Depending on context, shravana can mean 'the ear', 'the hypotenuse of a triangle', 'the act of hearing', 'study', 'fame', 'glory', 'that which is heard or revealed', 'wealth', 'flowing' or 'oozing'.
[5] He told her that the first stage in spiritual quest is Shravana, and one has to become a shravaka for whom hearing or shabda creates interests, then sorts out those interests, sifts the essential from the non-essential, removes confusion and doubts, and naturally leads to the next stage, Manana.
[6] Vidyaranya in his Panchadasi (Sloka I.53) explains that:- the finding out or discovery of the true significance of the identity of the individual self and the supreme Universal Self with the great sayings is what is known as shravana; and to arrive at the possibility of its validity through logical reasoning is what is called manana.
[7] Hearing and discrimination are beneficial to knowledge, both are inter-connected and the internal means for the acquisition of Self-knowledge, the former involves analysis and argument, and the latter is the unceasing reflection on the non-duality of the individual self.
[9] Shravana results in the genuine ascertaining of the true import of the Vedic texts and statements.