Sanskrit: Three stages of Consciousness

The painting represents the States of Consciousness- Awake , Dream , Deep-sleep and Turiya.

The first stage is the state of being awake- where we see things from our senses, a state that is shared by all as equal.It is the state from where the manifestation of life starts. (A) In the waking state, the jiva is caught up with objects (both external and internal) and loses the awareness of its true nature as pure “subject.”

The second stage is the dream state.(U) We travel in the cognitive world (the imaginative world of dreams), becomes one with that realm, and lose the consciousness of pure subjectivity. It is the state of our make beliefs , of acting out our innermost desires and fears. It is this state that gives us the freedom of expression… The tree represents the living out of our desires- good and bad in the dream state. But we aren’t aware if we are awake or asleep… so how true is it??

It is all very relative, for the awake state could be a Long dream that we might wake up from any minute or the dream state could be the awake state…who can say for sure it’s very relative… dependent on our perception . Thus, in the dream state, the jiva is caught up with internal objects and loses sight of its true nature as pure “subject.”

In the third state- (M ) the deep sleep the soul travels in a subjective world without being conscious of it, and becomes one with that unconscious subjectivity, even though the content of the experience is just bliss. In deep sleep, the jiva is free from objects but has not yet transcended itself. Till our mind enters the state of Turiya.

Acrylic inks on Artist grade paper with 24k gold leaf : 30” by 23”