Discernment (Viveka)

Viveka is the trained power of discrimination: the ability to tell the real from the unreal, the lasting from the passing, the self from what merely belongs to it. In Advaita it is the very first qualification a seeker must cultivate, because the whole path of knowledge depends on learning to see clearly what is and is not the true self. In Yoga, the dawning of perfect discrimination is itself the doorway to freedom.