---
type: Concept
bundle: sankhya-darshana
bundle_version: 0.13.0
id: viveka-khyati
title: Viveka-Khyāti
iast: Viveka-Khyāti
devanagari: विवेकख्याति
description: 'Discriminative knowledge -- the specifically Samkhya METHOD of liberation: intellectual discernment of purusha''s absolute distinctness from prakriti (including buddhi, ahamkara, manas). NOT the same method as Yoga''s path via nirodha (cessation of mental modifications through the eight limbs) -- same end-state word (kaivalya), different method.'
darshana:
- Samkhya
tags:
- viveka-khyati
- discernment
- samkhya
- liberation
- method
not:
- term: meditative cessation / nirodha (Yoga, v0.2)
  why: 'Yoga-darshana''s path to kaivalya runs through chitta-vritti-nirodha, the progressive cessation of mental modifications cultivated through the eight limbs (yama through samadhi) -- an experiential, practice-based method. Samkhya''s viveka-khyati is primarily an act of intellectual discernment: correctly distinguishing purusha from every form prakriti takes, including the subtlest ones (buddhi itself). The two schools share the destination word, kaivalya, but not the road.'
  instead: 'State the contrast plainly wherever kaivalya is discussed: Samkhya reaches it via viveka-khyati (discriminative knowledge); Yoga reaches the same word via nirodha (practiced cessation) -- see the reciprocal cross-link in yoga-darshana v0.2''s kaivalya.md.'
related:
- /concepts/purusha.md
- /concepts/kaivalya-samkhya.md
- /concepts/avidya-samkhya.md
timestamp: '2026-07-10'
okf_version: '0.2'
license: CC BY-SA 4.0
---

# Viveka-Khyāti -- विवेकख्याति

**Not:** meditative cessation / nirodha (Yoga, v0.2)

## What It Actually Means

Viveka-khyāti is the discriminative knowledge that 'I am not this' -- the correct, stable cognition that purușa is utterly distinct from prakṛti and all its evolutes, including buddhi, the subtlest and most purușa-like of prakṛti's products. This discernment is not a feeling or a practiced stillness; it is a knowledge-event that, once firmly established, causes prakṛti to withdraw from further activity on that purușa's behalf, the way a dancer stops performing once the audience she was performing for has left.

## Audience Metaphor

Viveka-khyāti is like finally recognizing, with total certainty, that the reflection in a mirror is not you -- not by looking away or stilling the mirror, but by seeing through the reflection's apparent selfhood once and for all.

## Citations

1. Samkhya-Karika 64 -- see [references/samkhya-karika.md](../references/samkhya-karika.md)
2. Cross-bundle warning: nirodha in yoga-darshana v0.2 -- same destination (kaivalya), different method; see reciprocal link patched into v0.2's kaivalya.md
