The Indian scriptures describe the following four states of human awareness:
- Jagruti – the waking state of consciousness
- Swapna – the dreaming state of consciouslness
- Sushupti – the state of deep sleep in which the mind, the ego and superego are still
- Turya – the state of thoughtless awareness beyond the mind
The first three states of awareness are commonly experienced in our daily lives. The fourth state in which the constant rising and falling of thoughts in the mind comes to an end. At first a gap – vilamba – begins to appear between the thoughts. As this gap grows the thoughts diminish and, with regular practice of meditation, the mind enters easily into thoughtless awareness. The attention becomes still like a lake without any ripples on it and a deep inner peace begins to dawn upon our awareness.
In the state of thoughtless awareness we think neither of the past nor of the future. We are entirely in the present moment, in the state of being and do not waste the precious moments of life thinking about times that are finished forever or yet to come. We start enjoying our Self, our Spirit, our own inner beauty and the beauty of creation. We start to enjoy being.
In this state, we start to feel the vibrations of our chakras and our surroundings (and the effect of our behavior and lifestyle) on our fingertips. As a result we spontaneously and naturally change ourselves and our environment so that we maximize the joy, both for ourselves and for those around us. Shri Mataji has described Sahaja Yoga Meditation as “innate religion”.
To establish this blissful state within yourself, we invite you to try our online meditation lessons.