Sage Sankara says The Advaitic Gnana is to be attained through the instructions of a knower of Brahman, (Gnani).+

The Advaita propagated by the Gurus of the east and the west is not the Advatic wisdom of Sage Sankara. Without Sage Sankara, there is no Advaita. Without Advaitic wisdom,  it is impossible to realize the truth, which is hidden by the illusory form, time, and space.  The all-pervading Reality is beyond both duality and non-duality.

The history of Advaita is replete with interpretation and reinterpretation of Sage  Sankara’s philosophical work the generation of Advaita followers that succeeded Sage Sankara wrote a number of commentaries on Sage Sankara’s work each commentator claimed that he grasped the essence and true intent of Sage Sankara and went on to write according to his own understanding. In that process, he wove into the commentaries, his personal views, and hoisted them on Sage Sankara.

This kind of adulation gave rise to several versions of Advaita. The numerous glosses written by his followers tried to blend a ritualistic attitude with the monistic inclination of the Master. The result was the distortion of Sage Sankara’s position.

The purpose of the scriptures, Sage Sankara said, was to describe reality as it is. Sage Sankara rejected the Mimamsa view and argued that scriptures were not mandatory in character, at least where it concerned the pursuit of wisdom. 

Upanishads, he remarked, dealt with Brahman (God) and that Brahman (God) could not be a subject matter of injunction and prohibitions.

Sage Sankara strongly advocated the study of Upanishads and at the same time cautioned that the study of Upanishads alone would not lead to liberation. In matters such as spiritual attainment, one’s own experience was the sole authority and it cannot be disputed.

Sage Sankara also said the study of Upanishad was neither indispensable nor a necessary prerequisite for attaining the human goal, the moksha.

Sage  Sankara pointed out; even those who were outside the Upanishad fold were as eligible to moksha as those within the fold were.

Sage Sankara:~ All beings are Brahman, and therefore the question of discrimination did not arise. All that one was required to do was to get rid of ignorance (Duality).

Remember:~~ 

Sage Sankara says: ~ there is no need to study the Scriptures, to realize the ultimate truth or Brahman

~ then why do you indulge in studying the scriptures.

 Sage Sankara says: ~ there is no need to study philosophy, to realize the ultimate truth or Brahman

~then why do you indulge in studying philosophy.

Sage Sankara says: ~ there is no need to indulge rituals, to realize the ultimate truth or Brahman

~then why do you indulge in rituals.

Sage Sankara says: ~ there is no need to indulge in yoga, to realize the ultimate truth or Brahman

~then why do you indulge in yoga.

Sage Sankara says the transparent Truth of the Self, which is hidden by the illusion, is to be attained through the instructions of a knower of Brahman, (Gnani)

~ then why you are sticking to a Guru who is not a Gnani.

Sage Sankara says: ~ “The exercise in discrimination between real and unreal and renunciation of the false is real meditation, then why you are indulging in other types of meditation. 

For one who wants to acquire Self-knowledge or Brahma Gnana or Atma Gnana, religion and yoga will not help to realize the truth, which is beyond the form, time, and space.

That is why Sage Sankara:~  VC~.61. For one who has been bitten by the serpent of Ignorance, the only remedy is the knowledge of Brahman. Of what avail are the Vedas and (other) Scriptures, Mantras (sacred formulae), and medicines to such a one?

VC-  v6~ 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

Sage Sankara goes on to say: ~A sickness of not cured by saying the word “medicine.” You must take the medicine. Liberation does not come by merely saying the word “Brahman.” Brahman must be experienced. Until you allow this apparent universe to dissolve from your consciousness until you have realized Brahman, how can you find liberation just by saying the word Brahman? The result is merely noise. Until a man has destroyed his enemies and taken possession of the splendor and wealth of the kingdom, he cannot become a king by simply saying “I am a king.”

A buried treasure is not uncovered by merely uttering the words: “Come forth.” You must follow the right directions, dig, remove the stones and earth from above it, and then make it,  your own. In the same way, the pure truth of the Atman, which is buried under Maya and the effects of Maya, can be reached by meditation, contemplation, and other spiritual disciplines but never by subtle arguments,

• What is the use of reading millions of pages on truth?
•  
•  What is the use of searching for Gurus to get truth realization?
•  
• What is the use of wandering in the mountains is the search for the truth?
•  
• What is the use of indulging in yogic Samadhi or meditation within the unreal world?

The ‘I’ hides the truth of the whole. Without realizing what is this ‘I’ you will never realize the truth which is beyond form, time, and space.

All the Gurus glorified the ‘I’. Thus, it becomes very difficult to discard the ‘I’. Those who have accepted the ‘I’ based teaching refuse to accept anything other than their accepted truth.

Till you hold the ‘‘Self’’ as the ‘I’, your knowledge remains skin deep.

What is it that appears as the ‘I’ and disappears as the ‘I-less? It is the Soul, which is present in the form of consciousness.

Do not make the mistake of holding the ‘I’ as the ‘Self’ because it is not permanent. ‘I’ disappears and becomes ‘I’-less.

 ‘I’ is an illusion and the ‘I-LESS’ is real and eternal. The ‘I-LESS ‘appears as ‘I’ and ‘I ’‘disappears as I-LESS.

Bhagavad Gita: ~ The permanent is always there, only the transient ‘I’ comes and goes. (2.18)

The ‘I’ hides the Soul, the Sef, which is ever nondual.

The earliest ancient sages used the word ‘I’ to the witness of the three states not to the ego as moderns use it and think the ‘I’ without the body is the ‘Self’. The seeker has to understand the fact that ‘I’ is not the ‘Self’, but the witness of the ‘I’ is the true ‘Self’, which is eternal. 

That is why Ashtavakra Gita 16:10:~ If you desire liberation, but you still say "I," If you feel the ‘‘Self’’ is the ‘I’, You are not a wise man or a seeker. You are simply a man who suffers. 

Self-knowledge or Brahma Gnana frees the Soul from the cage of the illusory form, time,  and space.

Due to ignorance, the Soul, the innermost Self is in forgetfulness of its own true nature in the dualistic illusion.  When the Soul wakes up from its sleep of ignorance,   the unreal nature of the world, in which you exist, is exposed.:~Santthosh Kumaar