Advaita Vedanta

===== ''Anubhava'' ('experience')=====
The role of ''anubhava'', ''anubhuti'' ("experience," "intuition"{{sfn|Bowker|2000b|loc="Anubhava"}}) as "experience" in gaining ''Brahman-jnana'' is contested. While neo-Vedanta claims a central position for ''anubhava'' as "experience," Shankara himself regarded reliance on textual authority as sufficient for gaining ''Brahman-jnana'',{{sfn|Halbfass|2017|p=387}}{{refn|group=note|See also ramesam, [https://www.advaita-vision.org/atma-anubhava-anubhuti/ ''AtmA anubhava / anubhUti''] (blog).}} "the intuition of Brahman,"{{sfn|Bowker|2000b|loc="Anubhava"}} and used ''anubhava'' interchangeably with ''pratipatta'', "understanding".{{sfn|Suthren Hirst|2005|p=68}} Arvind Sharma argues that Shankara's own "direct experience of the ultimate truth" guided him in selecting "those passages of the scriptures that resonate with this experience and will select them as the key with which to open previously closed, even forbidden, doors."{{sfn|Sharma|2000|p=177}}{{refn|group=note|{{harvnb|Sharma|2000|p=177}} refers to ''Brahma Sutra Bhashya'' 4.1.15, "which tradition views as an allusion to his own direct experience of the ultimate truth." It runs as follows: [...] How can one contest the heart-felt cognition of another as possessing ''brahman''-knowledge, even though bearing a body?}}

The ''[[Vivekachudamani]]'' "explicit[ly] declar[es] that experience (''anubhuti'') is a ''pramana'', or means of knowing (VCM 59),"{{sfn|Madaio|2017|p=5}} and [[neo-Vedanta]] also accepts ''anubhava'' ("personal experience") as a means of knowledge.{{sfn|Rambachan|1991|pp=xii–xiii}} Dalal and others state that ''anubhava'' does not center around some sort of "mystical experience," but around the correct knowledge of Brahman.{{sfn|Dalal|2009|p=22}}{{sfn|Rambachan|1991|pp=1–14}} Nikhalananda concurs, stating that (knowledge of) ''Atman'' and ''Brahman'' can only be reached by ''[[buddhi]]'', "reason,"{{sfn|Nikhalananda|1931|p=viii}} stating that mysticism is a kind of intuitive knowledge, while ''buddhi'' is the highest means of attaining knowledge.{{sfn|Nikhalananda|1931|pp=viii–ix}}