Sage Sankara himself said: ~ A Gnani "bears no outward mark of a holy man.+

Advaitic Gnana cannot be transmitted neither from outside nor from another person. Guru of everyone is only the Soul, the  Self that is always revealing on its own.

The physical Guru is useless so long as the ultimate truth is unknown, and the physical Guru is equally useless when the ultimate truth or Brahman has already been known.

A guru is needed in the religious and yogic path. The Soul is the inner Guru. The Soul, which is present in the form of consciousness, is the source of all that exists as the universe. To realize the universe is consciousness there is no need for Guru.

The grace of the Guru is only that Self-awareness that is the nature of the Soul. It is the Soul, the innermost Self is unceasingly revealing its existence. This revelation is always going on naturally in every serious seeker." 

Advaitic Gnana is given neither from outside nor from another person. It can be realized by the seeker on his own. The Gnana Guru of everyone is only the Soul the innermost ‘Self’ that is always revealing its own is the seeker is receptive and serious in quest of truth. 

If you emotionally and sentimentally hold on to the physical Guru as a guide you will never be able to transcend the dualistic illusion to non-dualistic reality.  The idea of having a Guru itself blocks you from realizing the Self’, which is hidden by the dualistic illusion.

The one who thinks of himself as a Guru and the one who thinks of himself as a chela (disciple) will not be able to acquire Self-Knowledge or Brahma Gnana or Atma Gnana because both of them accepted themselves as the body. And all their understanding, practices, knowledge are based on the false self.  

Therefore, the Guru –Shisya concept is a great obstacle in the pursuit of truth.  That is why Gnanis never accepted himself as a Guru or accepted anyone as his disciple because he is fully immersed in Self-awareness.  There is no place for to in reality. There was no division in his consciousness even though he was in the midst of a division of form, time, and space.    

Surrendering to any physical Guru or Godmen is not the means to Self-knowledge or Brahma Gnana or Atma Gnana.   The concept of surrendering to the Guru is a religious fable. The religious path is not the path of truth or Brahman. 

The Soul the innermost Self, is the true Guru. The Seeker has to surrender to the Self by realizing the fact that, the Self is not physical. By realizing the Self is not physical, he will be able to drop all the accumulated knowledge and inherited conditioning in the midst of duality and he finds freedom from experiencing the duality (waking) as reality. There is only oneness in reality. There is no scope for duality in Advaitic reality.

Manduka Upanishads: - Even the Gods cannot find out who is a Gnani, because he bears no external mark. Neither nudity nor the yellow robe has anything to do with him.

The guidance comes from any form when the seeker is ready and receptive to take the mental (inner) journey. 

People of small intelligence follow religion and believe that the world was created by God. But how do they know that He did so? When a pot is created one can see both pot and its maker, but not in the case of the world. Then there is the question which nobody has answered till now, viz. Why did He create all these evils, these sufferings? Even a father would never do that. If He did so, assuming that God did create, then what sort of an evil God is He! All religions which begin with "God created the world," are fit only for children. It is a lie; it is inconsistent and fit only for ignorant people.

When one knows the truth then he knows that the Soul which is present in the form of the consciousness is everything that exists." A child learns to count, by seeing and counting material objects. When the child is mature it says directly "one plus one equals two." without having to count tangible objects.

Religion is dualistic.  All the Guru Paramparas are for religious people.  There is no need for a Guru who wants to tread the path of wisdom.

Even Swami Vivekananda was Ramakrishna Paramahansa's disciple.  Swami Vivekananda himself said: ~   “You have to grow from the inside out. None can teach you, none can make you spiritual. There is no other teacher, but your own Soul.”

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 most advanced seeker who seeks to know the ultimate truth or Brahman.  The Guru and Guru Paramparas are meant for the first audience, to help lead their followers along the way. However, there is no need to follow any parampara and follow any Guru for those who wish to realize the truth which is beyond form, time, and space. 

We should not mix religion with spirituality because religion is based on the ego and spirituality is based on the Soul.   Religion is concerned with its paramparas, not truth whereas spirituality is concerned only with the truth, which is beyond form, time, and space. Religion is not spirituality.

Sage Sankara: ~ "Though I wear these robes of a Sanyasin, it is only for the sake of bread."

So he wore a Guru's robe only for the sake of the ignorant. So he was identified as Guru with parampara by religious people. For the truth seekers, Sage Sri, Sankara is a Brahma Gnani.

Sage Sankara himself said: ~ A Gnani "bears no outward mark of a holy man" (Stanza 539).

Thus, it proves that religious Gurus and yogis are not Gnanis because they identified themselves as holy people. 

Remember:~

Tripura Rahasya: ~ Second-hand knowledge of the Self-gathered from books or Gurus can never emancipate a man until its truth is rightly investigated and applied; only direct realization will do that. Realize yourself, turning the mind inward. (18: 89)

Ashtavakra Gita: ~ Truly dualism is the root of suffering. There is no other remedy for it than the realization that all this that we see is unreal and that the Soul, the innermost Self, is the one stainless reality, consisting of consciousness. 2:16

The Self is pure awareness though through ignorance the ‘Self' has imagined itself to have additional attributes. By continually reflecting like this, the Self’s dwelling place is unimagined. 2:17

For the Self, there is neither bondage nor liberation. The illusion has lost its basis and ceased. Truly all this exists in me though ultimately it does not even exist in the Self. 2:18

Self-Knowledge should be explained again and again until it is firmly rooted in the subconscious.

The one who has adopted the life of a wandering monk will never be able to realize the truth which is hidden in the form, time, and space.   He keeps wandering from one place to the next, meeting different gurus, worshipping different Gods. He is caught up in the prison of the dualistic illusion.

People who think Self-knowledge or Brahma Gnana or Atma Gnana can be achieved through their karma (actions) are hallucinating. 

First Mundaka - Chapter 2 (8) - Fools, dwelling in darkness, but wise in their own conceit and puffed up with vain scholarship, wander about, being afflicted by many ills, like blind men led by the blind.

First Mundaka - Chapter 2 (9) - Children, immersed in ignorance in various ways, flatter themselves, saying: We have accomplished life's purpose. Because these performers of karma do not know the Truth owing to their attachment, they fall from heaven, misery-stricken, when the fruit of their work is exhausted.

First Mundaka - Chapter 2 (10) - Ignorant fools, regarding sacrifices and humanitarian works as the highest, do not know any higher good. Having enjoyed their reward on the heights of heaven, gained by good works, they enter again this world or a lower one.:~Santthosh Kumaar