---
type: Concept
bundle: upanishadic-core
bundle_version: "0.6.0"
id: turiya
title: "Turīya"
iast: "Turīya"
devanagari: "तुरीय"
description: "The fourth — not a fourth experiential state alongside Jāgrat, Svapna, and Suṣupti, but the ever-present witnessing ground in which all three states appear and disappear; pure consciousness without modification; Advaita's most commonly misrendered concept after Mithyā"
darshana:
  - Advaita Vedānta
  - Vedānta
school_scope: "Central to the Māṇḍūkya Upaniṣad; the Turīya teaching is the culmination of the Avasthātraya inquiry and the referent of the Mahāvākya Ayam Ātmā Brahma"
text_source: "Māṇḍūkya Upaniṣad 7; Māṇḍūkya Kārikā 1.7–16"
tags: [turiya, mandukya, advaita, witness, sakshin, consciousness, brahman, four-states]
not:
  - term: "the fourth state (a state alongside the other three)"
    why: "Turīya means 'the fourth in counting' (caturtha) — it is called 'fourth' only because it is named after the three states in the Māṇḍūkya's sequential analysis. But the Māṇḍūkya Kārikā (1.7) explicitly says: Turīya is not a state to be experienced alongside the other three; it is 'kevala' (alone, pure) and 'prapañcopaśama' (the cessation of the phenomenal world's appearance). A state would appear and disappear; Turīya does not appear — it is the ground of appearing."
    instead: "Read Turīya as the unchanging witnessing consciousness that is present in all three states — not sequential to them but their simultaneous ground"
  - term: "Samādhi or a meditative achievement"
    why: "Samādhi in the Yoga tradition (Nirvikalpa, Nirbīja, etc.) is a temporary attainment produced by sustained practice — it begins and ends. Turīya is not achieved; it is already and always the witness. One does not enter Turīya; one recognizes it. What Yoga calls Samādhi may be a temporary glimpse of Turīya, but Turīya itself is not a glimpse."
  - term: "unconsciousness or empty void"
    why: "Because Turīya has no specific object-content (unlike waking and dream) and no bliss-object (unlike Suṣupti), it is sometimes equated with emptiness or unconsciousness. The Māṇḍūkya is explicit: Turīya is *prajñānaghana* (dense with consciousness) — not an absence but the plenum of awareness from which all experience arises."
  - term: "enlightenment as a changed state"
    why: "If Turīya were a state to be achieved, enlightenment would be an event in time after which something is different. Advaita's claim is more radical: Turīya has never been absent; the Jīvanmukta does not gain a new state but ceases to misidentify with the other three state-experiencers. Liberation is recognition, not acquisition."
  - term: "identical to Suṣupti"
    why: "Both Turīya and Suṣupti appear contentless. But Suṣupti is characterized by Prājña — an experiencer resting in the bliss of no-objects. Turīya is the witness of Prājña (and of Viśva and Taijasa). Suṣupti ends on waking; Turīya is present throughout waking. The key distinction: Suṣupti is a state; Turīya is not."
related:
  - /concepts/avastha-traya.md
  - /concepts/sakshin.md
  - /concepts/jagrat.md
  - /concepts/svapna.md
  - /concepts/sushupti.md
  - /concepts/ayam-atma-brahma.md
  - /concepts/jivanmukti.md
timestamp: "2026-07-01"
okf_version: "0.2"
license: "CC BY-SA 4.0"
---

# Turīya — तुरीय

**Not:** a fourth state, Samādhi, unconscious void, enlightenment-as-event, equivalent to Suṣupti

## Etymology

Turīya (तुरीय) from *tur-* (the root of "four" in Sanskrit, as in *catur*) with the ordinal suffix *-iya*. It means "the fourth" — but this is a pedagogical name, not a description of its nature. It is called "the fourth" in the sequence of the Māṇḍūkya's analysis; it is not a fourth experiential state.

## The Māṇḍūkya's Description

Māṇḍūkya Upaniṣad 7:
> *na antaḥprajñam, na bahiṣprajñam, na ubhayataḥprajñam, na prajñānaghanaṃ, na prajñam, na aprajñam* — "not inward-conscious (as Svapna), not outward-conscious (as Jāgrat), not conscious in both directions, not a mass of consciousness (as Suṣupti's Prājña), not conscious, not unconscious."

This is Neti Neti applied to the witness itself: after negating all three states and their experiencers, the Upaniṣad arrives at a description that can only be given through negation. What remains is:
> *adṛṣṭam avyavahāryam agrāhyam alakṣaṇam acintyam avyapadeśyam ekātmapratyayasāraṃ prapañcopaśamaṃ śāntaṃ śivam advaitaṃ caturthaṃ manyante sa ātmā sa vijñeyaḥ* — "unseen, not transactable, ungraspable, uncharacterizable, unthinkable, unnameable, the essence of the cognition of the one Ātman, in which the phenomenal world is stilled, peaceful, auspicious, non-dual — this is considered the fourth. This is the Ātman. This is to be known."

## What "The Ground of All Three States" Means

In waking: Viśva experiences gross objects. Behind Viśva — the awareness in which Viśva appears — is Turīya.
In dream: Taijasa experiences subtle objects. Behind Taijasa — Turīya.
In deep sleep: Prājña experiences bliss without objects. Behind Prājña — Turīya.

Turīya is not sequentially behind them (as if it appears when they are done). It is their simultaneous ground — present in all three, unchanged by any of them.

The retrospective report from Suṣupti ("I knew nothing; I was happy") proves this point: the knower of "I knew nothing" was present even in deep sleep. That knower is not Prājña (Prājña had no objects). It is Turīya.

## Turīya and the Mahāvākya

Ayam Ātmā Brahma — "this self is Brahman" — uses the nearest demonstrative "Ayam" (this). The referent of "Ayam Ātmā" is precisely Turīya: the witness right here, most immediately present, that the Māṇḍūkya has just disclosed through the three-states analysis. The Mahāvākya names it Brahman. The identity is complete.

## Turīya and Jīvanmukti

The Jīvanmukta is not someone who perpetually resides in a Suṣupti-like state (which would prevent functioning). They are someone for whom Turīya is recognized as their actual identity — functioning in waking and dream and deep sleep, but without mistaking any state-bound experiencer (Viśva, Taijasa, Prājña) as the Ātman.

## Audience Metaphor

A cinema screen is present in every scene of every film shown on it. When the film shows a fire, the screen is not burned. When it shows darkness, the screen is not darkened. When it shows a crowd, the screen is not crowded. The screen does not appear in the scenes — it is their ground. Turīya is the screen of consciousness: not visible as an object in any state, not affected by any state's content, but without it no state could appear.

## Citations

1. Māṇḍūkya Upaniṣad 7 — the description of Turīya; see [references/mandukya-upanishad.md]
2. Māṇḍūkya Kārikā 1.7–16 (Gauḍapāda) — Turīya as the ground; Ajātivāda; see [references/mandukya-karika.md]
3. Pañcadaśī 7.1–10 (Vidyāraṇya) — witness consciousness and Turīya; see [references/panchadashi.md]
4. Vivekacūḍāmaṇi vv. 316–322 (Śaṅkarācārya) — Sākṣin and Turīya; see [references/vivekachudamani.md]
