[2]: 348 Viveka also means the power of distinguishing the invisible Brahman from the visible world, a faculty that enables the classification of things according to their real properties.
Viveka can be cultivated by association with Jnanis and saints, the study of Vedanta literature, meditation, and by separating oneself from the senses.
[3] In the Advaita tradition, the Vivekachudamani (attributed to Adi Shankara) is a pedagogical treatise in poetic form that addresses the development of viveka in the spititual aspirant.
[5] Viveka is the basis of the monastic name of Swami Vivekananda, the late 19th century Indian saint and spiritual teacher who first brought the Advaita philosophy to the West.
According to Ramanujacharya of the Sri Vaishnava Visistadvaita tradition, viveka refers to discrimination in relation to food-taking, with the purpose of minimizing the individual's subjection to the senses and refining the capacity to go beyond them towards God.