Ramana Maharshi Says Turiya State Is Alone Real And Only Existing State

Just as one place, a big hall, is divided into three chambers when two walls are newly erected in it, so our eternal, non-dual, natural and adjunctless existence consciousness appears to be three states, namely waking,dream and sleep, when the two imaginary walls of waking and dream, which are due to the two body-adjuncts (the waking body and the dream body), apparently rise in the midst of it on account of tendencies (vasanas).

If these two new imaginary risings, waking and dream, are not there,that which remains will be the one state of Self consciousness alone.

It is only for the sake of immature aspirants who think the three states to be real, that the sastras have named our natural, real state, the jnana-waking,as ‘the fourth state (turiya avastha).

But since the other three states are truly unreal, this state (the fourth) is in fact the only existing state, the first, and so it need not at all be called ‘the fourth’ (turiya), nor even ‘a state’ (avastha).

Source: The Path of Sri Ramana PART ONE The Jñana aspect of the teaching By Sri Sadhu Om