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{{Hinduism}}

In Hindu thought, '''Anubhava''' or {{IAST|anubhavah}} ({{Lang-sa|अनुभव}}) refers to personal knowledge or aesthetic experience.

==Etymology==
The term {{IAST|anubhava}} or {{IAST|anubhavah}} (Sanskrit) is a compound of: 
* {{Lang|sa|अनु}} {{IAST|anu}}: 'after', 'afterwards', 'later on', 'in consequence of', 'being indicated by'; 
* {{Lang|sa|भ(भु)व}} {{IAST|bhava}}: 'causing', 'delighting' or 'experiencing'.

{{IAST|Anubhava}} has a wide range of possible translations:<ref>{{cite book|title=The Practical Sanskrit-English Dictionary|author=V.S.Apte|publisher=Digital Dictionaries of South Asia|page=11|url=http://dsalsrv02.uchicago.edu/cgi-bin/philologic/getobject.pl?p.0:100.apte }}</ref><ref>{{cite book|title=Encyclopaedia of Indian Literature |publisher=Sahitya Akademi|page=201|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ObFCT5_taSgC&pg=PA201&dq=anubhava&hl=en&sa=X&ei=Fz_HVNWqEqLCmwXpiICQCg&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=anubhava&f=false }}</ref> 
* {{Lang|sa|अनुभव}} – 'direct perception or cognition', 'knowledge derived from personal observation or experiment, 'notion', 'apprehension', 'the impression on the mind not derived from memory', 'one of the kinds of knowledge', 'experience', 'understanding', 'result', 'consequence'; 
* {{Lang|sa|अनुभवसिद्ध}} – 'established by experience'.

Several related words express the mental state which can be communicated to others or represented ({{Lang|sa|अभिनय}} – 'acting'), either verbally or physically or emotionally, in one or different contexts:
* {{Lang|sa|भाव}} {{IAST|bhāvah}}: 'feeling', 'emotion', 'sentiment', 'temperament', 'mood'; 
* {{Lang|sa|विभाव}} {{IAST|vibhāvah}}: 'any condition which produces or develops a particular state of body or mind';  
* {{Lang|sa|अनुभाव}} {{IAST|anubhāvah}}: 'greatness', 'dignity', 'firm opinion or determination', 'an external manifestation or indication of a feeling by appropriate looks, gestures etc., called by some ensuant';
* {{Lang|sa|अनुभू}} {{IAST|anubhū}}: to enjoy, taste, experience or suffer; 
* {{Lang|sa|अनुभूति}} {{IAST|anubhūti}}: 'realization', self-realization'.

{{IAST|Anubhāvas}} are not causes, but aesthetic experiences and important ingredients of [[Rasa (aesthetics)|Rasa]]. {{IAST|Anubhavah}} is not a sense-experience.

==Religion==

===Direct cognition===
{{IAST|Anubhavah}} refers to poetic, narrative or ritual experience, enjoyment, relish or delight resulting, for the devotee or the seeker after truth, in the ecstatic experience of the divine; it is a means to understand during one’s own life-time the true nature of one’s own self which is the real nature of the [[Atman (Hinduism)|Atman]] by experiencing the sublime delight of the unity with the Supreme Self.<ref>{{cite book|title=Contemporary Hinduism|author=P.Pratap Kumar|publisher=Routledge|page=220|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7Wd_BAAAQBAJ&pg=PA220&dq=anubhava&hl=en&sa=X&ei=5z_HVOLFFeihmQWS_IKoDg&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=anubhava&f=false }}</ref>

Cognition is said to be of two kinds – ''[[Smriti|smrti]]'' ('reproductive') which is other than re-cognitive perception requiring disposition, and {{IAST|anubhavah}} ('productive') which involves a kind of awareness not derived from disposition alone. The difference between the waking state and the dreaming state becomes known through {{IAST|anubhava}} ('perception').<ref>{{cite book|title=Classical Indian Philosophy of Mind|author=Kisor Kumar Chakrabarti|publisher=SUNY Press|pages=35, 43|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=WxkcJd2X75oC&pg=PA35&dq=anubhava&hl=en&sa=X&ei=L0THVJ6DOee2mAXhzYCADg&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=anubhava&f=false }}</ref>

===Advaita Vedanta===
The sage of the [[Mundaka Upanishad]] declares:
{{quote|sign=|source=|{{lang|sa|स यो ह् वै तत्परमं ब्रह्म वेद ब्रह्मैव भवति}} – "Verily he becomes Brahman, who knows Brahman. " –  ([[Mundaka Upanishad]] III.ii.9)}}

This is so because [[Brahman]] is of the nature of experience ({{IAST|anubhuti}}) and to have the {{IAST|anubhava}} of Brahman is to become Brahman, thus this revelation, a moment ago non-existing, is realized as existing eternally. {{IAST|Vijñānam}} is {{IAST|anubhava}}, and {{IAST|anubhava}} is realization of the identity of the individual self and Brahman, which experience does not depend on any process, neither produced by any process nor as an effect to any cause and is the highest state of development.<ref>{{cite book|title=Philosophy of Hindu Sadhana|author=Nalini kanta Brahma|publisher=PHI Learning|page=127,147|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xPQjT7X8odMC&pg=PA195&dq=anubhava&hl=en&sa=X&ei=rUHHVLrrJKi0mwW_zoGYDg&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=anubhava&f=false }}</ref>

With regard to the origination of things, [[Badarayana]] declares:
{{quote|{{lang|sa|जन्माद्यस्य यतः}} "That (is Brahman) from which (are derived) the birth etc., of this (universe)."  - ([[Brahma Sutras]] I.i.2)}}

[[Adi Shankara|Shankara]] holds {{IAST|anubhava}} to be a ''[[pramana]]'', an independent source of knowledge which is provided by contemplation (''[[nididhyasana]]'').<ref>{{cite book|title=Accomplishing the Accomplished|author=Anantanand Rambachan|publisher=University of Hawaii Press|page=14|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9FlsBa8FWlIC&pg=PA6&dq=anubhava&hl=en&sa=X&ei=Fz_HVNWqEqLCmwXpiICQCg&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=anubhava&f=false }}</ref> In his commentary on this ''[[sutra]]'' Shankara explains that a thing cannot be simultaneously judged to be existent and non-existent for the valid knowledge of the true nature of a thing does not depend on human notions and {{Lang|sa|यतः}} ({{IAST|yatah}}) ('that from which') in this {{IAST|sutra}} "is not meant to present an inference but speaks of a cause that is by nature eternal, pure, free and intrinsically omniscient" (which has to be experienced and felt).<ref>{{cite book|title=Brahma Sutra Bhasya of Sankaracarya|publisher=Advaita Ashrama|page=17|url=https://www.amazon.in/Brahma-Sutra-Bhasya-Sankaracarya/dp/8175051051}}</ref> The realization of the Supreme Word (''[[Shabda|śabda]]''), which is truth and reality, happens intuitively (a stage of ''[[pratibha]]''), and resembles Shankara’s concept of {{IAST|anubhava}}.<ref>{{cite book|title=Being and Meaning|author=Sebastian Alackapally|publisher=Motilal Banarsidass|page=100|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=liCLrmfnKSoC&pg=PA100&dq=anubhava&hl=en&sa=X&ei=L0THVJ6DOee2mAXhzYCADg&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=anubhava&f=false }}</ref>

[[Padmapadacharya|Padmapada]] (fl. 8th century), a student of Shankara, in his {{IAST|Panchapādikā}}, expounding [[Prabhākara]]’s view, explains that knowledge is {{IAST|anubhava}} i.e. the immediate experience, the resultant-cognition gained through valid means of knowledge when the subject and the object manifest and the self of the knower is known indirectly as "I".<ref>{{cite book|title=The Method of the Vedanta|author=Satchidanandendra Saraswati|page=419|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZMkbWhjE2M4C&pg=PA419&dq=anubhava&hl=en&sa=X&ei=ZUbHVLHAA-HQmAX1nYHgBA&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=anubhava&f=false}}</ref> And, according to [[Abhinavagupta]], the very continuous and proper remembrance of the mantra (of a ritual) is the attainment of the condition in which the devout ''[[Upāsaka and Upāsikā|upāsaka]]'' as a routine has the continuous and direct {{IAST|anubhava}} ('experience') of the Self as no different from himself.<ref>{{cite book|title=The Triadic Heart of Siva|author=Paul Eduardo Muller-Ortega|publisher=SUNY Press|page=187|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ObmRkyVbgDUC&pg=PA187&dq=anubhava&hl=en&sa=X&ei=ZUbHVLHAA-HQmAX1nYHgBA&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=anubhava&f=false }}</ref>

Swami Dayananda notes that {{IAST|anubhava}} has a more specific meaning than its conventional meaning of "experience", namely "direct knowledge". Dayananda explains that interpreting {{IAST|anubahva}} as "experience" may lead to a misunderstanding of Advaita Vedanta, and a mistaken rejection of the study of the scriptures as mere intellectual understanding. Stressing the meaning of {{IAST|anubhava}} as knowledge, Saraswati argues that liberation comes from knowledge, not from mere experience.<ref>[http://advaita-academy.org/Pages/PrintPost.aspx?PID=231 Advaita Academy, ''Experience versus knowledge – a brief look at samAdhi (Part 2 of 2) ''] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131203004634/http://advaita-academy.org/Pages/PrintPost.aspx?PID=231 |date=December 3, 2013 }}</ref> Saraswati points out that "the experience of the self&nbsp;... can never come because consciousness is ever-present, in and through each and every experience."<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.avgsatsang.org/hhpsds/pdf/Anubhava.pdf |title=Swami Dayananda Saraswati, ''Anubhava'' |access-date=2015-05-06 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150923180709/http://www.avgsatsang.org/hhpsds/pdf/Anubhava.pdf |archive-date=2015-09-23 |url-status=dead }}</ref>

===Neo-Vedanta===
According to [[Vivekananda]], {{IAST|anubhavah}} is the ground and source of all religious traditions, the infallible source of liberating knowledge, and the ultimate source of spiritual knowledge; however, he happens to distinguish between internal and external experience, between knowledge gained through words heard and own experience which he finds are not similar in nature and import.<ref>{{cite book|title=The Limits of scripture|author=Anantanand Rambachan|publisher=University of Hawaii Press|pages=9, 113, 133, 151|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=b9EJBQG3zqUC&pg=PA94&dq=anubhava&hl=en&sa=X&ei=GUHHVKbvDITxmAXMuIKIDg&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=anubhava&f=false }}</ref> According to [[Reza Shah-Kazemi]] ''anubhava'' is the immediate experience through which the transcendence of the Supreme Self beyond all limitations becomes known as one’s own self, then one realizes the real nature of one’s own self.<ref>{{cite book|title=Paths to Transcendence|author=Reza Shah-Kazemi|publisher=World Wisdom|page=28|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=UeEl4d2MhmYC&pg=PA28&dq=anubhava&hl=en&sa=X&ei=ZUbHVLHAA-HQmAX1nYHgBA&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=anubhava&f=false }}</ref>

===Saiva Siddhanta===
[[Thayumanavar]], the 18th-century Tamil [[Saiva Siddhanta]] saint, the one who gains {{IAST|anubhava}} delights in the unitive experience ({{IAST|advaita anubhava}}) which is deep and intuitive, and the culmination of all experimental states of [[Vedanta]]; it is the {{IAST|svarupa-lakshana}}.<ref>{{cite book|title=Harmony of Religions|publisher=Motilal Banarsidass|pages=169, 106,123|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=uE4-veDrY7AC&pg=PA169&dq=anubhava&hl=en&sa=X&ei=nEPHVN_mLqilmQW6o4CYDw&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=anubhava&f=false }}</ref>

===Waking and dreaming===
In the waking state and in the dreaming state, {{IAST|samvedana}} ({{Lang|sa|संवेदन}}) ('perception', 'act of perceiving or feeling', 'cognitive awareness') is two-folds – i) 'knowledge' and its ii) 'object'; in deep sleep state and ''[[turiya]]'' state, which states are not different from knowledge, {{IAST|anubhava}} ('experiencing awareness') is consciousness alone; the enlightened soul does not ever lose this experiencing awareness which event ({{IAST|anubhava}}) occurs no sooner the object is perceived and its existence is registered.<ref>{{cite book|title=The Stanzas on Vibration|publisher=SUNY Press|pages=96, 165, 349|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tM-y2WBYubcC&pg=PA219&dq=anubhava&hl=en&sa=X&ei=dUXHVOCCF4POmAWUhoDIBA&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=anubhava&f=false }}</ref>

=={{IAST|Anubhāvah}} ({{Lang|sa|अनुभावः}}) and Indian aesthetics==

In poetry, prose and drama, emotions are indirectly communicated to the readers and audience via portrayal of certain aspects of emotion’s conditions and causes ({{IAST|vibhāva}} consisting of {{IAST|alambana}} and {{IAST|uddipana}}), exterior manifestations or consequences ({{IAST|anubhāva}} which is {{IAST|vācika}}, {{IAST|āngika}} or {{IAST|sāttvika}}) and concomitant accompanying emotions ({{IAST|sancāribhāva}}) which method is called {{IAST|rasa}} ('relish') or {{IAST|dhvani}} and involves diction ({{IAST|riti}}), rhetoric ({{IAST|alankāra}}) and oblique expression ({{IAST|vakrokti}}), and is the finished product of sentiment ({{IAST|sthāyibhāva}}). {{IAST|Bhāva}} is emotion.<ref>{{cite book|title=Critique of Poetics Vol.1|author=A.R.Biswas|page=17,45|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Hc3wNPJhD9IC&pg=PA51&dq=anubhava&hl=en&sa=X&ei=5z_HVOLFFeihmQWS_IKoDg&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=anubhava&f=false }}</ref>

Mystic poetry is known as {{IAST|Anubhāvakāvya}}. [[D. R. Bendre|Bendre]], who started the cultural movement {{IAST|nada-habba}}, considers mystic experience as an extension of {{IAST|anubhava}}, and {{IAST|anubhava}} leads to {{IAST|anubhāva}} – {{IAST|Bhāva}} -> {{IAST|Anubhava}} -> {{IAST|Bhāva}} -> {{IAST|Anubhāva}}. In his poem, {{IAST|Sanna Somavara}} as a poetic composition is seen the transformation of {{IAST|bhāva}} into {{IAST|anubhava}} and back to {{IAST|bhāva}}.<ref>{{cite book|title=Dattatreya Ramachandra Bendre|author=G.S.Amur|publisher=Sahitya Akademi|pages=95, 97|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QaSWBH68NQYC&pg=PA95&dq=anubhava&hl=en&sa=X&ei=5z_HVOLFFeihmQWS_IKoDg&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=anubhava&f=false}}</ref>

There are eight different and distinct {{IAST|rasa}} or 'sentiments' – 'erotic', 'comic', 'pathetic', 'furious', 'heroic', 'terrible', 'odious', and 'marvellous', to which {{IAST|rasa}} is also added {{IAST|śānta rasa}}. Bharata states that {{IAST|rasa}} is the soul of poetry. The ''[[vedic]]'' meaning of {{IAST|rasa}} is 'liquid' or 'flavour'; for [[Adi Shankara|Shankara]], {{IAST|rasa}} signifies the intrinsic and spiritual non-material bliss. [[Natya Shastra]] (St.109) explains that {{IAST|rasa}} is produced from a combination of determinants ({{IAST|vibhāva}}), consequents or histrionic representations ({{IAST|anubhāva}}) and any of the thirty-three transitory states ({{IAST|vyabhicāribhāva}}), according to which text, 'love', 'mirth', 'sorrow', 'anger', 'energy', 'terror', 'disgust' and 'astonishment' are the eight dominant states or {{IAST|sthāyibhāva}}; 'paralysis', 'perspiration', 'horripilation', 'change of voice', 'trembling', 'change of colour', 'weeping' and 'fainting' are the eight temperamental states or {{IAST|sattvikabhāva}}, and emphasizes on histrionic representation or {{IAST|abhinaya}} of the {{IAST|anubhāva}} presented by the characters developed by the playwright. [[Abhinavagupta]] states that {{IAST|śānta rasa}}, also a {{IAST|sthāyibhāva}}, leads to ''[[moksha]]'', for it is the very experience of pure consciousness; {{IAST|vibhāva}} also means 'pure consciousness' and {{IAST|anubhāva}} also means the experience arising from pure consciousness. {{IAST|Rasa}} is an experience of pure consciousness brought about by the aesthetic contents, impressions and stimuli for the mind, the intellect and the emotions; {{IAST|vibhāva}} causes a specific emotional state to cause an {{IAST|anubhāva}} (effect)<ref>{{cite book|title=Theatre and Consciousness|author=Daniel Meyer-Dinkgrafe|publisher=Intellect Books|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zGy0UglRz6IC&pg=PT80&dq=anubhava&hl=en&sa=X&ei=5z_HVOLFFeihmQWS_IKoDg&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=anubhava&f=false }}</ref> which is defined as means of histrionic representation. The experience of {{IAST|rasa}} is the experience of the different levels of perception corresponding to the different transitory mental states,<ref>{{cite book|title=restoration of Breath|author=Sreenath Nair|publisher=Rodopi|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8OurFVARfq0C&pg=PA23&dq=anubhava&hl=en&sa=X&ei=rUHHVLrrJKi0mwW_zoGYDg&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=anubhava&f=false }}</ref> the {{IAST|sāttvika-bhāvas}}, for example, are involuntary and uncontrollable physical responses produced from certain mental states. Bhatta Lolatta states that {{IAST|rasa}} is intensified {{IAST|sthāyibhāva}} located in the character ({{IAST|anukārya}}) and the actor ({{IAST|anukartā}}) by virtue of the power of identification.<ref>{{cite book|title=The Bhaktirasamrtasindhu|author=Rupa Goswami|publisher=Motilal Banarsidass|page=xxxvii, xliv|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DsRb6gjUa1oC&pg=PR37&dq=anubhava&hl=en&sa=X&ei=L0THVJ6DOee2mAXhzYCADg&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=anubhava&f=false }}</ref>

==References==
{{Reflist}}
{{Indian philosophy|state=collapsed}}
{{Dance in India|state=collapsed}}

[[Category:Vedanta]]
[[Category:Theatre in India]]
[[Category:Musical theatre]]
[[Category:Pantomime]]
[[Category:Dance in India]]
[[Category:Cultural history of India]]
[[Category:Literary theory]]
[[Category:Sanskrit words and phrases]]
[[Category:Advaita Vedanta]]