We have a faculty which is known as consciousness, which can be imagined like the depth of the ocean. We have to see consciousness like the ocean. On the surface is sunlight and the world. At the bottom of the ocean is no light and there is a different type of world which we have not seen.
On the surface we swim, and we also dive. As we dive, we discover that the sunlight which is being filtered in the water as you go down deeper and deeper, becomes less and less, until there is absolute pitch black darkness. In that pitch black darkness, you can still go down a long way, but there is no light.
This idea has been stated as the four levels of consciousness: the conscious, subconscious, unconscious and super conscious, or jagrit, swapna, nidra and turiya. These are the four levels. At the conscious level, the jagrit level, you are connected to the world, and you are swimming on top of the surface of the ocean. At the subconscious level, you are diving deep from the top to the point where there is sunlight. At the unconscious level, you move from the dusk area to the dark area. At the super conscious level, you are walking on the ocean floor, discovering new worlds around you. When we are just caught up at the surface level of consciousness, the mind is under the influence of the senses, sense objects, raga, dwesha, which are very much part of your nature. Your expectations, prayers and needs depend on raga and dwesha, like and dislike, attraction and repulsion, want and don’t want, desire and don’t desire. At that level, confusion happens.
When we go deeper, into the turiya state, the super conscious state, then there the reality is that of God. That is what yogis have realized and experienced. There is a power, a condition, a state, which is the God-state, the God-energy, the God-realization, the God-awareness. When that awareness is brought back to the surface of the mind, you become God-intoxicated. That intoxication is not good.
In Christianity, God is always a He and white. Indians will always see God as Shiva, Vishnu or Devi. Even when they die, that will be the image. Christians will always see God as an old, bearded man, wearing white, putting his finger out for you to touch. Every tradition, every religion has an image of God, which they have cultivated and adopted. That is not the form of God. It is a creation of our mind to identify and recognize something which we consider to be God. From the yogic perspective, God is an experience of transcendence, of the turiya state, of the super conscious state. This super conscious state is omnipresent, omnipotent and omniscient. That is one reason why we chant Om three times: Omnipotent, Omni present, Omniscient. The three Oms represent the three qualities.
When we are in touch with that quality and nature, then the whole perspective, idea, thinking process, behaviour and performance changes for the better. The turiya state is the super conscious state. It is not confined or contained by the limitations of the senses and the limitations of the mind. In the United States of America, there are some serious researchers and doctors who are investigating the presence of God in life. They say, that if we are able to create some change in our body, in our pituitary and oxytocin level, then our perceptions change and we become spiritual. You begin to realize that God is present in every living thing. They are looking at it from the physical perspective, yet the thought behind it is that this state of awareness, of creativity and expression is not different to us; it is within us.
We are born with the same grey matter that Jesus had. We are born with the same grey matter that Krishna and Rama had, however, we are not able to access it. If we are able to access it, our life suddenly undergoes a major transformation. So, have belief in yourself, and have faith in your own inner nature, which is super in every respect. That is the super consciousness, the turiya state. It is not confined by the senses or mind; it is an expansive, an expressive awareness in life. Maybe then you will see God in your own image.
28 May 2023, Ganga Darshan, Munger