[Advaita-l] Ishwara Turiya?

[Ramesh Krishnamurthy]

On 9 March 2012 15:03, ShankaraBharadwaj Khandavalli
<shankarabharadwaj at yahoo.com> wrote:
<<The sub-classification is done in some cases. When
sthula-sukshma-karana are the first three, the fourth is brahman. Some
traditions introduce a mahA kAraNa which is called turIya (and thus
the mahA kAraNa or Isvara becomes fourth or turIya), in which case the
absolute becomes fifth or turIyAtIta. The mahA kAraNa is not the same
as Mandukya's turIya, it is the turIyAtIta in that terminology that
becomes equivalent of Mandukya's turIya.>>

I agree; my point was that if we take the mANDUkya's usage of
turIya/chaturtha as standard advaita-vedAnta terminology, then a fifth
"turIyAtIta" is meaningless (and also Ishvara is not turIya). The
expression turIyAtIta is not generally used in the advaita-vedAnta
saMpradAya.  On the contrary, it is common to come across
advaita-vedAnta students getting misled or confused by the term
"turIyAtIta" as if it meant a state "beyond" the turIya of the
mANDUkya.