No Fourth State

Sri Ramana Maharshi

* There are no stages in realization or mukti. There are no degrees of jnana so that there cannot be one stage of jnana with the body and another stage when the body is dropped. The jnani knows that nothing exists but the Self. To such a one what difference could the presence of absence of body make?

* It is false to speak of Realization. What is there to realize? The Real is as it is, ever. How to realize that? All that is required is this. We have real-ized the unreal, i.e., regarded as real what is unreal. We have to give up this attitude. That is all that is required of us to attain jnana.

* Existence or Consciousness is the only reality. Consciousness plus waking, we call waking. Consciousness plus dream, we call dream. Consciousness plus sleep, we call sleep. Consciousness is the screen on which all the pictures come and go. The screen is real, the pictures are mere shadows on it. Because by long habit we have been regarding these three states as real, we call the state of mere awareness or consciousness the fourth. There is no fourth state, but only state.

From Thus Spake Ramana