5.5. States of Experience

Every individual in the universe experiences different states with respect of their activities. Advaita accepts four states of experiences, in which the ultimate self is the all-round experiencer. The four states are Jāgrat (waking state), Svapna (dreaming state), Suṣupti (state of deep-sleep state) and Turīya (transcendental state). Among these the first three states are only belonged to the limited individual self and remain in the world. The fourth one is the ultimate experience, where the individual self is realized as the Supreme Self. Pratyabhijñā also accepts these four states. According to Pratyabhijñā, the waking state corresponds to the impure Māyā and dreaming state corresponds to the conscious nature and Māyā, dreamless is the pure knowledge level and the Turīya is the Sadāśiva level. Pratyabhijñā accepts one more state Turyātītā, where one gets the Śivatā.

1. Waking State

Waking state may be useful for all purposes of life, but it cannot be regarded as the necessary self. Only after the experience one can realize the true nature of the beings in the world. The reason is that waking life is characterized by the duality of self and non-self, subject and object, doer and the act and so on. But the reality is non-dual. According to Advaita Vedānta waking life is illusory, because in higher states of consciousness the objects revealed by waking life come to be sublated.

2. Dreaming State

Dreaming cannot be the essential nature of the self, for it is found to be unreal on waking. Besides, dreaming is as much dualistic as the waking state is, in contrast with reality which is an undifferentiated unity. Again dreaming largely repeats the experiences of the waking state. In Svapna the Jīva is self manifested. With reference to the dream state the self luminosity of the self is mentioned in the Bṛhadāraṇyakopaniṣad.^[1] Praśnopaniṣad also put forth the same point.^[2]

Even though the physical world is accepted as real in Pratyabhijñā, like the Advaita Vedāntin, Utpala and Abhinavagupta describe the waking state and dreaming state as Bhrama (Illusory).

These are illusory similar to the vision of two moons because these seem as common to other subjects and exist in a short duration:

….. svapnapadam | anyapramātṛsādhāraṇarūpādyābhāsānuvṛttitaḥ kālāntarānanuvṛtterbhrāntireṣā | sarvāntarbahiṣkaraṇaśaktyā sṛṣṭirjāgarā, tatrāpi pūrvavad dvicandrādibhrāntiḥ |^[3]

tadyadyapi yāvadbhāti tāvat tathaiva, tathāpyuttarakālaṃ prabuddhasya na tathā, -iti parāmarśena tadrūpaṃ nirmūlatvenāvabhāti, -iti bhrāntam | …tenobhayamapi bhrāntamucyate, bhrāntatvameva cāsthairyam | ….jāgradabhimatamapi vā dīrghadīrghaṃ kālāntare niścayānuvṛttirirodhāt jāgradantarāpekṣayā svapna eveti mantavyam |^[4]

Śaṅkara also had used the same simile that seen used in Pratyabhijñā: ekaścandraḥ sa dvitīyavaditi |^[5] The general notion that Pratyabhijñā accepts the reality of the mundane world in contrary to Śaṅkara, who considers it as illusory, is to be examined minutely. It seems that Pratyabhijñā also accepts the illusoriness of the world by calling the waking state as Bhrama.^[6]

101

3. State of Deep Sleep

Both systems equally accept the uniqueness of deep sleep, which is the state without any exuberance in livelihood of the universe. In dreamless sleep one gets a foretaste of what the state of self-realization may be. In this state the sleeper hasn’t any desires, sees no dreams and is beyond the state of subject-object distinction. It is a state in which all distinction swallowed up. In this time “the psychic states seem to cease functioning altogether—sense organs remaining in active. The associational as well as the perceptive aspects of mind seem to be conspicuous by their absence. One misses even the sense of I which recurs subsequently. It is a seeming blankness in experience.”^[7]

Māṇḍūkyopaniṣad defined this state thus:

yatra supto na kañcana kāmaṃ kāmayate na kañcana svapnaṃ paśyati tatsuṣuptam |^[8]

For the three states the sleep is common. So to distinguish this state from other two it is defined specially using the prefix su.^[9] Hence it is a state beyond good and evil. Pratyabhijñā defines the deep sleep as a state where the subtle body is resting like in the Pralaya.^[10] It is a state of Ahantā, which is characterized by consciousness and the nature of action.^[11] Abhinavagupta has mentioned various forms of deep sleep like Nidrā, Mūrcchā, Unmāda and Samādhi.^[12]

4. Transcendental State

This is the real state where there is no dream, no object beyond any sense-experience and at the same time practicing the blissful nature of the pure consciousness. This state is reached by emptying the mind of all objects outer and inner. Thus this state shows the real reaching of self without knowing willing or feeling of the objects of universe.

Bṛhadāraṇyakopaniṣad describes the Turīya state: where there is no dual nature for knowledge, being devoid of action, cause, effect, unspeakable, incomparable, indescribable what is that? It is impossible to say.^[13] Śaṅkara has established the importance of this forth state saying that the Turīyāvasthā is nothing but the calm and blissful non-dual Brahman experience, where there are no distinctions:

ata eva śāntaṃ śivaṃ yato'dvaitaṃ bhedavikalparahitaṃ caturthaṃ turīyaṃ manyante |^[14]

In Pratyabhijñā the Turīya state also contains the egotism:

dehābhimānasparśarūṣitā turīyāvastha |^[15]

Here Pratyabhijñā accepts one more state known as Turyātītā, beyond the fourth, where the Self is in Viśvātmaka Paramaśiva form devoid of all differences.^[16] K.C.Pandey rightly noticed that both these, Turya and Turyātītā, are two kinds of concentrated states, Samādhyavasthas.^[17] The common individual selves are not the perceivers of these and these are experienced by the concentrated mind holders. Abhinavagupta says that these two are the states of Jīvanmukta, the liberated while living. It is also called as Samāveśa (unification with the Supreme).^[18]

In both systems it is accepted that the individual self, who is in the middle of diverse subjects and objects in waking and dreaming states of the worldly life, gradually attains the transcendental state and realizes the non-dual Ultimate Reality through the advises of great teachers and self-contemplations.

Footnotes and references:

[back to top]

[1]:

atyantaviviktaḥ svayaṃ jyotirātmā svapne bhavatītyabhiprāyaḥ |……..…tasmātprasiddhyāpi svapne svayaṃ-jyotiṣṭvamasya gamyate | BUSB, 4.3.14.

[2]:

tasmādyuktā svapna ātmanaḥ svayañjyotiṣṭvopapattirvaktuṃ, śruteryathārthatattvaprakāśakatvāt | PUSB, 4.5.

[3]:

Īśvarapratyabhijñākārikā-vṛtti, 3.2.16-17.

[4]:

Īśvarapratyabhijñā-vimarśini, Bhāskarī, Part II, pp. 266-268.

[5]:

Brahmasūtra-śāṅkara-bhāṣya, Adhyāsabhāṣya.

[6]:

Here the observations of Steven Jeffrey Kupetz are remarkable and are to be subjected to more investigations. He doubts whether Abhinavagupta is a crypto Vedāntin. See The Non-dualistic Philosophy of Kashmir Śaivism: An Analysis of the Pratyabhijñā School, p. 89ff.

[7]:

Debabrata Sinha, Metaphysic of Experience in Advaita Vedānta: A Phenomenological Approach, Motilal Banarsidass Publishers, Delhi, 1995, p. 27.

[8]:

Māṇḍūkyopaniṣad, 5.

[9]:

darśanādarśanavṛttyoḥ tattvāprabodhalakṣaṇasya svāpasya tulyatvātsuṣuptigrahaṇārthaṃ yatra supta ityadi viśeṣaṇam | Muṇḍakopaniṣad-śāṅkara-bhāṣya, 5.

[10]:

sauṣuptaṃ pralayopamam | Īśvarapratyabhijñā-kārikā, 3.2.15.

[11]:

evaṃ yadubhayātmakaṃ puryaṣṭakaṃ tāvatyeva śuddhe yā viśrāntiḥ, tasyāṃ satyāṃ yadahantāyāḥ suṣuptāyā bodhalakṣaṇaṃ bhāvarūpaṃ karma ca kriyāsvabhāvaṃ tat sauṣuptam | Īśvarapratyabhijñā-vimarśini, Bhāskarī, Part II, p. 264f.

[12]:

Īśvarapratyabhijñā-vimarśini, Bhāskarī, Part II, p. 261.

[13]:

Bṛhadāraṇyakopaniṣad, 2.4.14.

[14]:

Muṇḍakopaniṣad-śāṅkara-bhāṣya, 7.

[15]:

Bhāskarī, Vol. II, p. 258.

[16]:

turyātīte dikkālānavacchede pūrṇe pravāhatāṃ hitvātinirbharāvastho vāyanasaṃsthaḥ | Īśvarapratyabhijñākārikā-vṛtti, 3.2.20; vilīne 109 tu bhede sarvavedyarīśirūpatattvabhūtabhuvanavargātmakadehavyapanarūpeṇa prāṇavṛttirvyānarūpā viśvātmakaparamaśivocitā turyātītarūpā | Īśvarapratyabhijñā-vimarśini, Bhāskarī, Part II, p. 275.

[17]:

Abhinavagupta, p. 333.

[18]:

seyaṃ dvayyapi jīvanmuktāvastha | samāveśa ityuktā śāstre | Īśvarapratyabhijñā-vimarśini, Bhāskarī, Part II, p. 258.