Namaste and a very Good evening to you!
The topic of the evening is 32 states of being. This is in continuation with what we discussed last Saturday on 4th Sept 2010 in the lecture series on Kashmir Shaivism and this will be good preparation for our Dwarahat Shibir. We have decided to go to greater heights in understanding Kashmir Shaivism in Dwarahat. We need to understand few basics of Kashmir Shaivism to prepare ourselves for Dwarahat Shibir. This is the third topic in the series. The first topic was seven states of Turya; the second topic that we discussed last Saturday itself was different types of Kundalini awakening and today is the third topic ’32 States of Beings’. In Dwarahat our job will be to experience these states. That is why we need a residential retreat. Knowledge sharing can happen in lectures like this. But experiential understanding comes only through certain practices; that is why we need residential retreats. In Dwarahat Shibir we will try to arrange the practices of Kashmir Shaivism in such a way that you actually experience these 32 states of being. This is considered to be secret knowledge and one of the rarest of knowledge because not many people have idea about 32 states of being. So be very attentive and listen carefully, how these 32 states of beings are to be experienced.
In general most of the scriptures are talking about five states of being; it is called individual subjective body that experiences various states. In Hindi it is called ‘Avasthaon ka Gyan” and it is supposed to be a very secret topic. So these basic fives states of being that we normally understand and we do experience also the common names for these states are the first is Jagrut avastha (wakeful state), second is swapna avastha (dream state), third is sushupti avastha (deep sleep state). Common man experiences only these three states. That is why the common man’s version beyond the three is the fourth; that is called Turya. In Sanskrit Turya means the fourth. So that is the fourth state of being and there is something beyond fourth that is turyatitta. So these are the basic five states of being – wakeful state, dreaming, deep sleep, Turya and turyatitta.
Now we will go into greater details of understanding each of these states. Let’s go into the details of the first state, Jagrut avastha, the normal wakeful state. In the Pratyabhijna system of Kashmir Shaivism, Abhinav Gupta has given the name to the state as bahirvrutti because our attention is out, it is in the objectivity. Bahirvrutti is the indicators of this state. So when there is vividness of objectivity, we are caught up in the objective world in this state and the subjectivity is totally lost or ignored. So it is a complete objective state. Here the individual subjective body travels in the world of objectivity and it becomes the object and it ignores the subjective consciousness completely. That is the reason there are various names in Kashmir Shaivism we are going to discuss at a later stage. What we call as Jagrut avastha is “absolute unawareness of subjectivity” because you are completely in the objective world and you become one with the object. So Jagrut avastha and jagruk avastha are totally opposite of each other. In Jagrut avastha you are lost into objectivity, in jagruk avastha you know your conscious awareness. You are aware of your consciousness or you are conscious of your awareness. Whichever way you understand but you know your true self. There is awareness of your true self in Jagruk avastha. But the awareness of the true self is completely lost in Jagrut avastha. So what we say Jagrut is basically total unawareness of the real sense. That is the normal state, first state.
The second state is Swapna avastha, dreaming state. Sankalpa nirmana is the name given by Abhinav Gupta. Here the vividness of the objectivity is shaky and unsteady because it comes and it goes. So the vividness of objectivity is there but it is not as steady as it is there in the normal wakeful state. It is very shaky and unsteady. In this state the individual subjective body travels in the cognitive world of samskaras and impressions. All the samskaras and impressions that are there they come forward in the dream state. All these impressions are of the objective world and again it becomes one with it and loses consciousness of the subjectivity all together. So here also the conscious awareness of the true self is not there, you are lost in the objectivity but here it is the cognition of the impressions but the subjectivity is not there. This is called the dream state.
The third stage is sushupti, deep sleep and Abhinav Gupta’s word for this state is Pralayoupamam, if you understand in Kashmir Shaivism the word Pralayakal is used for sushupti where everything is lost, you are completely ignorant of the objective world. Everything of the objective world is lost. So Pralayopamam is a very beautiful word which indicates sushupti. Vividness of objectivity is gone completely because you are absolutely ignorant of the objective world in deep sleep. In this state the subjective individual body travels in subjective world without being conscious of that and becomes one with unconscious subjectivity. So the objectivity is not there, conscious awareness of subjectivity is not there. It’s a complete unconscious, unaware state of being. That is sushupti.
The fourth state is Turya avastha. Super observation is found by some observing agency. That is the description which means somebody is observant, observation is there, aloof attention is there. Individual subjective body travels in absolute subjective consciousness and it becomes that subjective consciousness. This is exactly opposite of the first Jagrut avastha. In Jagrut avastha individual subjective body travels in the objective world and becomes one with the object. That is totally unaware state. In turya avastha individual subjective body travels in absolute subjective consciousness and it becomes that subjective consciousness which means it is fully aware state. You are totally aware and observant of everything that is happening around, which means you are aware of your subjectivity. That is called the fourth state.
The fifth state is Turyatitta - beyond the fourth. Objective individuality is dead and is found full of life in totality. Individual objectivity is dead completely and fullness of life in totality is there. That is turyatitta. Individual subjective body established in the subjective consciousness completely, fully established not moving from there. In turya also it is there but it is still moving, while in turyatitta it is completely established in subjective consciousness hundred percent. That is called turyatitta avastha.
These are the five basic avasthas – Jagrut avastha, swapna avastha. Sushupti avastha, turya avastha and turyatitta. These are the basic five states of being as discussed in Vedanta, as discussed in Kashmir Shaivism. Definitions vary a little but overall concept is the same everywhere because these are the five states in which your being can exist. All of us are experiencing this. First three are experienced by everybody. Those who are developed in sakshi bhava, aloof attention, they understand what turya is. When you go deep into meditation, in the state of non thinking, in the state of no-mind that is turyatitta, when you are firmly established in no-mind which is not that easy, is called turyatitta avastha.
Beyond these five, the most secret knowledge starts from here. The basic five avasthas are known. But the real secret knowledge starts from the sixth state. There are many states created because of the various combinations of these five states. Now let us discuss how the four states of an individual that is jagrat, swapna, sushupti and turya are found in each of these four states. Each state is found in other four states. Leave aside turyatitta because that does not come into this, it is not even discussed as a state. It is beyond that. But these four states are available in each other and that creates a very beautiful combination of states of being. Let us get into details of each of these states in a very detailed and systematic manner.
The first combination that we discussed is the jagrut-jagrut avastha, wakefulness in the world of wakefulness. In this state the state of complete objectivity is there which means absolute unawareness and the word used in Trik Shaivism is abuddhah, absolute unawareness. Nowhere close by to buddhahood, absolute abuddhah. That is total unawareness of your subjective self because you are absolutely lost in the objective world.
The second interesting combination is in Jagrut-swapna which means dreaming in the state of wakefulness. You may not understand at the first glance of it but it is quite common. It is called day dreaming. Most of the people do day dreaming, lost in thoughts and impressions. A very strong thought possesses you and you are lost into that thought or you are fanaticizing or imagining something about the future or you are caught up into very special memory of the past, but you are lost. That is called Jagrut-swapna avastha. And the word of Trik Shaivism is Buddhah avastha. This Buddhah avastha you do not equate with Buddhahood in English. There is a big difference there. The original words of Kashmir Shaivism are very apt because that Buddhahood in English is not Buddha avastha. But why this is called Buddha avastha you will understand as we progress.
The third interesting combination is Jagrut-Sushupti. You may wonder how that is possible but it is very much there. Deep sleep in the state of wakefulness, it looks contradictory but it is not so if you understand the meaning of Jagrut-sushupti. If you understand the meaning of the word Jagrut-sushupti it will not sound that contradictory. Here you are not aware of objective world, you are not aware of impressions and you are not aware of subjective self also. It means that this is the state of unawareness but as you move towards this you are moving closer towards the silence state. Even though you are not conscious of your true self but because you are not into the state of subjectivity, you are not into the state of objectivity it is definitely closer to your Buddhahood. You are inching towards your Buddhahood and it is the first state where the positive word is used called prabuddha. Prabuddha is not Buddhahood but you are closer to Buddhahood you are moving towards that because here at least the objectivity is not there, you are not caught up into objectivity; you are not caught up in impressions, sanskaras, memory. It means you are closer to yourself that is why this avastha is called as prabuddha avastha. Many public speakers use this word in Hindi ‘yeh prabuddha janata’. Literal meaning of that is a person who sleeps while listening to the lecture that is Jagrut-sushupti that is prabuddha. The literal meaning is quite interesting but that is the meaning of the word prabuddha. Anything where the word Buddha comes you think it is buddhahood, it is not. There are so many layers. You are approaching there but there are many junctions on the way before you reach Buddhahood. So prabuddha is definitely closer to Buddhahood. You are on the way but not very far off from the Buddhahood.
The fourth interesting combination that comes in Jagrut avastha is Jagrut-turya. The fourth state is the state of wakefulness that is called Jagrut turya. Here individual subjective body travels in objective world and at the same time resides in self consciousness. It means you are aware of your true Self and you are also moving in the world of objects because you are Jagrut and in turya both. This is full of awareness state; the real aware person will stay into this state. That is why it is known as suprabuddha. It means that you are closer to Buddhahood. You are in the conscious world of objectivity and also conscious of your true Self. So you are suprabuddha in this state. So these are the first four combinations.
Now we will discuss the combinations possible with swapna avastha. In swapna state, the state of dreaming when you travel only in the states of impressions, the four states of Jagrut, swapna, sushupti and turya are to be found. Swapna avastha is not only the dreams, actually when you are lost in your memory that is also swapna avastha. You are caught up in images, impressions that is also called swapna avastha. Madness is swapna avastha and intoxication also leads to swapna avastha. The person who is drunk, he is in the state of swapna. The whole thing looks like a dream to that person. So swapna avastha comes into all these categories. So, let us go into the details of it.
The first combination consists of Swapna-Jagrut. It is a very interesting thing. Now you will understand day dreaming, astral travel and all these things. There is a very particular name for everything. Swapna-Jagrut means wakefulness in the world of dreaming. Many people ask how you can be wakeful in the state of dreaming. Either you are wakeful or you are dreaming. Those who are meditators, those who are astral travelers, those who understand lucid dreaming will understand very clearly that this possible. It is very much possible but here you have to understand the meaning from the Kashmir Shaivism point of view and not from common point of view. In Kashmir Shaivism Jagrut avastha means fully unconscious. Understand this. If you remember that you will have no problem in understanding further things. Jagrut means fully unaware state because in Jagrut avastha you are lost into objectivity. Here it is Swapna-Jagrut. Jagrut means you are lost, unaware and that unawareness is there in swapna avastha. Here the individual travels in the waves of impressions and objectivity. There is a wave of swapna that comes and it goes, again it comes and that is called in Trik Shaivism ii is called gatagatam, which means it comes and it goes. That is the state of Swapna-Jagrut. Dream comes, dream goes, little bit of awareness is there to the extent to know that gatagatam is happening.
Second combination is Swapna-swapna, you are dreaming in the state of dreaming. In this state the individual travels in the waves of impression without the least awareness of their connections to one and another. What is dreaming in dreaming? You get a dream of a cat and then immediately there is tiger and there is dog and the awareness is just not there so you don’t understand also why this dog is converting in to tiger and the tiger is converting into lion and the lion will convert into the tree, even that awareness is not there. It means an absolutely unaware state you are dreaming in dreams. Here the consciousness is absolutely dispersed and the beautiful word for this dispersed consciousness is suvikshiptam. Vikshiptam means dispersed, higher degree of that is suvikshiptam, absolutely dispersed consciousness. Even the minimum awareness that this is happening is not there. That is called suvikshiptam.
The third combination of swapna avastha is Swapna-sushupti, deep sleep in the state of dreaming. It is a beautiful combination, please be attentive to understand these things. Individual travels in the world of thoughts and impressions, naturally it is a swapna avastha so you are travelling into thoughts and impressions, becomes little aware of subjectivity on and off which means now you are slowly moving towards awareness but here awareness is on and off, sometimes it is there, sometimes it is not there. You are dreaming and then you are getting into the deep sleep, again you are dreaming and then getting into deep sleep and there is a little bit of awareness so that you know that this is happening and that you know in an indirect manner not in a direct manner. That is called sangatam. This beautiful word sangatam has come because here at least little touch of consciousness is there to the extent that you know. But this is also passive knowing, there is no full bloom consciousness of this but passively little bit touch of that consciousness has happened which gives you little bit of awareness that dreaming to deep sleep is happening, that recognition is there. It is indirect recognition, passive recognition, under current of the recognition is there.
The fourth combination of swapna avastha is called Swapna-turya, the fourth state in the state of dreaming, the consciousness of dreaming that ends into Samadhi. Those who know lucid dreaming, those who know astral travel, if you are aware of your dream, when you are dreaming you are conscious of your dreams and you are conscious of your dream ending means you are entering into sleep with conscious awareness and the sleep with conscious awareness is Samadhi. That is why entering into sleep state with awareness is the best experiment one can do which will lead to ultimate state of Samadhi. Here you are conscious of your dreaming and you are conscious of when your dream ends, when your dream ends you are into deep sleep but you are conscious which means it is a Samadhi state and you get touch of Samadhi but it is on and off, that does not last long. Then from there onwards you go into sushupti. But because the awareness is there the beautiful word of Kashmir Shaivism here is susamahitam. Here you are full of awareness but that awareness is not sustained awareness.
The next stage is various combinations in sushupti avastha.
The first combination in sushupti avastha is sushupti-jagrut, wakefulness in the state of deep sleep. Again this sounds contradictory but it is not so, try to understand. In sushupti-jagrut avastha you lose all impressions and thoughts and remain in absolute void called shunya avastha. Here you are not aware and you do not taste the joy which means bliss is not there. But here you are not into the state of objectivity, you are in the void, you are in shunya avastha and when you are in shunya avastha at that time you don’t know about it. When you are in deep sleep you are fully ignorant of the sleep, only when you wake up then you can talk about that state, that I was asleep and I observed nothing but this statement you make when you wake up from the sleep, you cannot make this statement when you are in deep sleep because you are in the void state, shunya avastha, and you are absolutely ignorant. That is called sushupti-jagrut. You are not jarut in sushupti. Only when you wake up you talk about it. In Jagrut avastha you are talking about sushupti that you did not notice anything. In Trika Shaivism the beautiful word given to this state is Uditam which means full of rising. It means now you are becoming aware and you start rising towards Shiva, the ultimate state. The very fact that you know you are not aware, is a good beginning of rising. But this awareness is there only when you wake up and not when you are asleep and it is called Uditam. You have now started waking up to the fact that you are unaware. That is a good beginning and that is why it is called Uditam.
The second combination in sushupti is called sushupti-swapna avastha, dreaming in the state of deep sleep. While in sushupti there is absolutely no awareness but in this state there is some cognition of some impression remaining in that subjectivity. Even though the impressions are there, the cognition of the impression is also there, it means little bit of awareness is there though not much and you know that it is there. That is called sushupti-swapna. In the previous state there was absolute unawareness, here there is little more awareness in sushupti, only because it is sushupti-swapna, because you are becoming aware occasionally, little bit of awareness is there. Some conscious awareness in the background, passive awareness tells you that you are in the state of sleep or you are in the state of dreaming if at all there is an impression. That state is labeled as vipulam and this is the most nourishing state. You get nourished. Awareness that you are travelling in the world of subjective consciousness gradually becomes stronger and stronger. You are nourishing your awareness in this state. That is why it is known as vipulam. It means now deeper level of awareness is possible to grow, it is possible to make it stronger from here onwards that is why it is known as vipulam, nourishing your awareness.
The third combination is sushupti-sushupti, deep sleep in the state of deep sleep. If you understand these combinations, as you go further your awareness increases. Here very subtle awareness or passive awareness, that this is a world of subjective consciousness remains in the background in uninterrupted continuity. You are in deep sleep but some passive awareness tells you that you are in deep sleep but there are no impressions, there is no mind in that state. It means that the ripples in the field are gone completely and this is what we normally call as deep peaceful sleep where agitation is just not there. This state is known as shantam which means peaceful because objective world is not there, impressions are not there, and thoughts are not there. It means there is nothing which is disturbing the field of pure potential, of pure awareness but here awareness is not aware of itself but it is undisturbed that is why it is known as shantam, peaceful sleep. It is called sushupti-sushupti.
The fourth is sushupti-turya. This is a very beautiful combination. The fourth state in the state of deep sleep; here individual subjective body is travelling in subjective consciousness. The objectivity is lost in any case. In deep sleep the objectivity is just not there but the subjective consciousness has arisen now and you are travelling in the world of subjective consciousness. Objectivity is lost completely but subjectivity has awakened that is what that sushupti turya avastha is. Turya means that awakened state is there. Here you are travelling into subjective consciousness, you are aware of that in continuation in background and experience bliss of the state. In earlier level the bliss was not there only passive awareness was there, now conscious awareness is there, active awareness is there and that is why the bliss is there. This state sushupti-turya state is full of bliss. It means that you are fully aware of your deep sleep, in true sense this is Samadhi avastha and it is full of bliss that is why it is known as suprasannam. It’s a state of bliss. You actually experience the state of bliss in sushupti turya, because it is sushupti the objectivity is completely gone. Because it is sushupti turya, you are fully in the state of subjectivity and because you are fully aware that is why you experience the bliss and this bliss is the bliss of Samadhi. So sushupti turya is full of bliss but not fully aware of that bliss. That is the only difference, in the higher levels you become aware of that bliss. At this level you are full of bliss but you are not fully aware of that bliss. Awareness is there that is why the bliss comes but you are not fully aware of that bliss which you are enjoying because it is still sushupti. It is a very beautiful combination.
The best of the three are these – turya-jagrut, turya-swapna, turya-sushupti. There is a very interesting combination of what is possible and what is not possible.
The first in the last three is turya-jagrut. Consciousness of turya is not vividly manifested. Turya is there but Jagrut means unawareness which means consciousness of turya is not vividly manifested. Here the consciousness of turya is in subconscious state which means not developed yet, not conscious yet but it is there at the level of sub consciousness. So beyond the span of the mind that is there and the Sanskrit word for that is manonmanam. Turya-jagrut is beyond the state of mind but in that beyond you are not fully conscious because that has not still manifested but you are not in the mind. It is moving towards beyond the mind but not fully conscious of it. You are unconscious of it. That is the turya-jagrut avastha. The mind has taken rise in mindlessness but the awareness of that is not there. Mindlessness is there because it is turya but it is Jagrut which means unaware of that. So the mind has risen to mindlessness but you are not fully conscious of it. That is turya-jagrut.
Second combination is turya-swapna avastha. Consciousness of turya is little more vividly manifested. So in this state the consciousness of turya is stronger compared to the previous state. Here unlimitedness of the self is there that is why it is known as anantam because you have started experiencing the un-limitedness aspect but it is not very strong, it is milder version of that, so this is the state of unlimited being.
The third combination in turya avastha is turya-sushupti. Here the consciousness of turya is most vividly manifested and consciousness of turya is strongest in this state, Un-limitedness of the self. But still even though you are unlimited yet there exist here all the limitations of the universe. It is not a totally unlimited state even though unlimited of self but the limitations of the existence are felt as existing and the word given to this is sarvartham. It is a beautiful state but you can’t say that it is ultimate. Limitations are still there and you have to cross these limitations also and there is a much deeper aspect of this.
When you go beyond four there is what you call turyatitta. The turya-turya combination is not there, it is turyatitta, beyond the four. This is the state of absolute fullness of self. Here that conscious awareness is not at all shaky. Here you are absolutely established into that awareness, fully established, that is turyatitta. You find this state not only in Samadhi but also in every activity of the world. If you find that peace only in Samadhi, only when meditating but it is lost when you come out of meditation, then that is not turyatitta. If you are fully established, your state of meditation, your state of full awareness is not lost when you come out in the active world, it means that you can do your normal activity and your full subjectivity is there. It means that you are fully established into that conscious awareness, that is turyatitta and that is the aim. Fully established into that and that subjectivity is not lost as you are doing the normal duty in outside world. This is definitely much better state one can aim at. This should be the aim - turyatitta. That state is just not lost whatever you may do. Now if you have reached this state there is no need to do yoga, because yoga has some future, future in the sense there is some ambition, there is some achievement, you want to achieve something. The state of yoga come from yuja, joining, but here it is already joined so now yoga does not come into picture. Here you don’t have to sit for meditation, what are you going to gain by sitting for meditation and what is that you have lost? You are already established into that. So now yoga, meditation and all that loses its significance, beyond this state and not before that. To go beyond this state you all have to get into all these things. This is the state what Masters say ‘nowhere to go, nothing to achieve’ because you are already that, what you are and you are fully into that so that there is nowhere to go, there is nothing to achieve that is turyatitta. Fully established in the Self and that is not lost even when you do your normal mundane activity. Turyatitta is a wonderful state.
We will now understand five different states as perceived first by common man and second as perceived by yogi and third as perceived by Gyani. See how these three different level people perceive the same state in three different manners. There is a very beautiful understanding of Trika Shaivism. This very understanding can put you in the state of understanding of where you are stuck, at which level you are and where you need to go further. Everybody goes to a level and then you don’t know what is the further level and then your progress does not happen. If you know what is there ahead, you move faster. That is why this understanding is very important.
Common man says Jagrut avastha but Gyani says it is ajagrut avastha. See how the meaning of word changes. There are layers of understanding. What a common man calls Jagrut, a yogi will say pindastha which means becoming one with whatever you perceive. You are in the objective world and you are absolutely ignorant of your subjective reality, you are one with the object. But then Gyani will understand it differently. Gyani is the one who is established in turyatitta. It means that his Samadhi is not lost when he does his mundane activity in the world. From Gyani’s point of view it is sarvatobhadra. Bhadra means goodness, auspiciousness, sarvato means everywhere. Gyani perceives everybody as Shiva, ajagrut Shiva but nevertheless they are Shiva. Sarvatobhadra, everywhere there is only auspiciousness, everywhere there is divine, so Gyani sees that divinity everywhere. Common man may not understand but from the view point of Gyani, common man is full of divinity even though he is unaware of that divinity because he is in Jagrut avastha and Gyani is in turyatitta avastha. From that avastha if you look at Jagrut avastha, it looks full of divinity because that is the truth, even though the common man is unaware of that but the Gyani knows that everybody is Shiva. That is why this beautiful word Sarvatobhadra. You see divinity everywhere! In this state, Gyani feels that the being of Shiva has expanded his body of consciousness in names, forms, space and times. For a Gyani even a stone is full of divinity, tree is full of divinity, birds are full of divinity, animals are full of Divinity, Sarvatobhadra - everything is full of divine, there is only Shiva. There is divine auspiciousness everywhere. Everything is divine that is Sarvotobhadra. So what we say Jagrut, yogi says pindastha, Gyani says Sarvatobhadra. See how the meaning changes as your state changes, your understanding changes, and meaning of the state changes to such a great extent. Gyani travels in absolute consciousness and that consciousness is not lost when he does the normal activities. That is the beauty of the turyatitta states.
Now let us understand Swapna avastha from three different angles. What a common man says as dreams, yogi looks at it in a different manner. It is not just dreaming. Here you are established where you are. When you are dreaming you are established in dreaming and at that time you don’t know, only when you wake up you know that you had a dream. In dream you are lost in it means that you are established in the dream. From the view point of understanding by a yogi the beautiful word for that is padastha, you are established there. But the swapna avastha if you see from the view point of Gyani, all objects of dreams are existing in their own self, the self is much bigger, all the other objects of the dream that you see are existing in the beyond, in the true self, it is called Vyapti from the Gyani’s point of view the dream state is a state of Vyapti because all the thoughts and impressions and objects that you get in the dream is also Shiva, only that is true self. So everywhere it is there. It is Sarva-vyapta; that is why Vyapti word is used. It is in the Self only and Self is not affected by the dream, by the objects of the dream, the impressions and all, that Vyapti is very much there. A person who is established in turyatitta does not get dreams (the way a common gats dream, but if at all he gets dream, he understands that it is in his Self), please understand that, but this is the view point of Gyani for the dream, so it Vyapti only.
Sushupti state from the point of view of a common man is deep sleep. Pralayopamam. This definition is very beautiful, everything is lost, you have forgotten your name, your relatives, your bank balance, there is no objectivity whatsoever. Everything of the objective world is lost, you get into Shunya, void. You have lost subjectivity also because in the deep sleep you don’t remember your subjectivity. That is common man’s understanding. So there is no objectivity, no impressions because you are not even dreaming. In the dream world the impressions are there, in sushupti there are no impressions. There is only absolute silence, it is called Tasnimbhava. It is a nourishing state where you are in deep sleep where there are no impressions and there is no cognition whatsoever of the objective world and that is why you feel so fresh when you have deep sleep. It is nourishing. Your being is rejuvenated that is why sleeping is so very important. If you do not get deep sleep you will not feel rejuvenated next day morning. But when you get proper deep sleep where no disturbances are there, it is a very nourishing state and that nourishment is wanted. That is why it is called Tasnimbhava, the nourishing state. But this is common man’s understanding.
Yogi understands sushupti avastha at a different level. Here you are established in one’s own self or consciousness because you are not into the objective world; you are not into impressions which means Self is established in itself even though the Self is not aware of itself but the Self is established in itself because you are not into the objective world, you are not into impressions, that is why the word used is roopastha, You are established into that, in your swaroopa. So you are established in to the Self in sushupti avastha from the yogi’s angle. It is called roopastha, established into one’s own form.
But a Gyani will look at it in a different manner. Gyani looks at sushupti as Mahavyapti. The earlier word was Vyapti; here it is Mahavyapti – the great pervasion. No limitation of objectivity or impression is there. Gyani is fully aware in that state and the limitation comes because of objectivity or impression. Objectivity means normal Jagrut avastha, outside world, impressions mean the swapna avastha from where the impressions arise. Here because there is no Jagrut avastha, no swapna avastha, only sushupti but fully aware which means Mahavyapti. The Self is pervading everywhere. What a wonderful way of looking at sushupti. But that is how Gyani looks at sushupti – Mahavyapti, Self pervading state, the Self is pervading everywhere without any limitation of objectivity or impressions. This Mahavyapti is also Mahasamadhi. Fully established into that, absolutely no ripples but fully conscious of that state. So Gyani’s sleep is Mahasamadhi. There is absolutely no objectivity or impressions. There are no ripples in that field but the field is filled of fully conscious awareness. That is Mahavyapti, we should aim at that. These are the states worth praising; all other states are on the way, not getting stuck at any of these states but going to the ultimate that should be the end, that is why we are discussing this in different ways.
In Dwarahat Shibir we will understand proper methodology of getting into these states and practicing it. This is the understanding part. The real thing is practicing certain spiritual practices and meditation techniques of Kashmir Shaivism, getting into that and knowing first hand, that this is so. With the aura workshop, astral travel workshop, lucid dreaming and all, most of you have now understood and many of these states you have already experienced. But there is a methodology by which in one day’s time you can experience all these, it is not that you need a very long time. Only you have to understand the methodology of experiencing these things with conscious awareness. There are processes for that, there are meditational techniques for that; do those things and immediately you will have experiences. There are many people who sleep with open eyes during the lecture. When they close the eyes only then I come to know that they are sleeping. Some people they sleep with open eyes, they are in Jagrut sushupti avastha. Some students are expert in that. Their eyes are open but devoid of objectivity, eyes are open but no subjectivity. So you see, you do have experience of these things, not that I am talking something imaginary! Many of you have experienced during lectures these states. If the lecture becomes too heavy you get into one more state, it is called sushupti-sushupti. But if you are listening with meditative awareness, you get into turya-sushupti. Various combination of turya is possible right during the lecture. You get into all these states right in front of me!
In Dwarahat shibir we are going to practice this. Discussing part I am doing here because we need projector. For right understanding, you need repetition also. I have just talked about it once and I don’t expect you to register all these. If you register all this then you are Gyani, then you don’t need it. But you know that there are various combinations possible. In this field repetition is a must. When you keep on repeating you keep going deeper and deeper. But when you understand experientially everything is realized. That is why meditational practices are wanted. Information sharing to certain extent is good, not much of that is wanted. It has to be combined with the meditational practices so that you experience these states. Once you have that experiential understanding, your job is done. So we have to go through this experiential understanding of these 32 states of being. If you have understood these 32 states of being experientially your job is done. This is the reason, why we need residential retreats. In our 8 day retreat we are going to experience 36 elements and 32 states of being. If you experience these it means that you are in Gyani state. If you experience and understand all these things then it is the ultimate that is possible. Then you can go up to the level of Shiva, from earth element to Shiva, all the 36 elements you can travel but that is not considered to be an expertise in Kashmir Shaivism. In Kashmir Shaivism they say that the expertise is when you come down from Shiva to earth element and you do normal activity like an absolutely ordinary person but you have not lost that state. That is called expertise! You can go up and you can come down or you can go to any of the levels and you are still the same person and nothing is lost. That is called fully established into turyatitta and it remains even when you do your normal activity like an ordinary person. That is the Mastery in Kashmir Shaivism. Going up is one aspect but coming down is another aspect and more difficult aspect.
We have lot of glamorization going on in the name of meditational experiences. They say that person gets into a trance state; according to Kashmir Shaivism he is not mature that is why he is getting lost in the trance state. In Kashmir Shaivism mature state is going to the Shiva level and you are fully conscious and you come down like an average person, doing your normal activity and still you are into that, you are not lost into trance state. The bliss is there and you carry the bliss as you do your normal activity. That is called Mastery. Getting lost into trance state, not able to recognize people because you are into that subjective reality is kaccha-pucca! It means that you have not properly understood. If you have understood it properly and if you have practiced it properly then you can go from Earth to Shiva element and you can come down from Shiva to Earth element and nothing is lost. That is the beauty of Kashmir Shaivism!
36 elements and 32 states of being, all these things are to be experienced from within that is why Dwarahat shibir is going to be a landmark in our growth and understanding because experiencing all this is what we are going to do. All this preparation is going to be necessary for that and those who are going to miss Dwarahat Shibir, for them we have planned eight days residential Shibir on Kashmir Shaivism during December end. All these explanations will be given and then practices will be there. Everybody will be able to come to that highest level, the level from where you cannot fall back. From the level of Turya you can fall back but from level of turyatitta you cannot fall back. Everybody has to go to the level of Gyani. Yogi can fall back, Gyani cannot fall back. If somebody falls back, he is not considered as Gyani. Gyani is fully established in “Awareness and Understanding” that is never lost. Falling back is impossible. That is state of attainment otherwise you get a glimpse and you come down again, you get a glimpse and you come down, you can’t carry that as you are working. It is about absolute awareness of the Self, even for some of you breath awareness is difficult to maintain when you are working. When you are meditating you can have your breath awareness, if you are regular meditator, otherwise even that is difficult. But you can start with that. As you are working, as you are talking, as you are listening doing your normal routine work become aware of your breath, that will be the beginning of that. These are not just theoretical states, these are all practical states, it is possible to live life like that and there is no end to that. You can go much deeper in each state. That is what we are aiming at.
Let’s understand the fourth state, the Turya state from the view point of common man. Common does not understand anything more than Jagrut, swapna and sushupti. That is why the word itself is the fourth. What is that? The word turya has come from the view point of common man. It is something more than what one does not know that is why the Fourth. But the Yogi uses the word Roopatita. The meaning of the word Rooptita is – as this state has crossed the touch of oneself and is establishment of one’s own Self. Sushupti is Roopastha, established in one Self but there is a touch of that thing. Here it is Roopatita, it is beyond that. It means that your self is really established, that is what turya is. But Gyani will understand Turyatitta from different angle. Prachaya is the word used by Gyani which means multitude. Entire universal existence is found collectively as undifferentiated in the state of totality. This is the way turya is understood from the view point of Gyani. All undifferentiated energy is one only; that is what Prachaya is about. Diversity, multitude is all one. All different types of energies gain power from this state. Even though different energies manifest in different manner but they are one. That multitude is there but because they gain their power, the real power, the essence comes from there only, that is Shakti of Shiva only and Shiva is all pervading that is called Prachaya, the multitude. This is the understanding of a Gyani.
Penetration of all energies simultaneously, not in succession (i.e. one by one) but simultaneously that is what turya avastha is - Penetration of all the energies happening simultaneously. They are all together without distinction because all the distinction disappears in turya avastha. It is an un-manifested field without any ripple of objectivity, without any ripple of impression, so all becomes one! There is another view point also to look at the same thing it is called savyapara. It is the energy aspect what we discussed. All energies get their power to function in turya that is why from Gyani’s point of view it is also known as Savyapara because all the energies get power from that. There is one more way of looking at the same thing from the Gyani’s point of view. This is un-manifested and un-agitated field of consciousness, there is no objectivity and there are no ripples, it’s an absolutely un-agitated field of energies. The multitude of energies become one and absolutely un-agitated, one more beautiful word from the Gyani’s point of view is anamaya – un-agitated field, pure field, full of consciousness, full of bliss but no objectivity, no impression, that is that beautiful field. This is way Gyani will look at Turya avastha.
We need to discuss one more thing that is turyatitta. From the common man’s point of view turyatitta it is beyond the Fourth. There is no understanding that is why the words have come like that. Even the fourth is not understood so turyatitta is something which is not understood and is beyond the fourth. Instead of calling it as fifth it is said beyond Fourth. That is turyatitta as per common man’s understanding. Yogi does not understand and if he starts understanding then he becomes a Gyani! So there is no word for turyatitta by Yogi. But Yogis have knowledge. They know that something is possible through their intellectual understanding and inference or using the power of imagination or using the power of language that something more can be described or through guesswork, they have given a name which is none of their experience but still they have given the name – satatoditam. It means the state which has no pause, no breaks. It is like a stream of oil which is different from that of the water. It means that continuity of the state is there. It means that the Yogi is doing some guesswork, imagining. One gets the glimpses at the level of Yogi but if somebody is all the time there that is satatoditam. It is not the experience of the Yogi, if Yogi gets the experience the yogi becomes Gyani.
From Gyani’s view point if turya is known as Prachaya, turyatitta is known as Mahaprachaya. It means unlimited and unexplainable supreme totality. It is unlimited, it is unexplainable but it is multitude which means Supreme totality, everything is there into that. That is called Mahaprachaya. Turyatitta avastha from where the Gyani is, from his point of view it is Mahaprachaya – total unexplainable reality, every multitude is there, everything is included, everything is Shiva only, that understanding is called Mahaprachaya. That is the ultimate that is possible.
By now you would have understood that Yogi sees from objective point of view while Gyani sees from Subjective point of view! That is why so many different words to describe similar states but as it is seen from different point of view, they are considered as different states.
Who is a Master? - One who has actually experienced these states and through one’s own experiential understanding, who has the capacity to explain to others, one who the capacity to take others to this and helps one sustain that even when one come down, from where one cannot fall. That is the definition of a Master in Kashmir Shaivism. How difficult!! You must have experiential understanding, you must be able to communicate and explain to others, not only that you must be capable of taking them and putting them in to experiential understanding, so that the knowledge transfer is at experiential level and explaining to them how to sustain it so that they do not fall when they go back to the sansara again. Now you understand why so much importance is given to Kashmir Shaivism?
As a Grihasthi you have to continue doing your normal work, it is not that after enlightenment you drop out and go to the jungle. Your family members will not allow you to go! Even if you go they will find out and bring you back. Better to learn Kashmir Shaivism and even with all these things you are not lost. That is the real Mastery, if you are going away from sansara if you are opting for Sanyas, you cannot become the Master. Being a Master means experiencing all these things and doing your normal duty as you are doing that now and not losing that state, that is a real Mastery and that Mastery comes by actual experiencing of 36 elements and 30 states of being.
Is eight days a long time for this? I think eight days is nothing! With this we complete this topic.
Thank you very much.
The topic of the evening is 32 states of being. This is in continuation with what we discussed last Saturday on 4th Sept 2010 in the lecture series on Kashmir Shaivism and this will be good preparation for our Dwarahat Shibir. We have decided to go to greater heights in understanding Kashmir Shaivism in Dwarahat. We need to understand few basics of Kashmir Shaivism to prepare ourselves for Dwarahat Shibir. This is the third topic in the series. The first topic was seven states of Turya; the second topic that we discussed last Saturday itself was different types of Kundalini awakening and today is the third topic ’32 States of Beings’. In Dwarahat our job will be to experience these states. That is why we need a residential retreat. Knowledge sharing can happen in lectures like this. But experiential understanding comes only through certain practices; that is why we need residential retreats. In Dwarahat Shibir we will try to arrange the practices of Kashmir Shaivism in such a way that you actually experience these 32 states of being. This is considered to be secret knowledge and one of the rarest of knowledge because not many people have idea about 32 states of being. So be very attentive and listen carefully, how these 32 states of beings are to be experienced.
In general most of the scriptures are talking about five states of being; it is called individual subjective body that experiences various states. In Hindi it is called ‘Avasthaon ka Gyan” and it is supposed to be a very secret topic. So these basic fives states of being that we normally understand and we do experience also the common names for these states are the first is Jagrut avastha (wakeful state), second is swapna avastha (dream state), third is sushupti avastha (deep sleep state). Common man experiences only these three states. That is why the common man’s version beyond the three is the fourth; that is called Turya. In Sanskrit Turya means the fourth. So that is the fourth state of being and there is something beyond fourth that is turyatitta. So these are the basic five states of being – wakeful state, dreaming, deep sleep, Turya and turyatitta.
Now we will go into greater details of understanding each of these states. Let’s go into the details of the first state, Jagrut avastha, the normal wakeful state. In the Pratyabhijna system of Kashmir Shaivism, Abhinav Gupta has given the name to the state as bahirvrutti because our attention is out, it is in the objectivity. Bahirvrutti is the indicators of this state. So when there is vividness of objectivity, we are caught up in the objective world in this state and the subjectivity is totally lost or ignored. So it is a complete objective state. Here the individual subjective body travels in the world of objectivity and it becomes the object and it ignores the subjective consciousness completely. That is the reason there are various names in Kashmir Shaivism we are going to discuss at a later stage. What we call as Jagrut avastha is “absolute unawareness of subjectivity” because you are completely in the objective world and you become one with the object. So Jagrut avastha and jagruk avastha are totally opposite of each other. In Jagrut avastha you are lost into objectivity, in jagruk avastha you know your conscious awareness. You are aware of your consciousness or you are conscious of your awareness. Whichever way you understand but you know your true self. There is awareness of your true self in Jagruk avastha. But the awareness of the true self is completely lost in Jagrut avastha. So what we say Jagrut is basically total unawareness of the real sense. That is the normal state, first state.
The second state is Swapna avastha, dreaming state. Sankalpa nirmana is the name given by Abhinav Gupta. Here the vividness of the objectivity is shaky and unsteady because it comes and it goes. So the vividness of objectivity is there but it is not as steady as it is there in the normal wakeful state. It is very shaky and unsteady. In this state the individual subjective body travels in the cognitive world of samskaras and impressions. All the samskaras and impressions that are there they come forward in the dream state. All these impressions are of the objective world and again it becomes one with it and loses consciousness of the subjectivity all together. So here also the conscious awareness of the true self is not there, you are lost in the objectivity but here it is the cognition of the impressions but the subjectivity is not there. This is called the dream state.
The third stage is sushupti, deep sleep and Abhinav Gupta’s word for this state is Pralayoupamam, if you understand in Kashmir Shaivism the word Pralayakal is used for sushupti where everything is lost, you are completely ignorant of the objective world. Everything of the objective world is lost. So Pralayopamam is a very beautiful word which indicates sushupti. Vividness of objectivity is gone completely because you are absolutely ignorant of the objective world in deep sleep. In this state the subjective individual body travels in subjective world without being conscious of that and becomes one with unconscious subjectivity. So the objectivity is not there, conscious awareness of subjectivity is not there. It’s a complete unconscious, unaware state of being. That is sushupti.
The fourth state is Turya avastha. Super observation is found by some observing agency. That is the description which means somebody is observant, observation is there, aloof attention is there. Individual subjective body travels in absolute subjective consciousness and it becomes that subjective consciousness. This is exactly opposite of the first Jagrut avastha. In Jagrut avastha individual subjective body travels in the objective world and becomes one with the object. That is totally unaware state. In turya avastha individual subjective body travels in absolute subjective consciousness and it becomes that subjective consciousness which means it is fully aware state. You are totally aware and observant of everything that is happening around, which means you are aware of your subjectivity. That is called the fourth state.
The fifth state is Turyatitta - beyond the fourth. Objective individuality is dead and is found full of life in totality. Individual objectivity is dead completely and fullness of life in totality is there. That is turyatitta. Individual subjective body established in the subjective consciousness completely, fully established not moving from there. In turya also it is there but it is still moving, while in turyatitta it is completely established in subjective consciousness hundred percent. That is called turyatitta avastha.
These are the five basic avasthas – Jagrut avastha, swapna avastha. Sushupti avastha, turya avastha and turyatitta. These are the basic five states of being as discussed in Vedanta, as discussed in Kashmir Shaivism. Definitions vary a little but overall concept is the same everywhere because these are the five states in which your being can exist. All of us are experiencing this. First three are experienced by everybody. Those who are developed in sakshi bhava, aloof attention, they understand what turya is. When you go deep into meditation, in the state of non thinking, in the state of no-mind that is turyatitta, when you are firmly established in no-mind which is not that easy, is called turyatitta avastha.
Beyond these five, the most secret knowledge starts from here. The basic five avasthas are known. But the real secret knowledge starts from the sixth state. There are many states created because of the various combinations of these five states. Now let us discuss how the four states of an individual that is jagrat, swapna, sushupti and turya are found in each of these four states. Each state is found in other four states. Leave aside turyatitta because that does not come into this, it is not even discussed as a state. It is beyond that. But these four states are available in each other and that creates a very beautiful combination of states of being. Let us get into details of each of these states in a very detailed and systematic manner.
The first combination that we discussed is the jagrut-jagrut avastha, wakefulness in the world of wakefulness. In this state the state of complete objectivity is there which means absolute unawareness and the word used in Trik Shaivism is abuddhah, absolute unawareness. Nowhere close by to buddhahood, absolute abuddhah. That is total unawareness of your subjective self because you are absolutely lost in the objective world.
The second interesting combination is in Jagrut-swapna which means dreaming in the state of wakefulness. You may not understand at the first glance of it but it is quite common. It is called day dreaming. Most of the people do day dreaming, lost in thoughts and impressions. A very strong thought possesses you and you are lost into that thought or you are fanaticizing or imagining something about the future or you are caught up into very special memory of the past, but you are lost. That is called Jagrut-swapna avastha. And the word of Trik Shaivism is Buddhah avastha. This Buddhah avastha you do not equate with Buddhahood in English. There is a big difference there. The original words of Kashmir Shaivism are very apt because that Buddhahood in English is not Buddha avastha. But why this is called Buddha avastha you will understand as we progress.
The third interesting combination is Jagrut-Sushupti. You may wonder how that is possible but it is very much there. Deep sleep in the state of wakefulness, it looks contradictory but it is not so if you understand the meaning of Jagrut-sushupti. If you understand the meaning of the word Jagrut-sushupti it will not sound that contradictory. Here you are not aware of objective world, you are not aware of impressions and you are not aware of subjective self also. It means that this is the state of unawareness but as you move towards this you are moving closer towards the silence state. Even though you are not conscious of your true self but because you are not into the state of subjectivity, you are not into the state of objectivity it is definitely closer to your Buddhahood. You are inching towards your Buddhahood and it is the first state where the positive word is used called prabuddha. Prabuddha is not Buddhahood but you are closer to Buddhahood you are moving towards that because here at least the objectivity is not there, you are not caught up into objectivity; you are not caught up in impressions, sanskaras, memory. It means you are closer to yourself that is why this avastha is called as prabuddha avastha. Many public speakers use this word in Hindi ‘yeh prabuddha janata’. Literal meaning of that is a person who sleeps while listening to the lecture that is Jagrut-sushupti that is prabuddha. The literal meaning is quite interesting but that is the meaning of the word prabuddha. Anything where the word Buddha comes you think it is buddhahood, it is not. There are so many layers. You are approaching there but there are many junctions on the way before you reach Buddhahood. So prabuddha is definitely closer to Buddhahood. You are on the way but not very far off from the Buddhahood.
The fourth interesting combination that comes in Jagrut avastha is Jagrut-turya. The fourth state is the state of wakefulness that is called Jagrut turya. Here individual subjective body travels in objective world and at the same time resides in self consciousness. It means you are aware of your true Self and you are also moving in the world of objects because you are Jagrut and in turya both. This is full of awareness state; the real aware person will stay into this state. That is why it is known as suprabuddha. It means that you are closer to Buddhahood. You are in the conscious world of objectivity and also conscious of your true Self. So you are suprabuddha in this state. So these are the first four combinations.
Now we will discuss the combinations possible with swapna avastha. In swapna state, the state of dreaming when you travel only in the states of impressions, the four states of Jagrut, swapna, sushupti and turya are to be found. Swapna avastha is not only the dreams, actually when you are lost in your memory that is also swapna avastha. You are caught up in images, impressions that is also called swapna avastha. Madness is swapna avastha and intoxication also leads to swapna avastha. The person who is drunk, he is in the state of swapna. The whole thing looks like a dream to that person. So swapna avastha comes into all these categories. So, let us go into the details of it.
The first combination consists of Swapna-Jagrut. It is a very interesting thing. Now you will understand day dreaming, astral travel and all these things. There is a very particular name for everything. Swapna-Jagrut means wakefulness in the world of dreaming. Many people ask how you can be wakeful in the state of dreaming. Either you are wakeful or you are dreaming. Those who are meditators, those who are astral travelers, those who understand lucid dreaming will understand very clearly that this possible. It is very much possible but here you have to understand the meaning from the Kashmir Shaivism point of view and not from common point of view. In Kashmir Shaivism Jagrut avastha means fully unconscious. Understand this. If you remember that you will have no problem in understanding further things. Jagrut means fully unaware state because in Jagrut avastha you are lost into objectivity. Here it is Swapna-Jagrut. Jagrut means you are lost, unaware and that unawareness is there in swapna avastha. Here the individual travels in the waves of impressions and objectivity. There is a wave of swapna that comes and it goes, again it comes and that is called in Trik Shaivism ii is called gatagatam, which means it comes and it goes. That is the state of Swapna-Jagrut. Dream comes, dream goes, little bit of awareness is there to the extent to know that gatagatam is happening.
Second combination is Swapna-swapna, you are dreaming in the state of dreaming. In this state the individual travels in the waves of impression without the least awareness of their connections to one and another. What is dreaming in dreaming? You get a dream of a cat and then immediately there is tiger and there is dog and the awareness is just not there so you don’t understand also why this dog is converting in to tiger and the tiger is converting into lion and the lion will convert into the tree, even that awareness is not there. It means an absolutely unaware state you are dreaming in dreams. Here the consciousness is absolutely dispersed and the beautiful word for this dispersed consciousness is suvikshiptam. Vikshiptam means dispersed, higher degree of that is suvikshiptam, absolutely dispersed consciousness. Even the minimum awareness that this is happening is not there. That is called suvikshiptam.
The third combination of swapna avastha is Swapna-sushupti, deep sleep in the state of dreaming. It is a beautiful combination, please be attentive to understand these things. Individual travels in the world of thoughts and impressions, naturally it is a swapna avastha so you are travelling into thoughts and impressions, becomes little aware of subjectivity on and off which means now you are slowly moving towards awareness but here awareness is on and off, sometimes it is there, sometimes it is not there. You are dreaming and then you are getting into the deep sleep, again you are dreaming and then getting into deep sleep and there is a little bit of awareness so that you know that this is happening and that you know in an indirect manner not in a direct manner. That is called sangatam. This beautiful word sangatam has come because here at least little touch of consciousness is there to the extent that you know. But this is also passive knowing, there is no full bloom consciousness of this but passively little bit touch of that consciousness has happened which gives you little bit of awareness that dreaming to deep sleep is happening, that recognition is there. It is indirect recognition, passive recognition, under current of the recognition is there.
The fourth combination of swapna avastha is called Swapna-turya, the fourth state in the state of dreaming, the consciousness of dreaming that ends into Samadhi. Those who know lucid dreaming, those who know astral travel, if you are aware of your dream, when you are dreaming you are conscious of your dreams and you are conscious of your dream ending means you are entering into sleep with conscious awareness and the sleep with conscious awareness is Samadhi. That is why entering into sleep state with awareness is the best experiment one can do which will lead to ultimate state of Samadhi. Here you are conscious of your dreaming and you are conscious of when your dream ends, when your dream ends you are into deep sleep but you are conscious which means it is a Samadhi state and you get touch of Samadhi but it is on and off, that does not last long. Then from there onwards you go into sushupti. But because the awareness is there the beautiful word of Kashmir Shaivism here is susamahitam. Here you are full of awareness but that awareness is not sustained awareness.
The next stage is various combinations in sushupti avastha.
The first combination in sushupti avastha is sushupti-jagrut, wakefulness in the state of deep sleep. Again this sounds contradictory but it is not so, try to understand. In sushupti-jagrut avastha you lose all impressions and thoughts and remain in absolute void called shunya avastha. Here you are not aware and you do not taste the joy which means bliss is not there. But here you are not into the state of objectivity, you are in the void, you are in shunya avastha and when you are in shunya avastha at that time you don’t know about it. When you are in deep sleep you are fully ignorant of the sleep, only when you wake up then you can talk about that state, that I was asleep and I observed nothing but this statement you make when you wake up from the sleep, you cannot make this statement when you are in deep sleep because you are in the void state, shunya avastha, and you are absolutely ignorant. That is called sushupti-jagrut. You are not jarut in sushupti. Only when you wake up you talk about it. In Jagrut avastha you are talking about sushupti that you did not notice anything. In Trika Shaivism the beautiful word given to this state is Uditam which means full of rising. It means now you are becoming aware and you start rising towards Shiva, the ultimate state. The very fact that you know you are not aware, is a good beginning of rising. But this awareness is there only when you wake up and not when you are asleep and it is called Uditam. You have now started waking up to the fact that you are unaware. That is a good beginning and that is why it is called Uditam.
The second combination in sushupti is called sushupti-swapna avastha, dreaming in the state of deep sleep. While in sushupti there is absolutely no awareness but in this state there is some cognition of some impression remaining in that subjectivity. Even though the impressions are there, the cognition of the impression is also there, it means little bit of awareness is there though not much and you know that it is there. That is called sushupti-swapna. In the previous state there was absolute unawareness, here there is little more awareness in sushupti, only because it is sushupti-swapna, because you are becoming aware occasionally, little bit of awareness is there. Some conscious awareness in the background, passive awareness tells you that you are in the state of sleep or you are in the state of dreaming if at all there is an impression. That state is labeled as vipulam and this is the most nourishing state. You get nourished. Awareness that you are travelling in the world of subjective consciousness gradually becomes stronger and stronger. You are nourishing your awareness in this state. That is why it is known as vipulam. It means now deeper level of awareness is possible to grow, it is possible to make it stronger from here onwards that is why it is known as vipulam, nourishing your awareness.
The third combination is sushupti-sushupti, deep sleep in the state of deep sleep. If you understand these combinations, as you go further your awareness increases. Here very subtle awareness or passive awareness, that this is a world of subjective consciousness remains in the background in uninterrupted continuity. You are in deep sleep but some passive awareness tells you that you are in deep sleep but there are no impressions, there is no mind in that state. It means that the ripples in the field are gone completely and this is what we normally call as deep peaceful sleep where agitation is just not there. This state is known as shantam which means peaceful because objective world is not there, impressions are not there, and thoughts are not there. It means there is nothing which is disturbing the field of pure potential, of pure awareness but here awareness is not aware of itself but it is undisturbed that is why it is known as shantam, peaceful sleep. It is called sushupti-sushupti.
The fourth is sushupti-turya. This is a very beautiful combination. The fourth state in the state of deep sleep; here individual subjective body is travelling in subjective consciousness. The objectivity is lost in any case. In deep sleep the objectivity is just not there but the subjective consciousness has arisen now and you are travelling in the world of subjective consciousness. Objectivity is lost completely but subjectivity has awakened that is what that sushupti turya avastha is. Turya means that awakened state is there. Here you are travelling into subjective consciousness, you are aware of that in continuation in background and experience bliss of the state. In earlier level the bliss was not there only passive awareness was there, now conscious awareness is there, active awareness is there and that is why the bliss is there. This state sushupti-turya state is full of bliss. It means that you are fully aware of your deep sleep, in true sense this is Samadhi avastha and it is full of bliss that is why it is known as suprasannam. It’s a state of bliss. You actually experience the state of bliss in sushupti turya, because it is sushupti the objectivity is completely gone. Because it is sushupti turya, you are fully in the state of subjectivity and because you are fully aware that is why you experience the bliss and this bliss is the bliss of Samadhi. So sushupti turya is full of bliss but not fully aware of that bliss. That is the only difference, in the higher levels you become aware of that bliss. At this level you are full of bliss but you are not fully aware of that bliss. Awareness is there that is why the bliss comes but you are not fully aware of that bliss which you are enjoying because it is still sushupti. It is a very beautiful combination.
The best of the three are these – turya-jagrut, turya-swapna, turya-sushupti. There is a very interesting combination of what is possible and what is not possible.
The first in the last three is turya-jagrut. Consciousness of turya is not vividly manifested. Turya is there but Jagrut means unawareness which means consciousness of turya is not vividly manifested. Here the consciousness of turya is in subconscious state which means not developed yet, not conscious yet but it is there at the level of sub consciousness. So beyond the span of the mind that is there and the Sanskrit word for that is manonmanam. Turya-jagrut is beyond the state of mind but in that beyond you are not fully conscious because that has not still manifested but you are not in the mind. It is moving towards beyond the mind but not fully conscious of it. You are unconscious of it. That is the turya-jagrut avastha. The mind has taken rise in mindlessness but the awareness of that is not there. Mindlessness is there because it is turya but it is Jagrut which means unaware of that. So the mind has risen to mindlessness but you are not fully conscious of it. That is turya-jagrut.
Second combination is turya-swapna avastha. Consciousness of turya is little more vividly manifested. So in this state the consciousness of turya is stronger compared to the previous state. Here unlimitedness of the self is there that is why it is known as anantam because you have started experiencing the un-limitedness aspect but it is not very strong, it is milder version of that, so this is the state of unlimited being.
The third combination in turya avastha is turya-sushupti. Here the consciousness of turya is most vividly manifested and consciousness of turya is strongest in this state, Un-limitedness of the self. But still even though you are unlimited yet there exist here all the limitations of the universe. It is not a totally unlimited state even though unlimited of self but the limitations of the existence are felt as existing and the word given to this is sarvartham. It is a beautiful state but you can’t say that it is ultimate. Limitations are still there and you have to cross these limitations also and there is a much deeper aspect of this.
When you go beyond four there is what you call turyatitta. The turya-turya combination is not there, it is turyatitta, beyond the four. This is the state of absolute fullness of self. Here that conscious awareness is not at all shaky. Here you are absolutely established into that awareness, fully established, that is turyatitta. You find this state not only in Samadhi but also in every activity of the world. If you find that peace only in Samadhi, only when meditating but it is lost when you come out of meditation, then that is not turyatitta. If you are fully established, your state of meditation, your state of full awareness is not lost when you come out in the active world, it means that you can do your normal activity and your full subjectivity is there. It means that you are fully established into that conscious awareness, that is turyatitta and that is the aim. Fully established into that and that subjectivity is not lost as you are doing the normal duty in outside world. This is definitely much better state one can aim at. This should be the aim - turyatitta. That state is just not lost whatever you may do. Now if you have reached this state there is no need to do yoga, because yoga has some future, future in the sense there is some ambition, there is some achievement, you want to achieve something. The state of yoga come from yuja, joining, but here it is already joined so now yoga does not come into picture. Here you don’t have to sit for meditation, what are you going to gain by sitting for meditation and what is that you have lost? You are already established into that. So now yoga, meditation and all that loses its significance, beyond this state and not before that. To go beyond this state you all have to get into all these things. This is the state what Masters say ‘nowhere to go, nothing to achieve’ because you are already that, what you are and you are fully into that so that there is nowhere to go, there is nothing to achieve that is turyatitta. Fully established in the Self and that is not lost even when you do your normal mundane activity. Turyatitta is a wonderful state.
We will now understand five different states as perceived first by common man and second as perceived by yogi and third as perceived by Gyani. See how these three different level people perceive the same state in three different manners. There is a very beautiful understanding of Trika Shaivism. This very understanding can put you in the state of understanding of where you are stuck, at which level you are and where you need to go further. Everybody goes to a level and then you don’t know what is the further level and then your progress does not happen. If you know what is there ahead, you move faster. That is why this understanding is very important.
Common man says Jagrut avastha but Gyani says it is ajagrut avastha. See how the meaning of word changes. There are layers of understanding. What a common man calls Jagrut, a yogi will say pindastha which means becoming one with whatever you perceive. You are in the objective world and you are absolutely ignorant of your subjective reality, you are one with the object. But then Gyani will understand it differently. Gyani is the one who is established in turyatitta. It means that his Samadhi is not lost when he does his mundane activity in the world. From Gyani’s point of view it is sarvatobhadra. Bhadra means goodness, auspiciousness, sarvato means everywhere. Gyani perceives everybody as Shiva, ajagrut Shiva but nevertheless they are Shiva. Sarvatobhadra, everywhere there is only auspiciousness, everywhere there is divine, so Gyani sees that divinity everywhere. Common man may not understand but from the view point of Gyani, common man is full of divinity even though he is unaware of that divinity because he is in Jagrut avastha and Gyani is in turyatitta avastha. From that avastha if you look at Jagrut avastha, it looks full of divinity because that is the truth, even though the common man is unaware of that but the Gyani knows that everybody is Shiva. That is why this beautiful word Sarvatobhadra. You see divinity everywhere! In this state, Gyani feels that the being of Shiva has expanded his body of consciousness in names, forms, space and times. For a Gyani even a stone is full of divinity, tree is full of divinity, birds are full of divinity, animals are full of Divinity, Sarvatobhadra - everything is full of divine, there is only Shiva. There is divine auspiciousness everywhere. Everything is divine that is Sarvotobhadra. So what we say Jagrut, yogi says pindastha, Gyani says Sarvatobhadra. See how the meaning changes as your state changes, your understanding changes, and meaning of the state changes to such a great extent. Gyani travels in absolute consciousness and that consciousness is not lost when he does the normal activities. That is the beauty of the turyatitta states.
Now let us understand Swapna avastha from three different angles. What a common man says as dreams, yogi looks at it in a different manner. It is not just dreaming. Here you are established where you are. When you are dreaming you are established in dreaming and at that time you don’t know, only when you wake up you know that you had a dream. In dream you are lost in it means that you are established in the dream. From the view point of understanding by a yogi the beautiful word for that is padastha, you are established there. But the swapna avastha if you see from the view point of Gyani, all objects of dreams are existing in their own self, the self is much bigger, all the other objects of the dream that you see are existing in the beyond, in the true self, it is called Vyapti from the Gyani’s point of view the dream state is a state of Vyapti because all the thoughts and impressions and objects that you get in the dream is also Shiva, only that is true self. So everywhere it is there. It is Sarva-vyapta; that is why Vyapti word is used. It is in the Self only and Self is not affected by the dream, by the objects of the dream, the impressions and all, that Vyapti is very much there. A person who is established in turyatitta does not get dreams (the way a common gats dream, but if at all he gets dream, he understands that it is in his Self), please understand that, but this is the view point of Gyani for the dream, so it Vyapti only.
Sushupti state from the point of view of a common man is deep sleep. Pralayopamam. This definition is very beautiful, everything is lost, you have forgotten your name, your relatives, your bank balance, there is no objectivity whatsoever. Everything of the objective world is lost, you get into Shunya, void. You have lost subjectivity also because in the deep sleep you don’t remember your subjectivity. That is common man’s understanding. So there is no objectivity, no impressions because you are not even dreaming. In the dream world the impressions are there, in sushupti there are no impressions. There is only absolute silence, it is called Tasnimbhava. It is a nourishing state where you are in deep sleep where there are no impressions and there is no cognition whatsoever of the objective world and that is why you feel so fresh when you have deep sleep. It is nourishing. Your being is rejuvenated that is why sleeping is so very important. If you do not get deep sleep you will not feel rejuvenated next day morning. But when you get proper deep sleep where no disturbances are there, it is a very nourishing state and that nourishment is wanted. That is why it is called Tasnimbhava, the nourishing state. But this is common man’s understanding.
Yogi understands sushupti avastha at a different level. Here you are established in one’s own self or consciousness because you are not into the objective world; you are not into impressions which means Self is established in itself even though the Self is not aware of itself but the Self is established in itself because you are not into the objective world, you are not into impressions, that is why the word used is roopastha, You are established into that, in your swaroopa. So you are established in to the Self in sushupti avastha from the yogi’s angle. It is called roopastha, established into one’s own form.
But a Gyani will look at it in a different manner. Gyani looks at sushupti as Mahavyapti. The earlier word was Vyapti; here it is Mahavyapti – the great pervasion. No limitation of objectivity or impression is there. Gyani is fully aware in that state and the limitation comes because of objectivity or impression. Objectivity means normal Jagrut avastha, outside world, impressions mean the swapna avastha from where the impressions arise. Here because there is no Jagrut avastha, no swapna avastha, only sushupti but fully aware which means Mahavyapti. The Self is pervading everywhere. What a wonderful way of looking at sushupti. But that is how Gyani looks at sushupti – Mahavyapti, Self pervading state, the Self is pervading everywhere without any limitation of objectivity or impressions. This Mahavyapti is also Mahasamadhi. Fully established into that, absolutely no ripples but fully conscious of that state. So Gyani’s sleep is Mahasamadhi. There is absolutely no objectivity or impressions. There are no ripples in that field but the field is filled of fully conscious awareness. That is Mahavyapti, we should aim at that. These are the states worth praising; all other states are on the way, not getting stuck at any of these states but going to the ultimate that should be the end, that is why we are discussing this in different ways.
In Dwarahat Shibir we will understand proper methodology of getting into these states and practicing it. This is the understanding part. The real thing is practicing certain spiritual practices and meditation techniques of Kashmir Shaivism, getting into that and knowing first hand, that this is so. With the aura workshop, astral travel workshop, lucid dreaming and all, most of you have now understood and many of these states you have already experienced. But there is a methodology by which in one day’s time you can experience all these, it is not that you need a very long time. Only you have to understand the methodology of experiencing these things with conscious awareness. There are processes for that, there are meditational techniques for that; do those things and immediately you will have experiences. There are many people who sleep with open eyes during the lecture. When they close the eyes only then I come to know that they are sleeping. Some people they sleep with open eyes, they are in Jagrut sushupti avastha. Some students are expert in that. Their eyes are open but devoid of objectivity, eyes are open but no subjectivity. So you see, you do have experience of these things, not that I am talking something imaginary! Many of you have experienced during lectures these states. If the lecture becomes too heavy you get into one more state, it is called sushupti-sushupti. But if you are listening with meditative awareness, you get into turya-sushupti. Various combination of turya is possible right during the lecture. You get into all these states right in front of me!
In Dwarahat shibir we are going to practice this. Discussing part I am doing here because we need projector. For right understanding, you need repetition also. I have just talked about it once and I don’t expect you to register all these. If you register all this then you are Gyani, then you don’t need it. But you know that there are various combinations possible. In this field repetition is a must. When you keep on repeating you keep going deeper and deeper. But when you understand experientially everything is realized. That is why meditational practices are wanted. Information sharing to certain extent is good, not much of that is wanted. It has to be combined with the meditational practices so that you experience these states. Once you have that experiential understanding, your job is done. So we have to go through this experiential understanding of these 32 states of being. If you have understood these 32 states of being experientially your job is done. This is the reason, why we need residential retreats. In our 8 day retreat we are going to experience 36 elements and 32 states of being. If you experience these it means that you are in Gyani state. If you experience and understand all these things then it is the ultimate that is possible. Then you can go up to the level of Shiva, from earth element to Shiva, all the 36 elements you can travel but that is not considered to be an expertise in Kashmir Shaivism. In Kashmir Shaivism they say that the expertise is when you come down from Shiva to earth element and you do normal activity like an absolutely ordinary person but you have not lost that state. That is called expertise! You can go up and you can come down or you can go to any of the levels and you are still the same person and nothing is lost. That is called fully established into turyatitta and it remains even when you do your normal activity like an ordinary person. That is the Mastery in Kashmir Shaivism. Going up is one aspect but coming down is another aspect and more difficult aspect.
We have lot of glamorization going on in the name of meditational experiences. They say that person gets into a trance state; according to Kashmir Shaivism he is not mature that is why he is getting lost in the trance state. In Kashmir Shaivism mature state is going to the Shiva level and you are fully conscious and you come down like an average person, doing your normal activity and still you are into that, you are not lost into trance state. The bliss is there and you carry the bliss as you do your normal activity. That is called Mastery. Getting lost into trance state, not able to recognize people because you are into that subjective reality is kaccha-pucca! It means that you have not properly understood. If you have understood it properly and if you have practiced it properly then you can go from Earth to Shiva element and you can come down from Shiva to Earth element and nothing is lost. That is the beauty of Kashmir Shaivism!
36 elements and 32 states of being, all these things are to be experienced from within that is why Dwarahat shibir is going to be a landmark in our growth and understanding because experiencing all this is what we are going to do. All this preparation is going to be necessary for that and those who are going to miss Dwarahat Shibir, for them we have planned eight days residential Shibir on Kashmir Shaivism during December end. All these explanations will be given and then practices will be there. Everybody will be able to come to that highest level, the level from where you cannot fall back. From the level of Turya you can fall back but from level of turyatitta you cannot fall back. Everybody has to go to the level of Gyani. Yogi can fall back, Gyani cannot fall back. If somebody falls back, he is not considered as Gyani. Gyani is fully established in “Awareness and Understanding” that is never lost. Falling back is impossible. That is state of attainment otherwise you get a glimpse and you come down again, you get a glimpse and you come down, you can’t carry that as you are working. It is about absolute awareness of the Self, even for some of you breath awareness is difficult to maintain when you are working. When you are meditating you can have your breath awareness, if you are regular meditator, otherwise even that is difficult. But you can start with that. As you are working, as you are talking, as you are listening doing your normal routine work become aware of your breath, that will be the beginning of that. These are not just theoretical states, these are all practical states, it is possible to live life like that and there is no end to that. You can go much deeper in each state. That is what we are aiming at.
Let’s understand the fourth state, the Turya state from the view point of common man. Common does not understand anything more than Jagrut, swapna and sushupti. That is why the word itself is the fourth. What is that? The word turya has come from the view point of common man. It is something more than what one does not know that is why the Fourth. But the Yogi uses the word Roopatita. The meaning of the word Rooptita is – as this state has crossed the touch of oneself and is establishment of one’s own Self. Sushupti is Roopastha, established in one Self but there is a touch of that thing. Here it is Roopatita, it is beyond that. It means that your self is really established, that is what turya is. But Gyani will understand Turyatitta from different angle. Prachaya is the word used by Gyani which means multitude. Entire universal existence is found collectively as undifferentiated in the state of totality. This is the way turya is understood from the view point of Gyani. All undifferentiated energy is one only; that is what Prachaya is about. Diversity, multitude is all one. All different types of energies gain power from this state. Even though different energies manifest in different manner but they are one. That multitude is there but because they gain their power, the real power, the essence comes from there only, that is Shakti of Shiva only and Shiva is all pervading that is called Prachaya, the multitude. This is the understanding of a Gyani.
Penetration of all energies simultaneously, not in succession (i.e. one by one) but simultaneously that is what turya avastha is - Penetration of all the energies happening simultaneously. They are all together without distinction because all the distinction disappears in turya avastha. It is an un-manifested field without any ripple of objectivity, without any ripple of impression, so all becomes one! There is another view point also to look at the same thing it is called savyapara. It is the energy aspect what we discussed. All energies get their power to function in turya that is why from Gyani’s point of view it is also known as Savyapara because all the energies get power from that. There is one more way of looking at the same thing from the Gyani’s point of view. This is un-manifested and un-agitated field of consciousness, there is no objectivity and there are no ripples, it’s an absolutely un-agitated field of energies. The multitude of energies become one and absolutely un-agitated, one more beautiful word from the Gyani’s point of view is anamaya – un-agitated field, pure field, full of consciousness, full of bliss but no objectivity, no impression, that is that beautiful field. This is way Gyani will look at Turya avastha.
We need to discuss one more thing that is turyatitta. From the common man’s point of view turyatitta it is beyond the Fourth. There is no understanding that is why the words have come like that. Even the fourth is not understood so turyatitta is something which is not understood and is beyond the fourth. Instead of calling it as fifth it is said beyond Fourth. That is turyatitta as per common man’s understanding. Yogi does not understand and if he starts understanding then he becomes a Gyani! So there is no word for turyatitta by Yogi. But Yogis have knowledge. They know that something is possible through their intellectual understanding and inference or using the power of imagination or using the power of language that something more can be described or through guesswork, they have given a name which is none of their experience but still they have given the name – satatoditam. It means the state which has no pause, no breaks. It is like a stream of oil which is different from that of the water. It means that continuity of the state is there. It means that the Yogi is doing some guesswork, imagining. One gets the glimpses at the level of Yogi but if somebody is all the time there that is satatoditam. It is not the experience of the Yogi, if Yogi gets the experience the yogi becomes Gyani.
From Gyani’s view point if turya is known as Prachaya, turyatitta is known as Mahaprachaya. It means unlimited and unexplainable supreme totality. It is unlimited, it is unexplainable but it is multitude which means Supreme totality, everything is there into that. That is called Mahaprachaya. Turyatitta avastha from where the Gyani is, from his point of view it is Mahaprachaya – total unexplainable reality, every multitude is there, everything is included, everything is Shiva only, that understanding is called Mahaprachaya. That is the ultimate that is possible.
By now you would have understood that Yogi sees from objective point of view while Gyani sees from Subjective point of view! That is why so many different words to describe similar states but as it is seen from different point of view, they are considered as different states.
Who is a Master? - One who has actually experienced these states and through one’s own experiential understanding, who has the capacity to explain to others, one who the capacity to take others to this and helps one sustain that even when one come down, from where one cannot fall. That is the definition of a Master in Kashmir Shaivism. How difficult!! You must have experiential understanding, you must be able to communicate and explain to others, not only that you must be capable of taking them and putting them in to experiential understanding, so that the knowledge transfer is at experiential level and explaining to them how to sustain it so that they do not fall when they go back to the sansara again. Now you understand why so much importance is given to Kashmir Shaivism?
As a Grihasthi you have to continue doing your normal work, it is not that after enlightenment you drop out and go to the jungle. Your family members will not allow you to go! Even if you go they will find out and bring you back. Better to learn Kashmir Shaivism and even with all these things you are not lost. That is the real Mastery, if you are going away from sansara if you are opting for Sanyas, you cannot become the Master. Being a Master means experiencing all these things and doing your normal duty as you are doing that now and not losing that state, that is a real Mastery and that Mastery comes by actual experiencing of 36 elements and 30 states of being.
Is eight days a long time for this? I think eight days is nothing! With this we complete this topic.
Thank you very much.
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ReplyDeleteIts really amazing. Thanks for sharing.
ReplyDeleteI too now love Kashmir Shaivism, thanks to Lakshman Joo maharaj for passing on this knowledge treasure to us.This shows how precise our scriptures are.We are fortunate that we are blessed with a master like youto provide us the clarity of the same.
ReplyDeleteWe are just growing out of our understanding of three states of being and know Turya only as the fourth. On this background such wonderful clarity in explaining the 30 states of being itself is a great gift.
ReplyDeleteTelling us about your plans of actually giving experience of these 30 states in Dwarhat itself is too tempting.
Eight days is certainly nothing for this with experience of 36 elements in addition.
We are eagerly awaiting these opportunities.
THANKS A MILLION FOR SHARING THE SECRET KNOWLEDGE
ReplyDeleteIn a classical training I had from one teacher ,there were 4 general stages of samadhi (another name for 4th stage or super-consciousness) up to nirvikalpa, and there were total sub-72 stations within these 4 stages. There were also the nirvanic/parinirvanic stages beyond that, and sahaja. Are these states & stations also defined in Kashmir Shaivism? I believe the one's I'm mentioning may relate to tantric or yogic paths linked in lineage to Padmasambhava who seems to relate to both Indian and Tibetan paths.
ReplyDeleteAnd beyond turiyatit, there is the state when one realizes his original identity as a servant of Krishna. So,the soul accepts a manjuri-deha to serve his beloved eternally. But, unfortunately seekers gets stuck at Nirvana( brahma-jyoti ). They don't have a concept beyond that. Everyone is Shiva qualitatively, but not quantitatively. Being portion(tathastha shakti) we are eternal servant of God. We possess a secratarian view about Krishna- that HE belongs to only Vaishnavas.
ReplyDeleteAnd beyond turiyatit, there is the state when one realizes his original identity as a servant of Krishna. So,the soul accepts a manjuri-deha to serve his beloved eternally. But, unfortunately seekers gets stuck at Nirvana( brahma-jyoti ). They don't have a concept beyond that. Everyone is Shiva qualitatively, but not quantitatively. Being portion(tathastha shakti) we are eternal servant of God. We possess a secratarian view about Krishna- that HE belongs to only Vaishnavas.
ReplyDelete