Advaita Vedānta consistently distinguishes between knowing about non-duality and actually realizing it. Conceptual understanding—grasping that the self is not merely the body–mind complex and that Brahman is the non-dual, infinite reality—has an important role. Through study, listening to teachings, and rational reflection, the mind becomes oriented toward the insight that ātman and Brahman are one. This kind of clarity can loosen crude attachments and remove many mistaken notions about separation. It provides a coherent framework within which the teaching can be contemplated and assimilated. Yet this remains indirect knowledge, still operating within the usual subject–object structure of thought.

The tradition holds that the fulfillment of Advaita lies in direct realization, a non-conceptual recognition of one’s identity with Brahman. This realization is described as an immediate seeing of what has always been the case, rather than a new experience added in time. Practices of deep contemplative assimilation are meant to stabilize this recognition and allow the removal of ignorance to be complete. In such realization, the apparent division between knower, knowing, and known is seen through, and the non-dual nature of reality is no longer merely an idea. Intellectual understanding, therefore, is regarded as necessary but not sufficient; it prepares the ground, but it is not the harvest.

Within this vision, scriptures, reasoning, and traditional methods such as negation of all that is not the Self function as pointers. They are skillful means whose purpose is to lead beyond themselves, not objects of mere theoretical mastery. Some are prepared primarily through sustained study and reflection, others may be more directly disposed to immediate recognition, yet the underlying principle remains the same: concepts serve to clear the way for a direct, living knowledge. When that non-dual realization dawns, the earlier intellectual understanding is not discarded but is transformed, no longer standing apart from what it seeks to describe.