Sage Sankara says:~ This Atman is self-evident.+

Centuries have passed since Sage Sankara appeared, yet it is very hard to find his wisdom understood anywhere in the world today. It is because so few could rise to his level. Hence, dualistic cults and devotional sects came into existence and prospered.

The Advaita wisdom of Sage Sankara is a rigorous, absolute one. According to Sage Sankara, whatever is, is Brahman. Brahman itself is absolutely homogeneous.

All differences and plurality are illusory.

Sage Sankara said:~ “Talk as much philosophy as you like, worship as many Gods as you please, observe ceremonies and sing devotional hymns, but liberation will never come, even after a hundred eons, without realizing the Oneness.

Sage Sankara says: ~ “VC-47 All the effects of ignorance, root, and branch, are burnt down by the fire of knowledge, which arises from discrimination between these two—the Self and the not-Self.

Sage Sankara says:~ “VC-162- There is no liberation for a person of mere book-knowledge, howsoever well-read in the philosophy of Vedanta, so long as one does not give up the false identification with the body, sense-organs, etc., which are unreal. Select Works of Sage Sankara (also his commentary on Brihad): "Though I wear these robes of a Sanyasin, it is only for the sake of bread."

Sage Sankara himself said: ~ A Gnani "bears no outward mark of a holy man" (Stanza 539). Thus, it proves that the religious gurus and yogis who identify themselves as holy people have nothing to do with Advaitic Gnana.

Sage Sankara says: ~ VC-65~ As a treasure hidden underground requires (for its extraction) competent instruction, excavation, the removal of stones and other such things lying above it and (finally) grasping, but never comes out by being (merely) called out by name, so the transparent truth of the Self, which is hidden by Maya and its effects, is to be attained through the instructions of a knower of Brahman, followed by reflection, meditation and so forth, but not through perverted arguments.

Keeping Sage Sankara's words in mind when one goes into the deeper self-search through a mental microscope, he finds that Advaitic wisdom has nothing to do with Advaitic orthodoxy. And the truth will not be revealed by studying the philosophy of Vedanta.

Some thinkers hold views of Maya that are entirely incorrect and untenable. They do not know Sage Sankara's Upanishad Bashyas, but only the Brahma Sutra Bashya. The followers of Sage Sankara have constituted a religious sect. Thus, all movements ultimately degenerate.

Sage Sankara gave religious rituals and dogmatic instruction to the ignorant populace, but Advaitic wisdom only to the few who could rise to it. Sage Sankara believed that those of superior intelligence have no need of this idea of divine causality and can, therefore, dispense with Sruti and arrive at the truth of Non-Dualism by pure reason.

Sage Sankara’s Supreme Brahman (God) is Nirguna (without the Gunas), Nirakara (formless), Nirvisesha (without attributes), and Akarta (non-agent). God is above all needs and desires.

Sage Sankara says, "This Atman is Self-evident. This Atman or Self is not established by proofs of the existence of the Self. It is not possible to deny this Atman, for it is the very essence of he who denies it. Atman is the basis of all kinds of knowledge.

Satyam-Jnanam-Anantam-Anandam are not separate attributes. They form the very essence of Brahman. Brahman cannot be described because the description implies a distinction. Brahman cannot be distinguished from any other than Brahman. The objective world-the world of names and forms-has no independent existence. The Atman alone has real existence. The world is only phenomenal.

Sage Sankara said:~ Just as the snake is superimposed on the rope, this world and this body are superimposed on Brahman or the Soul, the I Self. If one gets knowledge of the rope, the illusion of the snake will vanish. Even so, if he gets knowledge of Brahman, the illusion of the body and the world will vanish. The snake is only an idea: it disappears on inquiry, but deeper Self-search reveals the fact that the rope is also an idea, and its reality will be exposed when wisdom dawns. There is neither snake nor the rope in reality because from the ultimate standpoint, the duality is merely an illusion created out of the Soul, the Self. The Soul is Self. The Soul is present in the form of consciousness.

Consciousness is the root element of the universe. From consciousness, the universe comes into existence. In consciousness, the universe resides. And into consciousness, the universe is dissolved. Consciousness is the parent of all that is there. Consciousness is the only reality, and the universe to but an illusory manifestation. The Veda serves only as the starting point.

What one has to learn from the Veda must be understood through the exercise of reason, as far as reason might go. And what one has understood must be realized in one’s life. It is not that one should pore over the ancient scriptures. There is no need to study first, then realize. One has to realize first, then only he will know ‘what is truth’ and ‘what is untruth’. : ~ Santthosh Kumaar