Avasthātraya: Deeper insights

Abstract

The Upaniṣad or Vedānta is certainly the most brilliant expression of Indian wisdom. From time immemorial it has been the driving force behind all intellectual and spiritual pursuits of the seers. The crowning glory of the Upaniṣad lies in its spirit of inquiry into the nature of truth. It has not only impacted the knowledge systems of India but has gained a global recognition for its consistently significant contribution to the development of the science of consciousness, in addition to the value-based knowledge it imparts. It conceives of pure consciousness to be the eternal, all-pervasive and transcendental Reality which is termed Ātman or Brahman. The individual being is the worldly manifestation of the pure consciousness and it is ignorant of its real nature owing to its association with the limiting adjuncts. According to a few principal Upaniṣads, that real nature, as pure consciousness, can be intuited by an individual after transcending three intermediate states Jāgaritasthāna, Svapnasthāna and Suṣuptasthāna. These three consecutive states do not refer only to the ordinary states of sleep and wakefulness but may be regarded as the steps towards the realization of Supreme Reality. In-depth analysis reveals a close correspondence of these three states with the states of Samādhi as mentioned in the Pātañjala Yogasūtra. The paper offers a deeper insight into the nature of these three intermediate states through which the absolute Consciousness can be perfectly realized in its entirety.