Aparokṣānubhūti is a compound consisting of aparokṣa ("perceptible") and anubhūti (अनुभूति)("knowledge"), meaning "direct cognition" or "direct experience of the Absolute."
Aparokshanubhuti reveals profound insights into the nature of reality, highlighting the illusory nature of the world and the individual self's true identity as part of the Universal Self.
The Aparokshanubhuti is a work attributed to Adi Shankara It is a popular introductory work that expounds Advaita Vedanta philosophy. In Advaita Vedanta, it refers to the realization of the identity of the individual self (Atman) with the ultimate reality (Brahman). This realization is not an intellectual understanding but a direct, experiential awareness. This experience is not based on inference or reasoning but on a direct, intuitive understanding that goes beyond the limitations of ordinary perception.
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Aparokṣānubhūti is a compound consisting of aparokṣa ("perceptible") and anubhūti (अनुभूति)("knowledge"), meaning "direct cognition" or "direct experience of the Absolute."
Aparokshanubhuti reveals profound insights into the nature of reality, highlighting the illusory nature of the world and the individual self's true identity as part of the Universal Self.
The Aparokshanubhuti is a work attributed to Adi Shankara It is a popular introductory work that expounds Advaita Vedanta philosophy. In Advaita Vedanta, it refers to the realization of the identity of the individual self (Atman) with the ultimate reality (Brahman). This realization is not an intellectual understanding but a direct, experiential awareness. This experience is not based on inference or reasoning but on a direct, intuitive understanding that goes beyond the limitations of ordinary perception.
Verses No 91 to 93
Ignorance is the root of prārabdha
Prārabdha (the supposed karma that has “already begun” and sustains the body of the jīvanmukta) is only valid under avidyā.
Once knowledge dawns, avidyā (and with it, its products) are nullified.
Vyavahāra depends on avidyā
All worldly dealings (eating, speaking, even the notion “I am embodied”) rely on ignorance.
With knowledge, these lose their ontological basis.
No prārabdha for the jñānī
Śaṅkara is affirming the ajātivāda standpoint: if avidyā is gone, there is no scope for karma — including prārabdha.
This tallies with Gauḍapāda’s Kārikā (3.48): “na nirodho na cotpattiḥ…” (no origination, no cessation, no bondage, no liberation).
Teaching vs. Reality
Though texts sometimes say “prārabdha continues even for the knower until the body falls,” here the rahasya (secret teaching) is given: in ultimate truth, prārabdha never existed.
This preserves the two-level doctrine:
Vyāvahārika — prārabdha seems to continue for explanation.
Pāramārthika — no prārabdha, no bondage, no body.
Threefold Karma as a Teaching Device
Śaṅkara acknowledges the traditional tripartite classification of karma.
This helps explain why bodies arise and why experiences differ.
Ultimate Negation of Karma
Yet, the punchline: all karma belongs only to the level of avidyā (ignorance).
From the Self’s standpoint (ātmanah svataḥ), there is no doership (akartṛtva).
Prārabdha as Relational, Not Absolute
For a given body, a portion of sañcita is labeled prārabdha.
This is only a functional, relative distinction — not ultimately real.
Non-origination (Ajātivāda)
The conclusion directly aligns with Gauḍapāda:
“nānyo dharmo’sti saṃsāre…” and
“na nirodho na cotpattiḥ…” (GK 2.32; 3.48).
Births are only imagined due to ignorance — the Self, free of doership, never undergoes birth.
Teaching vs. Reality
On the vyāvahārika plane, karma is explained in three categories to help seekers.
On the pāramārthika plane, all three (sañcita, āgāmī, prārabdha) collapse into unreality, because Brahman has no doership or change.
Dream as Analogy for Birth
Just as in dream there appears a whole world with actions, experiences, and results — yet upon waking, no causal birth or karma truly existed — so too with waking life.
The “births” we take as real are of the same order as dream appearances.
Denial of Prārabdha in Truth
If there is no real birth (janmābhāva), then the concept of prārabdha — karma already fructifying through the body — collapses.
Prārabdha only makes sense under the empirical (vyāvahārika) view.
Śaṅkara’s Two-Level Teaching
For seekers (vyavahāra): karma is divided into sañcita, āgāmī, prārabdha to explain embodied experience.
In reality (pāramārthika): no karma, no birth, no prārabdha exists — all is Brahman alone.
Gaudapāda’s Ajātivāda Influence
This is straight from Gauḍapāda’s Māṇḍūkya Kārikā 3.48:
“na nirodho na cotpattiḥ na baddho na ca sādhakaḥ |
na mumukṣur na vai muktaḥ ityeṣā paramārthatā ||”
There is no birth, no bondage, no seeker, no liberation — all such distinctions vanish upon realization.
Aparokshanubhuti
Aparokṣānubhūti is a compound consisting of aparokṣa ("perceptible") and anubhūti (अनुभूति)("knowledge"), meaning "direct cognition" or "direct experience of the Absolute."
Aparokshanubhuti reveals profound insights into the nature of reality, highlighting the illusory nature of the world and the individual self's true identity as part of the Universal Self.
The Aparokshanubhuti is a work attributed to Adi Shankara It is a popular introductory work that expounds Advaita Vedanta philosophy. In Advaita Vedanta, it refers to the realization of the identity of the individual self (Atman) with the ultimate reality (Brahman). This realization is not an intellectual understanding but a direct, experiential awareness. This experience is not based on inference or reasoning but on a direct, intuitive understanding that goes beyond the limitations of ordinary perception.
