Turiya is a state of pure consciousness beyond the three common states of waking, dream sleep, and dreamless sleep. Yogis aim to achieve this state through practice.
Turiya is a Hindi term that describes a state of absolute reality, which transcends all other experiences and releases completely pure consciousness. Turiya is a transcendent state of awakening, and at the same time it is an ever-present state, underlying all other states of consciousness.
Consciousness can be seen as having three common states. The first state is when the mind is awake, and is called jagrata in Sanskrit. In this state the subject, a person in the world, interacts with the object which is the physical world. The waking state is what most of us experience the vast majority of our lives, with our conscious mind interpreting the things we see and processing the material world moment by moment.
The second state of consciousness is that of dream sleep, or svapna. This is when we are asleep, but our minds are still consciously engaged with the mental world. Dream sleep is seen as a corollary of waking, with the conscious mind still interacting directly with a world, albeit the sleeping world. Both jagrata and svapna can be seen as fundamentally dualistic, with a subject interpreting objects, or an ego state interacting with that outside the self.
The third state of ordinary consciousness is that of dreamless sleep, or suupti. In susupti the conscious mind does not appear to be present, as there is no subject interacting with objects. In this sense, susupti is seen as a non-dualistic state of consciousness. It is still said to be conscious, however, because the mere acknowledgment that one is not dreaming shows an understanding of the self. Just like saying you heard nothing in a quiet room shows there is someone to hear, or saying you saw nothing in the dark shows there is someone to see, so is the acknowledgment that you dreamed that nothing was seen as an acknowledgment that there was someone who was dreaming or was not dreaming.
Conversely, turiya is seen as a state of consciousness beyond the three normal states. It is sometimes called simply the fourth state, and it is both below and above the other three states. Turiya is the embodiment of consciousness itself, not a manifestation of it. It is the totality of everything and the sources from which all consciousness springs. At the same time, turiya is more than just a concept of everything. In the Mandukya Upanishad it is said that turiya is not that which is conscious of the objective, nor the subjective, nor both, nor simply consciousness, nor all sensitivity, nor all darkness. It is “invisible, transcendent, the only essence of self-consciousness, the completion of the world.”
Yogis try to fully realize the state of turiya through practice, engaging in sound resonance, breathing exercises, and body shapes. Turiya yoga emphasizes complete freedom, rejecting force and power and instead embracing the ideal of a universal harmony that can be learned to resonate within.
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