Re: Mandukya Upanishad & fourth state (Was Re: Avataarams)

From the Bhakti List Archives

• January 4, 1996


On Jan 4,  3:33pm, Vijay Srinivasan wrote:
> Subject: Re: Mandukya Upanishad & fourth state (Was Re: Avataarams)
>
> I would like to slightly deviate from Mani's interpretation.  The fourth
state
> is also called kaivalya or atma avalokana.  It is no doubt a state of bliss.
> But according to our sampradayam this leads to solipsism.

This is not the turiya or fourth state described in
the Upanishad.  While there is an intermediate state
of consciousness in our philosophy, where the individual
self is free from all matter and has infinite jnaana,
this is not what the Upanishad is discussing when
describing the fourth state, which discusses the experience
of the all-pervading, non-dual Lord.

It is the paramaatma that is experienced in the fourth
state.

Mani