Viveka

Discriminative discernment between the real and unreal, the permanent and transitory, purusha and prakriti. It is the faculty that allows recognition of the difference between the observer and the observed.

Viveka is not an intellectual achievement but a direct perception that arises when citta is sufficiently purified. Patañjali describes it as the light of knowledge that destroys the darkness of avidya.

The state of viveka-khyati (continuous discriminative vision) is the threshold of kaivalya. When discernment becomes permanent and uninterrupted, liberation is assured.