People are unaware of the fact that, the world in which they exist is a product of ignorance.+

People are unaware of the fact that the world in which they exist is a product of ignorance. When ignorance vanishes then there is neither the seer (consciousness)  nor the seen (world)  because the seer and seen have become one in essence. That essence is consciousness (soul).  The consciousness alone is, the universe is merely an illusion created out of the consciousness. 

That is why Jesus said:~ "Know what is in front of your face, and what is hidden from you will be disclosed to you.

It means one has to know the world which confronts him confronts to realize his body and the world are made of the same essence and that essence is Spirit or consciousness (Father). 

Sage Sankara says:~ One must first know what is before him. If he cannot know that, what else can he know or understand? If he gives up the external world in his inquiry, he cannot get the whole truth.

 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.

Jesus said:~"Those who seek should not stop seeking until they find. When they find it, they will be disturbed. When they are disturbed, they will marvel and will reign over all. (And after they have reigned they will rest.)"

When the seeker indulges in deeper self-search and becomes aware of the fact that the experience of birth, life, death, and the world is merely an illusion created out of spirit, he will be in fear of losing their physical identity and the experience of the world which he dearly attached.   But gradually his conviction grows about the innermost self the mind becomes still and rests in consciousness, the innermost self, which is a god or Christ.   

Meher Baba said:~ give no importance to creed, dogma, castes, or the performance of religious ceremonies and rites. 

The only Real Existence is that of the One and only God Who is the Self in every (finite) self.

The only Real Love is the Love for this Infinity (God), which arouses an intense longing to see, know and become one with its Truth (God).

The only Real Sacrifice is that in which, in pursuance of this Love, all things—body, mind, position, welfare, and even life itself—are sacrificed.

The only Real Renunciation is that which abandons, even in the midst of worldly duties, all selfish thoughts and desires.

The only Real Knowledge is the Knowledge that God is the inner dweller in good people and in so-called bad, in saints and in the so-called sinner. This Knowledge requires you to help all equally as circumstances demand without expectation of reward, and when compelled to take part in a dispute, to act without the slightest trace of enmity or hatred; to try to make

Real love is the love for the Self. 

The Self cannot be experienced, because the experience is possible only in the realm of duality.   There is neither experience nor experience in reality.  In Self-awareness, the body, ego, and the world are not considered different from consciousness.:~Santthosh Kumaar 

The ‘I’ awareness is present only when the mind is present.+

The ‘I’ awareness is present only when the mind is present. The mind is present only when the universe is present. The universe is present only when the waking or dream is present.   The ‘I’ awareness is absent when the mind is absent. The mind is absent then the universe or waking or dream is absent. Thus ‘I’ awareness is merely an illusion.   The Self-awareness is ‘I- LESS AWARENESS.

It is impossible to get rid of any conditioning without getting rid of the inborn samskara or conditioning.   ‘I’ or ‘I AM’ is the inborn samskara or conditioning. ‘I’ or ‘I AM’ is the mother of all conditioning. Because of this inborn conditioning, one thinks he is an individual separate from the world and the world that existed prior to him and he is born in it afterward. Until this inborn conditioning is present one is in the grip of duality and he experiences birth, life, death, and the world as reality.  This inborn conditioning makes one experience the illusory duality as reality.

Deeper self-search investigates through a mental microscope (inquiry and soulcentric reasoning)  

Without realizing what is the mind?,   it is impossible to grasp the Nondualistic or Advaitic truth. Firstly one has to realize we the mind is not within the body but the body, ego, and the world are within the mind (I). Without understanding this fact it is no use in discussing because you are discussing from the base of ego (waking entity) and my answers are based on the soul, the innermost self.

It takes a lot of time to train the ego to become soulcentric. Once the reasoning base is rectified from the form (ego) to formless then the truth will start revealing on its own and you will be able to understand what I am saying.  Now in waking experience (at present) the ego reasons ‘what is right and ‘what is wrong, which is very helpful in the practical life impractical world. In soulcentric reasoning, it will start discriminating between real and unreal and truth and untruth.

Brihadaranyaka Upanishad says: - In that unitive state there is neither father nor mother, neither worlds nor gods nor even the Scriptures. In that state, there is neither thief nor slayer, neither low caste nor high, neither Monk nor ascetic. The Self is beyond good and evil, beyond all the suffering of the Human Heart

Preliminarily inquiry reveals the fact that the Self is neither the waking entity nor the Self a dream entity but the Self is a formless Soul or consciousness. 

Even after verifying this fact still, everyone is viewing and judging the three states on the base of the waking entity and passing their judgment and opinion on the base of the waking entity (ego), which is not the Self. Therefore, it becomes impossible to assimilate the Self-knowledge or Brahma Gnana or Atma Gnana without rectifying the reasoning base from the form (I), to the formless (I-LESS or Soul). 

If the waking entity (ego) is not the self then why one has to argue or discuss on the base of the waking entity (ego) as the self.

The karma or action is a reality only when one accepts the waking entity (ego) as the  Self, that is accepting the formless Soul or consciousness itself as a waking entity (body or ego). 

If the waking entity (ego) is the Self, then it has to be immortal.  If the waking entity (body or ego) is immortal then there is no death. If there is no death, then there is no birth. Therefore, Soul-centric judgment is very much necessary to understand and assimilate and realize the Self-knowledge or Brahma Gnana or Atma Gnana.

Action, love, and virtue are very much necessary in practical life within the practical world. But they are not the qualification for self-realization.   Freedom arises only when one becomes aware of the true existence, which is beyond form, time, and space. Thus whatever is based on the form is an illusion from the ultimate standpoint.

The one which is aware of the form, time, and space is not the form but the formless.  The intellectuality based on the form is not wisdom. Thus one has to use his reason and base it on the formless Soul, the Self to understand, assimilate and realize the non-dualistic truth, which is the ultimate truth or Brahman or God. 

Thus all intellectual theories based on form, time, and space are mere imaginations based on the form, which is a false self (ego) within the false experience (universe or waking).

Thus, there would be no freedom without understanding facts about the Mind or the universe.   Intellectuality is limited to form, time and space. Thus reason based on the formless self has to be used to grasp the truth, which is beyond birth, life, death, and the world.

Thus belief, actions, conduct, love, virtue, scriptural mastery, religion, rituals, and prayers which are mere theories based on the false self are great hindrances in realizing the non-dual truth, which is the ultimate truth.  

All religious theories are meant for those who believe in the practical life within the practical world as reality because they are not verified the truth of their true existence. When one verifies the fact about his true existence through deeper self-search then he realizes, the Self is not form but the Self is the Soul or consciousness then he becomes aware of the fact that the practical life within the practical world is merely an illusion created out of consciousness. 

The practical life within the practical world is nothing to do with the formless Soul, the Self. The practical knowledge within the practical world is not wisdom but it is knowledge based on ignorance. The real wisdom is non-dual wisdom, which arises only when ignorance vanishes.:~Santthosh Kumaar 

A Gnani is not actually the cause of the enlightenment. A Gnani can point at the sky, but the seeing of the star is the seekers own work.+

A Gnani is not actually the cause of enlightenment. A Gnani can point at the sky, but the seeing of the star is the seeker's own work.

 A woman,   who loses her nose ring while bathing in the river, is worried about this loss she spends hours searching for it taking more and more dips in the river. she fails to find it but, instead, finds a diamond necklace. Clearly, it was her determination to recover this nose ring that led to his finding something more valuable than her nose ring.

In the same way, it is said that the seeker who spends all his time searching for something unknown, thinks that the search is for something for himself – peace of mind, meaning in his life, or whatever. But he fails to find this. Instead, if he perseveres, he finds something of much greater value – his true Self. This cannot be found directly as a result of anyone’s teaching. Nevertheless, had it not been for the guidance of a Gnani, he would not have continued looking.

That is why Sage Sri, Sankara says:~ VC-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.

One has to first find the truth and realize, then only he will know ‘what is the truth?’ and ‘what is untruth?’. One has to make discoveries through the process of rational thinking. 

A Gnani never claims himself as a Gnani, he guides the seekers, not posing himself as a Guru, and he does not force his wisdom on others.

Advaita is not a theory or a philosophy. Advaita is the nature of the Soul the innermost Self.  There is no need for any theory or philosophy or scriptures to acquire Self-knowledge. Only a perfect understanding of ‘what is what’ is needed.

Sage Sankara:~ Actual realization takes you beyond books. At a certain stage, books become a botheration.

Bhagavan Buddha: ~ Do not believe in anything merely on the authority of your teachers and elders.

You need not become a Guru or a monk to acquire Self-knowledge or Brahma Gnana or Atma Gnana. You have not to renounce the world or leave anything ~ your wife, children, job, responsibilities. You do not have to renounce anything! The only thing you have to realize the truth, which is beyond the form, time, and space by realizing the form, time, and space, are the product of ignorance. When ignorance vanishes, the unreality of form, time, and space is exposed.

Upanishad says:~  "He who thinks he knows, does not know." This means that to know anything implies a second, an object of knowledge, hence duality, i.e. no Gnana.

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 Samhita: ~ "The man of knowledge (Gnani), though living like an ordinary man, is contrary to him and only those like him understand his state.

Upanishads: ~ Fools dwelling in darkness, but thinking they wise and erudite, go round and round, by various tortuous paths, like the blind led by the blind. (Upanishads Nikilanada - Ch II-5 P-14)

No one can teach anybody. Wisdom is hidden within the world in which you exist.  A Gnani can only show the way that much is the work of a Gnani. A Gnani only guides the seekers to apply their own reason and realize the truth, which is beyond form, time, and space. 

When the seeker learns to view and judge and reason the three states on the base of the Soul, the truth will start unfolding on its own.     First, the seeker may find it difficult to use soulcentric reason but gradually it will become easy. : ~ Santthosh Kumaar

Yogic Samadhi vanished because it was not the highest insight. The Gnani, however never loses his Gnana.+

Bhagavan Buddha gave up his austerities of yoga as impossible and useless. [Page.70/71 "Buddhism in Translation” by Warren] 

Bhagavan Buddha got enlightenment only after he gave up Yoga. Unless one exercises his reason--there is no chance of getting the truth.

Where people cannot and do not think, they follow others. A Gnani will see the world and get to know it is only an illusory appearance. He is not blind; he sees three states or objects as it is, but he knows it is only a falsehood. Just as you see a mirage, the Gnani sees the mirage of this universe too; but he is not deceived by it. 

So long as one is ignorant, he will have the idea that God has created this world because the causal notion will be there. Nobody wants to suffer, and while the notion that suffering can be got rid of by appealing to God, these wishes will sway the mind to believe in God. For them,  religion will arise, but for the man who wants the truth, religion offers no consolation.

One has to inquire into the mind (the world) and its nature i.e. matter, there can be no such thing as  Advaitic wisdom or Gnana without understanding what is mind (universe). Seeker of truth will not be able to find answers in the path of religion and yoga are based on blind belief or imagination because they think the mind is within the body.  

The yogi or Gurus may just by saying “I know” and not explain how he knows the ultimate truth or Brahman. Because he has read it in the book or scriptures or his Guru may have told him “yogic Samadhi is liberation.

The Self-deluded believers tell others the same because he has not investigated if it is right. People give lectures and write books on yoga and eastern philosophy. 

Some may say for many years they are enjoying mystic exaltation, trances, meditations, and peace but they have verified what they experienced is really the truth. Then this state is not permanent because when this state passes away again they enter into duality. This state which is impermanent is not Gnana or Self—awareness.  This proves he had attained a yogic condition, but not Gnana. 

Yogic Samadhi vanished because it was not the highest insight. The Gnani, however never loses his Gnana. Dislodging a Gnani from his insight is an impossibility. Once he has thoroughly seen the truth he simply can't fall away from it. 

Remember:~

Many enjoy a similar sort of mystic exaltation and peace, but whether it passes away soon or endures the whole of life, it is not Gnana, because it did not come through striving to investigate the nature of the mind or world, it came only through meditation on the self; that is the yogic reward for such meditation but it is only one half. 

The Gnani not only gets inner peace but also truth because he also has grasped the truth about the matter, which is as much the Soul, the Self, which is present in the form of consciousness. 

It is not possible to stop the thought for more than a half-second whilst in the waking experience. If one succeeds in controlling thought and then banishes it, one passes into yogic Nirvikalpa Samadhi, which is identical to deep sleep. 

The only difference between ordinary deep sleep and Samadhi, therefore, is that the ordinary man falls asleep involuntarily whereas the yogi has the satisfaction of knowing that he has passed into sleep by his own effort of will in banishing thoughts. Thoughtless states are not wisdom because thoughts arise from the false self within the false experience. 

 There is no use in struggling to stop the thoughts which belong to the falsehood? One has to trace the source of the falsehood which is not the form of mind or universe to unfold the reality of the true existence. Thoughtlessness is not wisdom and thoughtlessness is not Gnanic or Brahmic truth.  :~Santthosh Kumaar 

Anyone who has humility and patience and is sincere and ready to drop their accumulated dross and receptive to accept the truth will enter non-dual Self-Awareness.+

There are millions in search of truth but one in million will be able to grasp it.  I am just posting what revels from the inner core. I just share with like-minded fellow seekers.   I am just highlighting the obstacle in the pursuit of truth.  

Self-Knowledge or Brahma Gnana or Atma Gnana is not based on any teaching or teacher. The pursuit of truth is the pursuit of verification not the pursuit of argument.   Intellectual discussion is a great hindrance to the pursuit of truth.

My blogs and postings are verified truth derived from deeper self-search. If one goes on reading all his doubts and confusion will start clearing. It takes time to receptive to Self-Knowledge or Brahma Gnana or Atma Gnana because it is soul-centric knowledge whereas all accumulated knowledge are egocentric.

All accumulated knowledge is of no use in the path of wisdom. Without realizing “What is the truth it is impossible to realize “What is untruth?” Without realizing what is truth and what is untruth it is impossible to assimilate the Self –Knowledge or Brahma Gnana or Atma Gnana. Thus one must know with full and firm conviction what truth is.

The wisdom consists in knowing the truth, that everything (mind or physical existence) is consciousness. Freedom (ultimate truth) is always there yet one does not know it.  But to those whose reason is turned away from physicality and who have attained the serenity of the soul or consciousness, the innermost self, are quite near to realizing the ultimate truth or Brahman. 

To think once own body and his experience of the world is an illusion is a difficult matter, unless one realizes the self is not physical but it is formless soul it is difficult to have a glimpse of truth.

When one realizes the fact that, the self is not physical but the formless soul, naturally the body and universe becomes an illusion.

The mind (universe) is emanating from the soul (consciousness) means the mind is being effected by consciousness is not different from it. A deeper analysis shows it. Analysis needs deeper thinking and reasoning. 

Mind is the whole universe thus it has a form. But where is the form in consciousness (formless soul) because consciousness is like an ocean and mind is like a wave.  The universe is the same consciousness, as the ocean produces the wave, so the consciousness produces the mind (universe).

The moment one knows the mind (universe) is consciousness, and then there is no ignorance. If one knows consciousness as self then everything is consciousness, the consciousness is second to none.  The mind is consciousness but due to ignorance one mistakes it for something else. One thinks the self is within the body, but the self is without the body and the world.

When one is unable to quench his spiritual thirst from his guru or teaching he has to look elsewhere to clear the cobwebs of his understanding and to move forward in his spiritual quest.

It is no use of arguing with someone who has faith in his belief system because for him there can be no possible refutation of what he believes, so rational argument is entirely useless. He clings to his belief so strongly that he makes no distinction between the truth and his belief. 

One has to know the fact that God cannot exist without his existence. The truth does not depend on the gods’ existence but it entirely depends on man’s existence.   Thus it is foolish to venture in knowing the truth of gods existence without verifying the facts about his own existence. 

It is difficult for tradition-bound people to accept anything as truth other than what they inherited from then inborn and inherited conditioning and parental grooming and their accumulated knowledge. 

Only intense urge to know the truth and courage to accept the truth after verification with better understanding one will be able to drop all his accumulated dross, which is the main obstacle in self-realization. 

Sage Sri, Sankara says:~VC- 56. Neither by Yoga, nor by Sankhya, nor by work, nor by learning, but by the realization of one's identity with Brahman is Liberation possible, and by no other means. 

58. Loud speech consisting of a shower of words, the skill in expounding the Scriptures, and likewise erudition - these merely bring on a little personal enjoyment to the scholar, but are no good for Liberation.

59. The study of the Scriptures is useless so long as the highest Truth is unknown, and it is equally useless when the highest Truth has already been known.

60. The Scriptures consisting of many words are a dense forest which merely causes the mind to ramble. Hence men of wisdom should earnestly set about knowing the true nature of the Self.

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?

62. A disease does not leave off if one simply utter the name of the medicine, without taking it; (similarly) without direct realization, one cannot be liberated by the mere utterance of the word Brahman.

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.

64. Without killing one’s enemies, and possessing oneself of the splendor of the entire the surrounding region, one cannot claim to be an emperor by merely saying, ‘I am an emperor’.

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.

66. Therefore the wise should, as in the case of disease and the like, personally strive by all the means in their power to be free from the bondage of repeated births and deaths.

67. The question that thou hast asked today is excellent, approved by those versed in the Scriptures, aphoristic, pregnant with meaning, and fit to be known by the seekers after Liberation. 

We have to grow from the inside out. None can teach us, none can make us spiritual. There is no other guru but our own soul.” 

Self-knowledge or Atma Gnana or Brahma Gnana cannot be attained by one who is without strength or earnestness or without the receptiveness and courage to accept the truth and reject the untruth. If a serious seeker strives sincerely by means of inquiry, analysis, and soul-centric reasoning, he will be able to realize it. 

It is only seeker's sincerity and earnestness in his spiritual pursuit, the knowledge starts revealing on its own.  Anyone who has humility and patience and is sincere and ready to drop their accumulated dross and receptive to accept the truth will enter non-dual Self-Awareness when his conviction becomes firm.:~Santthosh Kumaar 

All agendas are within the illusion, which appears in the form of mind (I) or universe or waking experience.+

It is a pity that people are stuck with the reality of the illusory experience of form, time, and space.  The truth is hidden within the form, time, and space as their formless substance and witness. In the realm of truth the form, time, and space are one in essence. That essence is consciousness. 

Consciousness alone is real and the form, time, and space are unreal.  To know this simple truth getting rid of ignorance through wisdom is necessary. When the wisdom dawns then the experience of form time and space never again remains as reality.  

All agendas are within the illusion, which appears in the form of mind (I) or the universe or waking experience. The Self is within the illusion as its formless substance and it is without the illusion as its formless witness. 

The formless witness is the one which witnesses the body and universe together.  Thus ordinary awareness is physical awareness [waking] is not self-awareness.  

In Self-awareness the body is not the body but it is the consciousness, the ego is not the ego but it is consciousness, the world is not the world but it is consciousness even though they exist but their unreal nature is exposed. Just as the dream becomes unreal when waking takes place, the waking also becomes unreal when non-dual wisdom dawns. 

The illusion is present in the form of:-

Form, time, and space

Birth, life, and death

Pain and Pleasure,

Burden and bondage

Waking, dream, and deep sleep

Universe/Mind /Duality 

The illusion is created out of single stuff. That single stuff is the Soul. The Soul is present in the form of consciousness. Because of ignorance, the illusion is experienced as reality. Illusory reality deludes because it is based on egocentricity. 

In egocentricity one is unaware of the ultimate truth and he permanently remains in ignorance and experiences the illusion as reality.

All the attributes are merely an illusion. It is the Self that is in illusion and it is the self that has to get free from the bondage of the illusion. The illusion is present in the form of the mind. The mind is present in the form of the universe. 

The universe appears as a waking or dream and disappears as deep sleep.  The individual experiences of birth, life, death and the world are within the waking experience.  The dream is a parallel waking experience and waking is a parallel dream.

Deeper self-search reveals the fact that the self is neither the waking entity nor the Self the dream entity but the Self is the Soul, which witnesses the coming and going of the three states in succession without the physical apparatus.  This has to be mentally grasped and assimilated to realize the Soul, the Self is nothing to do with the three states. From the standpoint of the Soul, the Self, the three states are merely an illusion. 

 

The practical life within the practical world, which is present as the waking experience, is merely an illusion. If waking experience is merely an illusion then the individual experience of birth, life, death, and world are merely an illusion.   

If the experience of birth, life, death, and the world is merely an illusion, it means the form, time, and space are merely an illusion.  If form, time, and space are mere illusion, it means the past, present, and future is merely an illusion. 

Thus, it is necessary for the seeker to realize the fact that form, time, and space are one in essence, in order to realize the three states are one in essence. That essence is consciousness. Thus all the diversity is created out of consciousness. Thus no second thing exists other than consciousness. 

Seeker of truth has to constantly reflect on the subject in order to get a firm conviction of the truth.  The seeker has to reflect on the same truth again and again until it becomes reality. One needs to constantly reflect on the subject until he gets a firm conviction of what is what.:~Santthosh Kumaar