Introduction : PIII Gaudapada's Contribution etc. Li origination is illusion or appearance. It was left for Sankarācārya to make this more explicit. Sarkara, on his part, gives more thought to the establishment of the Avidya or Maya doctrine. In fact, it may be said that Ajātivada and Māyāvāda are but two sides of the same shield Advaita. Sankara declared Avidyā to be.सदसद्विलक्षणा
and hence अनिर्वचनीया and Sankara's successors used all their
ingenuity to explain the real nature of Avidyā, by resorting to one- or other of the theories of Avacchedą, Pratibimba; Abhāsa etc. Gauda pada was the first to make the fullest: use of the doctrine of the three states, waking, dream and deep sleep, described in the Bșhadāraṇyaka and the Chándogya, for the purpose of esta. blishing Advaita. There is surely no valid reason why the expe. riences in the waking state alone should be given greater attention than those in the other states, or why they should be taken as the standard by which are to be judged the other two. In the waking state, the soul perceives the gross with the help of the mind and the sense-organs; in the dream, the sense-organs do not function and the soul perceives only the inside subtle, with the mind; in the deep- sleep state, both the mind and the sense-organs are inactive and the soul perceives nothing. Thus the soul can be said to be really free from any encubrances only in the Suşupti state, while in the other two states, he is dependent upon other means. The experiences in the waking state are contradicted in the dream-state and vice versa, which shows that there can not be any vital difference between the two stales; the same is the case with the experience in the deep sleep, the perception there in the form of 'I did not perceive any thing' being due to the cessation of the effort by the mind and the sense-organs and the absence of any objects of perception. Now that alone can be the highest truth which is the same everywhere, irrespective of different environments. In order to realise this we must take into account the totality of our experience. This leads Gaudapäda to declare that the highest reality can only be the Fourth' or Turya, beyond the three states, unoriginated, same and ancontaminated. The nature of this Turya, as the Sākşin or Witness of all experiences in the three states, was further dilated upon by Sankarăcărya and his successors,
