Aparokshanubhuti By Shankaracharya: The Direct Experience of Reality

AparokshAnubhuti by Shankara is an important and popular work on non-duality in which he accepts contemplation or reflection as a primary means of knowledge. In fact, Shankara declares that an advanced seeker, having a pure mind, can experience reality with this contemplative thought alone. For other seekers, he outlines a unique form of Raja (king of) Yoga, which consists of fifteen parts in quite contrast to eight-fold Yoga of Patanjali. According to him, a regular practice of this Yoga gives rise to an all-encompassing awareness of reality that results in enlightenment. Shankara discusses the nature of our ignorance and gives arguments to show that body is different from self. He, then, based on scriptural statements and reasoning, shows that fundamental reality is all-pervasive and this external world is unreal as a dream. Then, he cites several examples to highlight the inaccurate observation of our sense organs. Thereby he brings in the argument that we cannot trust our eyes, ears, etc. unconditionally. To rectify our observation, he suggests to constantly focus on the cause and discard the effect in everything, just as a goldsmith focuses on the gold and ignores the forms and names of the various golden ornaments.