Seventy-fourth technique. The threshold of sleep. Nidrāgamanasamaye — at the exact moment when sleep arrives. Not before, when you still think. Not after, when you already sleep. At the very edge. That instant where wakefulness dissolves.

Yaj jñānaṃ līyate — when knowledge dissolves. Conceptual mind turns off. Thoughts become incoherent. Images fragment. There is a precise point where all this ceases and sleep has not yet taken over.

Tat tattvam avadhāraya — apprehend that reality. Capture it. This is yoga nidrā in its original form. Keep consciousness awake while the mind sleeps. Tattvena prakāśate — through that reality, consciousness illuminates. Not wakeful consciousness. Not sleep unconsciousness. A third thing. Turīya — the fourth state.