The four states of cognition

 Everyone has the right to knowledge of Brahman.  And, everyone passes through four stages in
the search for this knowledge every day of their life.  They are according to the Veda, the
waking stage, the dream stage, the deep sleep stage and the liberated state {thuriya}.

  These are demarcated as states, or even steps.  In the first stage, one is awake to the objective
world and is oriented outward.  Objects in the universe are seen by the eye; sound are heard;
the senses are able to smell and taste and touch.  Life is lived to the fullest in contact with
society.  The nineteen means of contact are the five senses organs of perception, the five organs
of actions, the five vital airs {prana}, and the four internal instruments {anthah-karana}.

  1. The mind {manas}
  2. The faculty of discrimination {buddhi}
  3. The storehouse of memory, of consciousness {chittha}, and
  4. The ego-sense {ahamkara}.

   During the waking state, these nineteen means of contact and impact provide man with the
experience of grief and joy, gain and loss, success and failure in their gross forms.  Since one
identifies with the gross body complex at this stage, the experiences are also gross.

  The region of dreams is different.  There, the self is in-faced {antar-mukha}.  Reactions,
responses and experiences are all self-contained.  They do not belong to the area outside of
oneself.  There may be ten others sleeping in the same room, but each has his own dream.  One's
dream experience has no relation to that of anyone else.  Each is disturbed or delighted only by
his own dream.  The dreamer is unaffected by outer circumstances.  In fact, the external world is
beyond one's consciousness.

  During the dream stage, one creates a world out of one's mind and dwells in the experiences it
provides.  Though the objects perceived are imaginary, the feelings and emotions like joy and
grief, love and fear are as real as in the waking state.  The nineteen instruments of contact and
impact are present even during the dream.  They do not act materially or physically; they
operate only through the mind, for the mind has a luminosity that produces the pictures.  This is
why it is designated as light-filled {taijas ~ from spiritual splendour, tejas}.   The light enables
one to formulate and design any form, sound, taste, etc., that one decides upon.  The dream state
is the second step or state in the acquisition by the self of its own awareness.

  Next, deep sleep {sushupti}.  This step is free from even dreams.  One is lost in undisturbed
sleep.  The person will not be conscious of his limbs or of sounds, the smells, forms, the states
and the sensation of touch.  All activity is subsumed by the mind and is latent in it.  All
experience is absorbed into the higher levels of consciousness {prajnana}.  There is no feeling
of either separation or identity, the particular or the universal, the part of the whole.  There is
no experience or experience.  There is only the Atma, in which one has temporarily merged.

  Then, the fourth step {thuriya}.  Here, the individual {vyakhti} is no more so.  It has attained
the basic truth of life and of creation ~ the all pervading, all-inclusive Atma, the peace and
power of the one and only Atmic empire.  Those who have reached this step no longer have
concerns with the individual self.  One cannot assert either that these people possess knowledge
or that they don't have it, for they are ever immersed int he Higher Bliss.

                                  
                                        All is Atma ~  Atma is All

   The Atma in which they have merged is invisible to the eye.  It cannot be grasped or held by
the hands.  One can only know that it exists and that it is Goodness and nothing else.  All urges
that draw one towards the objective world have to be exterminated before faith in the Atma can
take root.

  The four steps of Atmic awareness are very much akin to the four steps in the recital of Om or
Aum.  The Aum and the ultimate mantra are on a par with the waking, dreaming, sleeping and
merging steps already dwelt upon.  The Atma is evident in the mind, in deep sleep, it reposes in
the heart; in the fourth state, it is all of oneself.

  To sum up; it can be laid down that the Atma exists in all beings in all states of daily life, in
all circumstances and conditions and in all activities and experiences.  All is Atma, Atma is All
~  the cosmos is manifested as One by the One.  This is what the aphorism reveals.  Without the
awareness of the unity, there can be no joy and peace.  Without hoy and peace, truth is an empty
concept.  Therefore, one should know the cosmos as full {purna}.  Ir is not a void or vacuum.  Is
is Atma Itself.

                       Taken from Sutra Vahini ~ by Bhagawan Sri Sathya Sai Baba  


   As we can see there is great importance to our dream state.  In these pages you will find
several Etheric Retreats  that can be used to go  and learn form the masters themselves as to
achieve out desired state of perfection.

  Namaste!

  Rev. Rina
Introduction to The Ascended Masters Etheric Temples