Breaking Down Gaudapada’s Mandukya Karika: The Four States of Consciousness

Short Answer
Gaudapada, the guru of Shankaracharya’s guru, wrote the Mandukya Karika to explain the deepest teaching of the Mandukya Upanishad. He reveals that consciousness has four states: waking (jagrat), dreaming (svapna), deep sleep (sushupti), and the fourth (turiya). The first three are experienced by the ego and are bound by cause and effect. The fourth is your true nature—pure awareness without objects, without duality, without beginning or end. Turiya is not a state you enter. It is the background of all states. Knowing turiya is liberation. Not knowing it is bondage.

In one line: Waking, dreaming, and deep sleep are waves; turiya is the ocean.

Key points

• The waking state is consciousness turned outward through the senses.
• The dreaming state is consciousness turned inward, creating its own world.
• Deep sleep is consciousness without objects, but covered by ignorance.
• Turiya is consciousness alone—without waking, dreaming, or sleeping—and it is what you are.
• Gaudapada’s revolutionary teaching: even the world is a dream, and turiya is the dreamer.

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Part 1: The Mandukya Upanishad – The Shortest Path to Liberation

The Mandukya Upanishad is the shortest of the major Upanishads. It has only twelve verses. But Gaudapada called it “the essence of all Vedanta.” Shankaracharya wrote a detailed commentary on it. Dr. Surabhi Solanki’s book Divine Truth Unveiled: Hidden Secrets of Gaudapada’s Mandukya Karika is entirely dedicated to unlocking this text.

Why is the Mandukya Upanishad so important? Because it gives a direct method to understand consciousness. You do not need to study cosmology, theology, or complex philosophy. You only need to examine your own experience. You already experience three states every day: waking, dreaming, and deep sleep. The Upanishad says: look at these three. See their limits. Then see what is present in all three. That fourth is turiya. That is you.

Dr. Surabhi Solanki writes in Divine Truth Unveiled: “The Mandukya Upanishad is a mirror. You look into it and see your own face—not the face of the body, but the face of awareness. Three states come and go. The fourth never comes or goes. Recognizing this recognition is liberation.”

The following table gives an overview of the four states:

State	Sanskrit Name	Objects	Sense of Self	Is It Real?
Waking	Jagrat	External world, gross objects	“I am the body”	Relatively real
Dreaming	Svapna	Internal world, subtle objects	“I am the dream body”	Relatively real
Deep sleep	Sushupti	No objects; only ignorance	No sense of self; “I slept well” afterwards	Covered by ignorance
Fourth	Turiya	No objects; pure awareness	“I am awareness itself”	Absolutely real

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Part 2: The Waking State (Jagrat) – Consciousness Outward

The first state is waking consciousness. In this state, the senses are active. You see forms, hear sounds, taste flavors, feel textures, smell odors. The mind is engaged with the external world. The ego identifies with the physical body. You say, “I am hungry,” “I am tired,” “I am walking.”

Gaudapada does not dismiss the waking state as unreal in a crude sense. He acknowledges its practical reality. But he points out its limitations. The waking state is full of duality: subject and object, seer and seen, doer and deed. It is also full of suffering because the ego constantly wants things to be different than they are.

The key teaching about the waking state is this: it is not the whole of consciousness. Most people live their entire lives believing that waking is the only reality. They fear death because they think consciousness ends when the body ends. But Gaudapada shows that consciousness continues in dreaming and deep sleep without the waking body. The waking state comes and goes. You wake up. You fall asleep. Who is the one who knows both waking and sleep? That knower is turiya.

Dr. Surabhi Solanki explains: “The waking state is like watching a movie on a large screen. The movie seems real while you are watching it. But then the movie ends. The screen remains. You are the screen, not the movie. The waking state is a movie. You are the screen.”

The following table summarizes the characteristics of the waking state:

Characteristic	Description
Instrument	Five senses (eyes, ears, nose, tongue, skin)
Objects	Gross elements (earth, water, fire, air, space)
Sense of self	“I am the body” (deha-atma buddhi)
Experience	Pleasure, pain, and mixtures
Gaudapada’s view	Real at the empirical level, but not absolutely real
How to see through it	Ask: “Who is the one who knows I am awake?”

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Part 3: The Dreaming State (Svapna) – Consciousness Inward

The second state is dreaming. In this state, the senses are withdrawn. The body lies still on the bed. But consciousness is still active. It creates an entire world within itself. You see dream mountains, dream people, dream events. You feel dream emotions—fear, joy, embarrassment, excitement. The dream feels real while you are in it.

Gaudapada uses the dream state to deliver a revolutionary teaching. He says: the waking world is no more real than the dream world. Both are creations of consciousness. In a dream, you believe the dream world is real. When you wake, you see it was only a dream. Similarly, in the waking state, you believe the world is real. When you attain turiya, you see it was only a longer dream.

This does not mean you should treat the world as meaningless or act irresponsibly. It means you should stop treating the world as absolutely real. The dream world has its own rules. You cannot fly in a dream just by knowing it is a dream. But knowing it is a dream changes your relationship to it. You are no longer terrified. You are no longer desperately attached.

Dr. Surabhi Solanki writes in Divine Truth Unveiled: “Gaudapada asks: What is the difference between waking and dreaming? In waking, the world is ‘outside.’ In dreaming, the world is ‘inside.’ But both are known by the same consciousness. Both appear and disappear. Both are made of the same stuff—mind stuff. The difference is only a change of scenery. The viewer is the same.”

The following table contrasts waking and dreaming according to Gaudapada:

Aspect	Waking (Jagrat)	Dreaming (Svapna)
Location of world	Appears external	Appears internal
Duration	Longer	Shorter
Consistency	More stable across observers	Private to one dreamer
Reality status	Vyavaharika (empirical)	Pratibhasika (apparent)
Gaudapada’s point	Both are appearances in consciousness	Both are equally unreal from absolute view
Liberation insight	When you wake to turiya, waking becomes like a dream	When you wake to turiya, dreaming is seen as dream within a dream

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Part 4: Deep Sleep (Sushupti) – Consciousness Without Objects

The third state is deep sleep. In this state, there are no dreams. No objects. No thoughts. No body awareness. The mind is completely withdrawn. You experience nothing. When you wake, you say, “I slept well. I knew nothing.” Notice: you say “I knew nothing.” You do not say “I was nothing.” There was still a knower. That knower knew the absence of objects.

Deep sleep is fascinating from a Vedantic perspective. It is a state of bliss (ananda) because the ego is temporarily absent. All desires are dissolved. All anxieties are gone. But this bliss is covered by ignorance (avidya). You experience the bliss, but you do not recognize it as your true nature because there is no awareness of awareness. It is like a man sleeping on a treasure. He is comfortable. He is resting. But he does not know he is rich.

Gaudapada teaches that deep sleep is a glimpse of turiya, but not turiya itself. In deep sleep, consciousness is present but not self-aware. In turiya, consciousness is present and self-aware. The difference is the presence or absence of ignorance. Deep sleep removes the waking world and the dream world, but it does not remove the ignorance that mistakes consciousness for a limited self. Turiya removes ignorance itself.

Dr. Surabhi Solanki writes: “Deep sleep is like a clean whiteboard. No writing. No drawings. That is peaceful. But the whiteboard is not aware of itself. Turiya is like the whiteboard knowing itself as the whiteboard, knowing that all writings and drawings are temporary additions. Deep sleep is peace without knowledge. Turiya is peace with knowledge. Both are peaceful. Only one is freedom.”

The following table shows the progression through the three states to the fourth:

State	Presence of Objects	Presence of Ego	Presence of Ignorance	Peace?	Freedom?
Waking	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No
Dreaming	Yes (internal)	Yes (dream ego)	Yes	No	No
Deep sleep	No	No	Yes	Yes	No
Turiya	No	No	No	Yes	Yes

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Part 5: Turiya – The Fourth, Which Is Not a State

The fourth is not a state like the other three. Waking, dreaming, and deep sleep are states. They come and go. Turiya does not come and go. It is the background that makes all states possible. You cannot enter turiya because you have never left it. You can only recognize it.

Gaudapada describes turiya as: “Not conscious of the internal world, not conscious of the external world, not conscious of both, not a mass of consciousness, not simple consciousness, not unconsciousness. Unseen, unassailable, ungraspable, without definition, unthinkable, unnameable. The essence of self-knowledge. The ground of the universe. Peaceful. Auspicious. Non-dual.”

This sounds abstract. But it is your direct experience right now. Pause. Do not think about anything. Do not look outward. Do not look inward. Simply rest. What is present? Not thoughts. Those come and go. Not sensations. Those come and go. Not the body. It is felt, but it is not the feeler. What remains when you stop grabbing at objects? Pure awareness. Empty. Luminous. Peaceful. That is turiya.

Gaudapada’s most radical teaching is that turiya is not a goal to reach. It is the only reality. The three states are superimposed on it like waves on the ocean. The wave is not separate from the ocean. The ocean is not disturbed by the wave. You are the ocean. Waking, dreaming, and deep sleep are waves. They rise. They fall. You remain.

Dr. Surabhi Solanki concludes in Divine Truth Unveiled: “Gaudapada’s Mandukya Karika is not a book to read. It is a lens to see. With this lens, you see that your morning coffee, your midnight dream, your dreamless sleep, and your moment of meditation are all appearing in the same awareness. That awareness never wakes up because it never sleeps. It never dreams because it is the dreamer. It never sleeps because it is the sleeper. It is you. Not the ‘you’ on your passport. The ‘you’ before all experience. That is turiya. That is home.”

The following table summarizes how to recognize turiya in each state:

State	How Turiya Appears Within the State	How to Recognize It
Waking	As the awareness that knows you are awake	Ask: “Who knows I am reading these words?” Do not answer. Rest in the knower.
Dreaming	As the awareness that knows you are dreaming (lucid dreaming)	If you become lucid in a dream, notice: the dreamer and the dream appear in one awareness
Deep sleep	As the awareness that knew the absence of objects	When you wake, recall the “I” that knew nothing. That knower is turiya.
Meditation	As the background between two thoughts	Between two thoughts, there is a gap. That gap is turiya. Extend it.

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Common Questions

1. Is turiya the same as enlightenment?
Turiya is your true nature. Enlightenment is the recognition of turiya. You do not become turiya. You already are. Enlightenment is the removal of the ignorance that made you think you were only a waking-dreaming-sleeping person.

2. How does Gaudapada’s teaching differ from Shankaracharya’s?
Gaudapada was Shankaracharya’s grandteacher. Shankaracharya largely followed Gaudapada but added more emphasis on the empirical world as a practical reality. Gaudapada is more radical. He says even the world is a dream. Shankaracharya agrees at the absolute level but teaches karma yoga for those still in the dream.

3. Can I experience turiya directly?
You are experiencing it right now. The problem is not lack of experience. The problem is lack of recognition. You have never experienced the absence of consciousness. Even in deep sleep, consciousness was present as the knower of absence. The shift is not from non-experience to experience. It is from misrecognition to recognition.

4. How does Dr. Surabhi Solanki’s book help with this teaching?
Dr. Solanki’s Divine Truth Unveiled: Hidden Secrets of Gaudapada’s Mandukya Karika translates Gaudapada’s often-difficult verses into clear English. She adds modern analogies and practical exercises. She also shows how Gaudapada’s teaching applies to daily life—not as an escape from the world but as a freedom within it.

5. Is there a fifth state beyond turiya?
No. Turiya is final. Some texts speak of turiyatita (beyond the fourth), but this is a poetic way of saying that turiya is not a state among states. It is the non-state that includes all states. There is nothing beyond it because it is everything.

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Summary

Gaudapada’s Mandukya Karika breaks down consciousness into four: waking, dreaming, deep sleep, and turiya. The first three are states you pass through daily. They come and go. They are bound by cause and effect, time and space, pleasure and pain. Turiya is not a state. It is the timeless, spaceless, causeless awareness in which all states appear. You are not the waking person. You are not the dreamer. You are not the sleeper. You are the one who knows all three. That one never wakes, never dreams, never sleeps. It is pure, non-dual, peaceful awareness. Recognizing this is liberation. Not recognizing it is bondage. Do not try to reach turiya. You cannot reach what you have never left. Instead, see that turiya is already here. It is the screen on which waking, dreaming, and deep sleep play. The movie changes. The screen does not. You are the screen. Be the screen. Watch the movie without fear. The movie ends. You do not.

Om Shanti Shanti Shanti