DISADVANTAGE OF DIRECT EXPERIENCE

Knowledge of objects is public in a manner that direct experience is not.  Known objects are open to anyone to examine, but one’s immediate experience is available only to oneself.

Consequently, for the person having the experience, in this case contact with the Atman, there is nothing surer than the experience itself, whereas for one not having the experience there is no evidence for it.

It is not unlike love.  Only those experiencing it know what it is.  The person having the experience could not be more certain of it, but the one not having it is skeptical.