Columns

Sākṣī and the epistemic grounding of knowledge

Dhīti, Brhat

Many of us picture knowledge as a trail of guesses that get fixed when we notice mistakes. Karl Popper shaped that picture. This column asks a plain question: who notices? To drop an old idea for a better one, something in you has to be aware of both ideas at once. Otherwise “I was wrong” never really lands. The essay turns to Dvaita Vedanta and the idea of an inner witness, the sākṣī, that lets thoughts show up for you without being just another guess on the list. If that witness could fail the way a normal claim can, you would need another witness behind it, then another, with no end in sight. The point is gentle: a steady inner awareness is already doing quiet work inside the story of self-correction, even when the story never names it out loud.

Experience: The ultimate refuge of logic

Dhīti, Brhat

Science often asks for tests you can run in the real world, and that helps for many topics. Still, everyday life runs on things we rarely put under a microscope: fair rules, shared words, and math that hangs together because we agree on the ground rules. The column tells a simple story about a person blind from birth who has never met anyone who can see. Step by step, careful logic from touch and sound can make colour sound like a made-up tale. Then a sincere friend speaks from experience. That is a different kind of evidence, closer to trustworthy teaching (what Indian thought calls śabda pramāṇa). It does not replace your own senses, but it can open a door your senses never had. Passages such as the Katha Upanishad add that logic alone cannot hand you the deepest picture of reality. You also need good instruction, checked against life when you can. The ending is modest about huge questions like God: do not pretend the case is closed, but do not stop asking and listening either.