The ‘I’ is not Atman. There is need to know what is ‘I’ before indulging in the pursuit of truth.+

Swami Vivekananda aptly described  Sage Sankara’s Advaita as the fairest flower of philosophy that any country in any age has produced.

Advaita cannot be spoken…it means not two. Advaitic truth has to be grasped.  There cannot be any division. In Advaita…hence the moment it is spoken as any other subject the whole point is lost.

It has not been possible to preach Advaitic Truth entirely free from the settings of dualistic weakness it has not been more operative and useful to mankind at large because only a few will be able to grasp and realize it.

Ashtavkara Gita: ~  the Soul, the Self is perfect and the same in misery and happiness, hope and despair, and life and death, therefore in this way enter into the state of dissolution.

Sage Gaudapada: ~  The non-dual Atman is realized when the individual self (jiva) is awakened from its ignorance. Atman is unborn, dreamless, sleepless, and motionless; and is beyond duality. It is cognition at its purest. It is Brahman- Ayam Atma Brahma, this Atma is that Brahma; Thus epitomizing the core of Upanishad teachings.

To realize the Advaitic Truth in a freer and fuller scope the seeker has to realize that form, time, and space are one,  in essence. And that essence is consciousness. And the soul, the innermost self is present in the form of consciousness.   

To realize the Advaitic truth the seeker has to be free from all superstitions and orthodox contaminations. The seeker has to be dedicated to acquiring Self-knowledge or Brahma Gnana or Atma Gnana   alone.'

Atman (soul) is the innermost self. ‘I’ is not Atman. There is a need to know what is ‘I’ before indulging in the pursuit of truth. 

The ‘I’ or ‘I AM’ is a physical prison.

If the ‘I’ is the waking neither entity nor the ‘I’ is a dream entity, then what is ‘I’ without the waking or dream?

The ‘I’ is not limited to the ego (physical Self) because the ‘I’ is the whole physical existence or the universe. Limiting the ‘I’ to the physical Self is erroneous. Without realizing this truth, it is impossible to acquire Self-knowledge or Brahma Gnana or Atma Gnana.  

Since the sense of ‘I’ is present, only when the mind is present and it disappears along with the mind. The seeker will come to a conclusion after thoroughly verifying these facts, through deeper Self-search, and then come to a firm conviction that ‘I’ is mind.

‘I’ is the mind.  The mind is present in the form of the universe.  The universe appears as a waking or dream. Thus, ‘I’, Mind, universe, waking and the dream are one and the same thing.

Ashtavakra Gita 16:10:~ If you desire liberation, but you still say "mine," If you feel the ‘Self’ is the ‘I’, You are not a wise man or a seeker. You are simply a man who suffers.

Only religious Godmen declare: I AM GOD.  Gnanis say the Soul, the Self is God in truth. 

Dualist Sages including many sages and thinkers could not distinguish between ‘I’ and ‘formless witness.’ The 'I' was the witness. Their highest was the Jiva. One is so much attached to the 'I' that he does not want to think that 'I' does not exist. Again one is unable to detach the ‘I’ from the Real witness.

The dualist object: - If everything else is false then the statement I am   Brahman is itself false, but when one says nonduality is false, there must be awareness, and consciousness, behind the very statement. You will also go, and die. One has to rely upon that which is permanent.  The formless witness of the ‘I’ alone is permanent. Anything that one says is a witnessed (waking), but there is the formless witness (consciousness) there before any statement could be made.

They mean the body by “I", but it is the formless witness which is the real “Self ". Theist dualists did not, or could not analyze further than ‘I’   on this point because they thought the ‘I’ without the body as the Self. 

The duality is present only when the form, time, and space are present. The form, time, and space are one in essence. The ego, body, and the world are one in essence.  That essence is consciousness. There is no division in consciousness in reality.  The thinker thought and the world,  are one in essence (soul or consciousness). 

The one who has realized the Soul is the Self will not see the illusory division even though he is in the midst of duality. 

A Gnani is fully aware of the fact that his body, his ego, and his experience of the world are merely an illusion created out of consciousness whereas the ignorant think that, the experience of birth, life, death, and the world as reality. Because, the ignorant bases himself on the waking entity (ego), which is the false self within the false experience (waking).  

So long as one is in the realm of duality, one has to explain how or why one thing came from another, and contradictory views are expressed. But when a Gnani shows there is no second, there is no production, and the contradictions do not arise at all when the ultimate thing is consciousness alone. Thus, consciousness is the ultimate truth or Brahman.

The dualists’ arguments are based on the false self (ego or you) and false experience (mind or waking or dream or universe)    to show the weakness of the position of the dualistic viewpoint.  They are at their wit end to explain.

Existence cannot be a cause and effect at the same time, from the point of view of the dualists, but deeper self-search shows that Existent is no two and causality can’t rise at all. 

The dualistic theory says that whatever was in the cause was also in the effect. They say that the gold brick, the gold medal, and the gold ornaments --are in the seed--the gold. A deeper self-search reveals the fact that, if cause and effect are one what is the difference between the two?:~Santthosh Kumaar