Re: On approaches to turiya and consciousness
namaste everyone.
It is rather amusing to read--this top-down approach to turIya and the Self. On the one hand we say that we are the Self--or rather the Self is us; and on the other, we say that we must attain and be established in the state of turIya to know the Self in its pUrNatvam--fullness, and enjoy its Ananda--bliss.
It seems we do not have to do anything to know and experience the Self, except to let the Self assert its Self through all the muck of individuality that marks our koshas--sheaths (physical, astral, mental, causal) as many and different.
The paradox of the TWO WE's is caused by adhyAsa--imposition, of the consciousness (light) of the Self on an individual set of antaH-karaNa, which is otherwise known as the mind. Therefore, all we have to do is to mind our mind.
Human mind is pre-emptive and multi-threaded in action, to use the Infotech terminology. All that is required is to shut down the extraneous threads and let the mind run in a single thread as tailadhAra--flow of oil, without any break. To the extent our mind (not we if you please) does it, the gaps of turIya will widen and reveal its nature as the Self, ripping off the systolic-diastolic vibrations of breathing, thoughts, etc. that punctuate the state of turIya.
This is not to say that the mind must be killed--only that it must be stilled into a single thread of a single thought, to let the light of the Self shine through assertively (rather than be passively reflected), and the Ananda of the Self fill up the mind. This single thread of thought may be a mantra in meditation, a mantra in ajapa--involuntary litany, or simply sustained awareness of the gaps of turIya and the extraneities to the Self.
It is the mind that clouds over the Self, and it is the mind that lets the Self shine through. The mind is the knower until the Self is known, and when that knowledge arrives, the mind becomes shuddha--pure, always filled with the sat-chit-Ananda of the Self in sahaja-samAdhi, with the knower-knowledge-knowing limitations merging into the single entity of the Self as in a jnAni, whose all koshas shine with the light of the Self.
रत्नाकरधौतपदां हिमालयकिरीटिनीम् ।
ब्रह्मराजर्षिररत्नाढ्यां वन्दे भारतमातरम् ॥
To her whose feet are washed by the ocean, who wears the Himalayas as her crown, and is adorned with the gems of rishis and kings, to Mother India, do I bow down in respect.
--viShNu purANam
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