Word

Akshara Vidya

Sanskrit

अक्षर विद्या

IAST

akṣara vidyā

In General

Upanishad uses the word vidya as a technique to do spiritual Sadana. It is meditation and also all other faculties like memorizing, wishing, understanding, aspiring, contemplating and physical activities like developing personality. The technique help the Sadhaka to finally evolve into a supra physical spiritual life

Veda

This Vidya occurs in the Brihadaranyakopanishad 3.8. Yajnavalka instructs Gargi on the Akshara-Vidya or the Knowledge of the Imperishable Being.

That, O Gargi, Brahmanas call the Imperishable. It is not coarse, not fine, not short, not long, not glowing, not adhesive, not shadowy, not dark, not airy, not space, not sticky, odourless, tasteless, without eye, without ear, without voice, without wind, without energy, without breath, without mouth, without measure, without inside, without outside. It eats nothing. No one eats it.

This Vidya is the corollary of the neti-neti method of Vedantic Meditation. All phenomenality and relatedness are denied their validity and after negating every conceptual attribute, what remains is That which is, the Eternal, Akshara.