Sage Sankara is the Jagadguru to the religious followers and he is a great Gnani to the seeking world.+

Sage Sankara taught that it was only through direct knowledge of Advaita that one could be enlightened.

Sage Sankara is the Jagadguru to the religious followers and he is a great Gnani to the seeking world.  

Sage Sankara “s Advaitic wisdom is without a Parallel.  Sage Sankara's wisdom is lofty, sublime, and unique. It is highly interesting, inspiring, and elevating. No other wisdom can stand before it in boldness, depth, and subtle thinking.  Sage Sankara’s wisdom is complete and perfect.

It is that wisdom in India was for centuries more an exposition of the ancient classics than the independent thought of individual thinkers as in ancient Greece or modern Europe and America.

Sage Sankara and Sage Goudpada are independent thinkers other schools of Indian philosophy are mere theologies. Advaitic wisdom is real wisdom. The dualistic philosophy cannot escape the charge of dogmatism.

The main hurdle in his way of thinking is the fact that Sage Sankara did not claim to be an original thinker at all, and his wisdom took the form of commentaries on the generality of the scriptures, particularly the Upanishads and the Gita. Sage Sankara was an independent thinker. His wisdom has not been taken seriously by many in India because most of the followers of Sage Sankara are religious orthodox.

Intelligence and thought, are not applicable to Advaitic wisdom, intelligence and thought are based on the false self (waking entity) within the false experience (waking).   The whole Advaitic wisdom is an attempt to transcend the limitations of intelligence and thought.

The two points of view A Gnani is not cut off from the experience of practical life within the practical world because the Advaitic truth is neither realism nor idealism; it is beyond both these.

Sage Sankara’s wisdom does not arise from studying Advaitic philosophy or mastering the scriptures or worshiping Gods or observing the ceremonies and singing devotional hymns, but the wisdom will dawn only by self-realization.

That is why Sage Sankara said~  Talk as much philosophy as you like, worship as many gods as you please, observe ceremonies, and sing devotional hymns, but the liberation will never come, even after a hundred aeons, without realizing the Oneness.

That is why Sage Sankara says: ~    VC-63- Without causing the objective universe to vanish and without knowing the truth of the Self,  how is one to achieve Liberation by the mere utterance of the word Brahman? ~ It would result merely in an effort of speech.

65. As a treasure hidden underground requires (for its extraction) competent instruction, excavation, the removal of stones and other such things lying above it, and (finally) grasping, but never comes out by being (merely) called out by name, so the transparent Truth of the self, which is hidden by Maya and its effects, is to be attained through the instructions of a knower of Brahman, followed by reflection, meditation and so forth, but not through perverted arguments.

 The pursuit of truth does not begin with God.  God has to be proved, not assumed. Hence, the so-called Gurus who take God for granted are not Gnanis at all.

The Advaitin scholars will teach that all is Self, but none of them can show that this is so, none has analyzed it scientifically, and none can prove it. 

Rational proof is required so that one arrives at knowing the ultimate truth or Brahman i.e. Gnana.  Theirs is mere dogma, parrotism, repetition of what they read in the scripture.  Authoritarianism merely assumes as true what another says, but what has yet to be proved.

Sage Sankara’s whole wisdom can be summed up in one sentence, ‘There is nothing else but Brahman. He says that Absolute Existence, Absolute Knowledge, and Absolute awareness are 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 different individuals. The individual has no reality. Only the Self is real; the rest, mental and physical are but passing appearances.

The truth must be independent of religion because religion is based on the false self (ego) within the false experience (world). 

The Saguna Brahman or a personal God is only a part of the illusory world, and the Nirguna Brahman, or Real God (Soul) is the only reality and has nothing to do with religion. 

Sage Sankara pokes fun at ascetics and points out that all their austerities do not cause desires to go (Altar Flowers" Page 205, v.2 P.207 v.4)

Orthodoxy is the home of mysticism and deification that is why they are not keen on the rational truth.  The scriptures and their commentaries thereon do not contain the higher wisdom. They are intended for those who are incapable of thinking rationally.

 Most of the scriptures are not on a philosophical basis but on an Orthodox and a mystic basis. There is no final authority to show certainty.  Pundits take for granted, assuming that a world was created.  God created the world is merely an imagination.   There is neither creation nor creator from the standpoint of the Soul the Self.

The pundits mix dogmatic theology with philosophy.  Some scriptures take the position that there is another entity outside us, i.e. the world really exists separately from the mind. Those who study the scriptures are orthodox minds, intellectual children. 

People are afraid to go deeper because it means being heroic enough to refuse to accept Sruti, and God's authority, in case they mean punishment by God.

 A Gnani says the scriptures for children, but wise seekers will think rationally.  Advaitic wisdom is only for philosophical mindsets.

A number of Upanishads are equally dogmatic because they also begin by assuming Brahman, only a few Upanishads do not but prove Brahman at the end of a train of proof.

Sage Sankara gave religion and scholasticism and yoga no less than the Advaitic wisdom, to the seeking world. He was great enough to be able to do so. Many of his other books are presented from a religious standpoint to help those who are incapable of grasping the Advaitic wisdom. :~Santthosh Kumaar