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380 OUTLINES OF INDIAN PHILOSOPHY that has realized the truth they teach. The implication of this requirement is two-fold: First, it signifies that the ultimate philosophic truth is to be learnt through a study of the revealed texts. Secondly, it emphasizes the need for personal intercourse with a competent teacher, if the study is to be fruiful and shows that mere book-learning is not of much avail. (2) Manana. This is arguing within oneself, after knowing definitely what the Upanişads teach, how and why that teaching alone is true. The main object of this process is not to discover the final truth, for that has been learnt already through śravaņa, but to remove the doubt (asambhāvanā) that it may not after all be right. It is intended to transform what has been received on trust into one's own true conviction and brings out well the place assigned to reason in the Advaita. The recognition of the value of analytical reflection, we may note by the way, is rather a unique feature in a doctrine which finally aims at mystic experience. (3) Nididhyāsana. Manana secures intellectual conviction. But there may still be obstacles in the way of self-realization. For despite such conviction, there may be now and again an unconscious reassertion of old habits of thought (viparitabhāvanā) incompatible with what has since been learnt. Nididhyāsana is meant to overcome this kind of obstacle. It is meditation upon the identity between the individual self and Brahman-the central point of Vedāntic teaching. It should be continued till the desired intuitive knowledge arises and that identity becomes immediate (aparokşa)." When it does, one becomes a jīvan-mukta. The ultimate philosophic fact is no doubt to be known through the testimony of the Upanişads; but if the knowledge conveyed by it is to bring real freedom, one should verify it by one's own living experience in the form 'I am Brahman' or Aham Brahma asmi. It is this immediate experience or direct intuition of the Absolute, which is described as vidvadanu
1 VS. IV. i. 1-2. * Cf. Kim tu śrutyādayo anubhavādayaśca yathă-sambhavam iha pramānam anubhavāvasanatvāt bhūta-vastu-vişayatvācca brahmajñanasya: Com. on VS. I. i. 2. See Dr. Belvalkar: op. cit., p. 14.
