Upaniṣads · Pañcabrahma 13
॥
Devanāgarī
अवस्थात्रितयातीतं तुरीयं ब्रह्मसंज्ञितम् । ब्रह्मविष्ण्वादिभिः सेव्यं सर्वेषां जनकं परम्
Transliteración (IAST)
avasthātritayātītaṃ turīyaṃ brahmasaṃjñitam | brahmaviṣṇvādibhiḥ sevyaṃ sarveṣāṃ janakaṃ param
Palabra por palabra
SánscritoIASTSignificado
अवस्था-त्रितय-अतीतंavasthā-tritaya-atītaṃhaving transcended the three states
तुरीयं ब्रह्म-संज्ञितम्turīyaṃ brahma-saṃjñitamthe fourth, called brahman
ब्रह्म-विष्णु-आदिभिः सेव्यंbrahma-viṣṇu-ādibhiḥ sevyaṃrevered by Brahmā, Viṣṇu, and the rest
सर्वेषां जनकं परम्sarveṣāṃ janakaṃ paramthe parent of all, the supreme
Traducción
"Having transcended the three states, the fourth, called brahman, revered by Brahmā, Viṣṇu, and the rest, the parent of all, the supreme."
Versión
1def35bf1772 · publicado 12 ago 2026, 5:00:00 UTC
Disponible enRUENPasa de verso en verso con
The fifth face, Īśāna, is called turīya, "the fourth." This word is central in the Māṇḍūkya-upaniṣad, which examines four states: waking, dreaming, deep sleep, and what lies beyond them. It is worth examining why the fourth is named by a number, not by a name.
The reason is that it has no name. The first three states are familiar to everyone and are therefore named; the fourth resembles nothing and is therefore denoted by an ordinal number. This device, to my mind, is honest: instead of inventing a word, a count was given.
The Māṇḍūkya describes it entirely through negations: "not knowing the inner, not knowing the outer, not knowing both, not a mass of cognition, not knowing, not not-knowing; unseen, ungraspable, undeterminable, unthinkable, unindicable" (7). But it is worth reading its description to the end, for it ends positively: śāntaṃ śivam advaitam, "peaceful, benign, non-dual" (7). The word śiva, "benign," stands apart in this list of negations: it is the one definition that speaks not of what is absent.
The Vaiṣṇava side points to precisely this. After a dozen negations, the text could not do without one affirmation; and that affirmation is a moral one — "benign." Let us add what follows from this. One is benign toward someone; an abstract principle is neither benign nor malign toward anyone. And so this one word, at the end of all the negations, restores the relationship that the negations had taken away.