Turiya awareness (Hinduism)

In yoga philosophy there are three states (avasthas) of ordinary consciousness (waking, dreaming, sleeping) and a fourth, superconscious or extraordinary meditation state (turiya), which unites the three and in which the true self may be discovered. This is pure consciousness, utter peace, more readily described by what it is not than by what it is, since although it combines the three previous states it is none of them. There is no subjective experience and yet no objective experience. There is no knowledge, whether derived from the phenomenal world, from the mind or from the intellect. According to the Mandukya Upanishad it is associated with the complete sound of the mystic syllable AUM, and completes the four "quarters" or conditions of the self or Atman; cognition is neither outward or inward, nor the presence or absence of these, but it is the indescribable essence of self-cognition common to all states; it the self to be realized.

This is the seventh of seven ascending planes of wisdom described in the Supreme Yoga, which require to be known so as not to be caught in delusion. It is sometimes equated with samadhi, with Brahma consciousness – Brahma caitanya – and with nirvana. In Hindu mythology the state is exemplified by the god Subramania or Kartikeya.