Vedas teach Karma and Upasana to people of lower and middling intellect while Gnana is taught to those of higher intellect.+

Unless one bifurcates orthodoxy from spirituality it is impossible to acquire the Advaitic wisdom of Sage Sankara.

Sage Goudpada says that: ~  The merciful Veda teaches Karma and Upasana to people of lower and middling intellect while jnana is taught to those of higher intellect.

So he clearly indicates rituals and theories are not meant for those who are searching for higher knowledge or wisdom.  

Ish Upanishads: ~ Vidya and Avidya both are hindrances to Self-knowledge, but Vidya is even worse than Avidya. The word Vidya is used here in a special sense; here it means worshipping Gods and Goddesses. By worshipping Gods and Goddesses, you will go after death to the world of Gods and Goddesses. But will that help you? The time you spend there is wasted because if you were not there you could have spent that time moving forward towards Self-knowledge, which is your goal. In the world of Gods and Goddesses, you cannot do that, and thus you go deeper and deeper into the darkness.

Avidya is Karma and, therefore, a hindrance. You perform Avidya ~ i.e., you perform Agnihotra and other sacrifices. This is a roundabout way of purifying the mind, and it is also groping in the dark. But it may not have as heavy a toll on your time and energy as the other.

Sage Sankara says: ~ Atman is Brahman. The Atman alone is real is not religious truth.  Sage Sankara declared this Advaitic truth, which is the ultimate truth to the whole world, many centuries back is the rational truth, the scientific truth, and the ultimate truth.

Thus, the Atman which is present in the form of the consciousness is real and eternal, the world in which we exist is merely an illusion.  

Ishopanishad:~ "They are steeped in ignorance and sunk into the greatest depth of misery who worships the matter, instead of the All-Pervading God and those who worship things born of matter like trees, animals, man, etc. are sunk deeper in misery."

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

It indicates that the ignorant one (darkness) of the Soul, the innermost  Self (Atman) searches truth by accumulating knowledge of every path and practice and is uncertain about the truth, and thinks every path leads towards reality. The ignorance of the true 'Self' leads one towards unreality or hallucination.

Bhad Upanishad: ~ This Self is dearer than a son, dearer than wealth, dearer than everything else because It is innermost. If one holding the 'Self 'dear were to say to a person who speaks of anything other than the Self as dear, that he, the latter, will lose what he holds dear—and the former is certainly competent to do so—it will indeed come true. One should meditate upon the Self alone as dear. He who meditates upon the Self alone as dear—what he holds dear will not perish. (8-p- -211)

It is the first instance of monism in organized religion. Vedic religion remains the only religion with this concept. To call this concept 'God' would be imprecise.  The closest interpretation of the term can be found in:

Tattireya Upanishad (II.1):~ Where Brahman is described in the following manner: Satyam Jnanam Anantam Brahman - "Brahman is of the nature of truth, knowledge, and infinity". Thus, Brahman is the origin and the end of all things, material or otherwise. Brahman is the root source and Divine Ground of everything that exists and does not exist. It is defined as unknowable and Satchidananda (Truth-Consciousness-Bliss).

Since it is eternal and infinite, it comprises the only truth. The goal of Vedic religion, through the various yogas, is to realize that consciousness (Atman) is actually nothing but Brahman. 

Remember: ~

Mundaka Upanishad condemns rituals. The Para or Higher knowledge is the knowledge of the Supreme Being while the Apara or Lower Knowledge is that of following sacrificial rites and ceremonies. (1/2/ 1 – 6)

Physical & mental discipline such as Karma, Mantra Yoga, and Yajna, Puja Japa Blind devotion to deity or Guru is not the tool for liberation or freedom from experiencing the dualistic illusion as a reality. It is a dualistic cult including Advaitic orthodoxy propagates these disciplines. Such disciplines and codes of conduct have no value if one is seeking ultimate truth or Brahman to get Nondualistic Self-awareness. 

Mysticism, scriptural knowledge, penance based Scholasticism are the great hindrance to Self-realization. Inherited blind belief with corresponding actions based on scriptures, worship, ritual faith that imply certain mental and physical discipline, or scripture supporting the belief, faith, creed, ritual, theological knowledge personal or opinion leads to hallucinated knowledge. All these become a great hindrance to grasping, understanding, assimilating, and realizing the Advaitic or non-dual truth.

Scriptural mastery including ancient Sastras, Tarka, and Samkhya disciplines to support Karmas & belief Bhakti Argument & interpretation with the help of logic, grammar, etc.

to support beliefs, revelations, prayers, etc. In addition, dogmas, theological or other based on authorities.

That is why Sage Sankara said: -Neither by the practice of yoga nor philosophy, nor by good works nor by learning, does liberation come, but only through the realization that Atman and Brahman are one in no other way. (1) Vivekachoodamani v 56, pg~25

Sage Sankara says:~ The scriptures dealing with rituals, rewards are therefore addressed to an ignorant person.

Sage Sankara:~ (11) As regards the rituals, Sage Sankara says, the person who performs rituals and aspires for rewards will view himself in terms of the caste into which he is born, his age, the stage of his life, his standing in society, etc. In addition, he is required to perform rituals all through his life. However, the 'Self' has none of those attributes or tags. Hence, the person who superimposes all those attributes on the changeless, eternal Self and identifies Self with the body is confusing one for the other; and is, therefore, an ignorant person. The scriptures dealing with rituals, rewards, etc. are therefore addressed to an ignorant person.-Adhyasa Bhashya 

Sage Sankara:~ (11.1) This ignorance (mistaking the body for Self) brings in its wake a desire for the well-being of the body, aversion for its disease or discomfort, fear of its destruction, and thus a host of miseries(anartha). This anartha is caused by projecting karthvya(“doer” sense) and bhokthavya (object) on the Atman. Sankara calls this Adhyasa. The scriptures dealing with rituals, rewards, etc. are, therefore, he says, addressed to an ignorant person.-Adhyasa Bhashya 

Sage Sankara:~ (11.2) In short, the person who engages in rituals with the notion “I am an agent, doer, thinker”, according to Sage Sri, Sankara, is ignorant, as his behavior implies a distinct, separate doer/agent/knower; and an object that is to be done/achieved/known. That duality is avidya, an error that can be removed by Vidya.-Adhyasa Bhashya 

Sage Sankara: ~ (12) Sage Sankara affirming his belief in one eternal unchanging reality (Brahman) and the illusion of plurality, drives home the point that Upanishads deal not with rituals but with the knowledge of the Absolute (Brahma Vidya) and the Upanishads give us an insight into the essential nature of the Self which is identical with the Absolute, the Brahman.-Adhyasa Bhashya 

Sage Sankara: ~ Atman, the Self is verily Brahman (God in truth), being equanimous, quiescent, and by nature absolute Existence, Knowledge, and Bliss. Atman is not the body that is non-existence itself. This is called true Knowledge by the wise.

Everyone’s inner work is on. The Soul is the Self. The Soul the inner Guru guides us all till we get the stillness of its Advaitic true nature. It is the Soul that is in ignorance it is the Soul that has to wake from the sleep of ignorance. : ~Santthosh Kumaar

Swami Ramateertha said, "I am so ashamed. I am not enlightened; I am not even worthy to be called a sannyasin.+

Swami  Ramateertha 

Osho - Ta Hui is important for you to understand because he is a representative of thousands of intellectuals in the world who go on deceiving themselves because they can consistently, logically, think about experiences that have not happened to them. Perhaps they are influenced by people who have actually experienced, and that impact is so great that they start believing that certainly, such things happen. Then they are capable of intellectual systematizing -- and they can go on systematizing -- but underneath they don't know a thing.
These people are the theologians, these people are religious heads, these people are philosophers, these people are great professors. These people dominate humanity, and they are the wrong people -- wrong because they are dishonest, wrong because they don't accept that it is not their experience. They simply go on fabricating beautiful words and theories and creating an illusion in the minds of people that perhaps they are authentic seers, enlightened people.

I will tell you an actual incident that happened, just at the beginning of this century. One young man, Ramateertha, was a professor of mathematics in Lahore University, and he was certainly a genius. He is well known for this incident -- perhaps nobody else has done it this way... In examinations, the question paper comes with a note, "Answer any five out of the seven questions." When he was a student this was his consistent practice: he would answer all seven questions with a note, "Examine any five questions."  He always answered all seven questions exactly right, so there was no problem for him -- you could choose any five yourself, whichever ones you wanted to examine. When he passed his post-graduation -- he topped the university in mathematics, he was a gold medalist -- he was immediately appointed as a professor. He had the caliber of a great intellectual. And just then Vivekananda returned from America.

Vivekananda was a monk and a disciple of Ramakrishna, who was an enlightened man but uneducated. Ramakrishna was not articulate enough to manage to say something about his experience, so he had chosen Vivekananda, who was a very intelligent person, from the cream of Bengal's intelligentsia. Vivekananda impressed people all over the world, wherever he went; now he had come back from America and was going around India. He came to Lahore, to the university where Ramateertha was a professor, and Ramateertha was so much impressed by Vivekananda that he wanted to be initiated by him immediately.

Vivekananda himself was just an intellectual, but a very forceful personality, a very imposing personality. He appealed to Ramateertha immediately because they were both intellectuals, so there was immediately a harmony, a synchronicity between their minds. Vivekananda initiated him into sannyas, and Ramateertha left for a world tour himself.

Ramateertha was far more articulate than Vivekananda himself, far more poetic, far more impressive... not as a personality, because Vivekananda looked like a giant -- he had a huge body -- but Ramateertha seems to have been far superior, intellectually. In particular, he was so much drowned in Persian, Arabic, and Urdu poetry, which are all unique as far as their mysticism is concerned -- they all belong to the Sufi tradition of mystics.

So Ramateertha had some new area about which Vivekananda had no knowledge. He also impressed people very much wherever he went. And the problem with the mind is that if people are impressed by you, slowly, slowly, it has a feedback effect. Because they get impressed by you, you become impressed by yourself: "I must be carrying some great message; otherwise why are so many people mad about me?" He became convinced that he was enlightened. The crowd that was following him everywhere convinced him that he was enlightened.

When he came back to India, he was imagining a great reception... Naturally, an enlightened person coming back home, after impressing the whole world... He went directly to Varanasi, which has been the Hindu citadel for centuries, and where the Hindu learned people have their council which decides who is enlightened and who is not. None of these learned people is enlightened, but they are immensely learned as far as scriptures are concerned. So Ramateertha first approached the council of the learned to get recognition.

Now to me, even the idea of getting recognition from someone means you are not certain about your own attainment -- you are asking recognition from those who are not enlightened! On what grounds do they have the authority to recognize you?

In the first place, your asking makes it certain that you are not enlightened. Secondly, you are asking people who are not enlightened themselves -- that reinforces that you don't understand what enlightenment is. It never needs anybody's recognition; it is a self-evident phenomenon. Even if the whole world says you are not enlightened, it does not matter. And even if the whole world says you are enlightened and you are not, then too, you will not become enlightened.

Something very strange happened there: one scholar of the council asked Ramateertha -- It was sheer stupidity for Ramateertha to go to the council -- one scholar asked, "Do you know Sanskrit?" And Ramateertha had no knowledge of Sanskrit, because he came from the part that is now in Pakistan. It was a Mohammedan area; there the language of the learned people was Arabic, Persian, Urdu. It was not the part where Sanskrit had any influence. So he was very deeply rooted in Persian and Arabic literature, and certainly Sufi literature has a beauty which Sanskrit literature does not have.

Sanskrit literature is very dry, like mathematics. Sufi literature is pure poetry. It has a certain juiciness about it, because the whole of Sufism is based on a foundation of love. Sufis are the only people in the world who think of God as the beloved, like a girlfriend. Naturally they have written beautiful poetry for the beloved. God is not a man, but a beautiful woman! No poetry can reach to the heights of Sufi poetry.

Ramateertha was at a loss. He said, "No, I don't know anything about Sanskrit. I come from the part of the country where Sanskrit is far away; even Hindi is not spoken.

All those scholars laughed, and they said, "Without knowing Sanskrit, do you think one can become enlightened? First learn Sanskrit."

I can forgive all those idiots, but I cannot forgive Ramateertha, because he started learning Sanskrit! -- just to get the recognition from unenlightened people that he is enlightened.

I have always liked his discourses, but I have always found places in them which show decisively that the man is only an intellectual. He has no experience of his own. He knows beautiful poetry, he can talk in a very poetic way; he knows beautiful Sufi stories, he can explain those stories very impressively. But he himself is a beggar -- his bowl is empty.

Such is the situation of Ta Hui. Understanding Ta Hui will help you to understand many others who are in the same boat.

Ramateertha went to the Himalayas, to a small state called Tihri Garhwal. The king of that state was very much impressed by Ramateertha, so he made him a special bungalow in the mountains, where he was learning Sanskrit in order to be recognized.

One day it happened... Ramateertha had a secretary, a certain Sardar Pooran Singh who was a great writer in Punjabi, certainly a very refined writer -- his prose is almost like poetry. He was so impressed by Ramateertha that he dropped his job, became Ramateertha's secretary and was taking care of his body, his letters and the correspondence from all over the world...

One day, looking out of the window, Ramateertha saw his wife coming. He had been married, but he had renounced his poor wife and become a sannyasin. The wife was so poor that she was doing all kinds of jobs in the village, grinding people's wheat or washing people's clothes. She did not even have the tickets for traveling...

When she heard that Ramateertha was in Tihri Garhwal, she had sold a few ornaments that had been given to her at the time of their marriage. She just wanted to touch the feet of Ramateertha. She had not come to complain -- she was really glad. In the East that has been the tradition: if the husband becomes a world-renowned sannyasin... even though the wife was living in rotten circumstances, still she was very happy that she had a husband whose name would go down in the corridors of history.

When Ramateertha saw his wife coming, he told Sardar Pooran Singh, "Close the window and close the door, and go out on the veranda. My wife is coming. Tell her that I am not here, that I have gone into seclusion in the forest, and nobody knows when I am supposed to return. Just somehow get rid of her."

Sardar Pooran Singh was a very sincere man. He said, "This is strange, because I have seen you allowing people, both men and women, to see you. Why are you preventing your own wife, whom you have renounced? Now she is no longer any relation to you. Your preventing her means that deep down your mind still believes that she is your wife. Why are you discriminating between other women and her? And why are you so afraid?

"Certainly that poor woman cannot do anything to you. It must be something inside you of which you are afraid. I am not going to close the window or the door. And I cannot lie to the woman. You have to decide one thing: either you have to see her or I am no longer your secretary, no longer your disciple. I am going."

Ramateertha could not afford for Pooran Singh to go. He was dependent on him for everything. So he said, "Okay, if you insist, I will see her." And his wife came with tears of joy and just touched the earth, not even his feet. And Pooran Singh wrote in his diary, "Even my tears started flowing. The woman is so respectful, she does not consider him her husband anymore. He has become so divine to her that even to touch his feet will be defiling him."

Pooran Singh touched the feet of Ramateertha's wife. He said, "To me you are more religious and more understanding than Ramateertha." And Ramateertha felt so ashamed... you will not believe what he did: he immediately changed his clothes. He was wearing the orange robe of a Hindu sannyasin. He dropped that and took clothes from Sardar Pooran Singh -- ordinary clothes, not those of a sannyasin. Sardar Pooran Singh asked, "What are you doing?"

Ramateertha said, "I am so ashamed. I am not enlightened; I am not even worthy to be called a sannyasin. The recognition has come to me, although late, but still it is good that it has come to me. I have been believing that I am enlightened, that I have renounced the world. No, seeing my wife I could see all my lust, all my repressed sexuality. I am not worthy of these orange clothes." And then he went out of the bungalow, and jumped from the mountains into the Ganges -- the Ganges flows just nearby, coming down from the mountains. He committed suicide.

But such is the hypocrisy of the society that the same learned people who refused to accept him as enlightened started saying that he had "renounced his body" -- not that he committed suicide, not that he had committed a crime. Their actual word is jal samadhi: "He has dropped into the water and become one with existence."

And still there exists a Ramateertha League, and there are followers... and his books are published, and people are reading those books in order to become enlightened.

Intellect can deceive you, can deceive others.

Beware of the intellect.

Beware of the mind.

Be very careful; don't be impressed easily. Certainly don't be impressed through intellect. If suddenly a connection happens from being to being, that's another matter.

Lord Krishna Advaitic wisdom the oldest wisdom of India has been lost: people misinterpret and falsify it today as they did then.+

Bhagavad Gita 2:46:~  "A man of true knowledge who has attained enlightenment, has the same use for all the scriptures as one has a small reservoir of water in a place flooded on all sides."

The rituals mentioned in the karmakanda of the Vedas are sought to be negated in the jnanakanda which is also part of the same scripture. While the karmakanda enjoins upon you the worship of various deities and lays down rules for the same, the jnanakanda constituted by the Upanishads ridicules the worshipper of deities as a dim-witted person no better than a beast. Karmakand of the Vedas are sought to be negated in the jnanakanda which is also part of the same scripture. While the karmakanda enjoins upon you the worship of various deities and lays down rules for the same, the jnanakanda constituted by the Upanishads ridicules the worshipper of deities as a dim-witted person no better than a beast.

This seems strange, the latter part of the Vedas contradicting the former part. The first part deals throughout with karma while the second or concluding part is all about jnana. 

Owing to this difference, people have gone so far as to divide our scripture into two sections: the Vedas (that is the first part) to mean the karmakanda and the Upanishads (Vedanta) to mean the jnanakanda. Karmakanda and the Upanishads (Vedanta) to mean the jnanakanda.

Sage Sankara:~  VC 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 (verses-6)

It is clear that the liberation cannot be the result of good works, for Sruti itself declares that there is no hope for immortality by means of wealth for immortality by means of wealth.  (Verses -7)

Sage Sankara said:~ Neither by the practice of yoga nor philosophy, nor by good works, nor by learning, does liberation come, but only through the realization that Atman and Brahman are one in no other way. (1) VivekaChudamani v 56, pg 25

Lord Krishna confesses that the oldest wisdom of India (our true Advaita philosophy) has been lost: people misinterpret and falsify it today as they did then. It is not yoga,  but the philosophic truth. But nobody knows it. The teachers of philosophy and leaders of mysticism or religion do not want to inquire into the truth and have no time for it. (Gita –Chap- IV-v.2)

In Gita  Lord Krishna says: ~ "This yoga has been lost for ages" the word yoga refers to Gnana yoga, not other yogas: the force of the word this is to point this out. (Chap.IV ) 

Lord Krishna describes some of the other yogas but devotes this chapter separately to Gnana Yoga. So one sees even in those ancient days people did not care for Advaita; they wanted religion; hence Gnana got lost. That is why Krishna calls it "the supreme secret." Krishna points out that the yoga must-see is "Brahman in action."

Gita Chap.IV: "He who achieves perfection in Yoga finds the Self in time." This means that after his yoga is finished, he begins the inquiry into ultimate truth and in due course this inquiry produces the realization of the universal spirit as the result.

Lord Krishna says:~ “Those who know the Self in truth.". The last two words (tattvataha) are usually ignored by pundits, but they make all the difference between the ordinary concept of God and the truth about God. (Ch. V)

There is no need for any practice to realize the ultimate truth or Brahman or God.  Perfect understanding, assimilation of ‘what is what’ is very much necessary to realize the ultimate truth or Brahman, which is God.

Sage Sankara: ~ VC~"All this universe which through ignorance appears as of diverse forms, is nothing else but Brahman which is absolutely free from all the limitations of human thought.

Sage Sankara said:~  Talk as much philosophy as you like, worship as many Gods as you please, observe ceremonies and sing devotional hymns, but liberation will never come, even after a hundred aeons, without realizing the Oneness.

According to Advaita Vedanta, the Veda addresses itself to 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 advanced seeker who seeks to know Brahman. Thus, the Purva mimam.sa, with its emphasis on the karma kanda of the Vedas, is meant for the first audience, to help lead its followers along the way. However, the Vedanta, with its emphasis on the jnana kanda, is meant for those who wish to go beyond such transient pleasures.

Those who lack the intelligence to discriminate between formless witness (subject) and three states (object) will not be able to grasp what is real and what is unreal. Both subject and object are consciousness, not subject alone. :~Santthosh Kumaar 

Sage Goudpada was the first historic teacher known to us to give a rational exposition of Advaita.+

Mundaka Upanishads:~ So-called spiritual pundits and learned are called children because a child takes whatever it thinks as truth. The question never occurs in children “Is what I have seen or thought really the truth?" (P.334 line 9)

The scriptures are not needed in the pursuit of truth. Even the Upanishads and the sages of truth declare the same.

The ultimate truth has to be ascertained without the scriptures by realizing the Self is neither the waking entity, not the dream entity, but the Self is formless Soul which is present in the form of consciousness. 

In the realm of the truth the form, time, and space are created out of single stuff. That single stuff is consciousness. Realizing the single stuff as the ultimate truth is Self-realization or truth realization. To realize this truth,  there is no need for scriptures. 

The ultimate truth has to be realized first, then only it is possible to know what the scriptures are saying.

Scriptures are being added from time to time. This process will go on. There is the final authority among them? One contradicts the other: duality reigns supreme.

I quote Scriptural citation only after verifying reality and proved the truth, to point out that the scriptures teach the same thing. If one quotes them before having demonstrated truth, then it is scholasticism.

Self-knowledge cannot be attained by the study of the scriptures and intellectual understanding or by bookish knowledge.  Therefore, there is no use in studying the scriptures and other scriptures in order to acquire non-dual wisdom.  That is why Buddha rejected the scriptures, and even Sage Sankara indicated that the ultimate truth lies beyond religion, the concept of God, and the scriptures.

There is only one Reality to be known, the same for all seekers, but the ways to it, are hidden by the religion.  Self-discovery is the only way, towards non-dual Absolute without any religious doctrines, which will help the seekers to unfold the mystery of the illusion in which we all are searching for the truth of our true existence.

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

Sage  Goudpada was the first historic teacher known to us to give a rational exposition of Advaita. He says that whatever is seen, whether external or internal, whether by the ordinary persons or yogis is unreal.

Non-causality is of the highest importance; that is why Sage Goudpada puts it at the end of his book and devotes 100 slokas to it whereas the other subjects get less than 50 slokas.

Manduka Upanishad shows how one opinion may be used to contradict another, so that both may be thrown away. Opinions are not for philosophy; Ashtavakra says they are merely thoughts; not the truth.

Manduka Upanishad has no assumptions, whatever. It is an honest and bold inquiry into the truth. It rises above scripture.

Manduka Upanishad is not meant for all, as it is based entirely on the reasoning. Hence, only a few will be able to understand and assimilate it.

Manduka Upanishad:~ Atman is the highest Reality and its opposite: Note the word "and". Reality and illusion together make Brahman: nothing can be left out.  Page 51.

Brahman must be realized in the waking state when all objects are present to consciousness, otherwise, it is nonsense. Page 65: v.10.

"Sleep does not exist In Turiya”: This emphatically disproves the mystic use of sleep as an analogy for Brahman. Page 69.

This means that objects do not disappear, they are there, and yet they are non-dual. Disillusionment is not the same as appearance. Page 74. v. 17:

The essential message of Manduka is that the whole world, whatever is seen is only imagined.  Points out that even though it is harder for them, still women can attain Brahman just as men. Page 351points out that even though it is harder for them, still women can attain Brahman just as men. Page 351

"From their notion": Everybody has his own imagination about facts and starts from that, instead of discarding his personal idea and looking at the fact. Page 333. V. 83:

"Soundless and of infinite sounds"; means both waking and sleep world must be known, both objects and non-objects must be understood before the truth of Brahman is realized. Page 96. v. 29:

In deep sleep and anesthesia you have non-duality,  but no Gnana. Therefore,  there must be discrimination along with non-duality. Otherwise, sleeping dogs would be Gnanis. ~ (P.219)

Existence means existence in the sense of the Drik. When you reduce everything to consciousness, Drik, Gnana, or even Mind, giving up all imaginations in truth it is unborn. You see a man's body comes and goes, but that is not the same as seeing him come and go, which you can never do. P.300. V.45.

Sage Goudpada 's 3^rd chapter is devoted to proving  the existence of Atman in order to distinguish it from the changeable objects in this world, but in the final 4th chapter P.33, verse 

83, he discards that position and rejects even the idea of Atmanic existence. He then declares we may assert nothing about it. Not even existence or nonexistence i.e. silence alone is demanded by the truth.

Advaita is not philosophy but Advaita is the nondual nature of the Soul. There is no second thing that exists other than the Soul, which is present in the form of consciousness.  At that ultimate understanding - there is only self-awareness. Existence-consciousness cannot be divided. If one sees divisions they are only apparent and not real. If one takes the apparent as real, then all other factors become real.:~Santthosh Kumaar