 Witnessing consciousness always accompanies cognition (see, e.g., BṛUBh 1.4.10; KeUBh 1.2, 2.4). When one’s mind assumes the form of intentional objects, the cognition is immediately manifested as known in the presence of witnessing consciousness. Consciousness illumines cognitions directly with infallible access and without the mediation of another mental mode. It reveals first order states of cognition, including sense perception and internal states such as affect and imagination; as well as second order states such as introspection and meta-cognitive monitoring. Yet the witness is not itself a meta-function of the mind, such as an inner sense, a higher order cognition, or an introspective awareness that deliberately recognizes the fact of one’s experience. The witness is not a separate substantial entity at all according to Śaṅkara, nor does it possess agency in revealing cognition as a knower. It is intransitive and receptive, simply the passive witnessing itself (BṛUBh 1.4.10; TaiUBh 2.1.1; KeUBh 2.4). Only the mind possesses object directed intentionality, not witnessing consciousness. (See Gupta 1998 and Fort 1984 on witnessing consciousness. See Albahari 2009; and Fasching 2011 and 2012 for contextualizing witnessing consciousness in contemporary philosophy of mind).