For Śaṅkara, the existence of the phenomenal empirical world alongside that of nondual brahman is in fact an illusory false reality. They are one, not two. Yet the world’s indeterminable appearance sets up a two-tiered (or two truths or two orders) approach to reality: (1) The conventional intersubjective empirical reality (vyāvahārikasattā) that comprises the universe; and (2) the ultimate reality (pāramārthikasattā) of nondual existence that is brahman. This hierarchy of two orders and their a