Sage Sankara says: ~ “The exercise in discrimination between real and unreal and renunciation of the false is real meditation.+

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.

When one puts aside the imagination and has the thinker-- what does he get with thinking—he can get only thoughts. Meditation is only an effort; it is imagination, an idea; the Soul (consciousness), the Self, remaining the same with or without ideas.

Meditation will not help to get rid of ignorance. Without Advaitic wisdom, ignorance will not vanish.  Thus, Self-knowledge or Brahma Gnana or Atma Gnana alone leads to Self-awareness. 

Ashtavakra says: ~ “This is your bondage, that you practice Samadhi or meditation.”

Meditation is an individual act.  The Soul the innermost Self, is not an individual because it is ever formless, timeless, and spaceless existence. And Meditation is possible within the domain of form, time, and space. The form, time, and space are the product of ignorance.  When the ignorance vanishes, then only the reality appears.

A Gnani does not spend his life sitting in meditation as a sanyasi or giving sermons,  but he shares Self-knowledge or Brahma Gnana or Atma Gnana to the seeking world.  A Gnani can point at the sky, but the seeing of the star is the seeker's own work. 

Chandogya Upanishad:~ “One who meditates upon and realizes the ”Self’ discovers that everything in the cosmos-- energy and space, fire and water, name and form, birth and death, mind and will, word and deed, mantram and meditation--all come from the “Self’”.

So, it clearly says the one who meditates upon the “Self’ (consciousness) discovers that everything in the cosmos-- energy and space, fire and water, name and form, birth and death, mind and will, word and deed, mantrams and meditation--all come from the “Self’. Therefore, there is a need to know the fact that, the true “Self’ is not physical but the Soul in order to realize the fact that:  the cosmos-- energy and space, fire and water, name and form, birth and death, mind and will, word and deed, mantrams and meditation--all come from the “Self’, which is in the form of consciousness. 

Atman is Brahman. Brahman the Absolute is alone real; this waking is unreal and the three states are non-different from Brahman. 

The body, the ego, the world are one,  in essence.  The essence is consciousness. Therefore the body, the ego, and the world are created out of single stuff.  That single stuff is the Soul which is present in the form of consciousness.  The “Soul is the fullness of consciousness. Therefore, there is nothing apart from it. 

Brihadaranyaka Upanishad- The “Self’ is indeed Brahman (Consciousness), but through ignorance, people identify it with intellect, mind, senses, passions, and the elements of earth, water, air, space, and fire. This is why the 'Self’ is said to consist of this and that and appears to be everything. 

Consciousness is within, consciousness is without; consciousness is before,  consciousness is behind;  consciousness is on the right, consciousness is on the left;   consciousness is above and consciousness is below.  Consciousness is not an object, as it is invisible, beyond the reach of the physical eyes.  Consciousness is the ultimate truth. And the ultimate truth is Brahman or God in truth.

The world in which we exist is merely an illusion created out of consciousness.  Therefore, hold on to consciousness which is real and eternal, and mentally negate the world in which we exist by realizing the world in which we exist is nothing but consciousness.  

Until a man is ripe to receive Self-knowledge, it is fatal to ask him to give up meditation.

The novice seekers must understand that yoga is all right in its places and that it is good at the beginning of the pursuit of truth, but when yoga is made ends in itself and not means to acquire the Self-knowledge or Brahma Gnana or Atma Gnana.

Yoga and meditation are not useless, they are useful to bring the restless ego under control.  Yoga and meditation are not final. Indulging in yoga and meditation will lead not lead to the ultimate end of understanding. Yoga cannot remove ignorance. It is only a step. It removes obstructions.:~Santthosh Kumaar