Perceiving in Advaita Vedānta: Epistemological Analysis and Interpretation

Perceiving in Advaita Vedānta examines the theory of perception within the non-dualistic philosophical tradition of Advaita Vedānta. Drawing particularly on Dharmarājādhvarīndra’s Vedāntaparibhāṣā and Anantakṛṣṇa Śāstrī’s Paribhāṣāprakāśikā, Bina Gupta analyzes the relationship among consciousness, the knowing subject, the object of knowledge, the internal organ, and perceptual cognition. The book explains the Advaita view that perception involves a form of identity between consciousness limited by the cognitive subject and consciousness limited by the perceived object. The modification of the internal organ, or vṛtti, removes the ignorance concealing the object and enables its manifestation in consciousness. The study further investigates truth and valid knowledge, the evidential status of perception, three forms of consciousness, the perceptibility of objects, varieties of perceptual experience, error, and dream cognition. Particular attention is given to self-revealing consciousness, immediate awareness of cognition, pleasure, pain, and ignorance, as well as the distinction between empirical and absolute knowledge. By translating and interpreting key Sanskrit passages, Gupta demonstrates how Advaita epistemology combines an idealistic metaphysics of non-dual consciousness with recognition of objects that may remain unknown or unperceived. The book thus provides a systematic reconstruction of Advaita perception theory and situates it within wider philosophical discussions of knowledge, consciousness, intentionality, error, and phenomenology.