Jai Sri Ganesha,
Know Om (or AUM) to be a medium between the Universal Soul and the individual entity. The doctrine of the individual soul and the universal soul relates things on their merits: both are Brahman by nature. One is in quest of identity, and the other is the relative truth of universality. The individual soul, embodied in truth with the self, seeks identity to charm Maya – a lucrative but ultimately a mirage. This creates difference at both gross and subtle levels. In the quest for identity, the individual soul clashes and becomes lost in the wilderness of life, making it difficult to re-locate itself in meridian with the Supreme Soul.
Here begin the turmoils, the 'journey,' with four stages, each possessing an altogether different subtle reality and appearing in varying forms. In one aspect, the soul is taken as the Cosmic Soul when it attains to a celestial cult. This makes it easier for it to re-locate itself and untie the unwanted knots of identity clash. The first milestone is Vaishvanara, whose sphere of activity is limited to the walking state – a state of Karma in gross mode that yields bondage, tightening ties to be tough and rough. The second milestone of the journey is Taijutsu the dream state. Open-eyed dreams are null and void at the 'manas' (mind) level, but sleep-state dreams relate things with a differential truth of consciousness. This haphazardly clubs things together, creating doubt and duality, and draining vital energy at varying levels.
The third milestone is Prajna, graduating the mind to the depth of intellect – a huge cosmic library to relate matters of spirit and matter in the context of bondage and liberation. Here, the individual Brahman enters a deep sleep state to find itself in the comfort zone of the spirit, which ascends into the region of eternity to untie unwanted knots, or rather, the knots melt away by themselves in this region without any exertion at all.
The fourth milestone is Turiya, within the self, with a high-end horizon of redefined eternal truth. This obliges the self with a serene cult of self, leading it towards the fair compliance of blissful unification, which could be an aspect of beatitude, irrespective of being alive in the body or at the threshold of changeover.To cover all four milestones, the cosmic syllabus, embodied in Shabd Brahman AUM, acts as a fair carrier to lead the lost soul to its pristine state of inherent self.
Jai Mahadev
