The Upanishads refer to two kinds of knowledge, apara vidya (knowledge via the intellect and the senses, limited to a finite world) and para vidya (knowledge via the soul, which is not just subjective experience of concepts and emotions, but oneness with the infinite). Apara vidya presupposes a knower, a thing that is known, and the act of knowing. Para vidya, by contrast, is the attainment of knowledge through oneness with Brahman, the creative principle revealed in the whole cosmos.52 It is thought to be the purpose of life to attain para vidya.
