Verse 1.12
नाऽऽत्मानं न परंश्चैव न सत्यं नापि चानृतम् ।
प्राज्ञः किंचन संवेत्ति तुर्यं तत्सर्वदृक्सदा ॥ १२ ॥
nā''tmānaṃ na paraṃścaiva na satyaṃ nāpi cānṛtam |
prājñaḥ kiṃcana saṃvetti turyaṃ tatsarvadṛksadā || 12 ||
The ‘prājñaḥ’ one who is in deep sleep does not know itself as an Atman..! It doesnot know the world (prapanch) also .. It doesnot know the truth that I am “Turiya”. It doesnot know the false world appearing infront of it (ānṛtam) चानृतम्.
किंचन संवेत्ति / prājñaḥ kiṃcana saṃvetti – The ‘prājñaḥ’ doesnot know anything i.e the state of deep sleeper !!.
and ,
How is Turiya different from It???the answer is – तुर्यं तत्सर्वदृक्सदा /turyaṃ tatsarvadṛksadā
i.e. It (Turiya) always illumines everything ! It is self illumined about itself and about the world . It is like the movie hall where the lights have come on with nothing on the screen …( blank screen) but the lights are on !
Verse 1.11
कार्यकारणबद्धौ ताविष्येते विश्वतैजसौ ।
प्राज्ञः कारणबद्धस्तु द्वौ तौ तुर्ये न सिध्यतः ॥ ११॥
kāryakāraṇabaddhau tāviṣyete viśvataijasau .
prājñaḥ kāraṇabaddhastu dvau tau turye na sidhyataḥ
It means “Viswa” i.e. Waker and “Taijasa” i.e. Dreamer are associated to Karanam (Cause) & Karyam (effect) where Ignorance is the cause and Error is the effect.
In deep sleep there is Ignorance but there is no error. The nature of dream may be different for You and me i.e. every individual has different types of dream and are not same .
The nature of deep sleep is same for all beings whether it is a mosquito or tiger or elephant or monkey or human being or PHD or any successful businessman or an illiterate person, it is same for all beings !!
The reason is in deep sleep there is ignorance i.e. complete darkness , nothing to illumine by Turiya the pure consciousness!
Usually we do not experience any thing in deep sleep but “Advaita Vedanta” says –
Do you experience the lack of experience in “deep sleep”?
When we wake up we always say “I had a sound sleep”.
“How do you know you had a sound sleep ? if you experienced nothing in deep sleep .. who tells you that , you had a sound sleep ?”
The ‘who’ here is ‘Turiya’ .
Since ‘Turiya’ is the witness to all of the deep sleep blankness , hence when we wakeup we say “I had a sound sleep” .
Actually Turiya is witnessing this information updating in our conscious and subconscious mind that we had sound sleep . So ,when we wake up we know we had a sound sleep . This proves that Turiya exists and we are the Pure conscious beyond this body & mind !
It means “Viswa” i.e. Waker and “Taijasa” i.e. Dreamer are associated to Karanam (Cause) & Karyam (effect) where Ignorance is the cause and Error is the effect.
न अन्तःप्रज्ञम्। न वहिःप्रज्ञम्। न उभयतःप्रज्ञम्। न प्रज्ञानधनम्। न प्रज्ञम्। न अप्रज्ञम्। अदृष्टम् अव्यवहार्यम् अग्राह्यम् अलक्षणम् अचिन्त्यम् अव्यपदेश्यम् एकात्मप्रत्यसारं प्रपञ्चोपशमम् शान्तं शिवम् अद्वैतं चतुर्थं मन्यन्ते विवेकिनः । सः आत्मा सः विज्ञेयः ॥
Anvaya Transliteration
na antaḥprajñam | na vahiḥprajñam | na ubhayataḥprajñam| na prajñānadhanam| na prajñam| na aprajñam| adṛṣṭam avyavahāryam agrāhyam alakṣaṇam acintyam avyapadeśyam ekātmapratyasāraṁ prapañcopaśamam śāntaṁ śivam advaitaṁ caturthaṁ manyante ( vivekinaḥ )| saḥ ātmā saḥ vijñeyaḥ ||
Expanation of the Mantra
न अन्तःप्रज्ञम् / na antaḥprajñam – ‘YOU’ the ‘Turiya’ are not the dreamer
न वहिःप्रज्ञम् / na vahiḥprajñam – ‘YOU” the ‘Turiya’ are not the waker .
This means You are not the person named as Mr. SO & SO but “YOU” are the consciousness or Turiya illumining this temporary appearance of physcial body and mind in the waking state .
न उभयतःप्रज्ञम् / na ubhayataḥprajñam – ‘YOU’ the ‘TURIYA’ are not something in between waker or dreamer i.e state which is inbetween waking and dream .
न प्रज्ञानधनम् / na prajñānadhanam – ‘YOU’ the ‘TURIYA’ are not the Sleeper i.e. the person who is in a Deep Sleep or Sushupti state .
न प्रज्ञम्। न अप्रज्ञम् / na prajñam| na aprajñam – ‘YOU’ the ‘TURIYA” you are niether any kind of omniscient God ( Bhagwan or Ishwar) and niether you are Sentient ( जड़ वस्तु ) .
अदृष्टम् / adṛṣṭam – ‘YOU” the ‘TURIYA” is not an object of our five sense organs. It is not the subject of normal vision. You cannot see , smell , taste or hear the ‘TURIYA’
अव्यवहार्यम् / avyavahāryam – ‘YOU” the ‘TURIYA’ is not with in transaction. ( Transaction means usable)i.e. pure Consciousness is not an object which can be talked about , seen , felt and used . It is not transactable it is अव्यवहार्यम् . But, remember it is the ground source of all Vyavahar . Without this ‘Turiya’ none of this (touch, smell, see ,taste) can occur. In the light of Turiya everything is illumined.
अग्राह्यम् / agrāhyam – ‘YOU’ the ‘TURIYA” cannot be grasped . It is not the subject of the panch karma indriyas i.e You cannot hold ‘Turiya’ into your hands and you also cannot walk to a turiya just like you walk to pilgrimage . It is not possible to walk to Turiya.
अलक्षणम् / alakṣaṇam – ‘YOU’ the ‘TURIYA’ cannot be inferred.
For e.g if we say ‘the road is wet’ , then what do you infer that there was rain earlier thats why the road is wet . Similarly , There is fire on the hill because I could see smoke coming out of the hill . here there is a relation between smoke and fire .So, if i see smoke i can “infer” that there was fire earlier due to which there is smoke . But , it is not possible to infer TURIYA. Here ‘alakṣaṇam’ means there is no sign by which you can infer to TURIYA.
अचिन्त्यम् / acintyam – ‘YOU’ the ‘TURIYA’ cannot think about it . But, remember the opposite also holds – whatever you think about ,is illumined by the ‘TURIYA’.
अव्यपदेश्यम् / avyapadeśyam – It literally means you cannot name “TURIYA”. It cannot be named.
Shankarayacharya tried to explain this that why “TURIYA” cannot be named –
Where can we use language???there are 5 areas where language can be used but none of the 5 applies to the “TURIYA”. as mentioned below
We could use language if there is some species (जाति) .i.e if some object belongs to a class you could use language like e.g ‘COW’ as we know the characterstics of the cow we could match it with the set and say it belongs to that set . But there is NO class for “TURIYA” . it cannot be part of a class (जाति).
We could use language if there is some Quality (गुण): If you say ” Give me a Red flower ” you are distinguishing the other flowers from ‘Red Flower ‘ by the quality of its colour red. But You cannot say that ” TURIYA” is red or any other colour. “TURIYA” is beyond all quality it is supposed to be called as Nirgunam (निर्गुण).
We could use language if there is some Action (क्रिया) : For e.eg if you are saying ” Call the cook ” how did you use language , by the function of that person. But “TURIYA” has no activity , it is niShkriyaM (निष्क्रियं)
We could use language if there is some Relationship (संबंध) : e.g if you say call the teacher , that means there is a student teacher relation, here we are talking where we can address one as a student and another as teacher . But , with ‘TURIYA” there is no second apart from it , it is the only unchanging reality .
We could use language if there is Convention ( रूढि ) : e.g if you say ” this persons name is prakash”, to call somebody you have to point out to that person i.e. apart from all other objects this person is now on called as prakash . But you cannot point out “TURIYA” that way .
Hence ” LANGUAGE” cannot operate for “TURIYA”
एकात्मप्रत्यसारं / ekātmapratyasāraṁ – ‘Ek’ means one , ‘Atma’ means atma, ‘Prataya’ means congnition , ‘Saram’ means essence . The feeling of “Atmapratya” or I .
i.e. ” If you follow the essence of ‘I” ness (Conscious I in all states ) you shall reach “TURIYA”.
प्रपञ्चोपशमम् / prapañcopaśamam – “TURIYA” is completely untouched by the Jagrit Prapanch ( Waking state ), Swapna Prapanch ( dream state) and Sushupti ( deepsleep ) even though all these three states are illumined by the TURIYA.
शान्तं / śāntaṁ – TURIYA is absolutely Peaceful and ever undisturbed . There is no world to disturb the TURIYA. That is the reality of TURIYA.
शिवम् / śivam – Shivam here means TURIYA is anand swaroopam . It is full of Joy.
अद्वैतं / advaitaṁ – “Advaitam ” means non dual , because there is nothing apart from TURIYA , Just as GOLD is advaitam with respect to Bangle , necklace and Ring .
चतुर्थं मन्यन्ते विवेकिनः / caturthaṁ manyante ( vivekinaḥ ) : Foolish people think there is a 4th reality apart from remaining 3 but actually “TURIYA” is the only reality in whose light the entire game of the waking world ( Jagrit state ) , Dream world ( Swapna state ) and Deep Sleep ( Sushupti ) is illumined .
सः आत्मा सः विज्ञेयः / saḥ ātmā saḥ vijñeyaḥ :
“saḥ ātmā” means that, the answer to the question “who am i” is TURIYA .
“saḥ vijñeyaḥ” means it need to be realised . Just by listening about TURIYA wont work we need to realise it as well.
