Meditation According to the Upanishads - 5. Swami Krishnananda.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Monday, March 01, 2021. 10:41. AM.
(Spoken on January 14th, 1973)
Post-5.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Super-consciousness, sometimes called the supramental state, turiya, is inclusive of all that is in the other three states of consciousness. Whatever was there of worth and meaning in the condition of waking, dream or sleep is also to be found in the turiya state, only freed from the tension of it. The turiya state of consciousness is the goal of life. 

It is described as : Mandukya Upanishad -Mantram-7.

"Nantah-prajñam, na bahis prajñam, nobhayatah-prajñam, na prajnaña-ghanam, na prajñam, naprajñam, adrstam, avyavaharayam, agrahyam, alaksanam, acintyam, avyapadesyam, ekatma-pratyaya-saram, prapañcopasamam, santam, sivam, advaitam, caturtham manyante, sa atma, sa vijñeyah. 

"This is how the Mandukya describes the fourth state of consciousness. In the turiya state we are not aware of anything outside as we are now seeing so many things in front of us in the waking state, nor do we see things inside as in dream. In that condition we are not externally aware of anything, nor are we internally aware of anything, nor are we unconscious. Then what are we? We are conscious. Conscious of what? Not of external things, and not of internal things." 

Nobody can say what it is. Prapañcopasamam: The world ceases to exist there. It is dissolved. Like a sugar cube is dissolved in water, the whole universe gets dissolved into it. Prapañcopasamam, santam, sivam, advaitam, caturtham manyante, sa atma: That is our Self, that is our essential nature. Our essential nature is not a struggle with objects, with persons and things in the world, nor is our essential nature a condition of sleep and reverie. Our essential condition is the universality of consciousness.

This analysis of the three states individually experienced by every person every day is also said to have a cosmic counterpart, which is not very clearly set forth in the Mandukya Upanishad. The Upanishad deduces that there should be a cosmic counterpart of these three states experienced by individuals—namely, the waking, dream and sleep states. While we are individually body-conscious in the waking state, the cosmic counterpart, known as the Virat, is said to be universally, physically conscious. Or, to explain it in another way, there is a simultaneous consciousness of all the physical existences in the cosmos. This is said to be the cosmic counterpart of the individual, physical condition.

Virat, or Vaishvanara, is the cosmic physical consciousness, of which the vishva, or the individual waking condition, is regarded as a part, a segment or a section. Similarly, consciousness in the dreaming condition, known as taijasa, is said to have a cosmic counterpart, known as Hiranyagarbha. The individual causal condition we call sleep has a cosmic counterpart, known as Ishvara. Ishvara, Hiranyagarbha and Virat are the names given to the universal counterpart of the individual states of consciousness—sleep, dream and waking, known as prajna, taijasa and visva, respectively. But the distinction is made that while the individual conditions are powerless and ignorant, the cosmic conditions are omnipotent and omniscient.

We may wonder how, though the parts are ignorant, the total becomes omniscient. The total is not merely a total of ignorances. When the total is reached, the characteristics of the particulars change automatically because the particulars, or the individuals, are isolated from one another on account of the existence of tamas and rajas; and inasmuch as tamas and rajas cannot be said to exist in totalities, they are completely removed, lifted up in the cosmic condition where shuddha pradhana shakti is said to predominate. Therefore, Ishvara, Hiranyagarbha and Virat are regarded as omnipotent, omniscient and omnipresent, as opposed to the individual conditions of location in a particular place, which are ignorance and unhappiness.

To be continued ...

=======================================================================