Clarification on the four states of the soul

[Sri J.S.R. Prasad asked:- In the discourse ‘Awareness, Soul and Advaita’ given by You on 03.03.2007, You have given that there are four states for the soul, which are awaken, dream, meditation and deep sleep. But, You were emphasizing the four states of the soul (in Your discourse given on Maanduukya Upanishad) as awaken, dream, deep sleep and Turiiya state of unimaginable God. Is there any contradiction here? At Your divine lotus feet – Your servant]

Swami Replied:- The soul mentioned by Me in explaining the Maanduukya Upanishad is the human incarnation appearing as soul and not the ordinary soul. In the above discourse, referred by you, the soul described by you is the ordinary soul, which cannot have the fourth Turiiya state due to the absence of God in it. In the Maanduukya Upanishad, the four states mentioned cannot indicate the Turiiya state for ordinary souls and hence, the human incarnation-soul is put by Me to justify the mention of the four states in which Turiiya is the last state. In the above referred context, I am talking about ordinary souls only and I have added a new fourth state for ordinary souls, which is the meditation state as serial number 3. The reason for this addition in this context is that the ordinary soul can attain this new fourth state, which is almost similar to the deep sleep state. The difference between the deep sleep state and the meditation state is that in the former state, all thoughts disappear since awareness itself disappears whereas, in the latter state, all thoughts disappear except one thought since the source of thoughts (awareness) does not disappear. The remaining one thought in meditation state is the awareness of the self awareness itself. Hence, the bliss of the resting nervous system is experienced in the meditation state and not in the deep sleep state. Even though, rest is taking place in the deep sleep state as well, the bliss of such rest is experienced in the awaken state that just follows the deep sleep state. Here, in the first awaken state, bliss is experienced, no doubt, but, the reason for the bliss (which is rest), which is known in the first awaken state is through inference only and not by direct perception (direct experience). The rest is neither experienced in the deep sleep state nor is experienced in the first awaken state. The reason for the bliss, which is the rest, is just known in the first awaken state through inference alone. The logic of the inference is “now I am experiencing bliss and the reason for this bliss is the rest, which was taken by me in the just preceding deep sleep state”. This is only through inference by logic and not direct experience of the rest either in the deep sleep state or in the first awaken state.

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