Gnanis have crossed the dreadful ocean of (embodied) existence through their own efforts and without any (personal) motives; they help others to cross it.+

There is no need to walk in the mountains in search of the truth. There is no need to meet any Gurus. There is no need to renounce family life. There is no need to study the scriptures. There is no need for glorifying the Gurus.  

There is a need to spend the fortune to please the Gurus.  Going to the mountains, searching for a Guru, renouncing the family life, studying the scriptures, and glorifying the personal Gods and Gurus are the greatest obstacle on the path of wisdom.

One need not be a monk, a sanyasi, or a swami to acquire Self-knowledge or Brahma Gnana or Atma Gnana. Religious rituals and worships, and scriptural mastery glorifying God and Gurus are not qualifications to acquire Self-knowledge or Brahma Gnana or Atma Gnana. Monkhood and sanyasa is the greatest obstacle to realizing the truth, which is beyond form, time, and space.  

Guru, Swami, Yogi, Sadhu, and Avatara belong to religious paths. Religious paths are paths meant for the ignorant who blindly accept their experience the birth, life, death, and the world as a reality because the universe is the product of ignorance. 

When Advaitc wisdom dawns, then the unreal nature of the world in which you exist is exposed. Thus, whatever experiences take place within the world in which you exist are bound to be a falsehood. 

The Guru, Swami, Yogi, Sadhu, and Avatara have nothing to do with the ultimate truth or Brahman because they are based on the false Self (ego), and false experience (waking). The Path of wisdom is only for those who are seriously in search of the ultimate truth or Brahman. Self-knowledge or Brahma Gnana is the mother of all knowledge. 

Sage Sankara: ~  VC Let erudite scholars quote all the scripture, let Gods be invoked through sacrifices, let elaborate rituals be performed, let personal Gods be propitiated~ yet, without the realization of one‘s identity with the Self, there shall be no liberation for the individual, not even in the lifetimes of a hundred Brahmas put together (Verses-6)

Liberation cannot be the result of good works, for Sruti itself declares that there is no hope for immortality through wealth. (Verses -7)

Actions help to purify the mind but they do not, by themselves, contribute to the attainment of Reality. The attainment of the Reality is brought about only by Self Inquiry and not in the least by even ten million acts. (Verses-11)

The fear and sorrow created by the delusory serpent in the rope can be ended only after fully ascertaining the truth of the rope through steady and balanced thinking. (Verses-12) 

Neither sacred baths nor any amount of charity nor even Hundreds of pranayamas* can give us the knowledge about our own Self. The firm experience of the nature of the Self is seen to proceed from inquiry along the lines of the salutary advice of the wise. (Verses-13) 

Ultimate success in spiritual endeavors depends chiefly upon the qualifications of the seeker. Auxiliary conveniences such as time and place all have a place indeed, but they are essentially secondary. (Verses-14) 

He alone is considered qualified to enquire after the supreme Reality, who has discrimination, detachment, qualities of Calmness, etc., and a burning desire for liberation. The four-fold qualifications. (Verses 17)

Great sages have spoken of four qualifications for attainment which, when present, succeed in the realization of Brahman and In the absence of which the goal is not attained. (Verses-18)

(While enumerating the qualifications), first, we count the ability to discriminate between the Real and the unreal; next comes a spirit of detachment from the enjoyment of the fruits of actions here and hereafter; after that is the groups of six virtues beginning with Calmness, and the last is undoubtedly an intense desire for liberation. (Verses-19)

A firm conviction that Brahman alone is Real and the phenomenal world is unreal is known as discrimination between the real and the unreal. (Verses-20)

They have crossed the dreadful ocean of (embodied) existence through their own efforts and without any (personal) motives; they help others to cross it. (Verses-37).:~Santthosh Kumaar