The Turīya state
Entering the Trance
insensible samādhi
Turīya — Realizing Infinite Consciousness
The Jīva, on account of its ignorant self-limitation as the mind, becomes as if tainted by the objects of the world; but the same jīva, when it is awakened to its true nature, abandons its ignorant delusion and regains self-knowledge. Then the mind sees the body as if from a great height. Recognising the body as an aggregate of the elements, it transcends body consciousness and becomes enlightened.
All that is, is but the expansion of the relationship between pure experiencing and its experience. That experience is truly delight of self-bliss. It is pure experiencing itself. When it is bent towards object, it is bondage. When it is free, it is liberation. When such experiencing is freed from decay or curiosity, it is liberation. When such experiencing is freed from even this contact (the subject-object relationship), then the world-appearance ceases entirely. Then arises the turīya consciousness or 'deep sleep in wakefulness'.
At all times, the mind should not be attached to the action, the thoughts or the object. Neither should it be attached to the heavens above, nor what is below, nor in the other directions. It should not be bound to external relations, nor to the life-force. The mind should not rest in the head, inside the palate, between the eyebrows, at the tip of the nose or in the mouth or eyes. I should not repose either in the darkness or in the light or even in the cave of the heart. The state of wakefulness, dream and sleep should not hold it, and even the wide, pure space should not be its home. Unattached to the spectrum of colors, to movement and steadiness, to the beginning, the middle, the end and elsewhere, the mind should not rest either at a distance or nearby, in objects or in the self.
One should enquire into what is known as jīva or mind. The supreme self, which alone is the truth, is right in the middle between the inert and the intelligent: that alone creates diversity and is known by all these diverse names.
As long as the seed of vāsanā (self-limitation, conditioning, or tendency) exists, that state is like deep sleep; it is no perfection. When all vāsanā are destroyed and even the potentiality of the vāsanā does no exist, that state is known as the fourth (beyond waking, dream and deep sleep) and transcendental state. It brings about perfection. Vāsanā, fire, debt, disease, enemy, friendship, hate and poison - all these are bothersome even if a little residue is left after their removal.
On the other hand if all the vāsanā have been completely removed, then one is established in the state of pure being; whether on is alive or not, he is not again afflicted by sorrow.
If in the course of time you attain the experience of the self, do not store it in your mind as a memory or ego-sense to be revived as desire once again. You will not be bound if you have self-knowledge. When you do not engage yourself in sense-experiences and also when you experience whatever comes unsought, you are in a state of equanimity and purity, free from latent tendencies and memories.
The pure and equanimous state which is devoid of ego-sense and non-ego sense, of the real and the unreal, and which is free, is know as turīya. It is the state of liberated sage. It is the unbroken witness consciousness. It is different from the waking and the dreaming states which are characterised by movement of thought; it is different from the deep sleep state which is characterised by inertia and ignorance. When the ego-sense is abandoned, there arises the sate of perfect equilibrium in which the turīya manifests itself.