---
type: Concept
bundle: shakta-darshana
bundle_version: "0.8.0"
id: pratyabhijna
title: "Pratyabhijñā — प्रत्यभिज्ञा"
iast: "Pratyabhijñā"
devanagari: "प्रत्यभिज्ञा"
description: "Recognition: the doctrine that liberation is the re-cognition (pratyabhijñā) of oneself as the one consciousness-power, already and always the case, rather than the attainment of a new state or the production of something absent; the name of the Kashmir Shaivism school built on this claim; NOT achieving enlightenment, NOT gaining new knowledge, NOT a meditation state."
darshana:
  - Trika (Kashmir Shaivism, Pratyabhijñā school)
  - Śākta
school_scope: "Founded textually by Utpaladeva (Īśvarapratyabhijñā-kārikā), popularized by Kṣemarāja (Pratyabhijñāhṛdayam). Converses with Advaita's jñāna (v0.3/v0.6) as a close cousin with different metaphysics: what is recognized in Trika is consciousness-as-power (cit-śakti), not actionless Brahman. Non-adjudicating."
text_source: "Īśvarapratyabhijñā-kārikā; Pratyabhijñāhṛdayam 20"
tags: [pratyabhijna, recognition, trika, liberation, metaphysics]
not:
  - term: "achieving / attaining enlightenment"
    why: "Attainment language implies acquiring what one lacks. The recognition doctrine's entire point is the denial of lack: the seeker IS the sought, already; what is missing is not a property but the recognition, like a king who forgot his identity begging in his own kingdom (the school's stock example). Attainment framing regenerates the exact error (I am a limited being who must become something else) the doctrine diagnoses."
    instead: "Define pratyabhijñā as recognition: the direct re-cognition of oneself as the one consciousness-power, occasioning nothing new, removing only the non-recognition."
  - term: "acquiring new knowledge (information gain)"
    why: "Pratyabhijñā is jñāna in the recognitional mode: its grammar is 'this (before me) is that (which I knew)': the classical analysis is the re-identification 'this is that Caitra' when meeting an old friend. What changes is identification, not information content. Modeling it as learning a new fact misses the reflexive structure that gives the school its name."
  - term: "a meditation state or peak experience"
    why: "States arise and pass within consciousness; recognition concerns what is present in and as every state (see spanda.md on extreme states). The school explicitly subordinates technique: Kṣemarāja wrote the Pratyabhijñāhṛdayam as the doctrine for those without capacity for rigorous discipline, because recognition is not manufactured by practice, though practice may occasion it (see shaktipata.md on grace)."
related:
  - /concepts/cit-shakti.md
  - /concepts/prakasha-vimarsha.md
  - /concepts/shaktipata.md
  - /concepts/spanda.md
timestamp: "2026-07-01"
okf_version: "0.2"
license: "CC BY-SA 4.0"
---

# Pratyabhijñā -- प्रत्यभिज्ञा

**Not:** attaining enlightenment, new information, a peak state

## What It Actually Means

Pratyabhijñā (prati + abhi + jñā: knowledge that turns back toward, re-cognition) is both a doctrine and the school named for it. The doctrine: bondage is non-recognition; the individual is the one cit-śakti (see [cit-shakti.md](cit-shakti.md)) appearing in contracted mode, and liberation is nothing but the recognition of that identity, immediate, requiring no production, no journey, and no new object of knowledge. The school's stock illustrations carry the structure: the beloved present but unrecognized gives no joy until recognized (recognition changes everything while changing nothing in the object); the king wandering as a beggar lacks no royalty, only the recognition of it.

The Pratyabhijñāhṛdayam compresses the system into twenty sūtras: citi manifests the universe by her own freedom (1), contracts herself as each knower (4-5), and the recognition of that contraction AS her is liberation-while-living (see cross-bundle: jivanmukti.md, v0.6). Sūtra 20 states the fruit: the bliss of the self as identical with the whole.

The precise relationship with Advaita matters for machine consumption: both traditions deny that liberation is produced; both use recognition-adjacent language. They differ on what is recognized: actionless Nirguṇa Brahman (Advaita) versus consciousness whose nature is power and expression (Trika). The nirvikalpa collapse-warning from vedanta-epistemology (v0.3) applies here in mirror image: cousin doctrines, distinct ontologies, do not merge.

## Audience Metaphor

Password recovery, not account creation. The attainment model of enlightenment is "sign up for a premium account you don't have." The recognition model: the account has existed all along with everything in it; you lost the credential, and the moment of recovery adds nothing to the account while changing your entire situation. Practices, in this school, are password hints; some people need none (see [shaktipata.md](shaktipata.md)).

## Citations

1. Īśvarapratyabhijñā-kārikā (Utpaladeva) -- the founding text and the recognition arguments
2. Pratyabhijñāhṛdayam 1, 4-5, 20 (Kṣemarāja) -- see [references/pratyabhijnahridayam.md](../references/pratyabhijnahridayam.md)
3. Cross-bundle: jnana.md (vedanta-epistemology v0.3), jivanmukti.md (upanishadic-core v0.6) -- the Advaita cousins, distinct analyses
