences daily the three states of waking, dreaming and deep sleep. The relation of mind and sense organs is the waking state. When the experiences of the waking state are reformed in the mind, the stage of svpna comes. Both these states are liberated from mind and this is termed as is ‘nirviṣayaḥ’–‘dhyānaṃ nirviṣayaḥ manaḥ’

The Māṇḍūkya-upaniṣad enumerates four states of consciousness namely the wakeful (jāgrat), the dream (svpna) the sleep (suṣupti) and the super conscious (turīya). If we combine dream and sleep into one and identify the same with the sub-conscious states there remain three distinct states—sub-conscious, conscious and super-conscious. The self or Atman moves in different states. Every human being experiences daily the three states of waking, dreaming and deep sleep. One state to another and back to the former state are connected by the self and the body.

The characteristics of the three states are briefly distinguished by Śrī Śankara in his Vivekacūḍamaṇi thus:

“The individual soul is called awake as long as it apprehends the external objects being connected with them by way of mind’s modifications and identifies itself with the body, which in fact is one of the external objects. When modified by the impressions which the external objects have left, it sees, dreams it is denoted by the term mind. When, on the cessation of the two limiting adjuncts and on the consequent absence of modification due to adjuncts, it is in a state of deep sleep, merged in the self as it were, then it is said to have gone to itself”.^[1]

Vaiśvānara is the first pāda or foot of the Atman. It is the wakeful condition that the Atman manifests itself. The state of wakefulness is characterized by knowledge obtained through the functions of the sense organs.

It has seven limbs which throw their light on the objects of the external world and it has nineteen mouths; the Atman enjoys the gross objects of the senses:

jāgaritasthano bahiḥ prajñaḥ svapnāṅgaḥ ekonaviṃśati mukhaḥ sthūla bhuk vaiśvānaraḥ prathamaḥ pādāḥ || ^[2]

The nineteen mouths of the Atman help it (him) to enjoy the external, gross objects of the world, namely, śabda, rūpa, rasa, and sparśa. And the mouths are five organs of senses, five organs of action, five prāṇas and manas, buddhi, citta and ahaṃkāra. Here consciousness is an inward aspect. All the sense organs operate in this condition also, but there is no cognition of the external world. Here also the desires and motives operate to generate the experiences. The mind is like a canvas and the experiences of waking stage to the help of mind feels like the svpna.

The fourth mantra of the Upaniṣad says that the Taijasa, the second pāda of the Atman, resides in the dreaming condition. In dreams we experience the reproduction of wakefulness. Here the consciousness of only the internal objects is created by the mind. Taijasa keeps in the mind only the impression of the objects of waking state. In this shining or bright state he is antaḥprajña and his consciousness is inward in contrast to the waking consciousness which is directed outward. It is also active and conscious on the basis of action.

The objects in the dream are looked upon as being subtle objects based only on the impressions in the mind caused by the waking experiences:

svapnasthano'ntaḥ prajñaḥ saptāṅgaḥ ekonaviṃśati mukhaḥ praviktabhuk taijaso dvitīyaḥ pādāḥ || ^[3]

Śrī Śankara suggests:

“That the Taijasa’s self is related to the Vaiśvanara’s self as effect and cause, because the impressions left by the mind in the waking consciousness are those which are the objects of dream consciousness. That is why the dream-self is called antaḥprajña. Śrī Śankara explains that from the standpoint of the sense organs, the mind, internal.”^[4]

So the mind is along with buddhi, ahaṃkāra and citta are all an instrument of knowledge foe the self. The condition of deep sleep is different from both the states of dream and wakeful conditions. Then there is neither any perception of things nor any desire for material objects and this condition is known as sleep. When one is in deep sleep, one feels no desires and sees no dreams, and all experiences are undifferentiated and unified. This is prajñānaghana, pure consciousness. This is not the highest state. In the fourth turīya condition,-it is not a state of mind-one is neither conscious of the internal, subjective world, nor of the external, objective world. The state of controlled mind is restrained by atmajñāna. So the mind is peaceful like fire without fuel. While turīya appears in contexts which describe various states of consciousness, it is regarded as quantitatively different from the three alternating states of waking, dream and sleep. It is neither perceivable nor is it inferable. It is unthinkable and indescribable. It is peaceful, blissful, and non-dualistic. This is the Atman, the self.

It says that:

nāntaprajñaṃ na bahiṣprajñaṃ nobhayataprajñaṃ na prajñānaghanaṃ na prajñaṃ nāprajñam |
adṛśyaṃ avyavahāryaṃm agrahyamalakṣaṇamacintyamavyapadeśyamekātmapratyayasāraṃ
prapañcopaśamaṃ śāntaṃ śivamadvaitaṃ caturthaṃ manyante sa ātmā sa vijñeyaḥ || ^[5]

“The mind is not that which cognizes the internal object not that which cognizes the external objects, not what cognizes both of them, not a mass of cognition, not cognitive and not non-cognitive. It is unseen, incapable of being spoken of, ungraspable of, without any distinctive marks, unthinkable, unnamable, the essence of the knowledge of oneself, that into which the world is resolved, the peaceful, the begin, the non-dual, such, they think, is the fourth quarter, He is the Self, He is to be known.”^[6]

The external subject grasped by the mind in awakening stage and the sleeping stage feels itself not real. These subjects are unreal in mind for proper realization.

The importance of all the four states are also explained by Dr. S Radhakrishnan,

“Indian thoughts take into account of the modes of waking, dreaming and dreamless sleep. If we look upon the waking consciousness as the whole then we get realistic, dualistic and pluralistic conception of metaphysics. Dream consciousness when exclusively studied leads us to subjectivist doctrines; sleep inclines us to abstract and mystical theories. The whole truth must like all the modes of consciousness be taken into account.”^[7]

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

Vivekacūdāmaṇi of Śankara -152-153

[2]:

Māṇḍūkya-upaniṣad -3

[3]:

Ibid -4

[4]:

Vedāntsūtras with Śankaras Commentary., Translated by G.Thibaut,I.149

[5]:

Māṇḍūkya-upaniṣad -7

[6]:

Dr.Radhakrishnan.s., The Principle Upanishads.-P-697

[7]:

Raghunath Safaya, Indian Psychology, P-70