Discrimination between the eternal and non- eternal is necessary in order to acquire Self- knowledge or Brahma Gnana or Atma Gnana.+

Sage Sankara founded his Advaita Vedanta either on reason independent of Sruti or on Sruti confirmed by reason."   Sage Sankara's commentary on the Manduka 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 which appealed to reason to the exclusion of Revelation. 

Upanishads represent the Dharmic ethos of the acceptance of multiple viewpoints of the same Supreme Brahman.

First Mundaka - Chapter 2 (8) - Fools, dwelling in darkness, but wise in their own conceit and puffed up with vain scholarship, wander about, being afflicted by many ills, like blind men led by the blind.

First Mundaka - Chapter 2 (9) - Children, immersed in ignorance in various ways, flatter themselves, saying: We have accomplished life's purpose. Because these performers of karma do not know the Truth owing to their attachment, they fall from heaven, misery-stricken, when the fruit of their work is exhausted.

First Mundaka - Chapter 2 (10) - Ignorant fools, regarding sacrifices and humanitarian works as the highest, do not know any higher good. Having enjoyed their reward on the heights of heaven, gained by good works, they enter again this world or a lower one.

First Mundaka - Chapter 2 (11) - But those wise men of tranquil minds who live in the forest on alms, practicing penances appropriate to their stations of life and contemplating such deities as Hiranyagarbha, depart, freed from impurities, by the Path of the Sun, to the place where that immortal Person dwells whose nature is imperishable.

First Mundaka - Chapter 2 (12) - Let a Brahmin, after having examined all these worlds that are gained by works, acquire freedom from desires: nothing that is eternal can be produced by what is not eternal. In order that he may understand that Eternal, let him, fuel in hand, approach a guru who is well versed in the Vedas and always devoted to Brahman.

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Bhagavad Gita:~  Even if you are most sinful of all the sinners, you will cross all the sins by the raft of the knowledge (IV-36)

Self–knowledge or Brahma Gnana or Atma Gnana is inexhaustible wealth. Other wealth disappears as one spends, but with the Self –knowledge or Brahma Gnana or Atma Gnana, the more one shares more he gains.

The Self is not the ‘I’.  ‘I’ is present in the form of the mind. The origin of the mind is the Soul. The mind is present in the form of the universe. The Soul is present in the form of consciousness.  The root of the universe is consciousness.

The origin of the mind is the soul. The Soul is the Self. The Soul is present in the form of consciousness.

The mind is in the form of the universe. The mind comes and goes as waking or dream.  The ego or physical entity does not become steady in one place and it is restless in its nature.

Self-knowledge or Brahma Gnana or Atma Gnana cannot be surmised by merely reading the Vedas and Upanishads.

Urge to know the truth arises from the source. The source is the Soul. The mind and its substance and the source are one in essence.  The mind or the universe is the product of ignorance.   The true nature of the mind or universe can be recognized with the power of discrimination.

Discrimination between the eternal and non- eternal is necessary in order to acquire Self –knowledge or Brahma Gnana or Atma Gnana. 

Dattatreya's Song of the Avadhut (6.25-26):~ There has never been any activity or rest; The one Purity is stainless and motionless, is It not? Truly, I'm the one supreme Self; How, then, should I worship? To whom should I bow? There is no distinction between "embodied" and "bodiless”; “The wrong action," "right action"--neither exists.

Truly, I'm the one supreme Self; How, then, should I worship? To whom should I bow?

Second Mundaka - Chapter 2 (7): ~  He who knows all and understands all, and to whom belongs all the glory in the world-, Atman, is placed in the space in the effulgent abode of Brahman. It assumes the forms of the mind and leads the body and the senses. It dwells in the body, inside the heart. By the knowledge of that which shines as the blissful and immortal Atman, the wise behold Him fully in all things.

Second Mundaka - Chapter 2 (8):~  The fetters of the heart are broken, all doubts are resolved, and all works cease to bear fruit when He is beheld who is both high and low.

Second Mundaka - Chapter 2 (9): ~  There the stainless and indivisible Brahman shines in the highest, golden sheath. It is pure; It is the Light of lights; It is That which they know who know the Self.

Second Mundaka - Chapter 2 (10): ~  The sun does not shine there, nor the moon and the stars, nor these lightning, not to speak of this fire. When He shines, everything shines after Him; by His light, everything is lighted.

Second Mundaka - Chapter 2 (11):~  That immortal Brahman alone is before, that Brahman is behind, that Brahman is to the right and left. Brahman alone pervades everything above and below; this universe is that Supreme Brahman alone.

The misinterpretation is because of Buddha himself. Most of the questions were answered only by silence leaving many to interpret as per their understanding. The enlightenment of Buddha and which again was indirectly accepted by  Sage  Gaudapada.

Sage Goudapada:~  he was the first historic sage known to us to give a rational exposition of Advaita. He says that whatever is seen, whether external or internal, whether by the ordinary persons or yogis, is unreal.

Non-causality is of the highest importance; that is why  Sage Goudapada puts it at the end of his book and devotes 100 slokas to it whereas the other subjects get less than 50 slokas.

"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 says in Mand.P.351 and also in Vivekachudamani, that even women can realize truth if they persist.

Sage Sri, Sankara:~ “Though I wear these robes of a Sanyasin, it is only for the sake of bread."

Sage Sankara gave out what was of most use to the greatest number of people. Therefore, in the commentaries on the Upanishads, such as the famous Mandukya, he gave the highest non-dual message of the identity of Atman and Brahman, revitalizing the philosophy and practice of Advaita, while in the commentaries on the Brahmasūtra he gave lesser teaching, positing both higher and lower Maya and higher and lower Brahman (Ishvara) to explain creation for those of lesser intellects until they were ready for the highest truth.

Only through Self-knowledge or Brahma Gnana or Atma Gnana negation of duality is possible. The Soul, which is present in the form of consciousness, is the ultimate truth or Brahman. The consciousness is the cause of the origin, maintenance, and withdrawal of the universe is Advaita (i.e. non-dual), which means that the consciousness transcends all conceptions, positive and negative. Nothing positive can ever be imagined or said about it.  Consciousness is existence absolute, awareness absolute.  The existence, absolute means that consciousness is not unreal or non-existent. And it is not unconsciousness.  Nothing positive can be stated about consciousness.

Remember:~ 

The nature of the  Soul, the Self is non-dualistic silence. Nondualistic silence is like a deep sleep state.  The silence indicates that the nature of the Soul, the Self is inexplicable, indescribable and unimaginable.  The Soul, the Self is the one without a second. There is not the least shadow of multiplicity in the Soul, which is present in the form of consciousness."

A   person, seeing a rope in dim light, mistakes it for a snake. He is as much frightened as he would have been if there had been a real snake there.  The snake is said to have ‘an illusory reality.  The illusory snake is described as a superimposition on the rope. The snake is not real, because, it is found on examination with a light that it never existed there. At the same time, it was experienced as reality till ignorance prevailed. Similarly, this waking experience experienced as reality due to ignorance. 

When wisdom dawns then the unreal nature of the waking experience is exposed.  At the dawn of Self-knowledge or Brahma Gnana or Atma Gnana, the waking experience has no existence apart from consciousness. Consciousness is the ultimate truth or Brahman. 

The waking experience is therefore said to be superimposed on consciousness the same way as the dream is superimposed on consciousness.  The waking experience is a practical reality because it is real until the attainment of Self-realization.  Consciousness alone has absolute reality; because it is absolutely changeless because it is formless.      

Remember:~

Maya and Brahman, Jagat (world) and Ishvara (creator), Guru (teacher) and Shishya (disciple), the holy rituals, traditions, the three worlds, the three bodies and so forth are a reality within the illusory duality.  This seeming duality is a hypothesis, not to establish the duality, but to disprove it. Advaitic or the non-dualistic truth has nothing to do with the illusory duality. 

The Soul or consciousness which is present in the form of consciousness is the ultimate truth or Brahman. Consciousness is neither dual nor non-dual.  Some orthodox claim Atman is dual, some that Atman is non-dual; they do not know the ultimate truth. The Atman or Soul is above duality and non-duality". 

The seeker has to realize the fact that, the duality is a reality only on the standpoint of the waking entity or ego. One thinks that he is an individual separate from the world and the world existed prior to him and he is born in it afterward. Till this conviction is there he will not be able to grasp the Advaitic or the non-dualistic truth.

Sage Sankara ’says:~ "Kuruthe Ganga sahar gamanam Vratha paripal mathva dhanam. Gyana Vihine.Sarva Mathene.”

Gnana is common to all religions.  There is nothing like One Gnana for a Hindu and another for a Christian.

The entire philosophy of Sage Sankara can be summed up in the following statement:-

Brahma Satyam, jaganmithya, jivobrahmaivanaparah:~ Brahman alone is real; the world is non-real, and the individual Self is essentially not-different from Brahman.

This is the quintessence of Sankara’s metaphysics.:~Santthosh Kumaar