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No
THE SLEEPING STATE IS ONE IN WHICH ALL THE FOURTEEN ORGANS ARE STILL AND TRANQUIL, AND WHEN -- FOR LACK OF REAL KNOWLEDGE -- THE SELF OR SOUL IS INSENSITIVE TO SOUND, TOUCH AND SUCH OTHER OBJECTS. AND THE ONE WHICH IS AWARE OF THE CREATION AND DISSOLUTION OF THESE THREE STATES -- WAKING DREAMING AND SLEEPING -- BUT WHICH IS ITSELF BEYOND CREATION AND DISSOLUTION, IS KNOWN AS TURIYA -- THE FOURTH STATE OF CONSCIOUSNESS, THE STATE OF TURIYA.
Consciousness in itself is nothing. One is always conscious about something; so the "about" is important. Consciousness is always objective: you are conscious of something. If there is nothing in front of you, consciousness will drop -- you will not be conscious.
This state, the oriental religious perception says, is the sushupti; this is the third state. When there is no object to be known, the knower is lost. When then is no object in the outside world to be aware of, and when there is no object in the mind, dream object, when all objects have dropped -- outside all are dream objects -- then consciousness drops. Then you are not conscious; then you are unconscious. This unconsciousness is sushupti, the third stage.
But this is amazing: it means that we are not conscious really, we are only objectively conscious. We have not known ourselves, we have known only objects and things. Our consciousness is other-oriented; it is not self centered. I can be conscious only when something else is present. When nothing is present I will go to sleep. I have not known any subjective consciousness which can exist without the object. That's why in the third state, consciousness equals unconsciousness -- it becomes unconscious. When there is no object as a challenge, one becomes unconscious.
So this consciousness, this so-called consciousness, is just a struggle, just a challenge, just a constant stimulus-response; it is not anything in itself. You are not the master of it; you are not really conscious: you are only being forced to be conscious constantly. Everything is forcing you to be conscious; otherwise, to go to sleep will be the spontaneous act -- one will just drop into a coma. So can
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