The Fourth (Turīya)
Not a fourth state but the witness of the other three — the awareness that never comes or goes.
Turīya, 'the fourth,' is not another state in the series but the awareness that is awake through all three others — the unchanging witness present in waking, dreaming, and deep sleep alike. It is what does not come and go as the states succeed one another: the silent, ever-present 'I am' that underlies every experience. In the Trika scheme it is the pure self glimpsed behind the changing show, the doorway between the ordinary states and full awakening.
Key passages(11)
Bṛhadāraṇyaka Upaniṣad · Vedic Revelation (śruti)
If a man (a teacher) were to receive as his fee these three worlds full of all things, he would obtain that first foot of the Gayatri. And if a man were to receive as his fee everything as far as this
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Bṛhadāraṇyaka Upaniṣad · Vedic Revelation (śruti)
The Prana (the up-breathing), the Apana (the down-breathing), and the Vyana (the back-breathing) form eight syllables. One foot (the third) of the Gayatri consists of eight syllables. This (one foot)
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