The Enlightenment - The Fourth State of Consciousness

I have two quotes to share on the Fourth State of Consciousnesses that is also called Enlightenment by some religions-

“Enlightenment is any experience of expanding our consciousness beyond its present limits. We could also say that perfect enlightenment is realisation that we have no limits at all.” (From “The Lazy Man’s Guide to Enlightenment” by Thaddeus Golas)

“The Ultimate State of Consciousness is universally described in mystical literature as union with the Absolute, where the Absolute is known not as many but one without a second. Further, it is specified that to know the absolute is to be the absolute. It follows that the Ultimate State of Consciousness is itself the Absolute, and thus the ultimate state is not a state of consciousness set apart from other states, not one state among many, but rather one state without a second ----that is to say, absolutely all-inclusive. Hence, the Ultimate State of Consciousness is not an altered state of consciousness, for there is no alternative.” (From “Eye to Eye” by Ken Wilber)

The stage of enlightenment can either be a gradual method or a sudden one. The sudden ones occur due to a sudden spiritual awakening. It can happen suddenly to anyone, just like the King who had the dream of being a beggar and an ocean of questions disturbed his mind. He wanted to know what is the true state of consciousness, this life or the one beyond or the one he saw in his dream. Like this King and many others, I have set on an inward journey to find out the answers to this question.

The Fourth Absolute State of Consciousness - Enlightenment

The Fourth Absolute state of pure consciousness is the experience of ultimate reality and truth. The truth of this universe, the unknown mystery that lies beyond death may be found there. The fourth state of consciousness transcends the three common states of consciousness: the state of waking consciousness, the state of dreaming, and dreamless sleep(the unmanifested third state). The absolute state of consciousness is something we can never experience otherwise and attaining it requires having true power over one’s own mind.

Achieving the fourth Absolute State of Consciousness is what many SOUL SEEKERS tried for ages. Some claim that it can be achieved by powerful psychedelic drugs. Poets like Coleridge and Keats are alleged to be taking opium to attain such states and write multi-layered poems like “Kubla Khan”. But, these states when achieved by taking resort to drugs are the easy way – an alternative way is to exercising control over your mind. When we talk of mind power and not substance, we should use the mind alone. Drugs and substances are for the ones who are not able to attain it otherwise by mind power. This situation is similar to soccer players taking resort to drugs to increase their body power and not just playing themselves.


Do we need a stimulant or drug when we can make our mind think in a particular way we want to? Sometimes we feel as if we cannot control our mind, it craves for a particular thing and you just cannot resist. Everything can be resisted, if you can make your mind do it. Let your mind be your slave and not vice versa. It's a powerful weapon that all are gifted with and can used to destroy or create. Which one is your pick?

The States of Consciousness

Before embarking on further discussion on Dreams, lets get to know all the four states of consciousness.

I already wrote about the first two states of consciousness according to the Upanishad which are :

1. Waking state of consciousness when our organs are wide awake and interact with the external world.
2. Dreaming state of consciousness in which we view symbolic transformations of the real world.

The two other states of consciousness are:

3. The unmanifested third state of consciousness:

This is a state of deep sleep in which the mind neither is awake or is dreaming, but the mind remains drowned in perfect bliss. This is the state where the mind experiences void. Void in its truest sense. We can never think “ nothing” when we are awake or even in the second dreaming state of consciousness. Can we? At least, I cannot. Some thought or the other keeps on invading our mind. Even if we don’t want to. This third unmanifested state is when the mind attains a state of void.

4. The fourth absolute state of consciousness:

They say that fourth state transcends the three other states. If waking is the bright day, and deep sleep is the dark night, dreams are the connecting twilight : and all these are relative with respect to the Sun, which itself is the Fourth absolute state. In our life, we are the Sun itself, and the states of consciousness are relative with respect to our mind- our day, our night and twilight with respect to us . It’s the same Self , passing through different states of consciousness.

One advice from me- Enjoy the journey. Enjoy the states of consciousness - which ever you can.

The State of Consciousness - Dreams and Reality

I can’t help but share a story that I came across from the Mandukya Upanisad. It is the story of an ancient king who had a strange dream. In his dream, he saw himself as a tramp- shelter less, without food and in tattered clothes that begged from door to door. He woke up only to find himself in the luxury of the royal couch. The perturbed king called up his wise men to pose the question –“ Am I really the King, momentarily playing the role of a beggar in dream or am I really a beggar dreaming as the King in the Court?”

The rest of the story anyway turned less important once this question gripped my mind. The question of being the beggar or the king boiled down to whether the “waking consciousness” is more real than the dream world? For most of us the answer is ”Yes”. Dreams for us are just for a short while and not useful to the activities of this world.

The hermits of the time in India took this subject seriously. In the pursuit of knowledge for the same, they discovered the four states of consciousness. Among these four, two are the predominant ones –
1. Waking state of consciousness when our organs are wide awake and interact with the external world.
2. Dreaming state of consciousness in which we view symbolic transformations of the real world.

All what we see in our dreams, no matter how weird it seems has got to do something with our real lives. For the above mentioned King, his state of being a beggar, I think, might be some kind of seeking. Although he was a King, he must have been seeking for something - either love, peace or happiness. The act of begging is just symbolic.

Mind and the Soul Conflict

The wonder of the human mind led me to the research on Psychology. I started with the term ”psycho” itself. I always knew psychology as the ”study of the mind” until I found this interesting twist. I was quite surprised to read what the term “ psychology” actually means. “Psycho” means “soul” in Latin and not the mind. So in a way, it was the study of the soul initially, and over the years the meaning got altered. The term psychology changed to the study of the mind from soul. The aim of this study was to find reasons behind human beings acting in a certain way. Initially when the existence of the ”mind” wasn’t known to people, they purely thought that the soul is responsible for the personality of a human. Over the years, soul was associated with only the spiritual world, whereas the mind looked like more biological and real. People tend to explain a man’s personality and behaviour with the mind and not the soul. This was because the mind and its exploits could be explained by medical science. On the other hand, the soul and its exploits were too difficult to explain in black and white theories. No one knew the source of souls and many don’t even believe in its existence.

Behaviourist John Watson concluded -

“No one has ever touched a soul, or seen one in a test tube, or has in any way come into relationship with it as he has with the other objects of his daily experience ....

Why don't we make what we can observe the real field of psychology? Let us limit ourselves to things that can be observed, and formulate laws concerning only those things. Now what can we observe? We can observe behavior - what the organism does or says. And let us point out at once: that saying is doing - that is, behaving. . “

The mind was still in a way trapped in researches and thesis by men, but the soul still remains elusive. It belongs to an unknown and mysterious world!!!

Human Mind - the wonder

"The music in my heart I bore,
Long after it was heard no more."

These are the last two lines from William Wordsworth’s “The Solitary Reaper”. Wordsworth was so enchanted by a Scottish Reaper singing in the field- he could even hear the song when he moved far enough physically from the Reaper. I am sure he dint record the song in his voice recorder but rather in his mind. Wordsworth puts it as “The music in my heart” though and not the mind. Wordsworth belonged to the Romantic Age. It was much later in the modern age after Freud, that the possibilities of the human mind were discovered and recognized.


The human mind is designed to be a true masterpiece. It works as an Ipod by simply replaying your favorite song in your mind whenever you want to, it works as a camera retrieving images of those moments you spend with that special someone. It also enables you to see videos of your favorite song, when you recall them The human mind is a wonder, its power we often take for granted and overlook the tasks that it is able to perform. All the kool gizmo gadgets that men make, fail to match upto its brilliance. These gadgets also are the brainchild or do we say brainchildren of the human mind, after all. The ideas that the mind produces are translated into these gadgets.

Robot Vs Human

, My curiosity with Robotics made me hunt down some more information on them and I came across two interesting terms - Cyborg and Android. Cyborg originated from cyber organism or cybernetic organism- a human with both natural and artificial organs or systems in him. This concept makes a person with a pacemaker or an artificial kidney or those hearing implants are Cyborgs too!!! My grandpa had those hearing implants when he was on earth- so according to the definition he was a Cyborg too. Did I live with a Cyborg(my Grandpa). As far as I remember him, before he passed away, he was a human being with a very lovely spirit. I somehow cannot relate to him as a Cyborg. Specially, with the images of Cyborg I found – Never. They look scary!!

Androids, I found are robots who resemble humans in appearance and behavior. Andrew, the robot in the “Bicentennial Man” and also the TV show “Small Wonder” had Vicki who are examples of Android.

This interchange of characteristics in human and robots is increasing each day. Humans turn more robot like and robots more human like. Is this the indication of creation of a common plane where both meet – a new species, which is neither human nor robot????? Only time will tell.

But, this would mean human race losing its identity. Humans are supposed to be perishable, supposed to go through the wear and tear of time. As they grow old, along with their wrinkle they gain wisdom. That’s how they are designed by the divine engineer. Humans are the only species who enjoy the privilege of wisdom and insight.

Robots can store data into their memory which some may call knowledge, but can they possess wisdom? What is wisdom? Wisdom is processing knowledge and gaining an insight into life and beyond. Robots or machines, at the end of the day, can never gain insight or wisdom. This is because insight and wisdom is not of this world, the source of both is unknown and unseen.