A Gnani sees Sage Sankara not as a Jagadguru but as a Brahma Gnani.+

Sage Sankara 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

Sage Sankara was a mighty, marvelous genius. He was a profound thinker of the first rank. He was a sage of the highest realization. His wisdom has brought solace, peace, and illumination to countless persons in the world. The Western thinkers bow their heads at the lotus-feet of Sage Sankara. His wisdom has soothed the sorrows and afflictions of the most forlorn persons and brought hope, joy, wisdom, perfection, freedom, and calmness to many. His wisdom commands the admiration of the whole world.

Biographical anecdotes about his childhood about the crocodile story and the story in Sage Sankara's life of going to Benares and occupying the body of another man and then having sexual intercourse with his wife is a myth created by orthodoxy hiding the real fact the reason best-known to the orthodoxy. Sage Sankara had the scientific spirit and when told by Saraswati the woman that he was talking emptily about sex, being a Sanyasi, he at once went to learn the truth by having actual intercourse himself’ and thus learning by experiment and observation.

Thus all the myths about Sage Sankara are nothing to do with the seeker of truth because the seeker is concerned only with the wisdom of the Sage Sankara. 

Sage Sankara: ~ "Though I wear these robes of a Sanyasin, it is only for the sake of bread." (Select Works of Sage  Sankara" also his commentary on Brihad)

Sage Sankara: ~ The Gnani "should pass through life", not run away from life, and should take a middle course between seeking worldly honor and worldly abasement. (Chap.3.4.50; Sankara's commentary to Brahma Sutras)

Sage Sankara's work has got two aspects: the practical and the spiritual. He gave religious, rituals, and dogmatic instruction to the populace but pure wisdom only to the few who could rise to it. Hence, the interpretation of his writings by commentators is often confusing because they mix up the two viewpoints. Thus, they may assert that ritual is a means of realizing Brahman, which is absurd.

Sage Sankara varied his practical advice and doctrinal teaching according to the people he was amongst. He never told them to give their particular religion or beliefs or metaphysics completely; he only told them to give up the worst features of abuse: at the same time he showed just one step forward towards the truth.

Sage Sankara was extremely precise and careful in his choice of words. He was no fool in writing.  Sage Sankara did more than write books or initiate Sanyasin: He brought India into unity as a nation. He told people to Worship what they wish, remain in their particular religion, caste and creed, but remember also you are part of a larger whole.

                                                                                                                

The look of an object will depend upon the medium through which the observer views it. In fact, our mental and intellectual conditions will determine the phenomenal world observed and experienced.  The orthodox pundit seeing Sage Sankara will see differently from the A Gnani seeing the same Sage Sankara.  Each one of them interprets the world that they see in terms of their existing knowledge.  The Orthodox see Sage Sankara as the founder of their religion and also as Jagadguru of the Advaitic orthodox sect.  A Gnani sees Sage Sankara not as a Jagadguru but as a Brahma Gnani.

The orthodoxy believes their experience of birth, life, death, and rebirth, and the world as reality,  whereas a Gnani sees the world is merely an illusion created out of consciousness.  Thus, a  Gnani sees no second thing other than consciousness. The one who treads the path of wisdom gains the knowledge of reality beyond form, time, and space. A  Gnani has delved into and transcended consciously all identification with the experience form, time, and space.

Similarly, orthodoxy has to be bifurcated from philosophy. To realize the Advaitic wisdom of Sage Sankara one has to be free from all superstitions and dogmas and the rituals and scriptural knowledge.  The seeker has to be more rational and scientific in his attitude.

 There are two kinds of audiences ~ the ordinary ones who desire the transitory heaven and other pleasures obtained as a result of ritual sacrifices, and the more seekers of truth who seek to know the ultimate truth or Brahman or God in truth.  

The orthodoxy emphasis on karma and Upasana are meant for the first audience, to help lead its followers along the way. However, the Advaitic wisdom is meant for those who wish to go beyond the form, time, and space to realize the world in which they exist is merely an illusion.

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.

Sage Sankara’s wisdom can be summed up into 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.:~Santthosh Kumaar