In Hindu philosophy, turiya (Sanskrit: तुरीय, meaning "the fourth"), also referred to as chaturiya or chaturtha, is the true self (atman) beyond the three common states of consciousness (waking, dreaming, and dreamless deep sleep).
[note 2] These verses of the Chandogya Upanishad set out a dialogue between Indra and Virocana, in search of atman, the immortal perceiver, and Prajapati, their teacher.
[3] The phrase "turiya" also appears in Maitri Upanishad (late 1st millennium BCE) in sections 6.19 (in the context of yoga) and 7.11: 6.19.
Now, it has elsewhere been said: 'Verily, when a knower has restrained his mind from the external, and the breathing spirit (prāṇa) has put to rest objects of sense, there-upon let him continue void of conceptions.
[5]Verse 7 of the Mandukya Upanishad (1st-2nd century CE) refers to "the fourth" (caturtha),[6] or "the fourth quarter",[7] the first, second and third quarter being situated in the waking, dreaming and dreamless state: They consider the fourth quarter as perceiving neither what is inside nor what is outside, nor even both together; not as a mass of perception, neither as perceiving nor as not perceiving; as unseen; as beyond the reach of ordinary transaction; as ungraspable; as without distinguishing marks; as unthinkable; as indescribable; as one whose essence is the perception of itself alone; as the cessation of the visible world; as tranquil; as auspicious; as without a second.
[7]Michael Comans disagrees with Nakamura's suggestion that "the concept of the fourth realm (caturtha) was perhaps influenced by the Sunyata of Mahayana Buddhism",[8][note 3] stating that "[T]here can be no suggestion that the teaching about the underlying Self as contained in the Mandukya contains shows any trace of Buddhist thought, as this teaching can be traced to the pre-Buddhist Brhadaranyaka Upanishad.
[12] Gaudapada's commentary on verse 7 of the Mandukya Upanishad: 10 Turiya, the changeless Ruler, is capable of destroying all miseries.
16 When the jiva, asleep under the influence of beginningless maya, is awakened, it then realizes birthless, sleepless and dreamless Non—duality.
[13] Isaeva notes that the Mandukya Upanishad asserts that "the world of individual souls and external objects is just a projection of one indivisible consciousness (citta)," which is "identical with the eternal and immutable atman of the Upanisads [..] in contrast to momentary vijnana taught by the Buddhist schools.
"[14][note 5] Adi Shankara described, on the basis of the ideas propounded in the Mandukya Upanishad, the three states of consciousness, namely waking (jågrata), dreaming (svapna), and deep sleep (susupti):[web 2][web 3] Turiya is liberation, the autonomous realization of the non-causal Brahman beyond and underlying these three states.
[citation needed] Based on the Tantraloka an extended model of seven consecutive stages of turiya is presented by Swami Lakshman Joo.