Shravana is the attentive listening to the words of the Upanishads as unfolded by a teacher, the first step in gaining self-knowledge.

The difference between immature and mature dispassion (vairagya) in Vedanta. Learn how dispassion evolves from frustration and disappointment into clarity, equanimity, and freedom through knowledge, discrimination, and silence.

Chitta is the storehouse of impressions and memory, one of the four functions of the mind. Inert and illumined by consciousness, it is not the Self.

Manas is the aspect of mind that vacillates and coordinates sense impressions. Inert and illumined by consciousness, it is to be steadied, not mistaken for the Self.

Turiya is not another state of consciousness but the pure awareness underlying waking, dream, and sleep. It is the Self, ever-present and unchanging.

Vyavaharika is empirical reality — the shared world of everyday experience. Real for practical purposes, it is ultimately dependent on Brahman.