Sākṣī

Sakshi refers to a witness — one who observes events, actions, or states without participating in them. In everyday usage and in legal contexts (dharmaśāstra), a sakshi is someone who provides truthful testimony based on direct perception. The term emphasizes firsthand, unmediated seeing rather than inference or hearsay.

In Vedantic practice, Sakshi is the witness-consciousness — the innermost awareness that silently observes all mental activities including thoughts, emotions, perceptions, and dreams without being affected by them. It is the unchanging observer behind the three states of waking (jāgrat), dreaming (svapna), and deep sleep (suṣupti), remaining constant through all three.

At the absolute level, Sakshi is identical with Ātman and Brahman — pure, self-luminous consciousness (svayam-prakāśa) that is the ultimate subject and can never become an object of knowledge. It is the foundational awareness that makes all experience possible yet itself requires no further witness, thus ending the infinite regress of 'who witnesses the witness.' It is non-dual (advaita), beyond the triad of knower, known, and knowing.