Acharya Prashant explains the three states of consciousness: the waking state (jagrata), the dream state (svapna), and deep sleep (sushupti). He describes how each state corresponds to a different perceived world and how humans mistakenly take the waking state as the ultimate reality. He points out that the world perceived in the waking state is limited and dependent on the mind, disappearing when one enters sleep. The sage's teaching is to understand that these three states are merely fleeting states of mind and not reality itself. By recognizing the differences between these states and not taking them seriously, one finds themselves in the fourth state, Turiya, which is the substratum and foundation of the other three.