The Atmic path is not the yogic path. Mixing yoga and religion in the Atmic discussion is mixing water and oil.
Panchadasi, P.509 v,109, shows the impossibility of yoga arriving at a successful end to its practices.
Self-realization through yoga is not philosophic. Every yogi who shuts himself in a cave is not thereby freed from thinking.
Yoga can lead only to temporary peace because the world is subject to change. Only Self- knowledge or Brahma Gnana or Atma Gnana can yield Advaitic awareness in the midst of the form, time, and space.
Bhagavan Buddha gave up yoga after practicing it for six years. He saw it could not yield truth.
Buddha gave up his austerities of yoga as impossible and useless. Thus, Buddha got enlightenment only after he gave up Yoga. (Page.70/71 "Buddhism In Translation” by Warren)
Unless one exercise his Buddhi--reason--there is no chance of getting the ultimate truth or Brahman
Buddhism has not proved the truth of Nonduality. Buddha pointed out the unreality of the world, we agree. He told people they were foolish to cling to it. But he stopped there. He came nearest to Vedanta in speech but not to Vedanta fully.
Only when we independently search the truth without religion and its doctrine then we will be able to realize the truth beyond form, time, and space.
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 Advaitic wisdom ) 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 truth and have no time for it. (Gita –Chap- IV-v.2)
In Gita Chap.IV where 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.
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 Ch. V:~ “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.
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 most 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