Pañcama, Mystical Consciousness that Encompasses Turīya

J. M. Fritzman (Lewis & Clark College)

February 9th, 2024 3:30 - 5:00 PM PST

The Māṇḍūkya Upaniṣad teaches that consciousness has four forms: waking, dreaming, dreamless sleep, and turīya (the fourth). Miri Albahari and Ramakrishna Puligandla maintain that mystics in turīya experience their identity with ultimate absolute reality. They further claim that this mystical experience corroborates the ontology of Śaṅkara’s Advaita Vedānta, according to which ultimate reality is impersonal, only ultimate reality is real, and conventional reality is nonreal. A. G. Javadekar also accepts the Advaita ontology, but he denies that mystical experience corroborates it. However, some mystics report ultimate reality either as personal or as simultaneously impersonal and personal. Sri Ramakrishna and Swami Vivekananda describe another kind of mystical experience of ultimate reality which paraconsistently incorporates and encompasses all other kinds of mystical experiences. This article designates pañcama (the fifth) as the form of consciousness that encompasses turīya.