Adi Shankara’s thoughts on the senses and true reality
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Adi Shankara’s thoughts on the senses and true reality lie at the heart of his Advaita Vedanta (non-dualistic) philosophy.
To him, the senses were both wondrous and deceptive—tools that help us navigate the illusion (maya) but also the very mechanisms that trap us in it.
Let’s break this down in the way Shankara might have framed it:
👁️ The Senses: Messengers of Illusion
Shankara believed that the senses do not reveal truth — they reveal appearance.
When you see, hear, taste, touch, or smell something, you are experiencing nama-rupa (“name and form”) — not the underlying essence.
He compared sensory perception to a mirage:
You see water shimmering in the desert, but there is no water.
Likewise, you see multiplicity in the world, but there is only Brahman.
The senses, mind, and ego combine to create the illusion of a world “out there,” distinct from the self “in here.”
In truth, there is no “out there” — only the seamless, undivided consciousness of Brahman.
🪞 The Mind as the Sixth Sense
Shankara often described the mind as the “sixth sense” — the coordinator of the other five.
But even the mind, he said, is part of maya. It projects distinctions, remembers, names, and judges.
It takes raw sensory input and weaves the dream of “me” and “mine.”
He wrote in the Vivekachudamani (“Crest Jewel of Discrimination”):
“The mind creates bondage through attachment to sense objects;
the same mind creates liberation when it turns inward.”
So the senses aren’t evil — they are just outward-facing tools.
The mistake is believing their story — taking their flickering shadows as solid truth.
🌅 True Reality: Brahman Beyond Perception
For Shankara, Brahman (the Absolute Reality) is beyond sense and thought:
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It has no color, form, sound, or dimension.
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It is unchanging, eternal, infinite consciousness.
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It is not “seen” but realized through knowledge (jnana).
The world of sensory experience — of pleasure, pain, gain, and loss — is transitory.
It’s real only in the same way a dream is real while you’re dreaming.
When you awaken (through insight), the dream dissolves into the awareness that it was all you.
“Like bubbles on water, the worlds arise, exist, and dissolve in Brahman.
The seer, the seeing, and the seen are one.”
🧘♂️ The Path: Turning Inward
Shankara taught that liberation (moksha) comes not through suppressing the senses but by seeing through them.
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The senses are waves; consciousness is the ocean.
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When the mind becomes still — through inquiry (jnana yoga), meditation, and devotion — one sees that the senses and the world are not separate from Brahman but expressions of it.
Thus, the illusion of duality (“I am here; the world is there”) falls away.
⚡ Modern Parallel
In modern language, Shankara might say:
The senses are like VR goggles — vivid, immersive, persuasive.
But the game isn’t the player.
When you take off the headset, you see the stillness that was there all along.