Without reference to any school of thought, Badarayana himself may be said to hold the following philosophical position:
Badarayana admits Veda and inference as the means of knowledge
of super-sensible truths and sensible objects respectively.
The shruti (directly perceived text) includes other religious
books (smriti) based on that text, for example, the Bhagavad Gita and the Institutes
of Manu and Badarayana. These books have, however, only derivative authority
because they are not directly perceived, intuited or revealed texts like Vedas
and Upanishads but are the works of some authors. The directly perceived text
is described by Badarayana as pratyaksha (direct perception). This is by virtue
of immediacy and self-evidencing character. Ordinary sense-perception is
immediate but is not self-evidencing. The Veda carries its own credentials and
does not require any other source of knowledge to certify its validity.
Inference, although accepted by Badarayana as a source of knowledge,
is not an independent authority. It depends on sense-perception for its
function. While inference may be useful in obtaining knowledge about the
sensible objects of the world, scripture is the sole evidence for the knowledge
of Brahman and other supersensible matters.
Any inferential reasoning, again, will be valid only if it
in conformity with the knowledge text. Reason has its inherent limitations. It
can inform things which have their sensible properties and marks. Brahman does
not have any identifiable marks or signs and hence inference finds itself powerless
to operate at the level of Brahman. So Veda, giving rise to direct intuition,
provides the knowledge of Brahman. Devotion and meditation help one to obtain
this intuition.