Finding What Was Never Lost

Have you ever noticed how we pursue different things in life?

When you want something you don't have — a new skill, better health, or financial abundance — the path is clear: take action, put in effort, practice discipline. Through dedicated work, you transform what isn't into what is.

But what about discovering who you truly are?

Your true self isn't something to be created or achieved.  It's already fully available, complete, and whole. The challenge isn't that you lack your true nature — it's that you've overlooked it.

This is why knowledge, not effort, is the key to self-discovery. You can't build or create what already exists in its fullness. You can only remove the veils of misunderstanding that hide it from view.

Yet this knowledge doesn't simply appear on its own. Just as you need eyes to see colors, ears to hear sounds, and a mind to process thoughts — you need appropriate means to recognize your essential nature.

The right means of knowledge acts like a special lens, bringing into focus what has always been there but remained unrecognized. 

What could be more valuable than discovering the truth of who you've been all along?

And that's what Vedanta is in a nutshell. A means of knowledge to reveal something that's been so obvious in every moment of your life, yet you never acknowledged it. And it happens to be what everything (including you) in the past, present and future is seeking through countless pursuits — permanent freedom, unceasing happiness, that which never dies and is eternally full even after the collapse of your body.

The Problem of Ignorance

Of course, one might wonder why a means of knowledge is necessary to know something that is self-evident.

The problem is not that we do not know that the self exists, but that we are born ignorant, which makes us take the self to be something it is not and overlook its true nature.

Because we think the self is limited, we need a means of knowledge to reveal its limitless nature.

Five Means of Knowledge Available to Human Beings

According to Vedanta, and other philosophies, there are five basic means of knowledge available to us by which we gain knowledge or experience of something previously unknown to us…

1. Direct Perception (pratyakṣa)

Direct perception is your most immediate way of knowing the world. It happens when your sense organs make direct contact with objects around you—your eyes meeting light, your ears capturing sound, your fingers touching texture.

This gives you firsthand, unfiltered knowledge of what exists. When you see a sunset, smell fresh bread, or feel rain on your skin, you're experiencing pratyakṣa, the most basic and reliable way we gather information about reality.

Unlike knowledge that comes through reasoning or testimony (as you'll see below) — direct perception requires no intermediary. It's the foundation upon which other forms of knowing are built.

2. Non-Perception (anupalabdhi)

Non-perception is your mind's way of recognizing absence. It's how you directly know when something is not there.

When you reach into your pocket and don't feel your keys, you immediately know “my keys are absent.”

When you open the refrigerator and notice the milk is gone, you directly perceive its absence. This isn't just failing to see something – it's positively knowing that something isn't present.

We constantly make decisions based not just on what we observe, but on what we observe to be missing.

3. Inference, or indirect knowledge (anumāna)

When you spot smoke billowing over a distant hillside, you don't need to climb that hill to know there's fire. Your mind bridges the gap between what's visible (smoke) and what's hidden (fire) through a connection you've established from experience: smoke invariably indicates fire.

Through inference, you gain knowledge of a CAUSE (car infront is definitely slowing down) – by merely looking at the EFFECTS (break lights on).

We use inference constantly: diagnosing illness from symptoms, predicting weather from cloud patterns, or understanding someone's feelings from their expressions. 

Inference requires both direct-perception and memory, connecting what you perceive now with patterns you've recognized before.

4. Postulation (arthāpatti)

Postulation is your mind's way of solving puzzles when the pieces don't quite fit.

Imagine this: Your friend John strictly fasts during daylight hours, yet month after month, he maintains his weight. These two facts create a contradiction, something doesn't add up. Through arthāpatti, your mind resolves this contradiction by postulating a necessary explanation: John must be eating at night when no one sees him.

This isn't mere speculation or guesswork. It's a precise form of reasoning that reveals what must exist to make sense of conflicting information. The Sanskrit term “anyathā anupapatti” captures this perfectly, “otherwise not possible logic.” When observed facts cannot be reconciled without assuming something unseen – that assumption becomes a valid form of knowledge.

We use postulation whenever we encounter situations that can't be explained without introducing a missing element: a detective determining a suspect had an accomplice, a doctor diagnosing an underlying condition from seemingly unrelated symptoms, or a scientist inferring the existence of dark matter from gravitational effects.

Postulation bridges gaps in our understanding by revealing what MUST be true, even when we cannot directly observe it.

5. Comparison (upamāṇa)

Comparison is how we make the unknown familiar by connecting it to what we already know.

Imagine trying to describe an alpaca to someone who has never seen one. Words alone might fall short, but when you say, “It's like a llama, but smaller with softer wool,” suddenly understanding dawns. Through upamāṇa, you've created a bridge between the familiar and the unfamiliar.

It works by identifying similarities between objects or concepts. When you tell a friend that dragonfruit tastes “somewhat like a kiwi” you're giving them a reference point to grasp something beyond their experience. When a teacher explains that an atom resembles a tiny solar system, they're making the invisible comprehensible.

Comparison doesn't provide complete knowledge. The alpaca isn't identical to a llama, but it creates a starting point for understanding. It's valuable when direct experience isn't possible or introducing new concepts.

We use comparison when: describing foreign foods, explaining complex emotions.

A Simpler Model:

Since perception is the basis of direct-perception and non-perception, and inference is the basis of inference, postulation, and comparison — we can simplify our list to two main means of knowledge: perception and inference. Meaning, all means of knowledge available to human beings are based on perception and inference.

The Limits of Conventional Knowledge

Unfortunately these means of knowledge — including the senses, mind, and intellect through which they function — are incapable of knowing the self.

The senses, mind, and intellect require objects from which they can gather data for perception and inference to occur.

And since the self is formless awareness (meaning it doesn't have any form the senses can grasp) — and thus cannot be objectified by the senses — it means perception and inference are ineffective means of knowing the self.

The Subject-Object Dichotomy

In the case of relative knowledge, there is always a knowing subject, which we refer to as “I,” and a known object, which we refer to “he, she, them, you, it, that.”

In any case, that which is known (by perception) is always different from the one by whom it is known.

Because perception and inference are object-dependent, and only yield knowledge of objects to a subject – the subject itself can only be known if it becomes an object.

And that's exactly what happens…

The subject gets identified with the object (sensations of the body, emotions, memories and thoughts) – and the final product of that we call with conviction, “me” or “I”. 

Consequently we speak of “I” as an object, a person, or a relative-knower — all which can be perceived.

The Ultimate Subject

However ultimate subject is the eternal observer — the pure, attributeless awareness who is always “behind” the relative knower.

Because by definition the subject can never be the object. Furthermore, that which is without qualities/attributes/form is not available for objectification. Meaning the ultimate subject (our true self) cannot be known by perception or inference.

The Inability of Instruments to Illuminate Their Own Source

Furthermore, it is a universal law that the effect cannot comprehend its cause.

For example, a light bulb can illumine objects in a room, but not the electricity that causes it to glow.

Similarly, the senses, mind, and intellect — which are instruments of perception and inference — cannot illumine the source of their being or the cause of their functioning.

Knowing this, it would seem God has played a devilish prank, leaving us in the dark, unable to ascertain that which is behind our senses, mind and intellect. 

Worry not! Because…

Vedanta Is the Means of Knowledge for the Self

Simply put, Vedanta is a systematic means of self-inquiry that leads to the assimilation of self-knowledge, which is paramount to moksha, or permanent fulfillment.

It is not a belief you must simply have faith in or a dogma whose set of rules you must follow. Rather it's a tool that makes understanding possible.

The Role of the Veda and Śabda Pramāṇa

The ancient and vast body of knowledge known as Veda, is a means of knowledge referred to as śabda pramāṇa, which means that it is a means of knowledge based on sound. In other words, it uses words to reveal that which is beyond words or concepts.

Strictly speaking, a means of knowledge is only regarded as śabda if it reveals knowledge that is not possible to gain through other means of knowledge.

For instance, the sentence “The hill is on fire” is not śabda because we can see fire and/or know it by the presence of smoke.

Conversely, the sentence “You are limitless awareness” is śabda because we cannot know limitless or formless awareness through perception or inference.

Vedanta as the Path to self-knowledge (atma-jnana)

Vedanta is the section of Veda dealing with self-knowledge (ātmajnāna) and is the means for gaining self-knowledge.

Vedanta is considered a pramāṇa, or an independent source of reliable knowledge, because it provides knowledge obtainable only through it – and not by means of any other method.

In other words, it reveals that which cannot be known through perception and inference.

Additionally, Vedanta conveys that which is not opposed to the evidence of any other pramāṇa. Because other means of knowledge have no access to the self, they cannot negate, amend, or confirm Vedanta.

Vedanta is free from doubt and useful

The teachings of Vedanta are free from doubt because they are revealed knowledge rather than cooked up by the subjective human intellect, and because their central theme is stated in unambiguous terms.

Vedanta is also useful because the knowledge they offer removes ignorance, alleviates suffering, and grants ultimate inner freedom to those who assimilate them.

What Vedanta Is Not

Before proceeding further, it is important to understand that Vedanta is not a philosophy, a channeled teaching, “intuitive knowledge,” a religion, a salvation theology, or a self-improvement plan.

Erroneously believing it to be any of these things only allows for doubt concerning its efficacy. We will debunk each of these misperceptions about Vedanta below…

Not a Philosophy

Despite the plethora of references to its being so, Vedanta is not a philosophy.

A philosophy is a perspective on life that is presented by an individual or a group of individuals.

Meaning philosophy is a product of the human mind.

The human mind is limited in scope and invariably conditioned by ignorance. Thus the human mind is incapable of producing a teaching that conveys a perspective transcendent to itself.

Reminder: Remember earlier how we said the effect (mind) can never know or understand the cause (awareness).

Not a Channeled Teaching

Vedanta is not a channeled teaching. Just as it did not come from the human mind, so it didn’t come through the human mind.

The problem with channeled teachings is that they get tainted by the mind through which they pass. Just as clean water passing through a dirty pipe is sullied by the silt, so too are channeled teachings only as pure as the mind.

Not “Intuitive Knowledge”

Vedanta is not “intuitive knowledge.” Romantic notions aside, intuition is untrustworthy.

The feelings or sense one has about a particular object is invariably colored by one’s past conditionings (vasanas), or preferences, and values. Hence, the insight one gains from intuition is dubious. It may or may not be accurate.

Not a Religion

Vedanta is not a religion. It is not a dogmatic code of rules to be followed, nor is it the ritualized worship of a particular deity.

Though Vedanta may initially require a degree of faith in the teachings, one is not asked or required to continue blindly adhering to a set of beliefs.

Vedanta is not a system of belief, but rather a proven and systematic means of gaining self-knowledge – something you can't contradict here-and-now.

Not a Salvation Theology or Self-Improvement Plan

Vedanta is not a salvation theology or a self-improvement plan. It does not require you to change. According to Vedanta, you are already perfect and free.

What Vedanta Is

In contrast to these erroneous notions, here's what Vedanta is…

Revealed Wisdom

While Vedanta does convey ideas for sake of understanding realities — it is not theoretical nor academic.

It is based on direct experiences by the ancient ṛṣis (“seers”).

Vedanta is the knowledge that the ṛṣis “saw” or “heard” in deep states of meditation, the knowledge that was revealed to them.

Rather than coming from human beings, Vedanta is the knowledge that came to them. Hence, Vedanta is referred to apaurusheya-jnanam, or knowledge that is not of human origin.

A modern relatable example may help you understand apaurusheya-jnanam: Newton can be considered a seer in reference to laws of gravity, and many like him in their respective fields.  The knowledge of gravity-dynamics came to him by observation of nature. Furthermore, the knowledge revealed to him can't be contradicted. In fact, gravity was there before Newton. He simply “tuned into” what was evident all along, but somehow missed out.

Verified Truth

The knowledge revealed to the ṛṣis was not “seen” or understood by only one or even a handful of ṛṣis — but countless seekers over the course of thousands of years.

As a consequence, the insights that constitute Vedanta have been thoroughly vetted and purified of any personal interpretation.

What remains is a shining jewel of universal truths.

This truth is available to anyone who is qualified for and motivated to conduct dispassionate self-inquiry.

For this reason, Vedanta is referred to as apta vakya, or the testimony of a reliable witness. In this case, the reliable witness is the knowledge of thousands of reliable witnesses over a long period of time.

The individuals who realized the truth and understood its importance became its guardians, so the purity of the teachings has been maintained, as it has been passed down from guru to disciple, or teacher to student, in unbroken succession (sampradāya).

A Science

The methodology through which Vedanta reveals the truth, is not attributable to any one person. Just as no complex scientific discipline or technological instrument (like the car or computer) is the product of any individual’s ideas and efforts.

Meaning the comprehensive understanding of reality that Vedanta reveals, is not the result of any one seer’s insight.

Moreover, science can be defined as the knowledge gained through observation, investigation, and experimentation.

Science deals with a body of facts or truths that is presented systematically to show operation of general principles that can be repeatedly verified.

In this regard, Vedanta provides an objective standard by which an individual can evaluate his or her experience.

Vedanta does not rely on the presence of a realized being (brahma-niṣṭha) who might not be an effective teacher (śrotriya). Nor does it rely on epiphanies that eventually wear off.

The methodology of Vedantic self-inquiry enables a person to verify the teachings by means of common sense and logical analysis of his or her own experience.

Why the Validity of Vedanta Can Be Trusted

Think about how you know anything for certain. When all the right conditions are in place, like having good light to see clearly – knowledge happens naturally. You don't have to force it.

This same principle makes Vedanta reliable. When you approach it with the right preparation and guidance, understanding unfolds by itself. It's not about believing something on faith, but about setting up the proper conditions for insight to emerge.

Just as you can trust your eyes when your vision is clear, you can trust the knowledge that comes through Vedanta when the obstacles to understanding are removed. The truth it reveals becomes self-evident, not because someone told you to believe it, but because you see it directly for yourself.

The knowledge Vedanta provides stands on solid ground for two key reasons:

Intrinsic Validity

First, it possesses intrinsic validity. Like how your perception of an object is automatically valid unless something interferes with your vision, Vedantic knowledge is self-validating. It doesn't require external verification because its truth becomes evident through proper inquiry.

Any doubts about its validity come not from flaws in the knowledge itself but from obstacles in our understanding.

Spontaneous Knowledge

Second, true knowledge arises spontaneously – it doesn't wait for your permission.

Unlike action, which requires your decision and effort, knowledge simply happens when conditions are right. You don't choose to know — you just know.

Consider what happens when you open your eyes in a lit room. Do you need to decide to see the chair in front of you? No. Vision happens automatically when your eyes are open and functioning. You can't will yourself to see something that isn't there, nor can you prevent yourself from seeing what is there.

Once you've seen that chair, you can't honestly claim you don't know it exists. You might not know what type of wood it's made from or who designed it, but the basic knowledge of its presence is established instantly and irrevocably in your awareness.

This spontaneous quality of knowledge means that when the proper means of knowledge (like your senses) align with an object of knowledge (like the chair), recognition happens immediately without any decision or effort on your part. The knowing just occurs.

Vedanta meets both of these criteria. It does not prove you exist, because your existence is self-evident. It does not promise to give you an experience of the self, because you are already “experiencing” the self all the time, as self-evident “I am”, which isn't an object as discussed earlier.

Vedanta simply removes your ignorance of what you already are. It provides a “word mirror” in which the self is revealed.

The Relationship Between Knowledge and Experience

There is a deeply ingrained erroneous notion in the spiritual world, that self-knowledge is intellectual while enlightenment is experiential.

In non-dual reality (meaning all that is here is One, there's no two things) — knowledge and experience are one.

Both knowledge and experience take place in awareness and are, in fact, nothing other than awareness.

For instance, my knowledge of a tree and my experience of a tree are one. Seeing or experiencing an object makes that object known to me.

Despite this fact, the spiritual world continues to stubbornly carry the erroneous belief that scripture is simply for conceptual or intellectual understanding — while yogas (spiritual practices) and various samādhis (transcendental states/non-dual epiphanies) are what produce self-realization.

In this regard, the great irony is that the vast majority of seekers fail to understand the cognitive implication of the term self-realization.

The confusion between knowledge and experience is caused by the failure to recognize the invariable presence of awareness in all situations.

Because your true nature is always present, hearing Vedantic teachings properly explained by a qualified teacher becomes a direct path to self-recognition. Their words function like a mirror—not reflecting your appearance, but illuminating your essential nature.

These teachings don't add anything new; they remove the misunderstandings that have kept you from seeing yourself clearly.

As the teacher articulates the nature of consciousness, something resonates within you – a recognition that “this is what I've always been!” The teachings become not just concepts, but a clear reflection of your own true self.

Conversely…

When you focus on experience alone, you take what is eternal (self) to be non-eternal (time bound experience) – and what is non-eternal (time bound experience) to be eternal (self).

This mutual superimposition of the attributes of the empirical reality on the ultimate reality and vice versa – is the essential character of ignorance.

Experience is basically a decaying time capsule of information, which in some cases can reveal (if properly understood and assimilated) the underlying truth of the self, or pure awareness. But can't cause it to stick.

Whatever experience is taking place is awareness (that which everyone is seeking), but awareness cannot be defined by any one experience. For this reason Lord Krishna says in the Bhagavad Gita, “All these are in me, but I am not in them” (9.4).

You see, pure awareness or the self — is never interested in either knowledge or experience. It  illumines both of them, while remaining ever free of them.

Experience reinforces the limited entity…

Experience itself does not remove ignorance.

Experience can potentially reveal a broader vision of reality than was previously known, and can affect one’s emotional state for longer or shorter periods of time.

However, it does not automatically or immediately erase erroneous but deeply ingrained thought patterns and replace them with correct ones.

Additionally, inherent in all experience is an experiencing entity (who does the experiencing). The  experience does not cancel out this LIMITED entity (often called the doer/enjoyer/experiencer). Yet the entire spiritual search is about freeing yourself from the LIMITED entity. 

Consequently, experience reinforces the LIMITED entity and the subject-object dichotomy. 

Knowledge alone is the solution…

It is for this reason that freedom is only “attained” (understood as one’s true nature) through knowledge. Only knowledge remains after experience ends, and only knowledge liberates one from the need to have any experience in order to feel adequate, complete, peaceful and unconditionally happy.

Conclusion of knowledge and experience

This analysis showed us how knowledge and experience relate. They aren't separate processes but intimately connected aspects of the same reality. They aren't two different things, but expressions of the same fundamental reality—pure awareness itself. We saw that awareness is not just what knows experience, but is the very substance of both the knowing and what is known, or substance of knowledge and experience. 

The Difference between “Worldly” Knowledge and Self-Knowledge

Self-inquiry deals with two types of knowledge: relative and absolute.

Relative (“Worldly”) Knowledge

“Worldly” or relative knowledge concerns everything we experience with the senses, mind, and intellect.

Senses allow us to access the material world, the mind to access emotions, and the intellect to access thoughts and ideas.

All three operate on direct perception and perception-based inference. In other words, they require objects to function. Meaning the senses, mind and intellect can only provide relative knowledge because the entire manifestation is in a constant state of flux. 

Absolute (Self) Knowledge

Self-knowledge is absolute because limitless awareness is ever present and never changes.

Though the self cannot be objectified, nor directly known as one would know an object — awareness is by its very nature self-evident. It is obvious that I exist and that I am aware. If I wasn't, I wouldn't  know or experience anything.

Even though the self cannot be known as an object, its nature can be revealed through self-inquiry.

This is because self-inquiry does not produce or locate an object, but simply removes my self-ignorance. The idea that I don't already have it. The self is ever-present and simply needs be unveiled.

Self-knowledge is not a matter of addition, but rather the subtraction of that which obscures it. Thus, it is essentially the removal of ignorance that constitutes self-knowledge.

Once ignorance is eradicated — limitless, ever-present, all-pervasive awareness is revealed as it is. It's no longer mixed up with objects.

Additionally, self-inquiry works for everyone because there is, in reality, only one self. Though many houses stand throughout the world, the same air fills them all.

Similarly, though many apparent individuals inhabit the empirical reality, the same pure consciousness is the self of all.

Self-Knowledge Is Necessary for Liberation

While relative knowledge is necessary in order to negotiate time-bound life, self-knowledge is necessary in order to get free of time-bound life.

The problem with relative knowledge is that it is subject to negation because it changes depending upon points of views.

For instance, a shirt resolves into ever more fundamental substrata, such as the threads, cotton, atoms, subatomic particles, waves, etc. Until it resolves altogether into pure awareness.

Self-knowledge, however, cannot be negated because there exists nothing other than awareness. In other words, you cannot negate yourself.

Negating or improving the self reinforces the limited entity

Not knowing self is the final reality and already perfect — the spiritual world is constantly trying to negate the self, or improve the self, or reach some bigger-better self — through hundreds of practices. Ironically, doing reinforces the presence of the limited doer. Fifty years of doing countless practices, yet the doer (the core problem) remains intact!

Second problem with doing is when you are busy “doing” things to escape suffering, you're actually strengthening the core problem: the belief that “I” (the subject) am separate from “that” (the object) which I seek. Or that I am incomplete and flawed, and only an object will complete Me.

This false division between subject and object keeps you swimming anxiously in the whirlpool of desires — never realizing desire fulfillment is only a bandaid, never the cure.

The cure is recognizing desires are incidental (they're like the wind – strong at times – but eventually wanes into stillness) and products past conditioning.

Vedantic knowledge makes you permanently see that despite desires (arising and resolving in the mind) — I am free of the mind and its desires.

Therefore true freedom comes through understanding, not effort.

Because effort is always tied to a desire. IE: You only put effort into things you desire. And desire is always tied to the mind. Thus effort reinforces “I am the mind”. But the truth is, you are transcendent of the mind.

What Self-Knowledge Does and Does Not Do

Despite the countless seekers seeking it, not many people are clear about what enlightenment actually is.

Actually “enlightenment” is a vague word conveying the release from bondage to the pursuit of objects, and the unavoidable suffering within an object-desiring lifestyle.

The word used in the Vedantic scriptures to denote the ultimate goal of life is moksha, which means liberation or freedom.

The liberation referred to in the scriptures is freedom from identification with the person (ie: not putting your “I” in memories, skills, pains, joys, height, weight, and all the things that constitute “person”).

I am already free from this entity. The only problem is that I simply do not know it.

Such being the case, it is important that we clearly understand what the teachings of Vedanta and the practice of self-inquiry will and will not do for us in order to circumvent potential erroneous notions you can't afford to carry…

To be clear, Vedanta neither proves that you exist nor promises to give you an experience of the self.

As previously explained, your existence is self-evident. The very fact that you are inquiring into the nature of your existence proves in itself that you exist.

Moreover, since existence is non-dual (meaning there's no two things here), you are already enjoying the self at all times, in all places, and throughout all states of experience – because nothing else exists.

So it's illogical to say, “I need to to something to experience self”. Because that implies self is one thing. And you are something else. That's called dvaita (duality); convinced there's two things. 

Though most of our daily experiences are seemingly mundane, and thus do not fit the romantically conceived and commonly accepted profile of some cosmic transcendental experience – every objective experience and the awareness in which the experience appears – is the self.

Simply put, the self is all that is here.

Vedanta does show you that you are limitless, not separate from anything, and eternal.

While the universe is a cosmic festival of entities, all entities are incidental (appearances of this one self).

The entire gamut of names and forms resolves into awareness. Just as infinite waves and their shapes and sizes are nothing but H2O. Every drop within the wave is water.

This recognition gives you the vision of non-duality.

This vision, however, is not an assemblage of a bunch of theoretical puzzle pieces that you have to intellectually hold together. Rather, it is simply the result of dropping the limited ideas about yourself that seemed to divide your being into innumerable parts.

Once you know your true nature in the wake of self-inquiry, you will no longer be able to hold on to limited ideas about yourself.

Furthermore, Vedanta gives you complete knowledge, or knowledge of both the self and “not-self”.

Rather than glorifying the highest truth, while denying the apparent reality as Neo-Vedanta or Neo-Advaita schools are doing — traditional Advaita Vedanta (as is taught on this site) gives the entire vision, no stone unturned. It explains the relationship between the jīva (the apparent person), the jagat (the world), and Īśvara (God-the-Creator)

It also reveals the underlying identity of all three as Brahman (pure awareness). 

The Difference Between Indirect and Direct Knowledge

As we've seen, perception and inference are the only means of knowledge under the control of the individual. The problem, however, is that these means only work with reference to objects. For instance, we either have to perceive fire directly, or infer the existence of fire by perceiving smoke.

Because self is limitless, formless awareness and thus cannot be objectified – these means of knowledge are incapable of granting us knowledge of the self.

While the existence of self can be inferred, inference is indirect knowledge. For example, because the world appears, and some life force animates its sentient aspects — you can infer that there must be a self or “higher power.”

Thus, inference can reveal the existence of a self, but doesn’t reveal that I am the self. And not only that, but I am the the only “thing” there is here.

Moreover, the recognition of a “higher power” is dualistic in nature because it forces you to behold some “other” entity or power. Once again, there's me, and there's something else. Duality! Such indirect knowledge does not liberate you. It only entangles you in the hunt for this “other” entity or power.

Only direct knowledge will set you free.

An Illustrative Anecdote

Consider the circumstance of a man who arrives at a party intending to meet a woman named Radha with whom he has been set up on a blind date.

The man has heard much about Radha, but has never actually seen her. While standing at the bar, he strikes up a conversation with a woman next to him who, later in the exchange, is revealed to be Radha herself.

While the man seeking Radha was in fact talking with Radha all along, he did not know the identity of the woman he was conversing with until he was told.

This anecdote serves to illustrate that point that it is not experience that removes ignorance, but knowledge.

The truth was right before the man's eyes all along. He was directly experiencing her presence. But only the words of introduction transformed his experience into recognition — showing how language can provide immediate, direct knowledge of what is already present.

Though the self is not an object (as is case with Radha) — it is self-evident, ever present, and thus always ready to be known. And since the self is always so readily available, words can give direct self-knowledge.

As was the case with the man at the party — similarly we need an introduction to the self we wish to know. Vedanta, or self-inquiry, is that introduction.

Ultimately, the proper assimilation of its teachings takes one from indirect knowledge of the self to the direct understanding that “I am the self”.

The Nature of Direct Self-Knowledge

Because the “object” of self-knowledge is unlike that of any other discrete object (that's perceived or inferred) – it means self-knowledge itself must be unique.

Characteristics of Direct Self-Knowledge

Impersonal:

Self-inquiry is not something that can be undertaken independently. The teachings of Vedanta need to be worked on by a qualified teacher.

Because we are ignorant (uncertain about our true identity), we will invariably interpret the words of scripture based on our ignorance, and thus never completely assimilate their intended meaning.

It's true that you need to prepare the mind for self-inquiry and practice applying wisdom in daily life. But no amount of “doing” can remove the core ignorance, because all actions strengthen the false idea that I am separate from what I seek — which contradicts the non-dual reality.

When the seeker starts to see that everything is one reality, then motivation shifts from doing (which makes up 99.9% of the spiritual world) into understanding. No “you” needs to push anything away, for what is there to push away when reality is One.  Understanding alone solves the problem. It's like the wave is pushing itself away to in hopes to reach the water. It's already the water!

Non-Dependent on Perception:

Second, self-knowledge does not depend on perception. Despite the mania for spiritual epiphanies, transcendental states, and mystical visions so common among spiritual seekers – the fact is we cannot see or experience awareness because it is formless, attributeless. Only something with attributes (like color, taste, sounds, sensations, feeling) can be experienced or perceived. 

Yet due to ignorance, thinking the subject (self) is an object – the obsession for experiencing the self continues to thrive. In other words, perception of self is rooted in the subject-object dichotomy (arising out of ignorance) and thus maintains the dualistic view of reality.

The fact of the matter is that you — the “seer” who “sees” all objective phenomena, including the relative seer/knower (ie: the apparent person you take yourself to be) — are awareness itself.

This being the case, no interpretation or memory is involved in reference to awareness.

Once the erroneous idea is dropped that the self needs to be interpreted or experienced — ignorance will not return. You can forget an object that is not present, but you cannot forget the subject (self), because self is that in whom the presence or absence of an object is known. Further more, you can't forget yourself because you are never not present.

Destruction of Duality:

Third, self-knowledge destroys conviction of duality.

Self-inquiry reveals that you are the fundamental substratum of perceiver (ego or relative knower) – perception (thoughts in the mind) – perceived (physical objects) trinity of experience.

All three are only objects in you, awareness.

Without you supporting them, all three would instantaneously evaporate. While they depend on you – you are free of them.

Even when no objects are present, such as during deep sleep or in thought-free meditative states – you abide as the awareness in which no objects presently obtain.

It is the knowledge that you are thus free of duality that constitutes the destruction of duality.

Contrary to uninformed spiritual seekers, the world does not suddenly go up in a puff of smoke, but rather “disappears” in the wake of the understanding that its true nature is non-dual awareness.

In short, I cognitive understand despite differences, there's only one. Just like a wave cognitively comes to see, despite countless forms (waves), they are all essentially One water. There's no question of waves physically disappearing. In fact, everything remains EXACTLY THE SAME. Just a cognitive shift occurs.

Non-Addition to the Apparent Person:

Fourth, self-knowledge does not add anything to the perceiver (or apparent person) who you think you are.

You, the apparent person, will not get knowledge. You will neither be left with a cache of information to remember nor be established in some permanent transcendental state that renders you a “bliss zombie”.

Rather, you will simply understand that the perceiver, feeler, and thinker are not real – and this knowledge will cancel identification with the apparent individual.

The apparent individual perceiver will still appear, but you will know your true identity as the “light” in which all things are perceived.

Why Self-Inquiry Is Necessary

Throughout history, there have certainly been many paths and practices people have used to gain liberation.

It's likely people have become enlightened through methods other than the systematic self-inquiry of traditional Vedanta taught on this website.

Nevertheless, no matter how seekers may have attained enlightenment, the “attainment” is essentially a matter of assimilating self-knowledge. For this reason, we can say that while traditional Vedanta is not the only way to gain moksha — what's for sure is the revealed knowledge that is the basis of Vedanta — is the only means.

What makes Vedanta so powerful…

What makes traditional Vedanta so powerful is its organized, step-by-step approach. For students who are ready, this systematic method makes gaining self-knowledge—and therefore freedom—almost guaranteed.

Moreover, teachers vary in their abilities to reveal the truth. But Vedanta methodology itself remains reliable and failsafe. Its carefully refined teaching method, passed down through countless generations and proven effective over thousands of years — ensures that genuine self-knowledge will be transmitted from the teacher to the student. 

Reason why you can't solve the problem on your own

It is our inborn ignorance that renders us incapable of cracking the code of self-realization on our own.

The apparent person trying to figure it out is a product of, and conditioned by, the very ignorance that needs be eradicated in order for him or her to understand the truth. In short, you won't attack that which doesn't seem broken. Thus the apparent person pursues effects, never the cause. 

Ironically, self having apparently fallen under the deluding spell of its own power of māyā — the self has identified with the upādhi, or limiting adjunct, of the mind-body-sense complex. Therefore, the self sees and processes experience from that limited perspective.

In other words, because ignorance is so strong, the apparently deluded self will not consider the possibility of being something other than the mind-body-sense complex.

Power of maya

Power of maya is remarkably intelligent. It projects the entire universe, filling the mind with desire and turning the senses and mind outward.

The world that we take to be so tangibly real — is actually more like a cosmic three-dimensional, hi-definition, kaleidoscopic, holographic video game.

The projection is so lifelike and fascinating that it fools everyone.

Due to the highly convincing nature of māyā’s spell, one picks up a score of erroneous notions about oneself and one’s identity.

These notions will not be permanently displaced by experiences (such as samadhi as glorified in yoga systems) because experiences do not last. So no experience will ever remove false notions keeping your identity entangled with maya's projection.

Only the knowledge gained through self-inquiry will permanently replace erroneous thoughts with valid ones — and thus only knowledge gained through self-inquiry can set one free.