It is instructive to be able to distinguish these three within ourselves. Aham sphuraṇa is the living, present, shining "I am" before any experience (anubhava) of it or thought about it (pratīti) occurs. Hence, it is also called self-emergence (svayam prakāśa) or self-evidentiy (svataḥ siddha or svayam siddha).

We could say, after knowledge, it is that which automatically reveals itself and thus "is." It is comparable to the immediacy and directness of the concepts of aparokṣa anubhūti; that immediate experience (anubhūti) of being the truth "prior to perception and inference thereof" (a para ikṣa): aparokṣānubhūti.

 

In this comparison, pratīti is that which appears. Spura(ṇa) is that which causes appearance. Pratīti is the known that appears to the knower. It comes from prati + √i "going towards it." It is the cognition of an experience that is objectified/established.

 

Finally, in this context, anubhava is the living vision that yields correct self-knowledge. As ādi śaṅkara bhagavatpādaḥ states: 'Brahma jñāna (self-knowledge of consciousness) must be anubhava siddhi', a self-evident, lived view of existence. Naturally present in the mind, instead of book knowledge (śāstra jñāna). Knowledge that is used oneself, not received secondhand. It is somewhat more direct than pratīti, but still requires a thinking intervention of the mind.