Epistemological and Metaphysical Development in Advaita Vedanta
International Journal of Social Science and Human Research December 14, 2021 Dr. Kalo Sona Roy
Gaudapada, the teacher of Sankara, admits only transcendental reality, considering duality an illusion, and guides from gross to subtle reality, a gradual unfolding mirrored in meditation. Sankara develops both Advaita metaphysics and epistemology, holding that the source of cognition is a mental mode (antahkaranavrtti) that removes ignorance of the object, with the final mode being Brahmakara antahkaranavrtti. Advaita epistemology involves a gradual unfolding of mental modes. Sankara advocates three levels of reality—transcendental, empirical, and apparent—where all objects are real at their own level, teaching a gradual unfolding of reality.