In the end, the philosophy that will appeal to one most depends on his mental makeup.+

In the end, the philosophy that will appeal to one mostly depends on his mental makeup.

The Hindu  religion prescribes  four paths to the journey to Ultimate Reality:~

Karma Yoga - suited for an individual with predominantly activity-oriented mental aptitude

Raja Yoga - suited for an individual with predominantly occult activity-oriented mental aptitude

Bhakti Yoga -suited for individuals with a predominantly emotional aptitude

Gyan Yoga -suited for an individual with a predominantly logic-driven aptitude

Many people follow both Bhakti as well as Jnana.  Advaitic sages in the past composed numerous hymns for various Gods and Goddesses by mixing both dual and nondualistic ideas.

Many sages are used to illustrate, the formless (Nirakar God) ocean water under the cold currents of bhakti freezes to take the shape as ice (Saakar God). The same ice (Saakar God) under the heat of Gyan dissolves and again becomes the formless ocean (Niraakar God).

All the Advaitins believe in god and goddesses (vidya) and performing rituals and other sacrifices(Avidya) both are a hindrance to self-knowledge according to Ish Upanishads,  then why the seeker of truth needs to worship the god and goddesses when the essence of Advaita is Ataman is Brahman.  

When the Self is the nirguna /nirakara Soul then there is no need for pada pooja (feet worship) Advaitin Gurus to get freedom. 

A guru who preaches conduct as the means to freedom believes in birth, life, death, and the world as reality, whereas the Advitic Sage Sankara declares the world as unreal.  Therefore, how actions performed in the unreal world can get Moksha or freedom. Therefore, there is a need to know the fact that the self is not physical in order to understand and assimilate and realize the truth beyond physicality.

Isa Upanishads indicate:~ By worshipping gods and goddesses and going to the world of gods after death is of no use.  The time one spends in ritualistic practices is wasted; one can spend the same time moving forward toward Self-knowledge, which is the main goal. One cannot reach the nondual destination by glorifying god and goddesses and by doing that, one goes deeper and deeper into darkness. It surely indicates the fact that the seeker of truth has to drop the worshiping god and goddess in order to get Self-knowledge or Brahma Gnana or Atma Gnana.

It also indicates that Religious Rituals (Avidya) are Karma (action) and therefore a hindrance. Performing Agnihotra and other sacrifices (Avidya) is a roundabout way of purifying the mind, and it is also groping in the dark.

In addition, it indicates that karma is limited only to religious rituals, not to the whole human life. This karma theory based on human conduct must have been adopted from Buddhism and other theories based on human conduct.  

When it says: Perform the obligatory karmas without any attachment to the fruits, and at the same time worship gods and goddesses, again without any desire to go to heaven - then you can get the benefit of both, liberation and bliss. For those who are not yet ready to renounce, this path is recommended, it means that the religion and its idea of god and goddesses and code of conduct, and its rituals are meant for the mass who are incapable of thinking of the beyond.

In addition, it also speaks of heaven the abode of gods, where one goes after death, and it speaks of rebirth, this contradiction, the seeker has to conclude that religion, rituals religious gods, and its code of conduct is meant for the mass that is not receptive to Self-knowledge.

When the self is not the body (‘I’) whatever one sees, knows, believes, experiences, and feels on the base of the body (‘I’) as the Self is bound to be an illusion.  Thus, the karma performed in illusion is bound to be an illusion. Birth, life, and death are happening within the illusion, therefore it is bound to be an illusion. 

Rebirth and reincarnation theories based on the false self within the false experience are bound to be an illusion on the base of the true self. Only the witness of the illusion is real (Brahman).  Therefore, everything has to be viewed and judged, on the base of the Formless Witness (soul) in order to overcome the illusion/duality.

A seeker of truth has to know somewhere he is going wrong, and it is for the seeker to go on his own and remove the obstacle.  The greatest hindrance is mixing religion, god, scriptures, and yogic theories. Moreover, attachment to scriptures, personal god, and religious code of conduct keep  the Soul, the Self permanently in the grip of dualistic illusion.

The most valuable contribution of Sage Sankara is that he gained general consciousness on the issue that the authoritative explanation of Upanishads, Geeta, and Brahma Sutra was the final say in the matter of religion. Anything that goes contrary to the trio is not authentic. He also made a clear distinction between Vedas and Upanishads in his commentary on Geeta. He stated that the Karma Kand of the Vedas deals with the injunctions relating to the performance of duties and actions. These are for ordinary householders.

 The path of religion, the path of yoga, and the path of wisdom were intended for different classes of people. The wisdom is for the advanced seekers of truth. It deals with the nature of the ultimate Truth and Reality. It is meant for superior aspirants who have an inner urge to know the truth and it is not for those who are immersed in earthly desires.

Sri Sankara’s whole teaching can be summed up into one sentence, ‘There is nothing else but Brahma. He says that Absolute Existence, Absolute Knowledge and Absolute Bliss is Real. The universe is not real. He says that Brahma and Atman are one. The ultimate and the Absolute Truth is the Self, which is one though appearing as many in different individuals. The individual has no reality. Only the Self is real; the rest, mental and physical are but passing appearances.

 In fact, Sage Sankara states a paradox- the world is and is not. It is neither real nor unreal. It leads us to recognize the existence of Maya. He thinks that the world is illusory from one perspective and from the second it is nothing but Brahma, Itself in manifestation. This apparent world is Maya and has its basis in Brahman, the Eternal. It looks as real. It has names and forms and actually, it is not real In the light of true knowledge, it disappears and Self-alone shines as real. However, Sage Sankar’s Mayavad has not been accepted by many preachers and philosophers.

When  Sage Sankara says clearly, the universe is not real. He says that Brahman and Atman are one. The ultimate and the Absolute Truth is the Self, which is one though appearing as many in different individuals. The individual has no reality. Only the Self is Real; the rest, mental and physical are but passing appearances, then it indicates the form (universe) is unreal the formless (Soul) is real.  Therefore, only Atman is real because there is no second thing other than Ataman.

He also clearly mentions that:

The path of religion, the path of yoga, and the path of wisdom were intended for different classes of people. The wisdom is for the advanced seekers of truth. It deals with the nature of the ultimate Truth and Reality. It is meant for superior aspirants who have an inner urge to know the truth and it is not for those who are immersed in earthly desires.

Scientists now concluded that you are not the brain (body). Consciousness requires the joint operation of the brain, body, and world. "You are not your brain. The brain, rather, is part of what you are."

The Biology of Consciousness

by Alva Noë. Hill and Wang, 2009

 Alva Noe, a University of California, Berkeley, philosopher, and cognitive scientist argues that after decades of a concerted effort on the part of neuroscientists, psychologists and philosophers "only one proposition about how the brain makes us conscious ... has emerged unchallenged: we don't have a clue." The reason we have been unable to explain the neural basis of consciousness, he says, is that it does not take place in the brain. Consciousness is not something that happens inside us but something we achieve it is more like dancing than it is like the digestive process. To understand consciousness the fact that we think and feel and that a world shows up for us we need to look at a larger system of which the brain is only one element. Consciousness requires the joint operation of the brain, body, and world. "You are not your brain. The brain, rather, is part of what you are."

Thus, science is going in the right direction in its invention, and one day it will declare that everything is consciousness, which Sage Sankara declared 1200 years back –everything is Ataman- because Ataman is in the form of consciousness.

 Thus we have to know the fact that Bhagavan Buddha, Sage Goudpada and Sage Sankara are not only reformers but also the greatest scientists. Since their original thesis has been lost in the labyrinths of philosophy and mutilated by pundits and priestcraft, it becomes very difficult to understand and assimilate the wisdom expounded by the great masters. In addition, the conservativeness of the orthodox scholars will not allow any research other than playing with the words, which suits the mass mindset, because of their egocentric outlook.

 All the add-ons have to be deleted, in order to understand and assimilate the real fragrance of the wisdom expounded by the great masters of Advaita, but it is a hurricane task.  Thus, it is no use going through all the scriptures, when there is a direct path to nondual truth.  The same time and effort can be used to reach the nondual destination, in lesser time and effort.   

As one goes deeper into investigation he finds:-

Sage Sankara founded his Advaita Vedanta either on reason independent of Sruti or on Sruti confirmed by reason." Sage Sankara's commentary on the Mandukya Upanishad, II, 1:  This (the unreality of duality) is borne out by the Srutis ... But it is possible also to show the unreality of the object world even from pure reasoning, and this second chapter is undertaken for that purpose.

Sage Sankara himself had often said that his philosophy was based on Sruti, or revealed scripture.  This may be, because, Sage Sankara addressed the ordinary man, who finds security in the idea of causality and thus in the idea of God—and Revelation is indispensable to prove the latter.  He believed that those of superior intelligence, have no need for this idea of divine causality, and can, therefore, dispense with Sruti and arrive at the truth of Non-Dualism by pure reason. 

Sage Sankara in debates with Buddhists and others who did not recognize the authority of the Vedas, had been obliged to prove the truth of Advaita by means of reason alone.  Mandukya Upanishad, a scripture that appealed to reason to the exclusion of Revelation. 

Nonduality does not need the support of any Scripture or Revelation like the Veda. For it is based, not upon the varying theological fancies, which are as numerous as the sands of the sea, but upon reason, the common heritage of all mankind, irrespective of color or creed or clime.

Thus, Self-knowledge or Brahma Gnana or Atma Gnana is meant only for those who have an intense urge, and courage to accept the truth with humility and reject the untruth. Since people start comparing their scriptural knowledge, it becomes impossible to assimilate and realize the non-dual truth.   Therefore, there is no need to convince anyone other than our own-self to get a firm conviction.

Gnani does not try to prove my views, but it is for the seeker to prove himself to know “What is the truth, “and “What is untruth?” to assimilate the Self -knowledge or Brahma Gnana or Atma Gnana.

Karma, Bhakti, and Raj yoga are not the means to the path of wisdom. And mixing them up and trying to assimilate the ultimate truth is an impossibility.

There is no need to practice devotion, karma, and raja yoga because they are not the means to acquire non-dual wisdom.   There is no practice as such but perfect understanding is needed.   

Deeper inquiry, analysis, and reasoning reveal the fact that the self is not physical but the Self is the Soul, which is present in the form of consciousness. 

All the accumulated knowledge, experiences, and understanding based on the physical self (ego or body as Self) are falsehoods based on the false self, within the false experience (waking).   

Thus, whatever is based on the waking entity is bound to be falsehood because the waking experience itself is falsehood.   Since many teachers and teachings are based on the false self (ego or body as Self) and they consider the false experience (three states) as reality, they are incapable of grasping the witness, which is within the three states, but it is without the three states.

 Thus, the formless knower of the three states has to be grasped mentally and realize the fact that, all the three states, which come and go, are mental.  They are impermanent. 

The formless witness or knower of the three states is permanent and eternal.  Therefore, there is a need to understand “What is Mind?” and “What is the substance of the Mind?” in order to understand and assimilate the non-dual truth.

 For this one has to drop all his accumulated knowledge, which he is using as a yardstick, and lands himself in pursuit of an argument without reaching anywhere.  One has to think deeper and analyze and verify everything and accept only un-contradictable truth.  Nothing has to be accepted as truth because some great thinker says it or I am saying it.  

Those who lack the intelligence to discriminate between formless witness (subject) and three states (object) will not be able to grasp what is real and what is unreal. Both subject and object are consciousness, not subject alone.

The truth can never change. The nature of truth is, it can never be changed under any circumstances. It may be misrepresented. It must apply to the whole of existence, to the whole of the universe. It is in the object (three states) alone that one has all changes, as deeper analysis points out.

 The subject (formless witness) remains unchanged. The subject (formless witness), as such remains immortal. It can never die for it never changes. The body and world are an object and goes, but the subject or knower of the body and the universe can never go. 

The seeker has to take this principle as his guiding thread, and non-dual truth becomes easy to grasp. The formless witness can never be subject to the changes of the object; it is unchanged. The mistake usually made is that the subject becomes an object, or that object is the subject.

If one wants to have an absence of contradictions, an absence of duality, there must be one entity, one being. If one has experience which is an object (mind), there is a contradiction between subject and object, for "mind” is an object.

The duality is a reality from the standpoint of the false self (ego).  The duality is merely an illusion on the base of the true Self, which is consciousness. This understanding comes only to the serious seeker, who has a real urge to know the ultimate truth, which is beyond all the teachings and teachers. There is neither teaching, nor teacher, nor a student in the realm of truth.  

Different paths will not converge to the same Ultimate Reality because they are based on the false self. They are not different stages in the same path. 

People fight about the differences and greatness of their chosen paths but only through wisdom one can realize the ultimate reality

One has to have a perfect understanding and march ahead, surely and steadily, towards that ultimate reality, which is consciousness or Brahman or God in truth. One becomes limited to the concepts, names, and forms within the waking/dream. Waking/dream originates from the soul.

 The Soul is the true Self.  The Soul is in the form of consciousness. Realizing the Soul, which is present in the form of consciousness as the true Self is, Self-realization or truth realization. 

Consciousness is formless,  limitless, permanent, unchanging, and by its nature nondual and universal. The consciousness is the formless knower of the mirage (universe) which comes and goes.:~Santthosh Kumaar