Neither performance of karma, nor devotion to the gods can get Self- knowledge or Brahma Gnana.+

The world is the same in the case of Gnani and in the case of the ignorant. So there is not much difference between them physically.

On the attainment of Self-knowledge or Brahma Gnana or Atma Gnana, one becomes soulcentric and realizes ‘what is the truth? and ‘what is the untruth?.    

There is no vessel to ferry, the man across the ocean of worldliness except Self- knowledge or Brahma Gnana or Atma Gnana. But what is this Self- knowledge or Brahma Gnana or Atma Gnana?   Self-knowledge or Brahma Gnana means the full and firm realization of the knowledge of the Soul, the Self beyond all doubt and contradiction.

Neither by the control of the breath nor control of the ego nor performance of karma nor devotion to the gods nor the performance of penance nor pilgrimaging can get Self- knowledge or Brahma Gnana because they are the product of ignorance. Without getting rid of ignorance, it is impossible to acquire   Self- knowledge or Brahma Gnana. Whatever is related to ‘I’ is ignorance; when ‘I’ ends it is Gnana.  

How does Self-knowledge or Brahma Gnana or Atma Gnana originate? 

The waking entity within the waking experience thinks it is rich, it is happy, or it is poor and it is suffering and realizes that it itself is not the Self but the Self is the formless Soul, which is present in the form of consciousness.

 The consciousness is the formless substance and witness of the three states.  When the waking entity diverts its attention to the Soul by realizing the soul is the cause of the three states and the soul itself is uncaused.  

The Soul is birthless, ageless, and deathless because it is formless. The Soul, which is present in the form of consciousness, pervades everything and everywhere in all three states, therefore, limiting the soul to an individual is the cause of ignorance. The Soul or the consciousness is not within the body,  but it pervades the whole universe.   

Self-knowledge or Brahma Gnana or Atma Gnana is the result of the deeper discrimination between the real and unreal.  Self-knowledge or Brahma Gnana or Atma Gnana annihilates all ignorance.  Without Self-knowledge or Brahma Gnana or Atma Gnana, Nondualistic self-awareness is impossible.  

Orthodoxy unanimously holds chief means of attaining Self-knowledge or Brahma Gnana or Atma Gnana is sanyasa, which means the renunciation of all action and worldly desires, to be an essential element of spiritual contemplation.   Nevertheless, indifference to practical life within the practical world, control of senses, eagerness to attain salvation, places and time without distraction, and other factors are necessary,  in the path of orthodoxy.

 In the path of wisdom or reason, the sanyasa or monkhood is the greatest obstacle because the sanyasa and the world are merely an illusion,  from the standpoint of the Soul, the Self.   Thus the people who believe the sanyasa or monkhood as the means to acquire Self-knowledge or Brahma Gnana or Atma Gnana are taken the wrong path.

The orthodox view is based on the false self (ego) within the false experience (waking) because the orthodoxy holds the experience of birth, life, death, and the world (waking) as reality.  

Those who attained the monistic knowledge are unfit to acquire Self-knowledge or Brahma Gnana or Atma Gnana.  The monastic path is the path of ignorance because it is based on the false self, which is bound by birth, life, death, and the world.

Advaita is possible only through perfect understanding, and assimilation of ‘what is what” not through rituals, yoga, and krama.:~Santthosh Kumaar