In ignorance, the Soul, the Self forgetful of its nondual true nature.+

It is not you who is in ignorance it is the Soul, which is in ignorance of its own formless, timeless and spaceless true nature.  

It is not you who have to wake up to the reality but it is the Soul that has to wake up from its sleep of ignorance.  

In ignorance, the Soul, the Self forgetful of its non-dual true nature.

In Self-awareness, the Soul wakes up from its sleep of ignorance and remains in its own awareness.

In Self-awareness, the form, time, and space become one with the Soul, which is present in the form of consciousness.

In Self-awareness, the three states become one with the Soul, which is present in the form of consciousness.

In Self-awareness, the mind (universe) merges with consciousness.

In Self-awareness, there is conscious awareness of unity in diversity in the midst of diversity.

Self-awareness is the fullness of consciousness without the illusory division of form, time, and space.

Self-awareness is the conscious Advaitic awareness in the midst of the dualistic illusion. : ~ Santthosh Kumaar 

It is impossible to watch your mind without knowing what the mind is in actuality.+

Some gurus say watch your mind.

It is impossible to watch your mind without knowing what the mind is in actuality.  How the mind is separate from the watcher. The watcher and watching and the world cease to exist without the mind.

If you stand motionless you will not discover ‘Self’ as the watcher.  First, realize ‘what is this mind in actuality.

Remember the ‘I’ is the whole universe. The universe ceases to exist without the ‘I’.

If you are caught in the grip of the ‘I’ then you will remain permanently in the grip of ignorance.

If you hold the Self as ‘I’ you will never be able to cross the dualistic illusion.    If you follow the ‘I’ based teaching it is like the blind leading the blind

If you inquire “Who am ‘I’?  the ‘I’ will not disappear. You must know the nature of the ‘I’, which appears and disappears.

The Soul is the witness of the ‘I’ which is permeant and eternal. The Soul is the subject and the ‘I’ is an object.

The ‘I’ hides the Soul. Therefore, the seeker has to realize ‘what is this ‘I’ supposed to be in actuality.

Remember:~

First, know what this mind is supposed to be in actuality. The duality is not the creation of the mind because the mind itself is a dualistic illusion.

The mind is not within the body because the world in which you exist itself is the mind. Without the mind, the world in which you exist ceases to exist.

A perfect understanding of what is what leads to unfolds the mystery of the mind.

The ‘I’ is present in the form of the mind. The mind is present in the form of the universe. The universe is present in the form of form, time, and space. Without form, time, and space, there is no duality. The duality is not a reality from the standpoint of the Soul, the innermost Self.

The mind is present in the form of form, time, and space. Thus, whatever belongs to form, time and space are falsehoods. Thus, the universe in which we exist as a reality is a falsehood. Thus, there is a need to know ‘what is what’ in order to realize the truth beyond the form, time, and space.

The ‘I’ disappears as deep sleep, so what is the use of being attached to it? It is impermanent and illusory because ‘I’ is physical awareness. Physical awareness is not Self-awareness. ‘I-less awareness is Self-awareness.

There is really no ‘I’. The ‘I’ is present in the form of the mind.

The mind is in the form of the universe. And universe appears as the waking or dream. The ‘I’ or mind or the universe or waking or dream dies disappears as deep sleep.

Thus, one that appears as ‘I’ or mind or the universe or waking or dream is consciousness, and it disappears as deep sleep is also consciousness. In deep sleep, it is in its formless nondual true nature. The one, which witnesses the coming and going of the three states, is also consciousness. Thus, the witness and witnessed are one in essence.

Thus, the universe is a reality on the base of individuality and the universe is unreal on the base of the Soul (consciousness), which is the Self.

The seeker gradually will grasp and realize the unreal nature of the universe or mind. Individuality is illusory because the Self is not an individual because the Self is formless, and it pervades everything and everywhere in all the three states. : ~ Santthosh Kumaar

The Vedas do not talk about idol worship. In fact, till about 2000 years ago followers of Vedism never worshiped idols.+

The Vedas do not talk about idol worship. In fact, till about 2000 years ago followers of Vedism never worshipped idols.

Idol worship was started by the followers of Buddhism and Jains. There is logic to idol worship. Vedas speak of one God that is the supreme Self i.e. Atman or Soul but Hinduism indulges in worshiping 60 million Gods.

It indicates clearly all the Gods with form and attributes are mere imaginations based on the false self.

Prohibition of idol worship in Yajurveda: ~

Yajur Veda – chapter- 32:~ God is Supreme Spirit has no ‘Pratima’ (idol) or material shape. He cannot be seen directly by anyone. He pervades all beings and all directions.

Yajurveda: ~ There is no image of God in truth. God in truth is unborn and eternal. (Chapter 32, Verse 3)

Yajurveda: ~ God in truth is nondual and pure" (Chapter 40)

Yajurveda: ~ "They are entering darkness, those who worship the natural things (like air, water, fire, etc.), they are sinking more in darkness who worship created things." (Chapter 40, Verse 9)

Thus, Idolatry does not find any support from the Vedas.

Remember:~

Rig Veda: ~ 'Prajnanam Brahma'- Consciousness is the ultimate reality or Brahman or God in truth.

Rig Veda: ~ The Atman is the cause; Atman is the support of all that exists in this universe. May ye never turn away from the Atman, the Self. May ye never accept another God in place of the Atman nor worship other than the Atman?" (10:48, 5)

Rig-Veda 1-164-46 and Y.V 32-1 clearly mention that God is “One”.

Rig Veda declares God is ‘ONE’ and God is Atman, then why believe and worship in place of real God.

Rig Veda: ~"Say this, all one God in many names" (Rigveda, book 1, Hymn 164, Verse 46)

Rig Veda: ~ Do not worship anyone besides God in truth alone, praise God in truth alone" (Book 8, Hymn 1, Verse 1)

Rig Veda: ~ Praise God in truth would matchless and alone" (Book 6, Hymn 45, Verse 16)

Do not accept any other God other than the Soul. The Soul is God in truth, Nothing is real but the Soul, which is present in the form of consciousness. Nothing matters but realizing God in truth. God in truth is everywhere and in everything. Let these words be inscribed in your subconscious.

God in truth is hidden by the illusory universe. God in truth alone is real and eternal and all else is an illusion.:

Brahman is merely a word to indicate the ultimate truth of God in truth. The ultimate truth itself is God in truth.

Those whose intelligence has been stolen by ignorance worship demigods.

Remember:~

The Vedas as a body of scripture contains many contradictions and they are fragmentary in nature. For Hindus, scriptures like the Bhagavad-Gita, Ramayana, Mahabharata, and Puranas are more attractive and appealing than the Vedas. And also the Gods and Goddesses they worship differ considerably from the Vedic ones.

The collection of hymns called Vedas is written in praise of certain deities by poets over several centuries and does not seem to have much significance for the Hindus.

Yajur Veda says:~

Translation 1

They enter darkness, those who worship natural things (for example air, water, sun, moon, animals, fire, stone, etc).

They sink deeper in darkness than those who worship sambhuti. (Sambhuti means created things, for example, table, chair, idol, etc.) (Yajurveda 40:9)

Translation 2

"Deep into the shade of blinding gloom fall asambhuti's worshippers. They sink to darkness deeper yet who on sambhuti are intent." (Yajurveda Samhita by Ralph T. H. Giffith pg 538)

Translation 3.

"They are enveloped in darkness, in other words, are steeped in ignorance and sunk in the greatest depths of misery who worship the uncreated, eternal prakrti -- the material cause of the world -- in place of the All-pervading God, But those who worship visible things born of the prakrti, such as the earth, trees, bodies (human and the like) in place of God are enveloped in still greater darkness, in other words, they are extremely foolish, fall into an awful hell of pain and sorrow, and suffer terribly for a long time." (Yajur Veda 40:9.)

So, Yajur Veda indicates that:~

They sink deeper in darkness than those who worship sambhuti. (Sambhuti means created things, for example, table, chair, idol, etc (Yajurved 40:9)

Those who worship visible things born of the prakrti, such as the earth, trees, and bodies (human and the like) in place of God are enveloped in still greater darkness, in other words, they are extremely foolish, fall into an awful hell of pain and sorrow, and suffer terribly for a long time." (Yajur Veda 40:9.)

The Vedic God is Athma, which is without the form and attributes and ever free.

Vedic Gods, hardly have any significance in the present-day Hindu belief system. The Gods and Goddesses important to the Hindus of today are Ram, Krishna, Kali, Ganesh, Hanuman, Brahma, Vishnu, Shiva, and the respective consorts of the last three, namely, Saraswathi, Lakshmi, and Shakti. None of these deities figured prominently in the Vedic pantheon and some of them are clearly non-Vedic. : ~ Santthosh Kumaar

Maharishi Dayananda Saraswati on Astrology.

Maharshi Dayananda Saraswati's creation, the Arya Samaj, condemned practices of several different religions and communities, including such practices as idol worship, animal sacrifice, pilgrimages, priestcraft, and offerings made in temples, the castes, child marriages, and discrimination against women. He argued that all of these practices ran contrary to good sense and the wisdom of the Vedas.

Views on superstitions:~

He severely criticized practices that he considered to be superstitions, including sorcery, and astrology, which were prevalent in India at the time. Below are several quotes from his book, Sathyarth Prakash:

"They should also counsel then against all things that lead to superstition, and are opposed to true religion and science, so that they may never give credence to such imaginary things as ghosts (Bhuts) and spirits (Preta)." — Satyarth Prakash

"All alchemists, magicians, sorcerers, wizards, spiritists, etc. are cheats and all their practices should be looked upon as nothing but downright fraud. Young people should be well counseled against all these frauds, in their very childhood, so that they may not suffer through being duped by an unprincipled person." — Satyarth Prakash

On Astrology, he wrote,

when these ignorant people go to an astrologer and say " O Sir! What is wrong with this person? He replies "The sun and other stars are maleficent to him. If you were to perform a propitiatory ceremony or have magic formulas chanted, or prayers said, or specific acts of charity done, he will recover. Otherwise, I should not be surprised, even if he were to lose his life after a long period of suffering."

Inquirer – Well, Mr. Astrologer, you know, the sun and other stars are but inanimate things like this earth of ours. They can do nothing but give light, heat, etc. Do you take them for conscious being possessed of human passions, of pleasure and anger, that when offended, bring on pain and misery, and when propitiated, bestow happiness on human beings?

Astrologer – Is it not through the influence of stars, then, that some people are rich and others poor, some are rulers, whilst others are their subjects?

Inq. – No, it is all the result of their deeds….good or bad.

Ast. – Is the Science of stars untrue then?

Inq. – No, that part of it which comprises Arithmetic, Algebra, Geometry, etc., and which goes by the name of Astronomy is true; but the other part that treats of the influence of stars on human beings and their actions and goes by the name of Astrology is all false. — Chapter 2.2 Satyarth Prakash

He makes a clear distinction between Jyotisha Shaastra and astrology, calling astrology a fraud.

"Thereafter, they should thoroughly study the Jyotisha Shaastra – which includes Arithmetic, Algebra, Geometry, Geography, Geology, and Astronomy in two years. They should also have practical training in these Sciences, learn the proper handling of instruments, master their mechanism, and know how to use them. But they should regard Astrology – which treats of the influence of stars and constellation on the destinies of man, of auspiciousness and inauspiciousness of time, of horoscopes, etc. – as a fraud, and never learn or teach any books on this subject. — Under "The scheme of studies" Page 73 of the English Version of Satyarth Prakash

The ‘I’ is not the cause of the appearance and disappearance because the ‘I’ itself is the appearance.+

The ‘I’ appears on its own it perishes on its own. The ‘I’ is not the cause of the appearance and disappearance because the ‘I’ itself is the appearance.

The ‘Self’ is not ‘I’, but the ‘Self’ is the Soul, which is present in the form of consciousness.

The one which witnesses the appearance and disappearance is not ‘I’ because the ‘I’ appears and disappears.

The one which is aware of the appearance and disappearance of ‘I’ is the Soul, which is present in the form of consciousness.

Realize, ‘what is this ‘I’ supposed to be in actuality and what is hidden by the ‘I’ will be revealed.

If you realize the ‘Self ‘is not the ‘I’ but the Soul then whatever is hidden by the ‘I’ will be revealed.

Realizing the Soul is not the ‘I’ but the Soul is the Self, is Self–realization.

That is why Bhagavad Gita: ~ The permanent is always there, only the transient ‘I’ comes and goes. (2.18)

The ‘I’ hides the Soul, the Self.

People think the ‘I’ without the body is the Self. The seeker has to understand the fact that ‘I’ is not the Self, but the witness of the ‘I’ is the true Self, which is eternal.

That is why Ashtavakra Gita 16:10:~ If you desire liberation, but you still say "I," If you feel the ‘Self’ is the ‘I’, You are not a wise man or a seeker. You are simply a man who suffers.

People are stuck with the reality of the ‘I’, which they take 'I' as real because some Gurus have propagated the Self is the ‘I’. There is no need to convince such a mindset. The seeker of truth accepts only the truth nothing but the truth.

Perfect understanding and assimilation of ‘what is what’ lead to Advaitic Self-awareness. : ~ Santthosh Kumaar 

All the accumulated knowledge accumulated from different sources becomes an obstacle in the Atmic path.+

The Advatic wisdom will dawn only when you start reasoning yourself on the base of the Soul, the Self.

The inner dialogue will start and the subconscious will start judging ‘what is truth’ and ‘what is the untruth and it starts discarding the untruth.

Till you hold your accumulated knowledge as a yardstick and try to interpret it in your own way, it is difficult to tread the Atmic path. All the accumulated knowledge accumulated from different sources becomes an obstacle in the Atmic path.

A Gnani can point at the sky, but the seeing of the stars is the seeker's own work.

Thus, it is necessary to read again and again till the subconscious starts accepting and judging the truth from the non-dualistic perspective.

The seeker must do his homework by deeper thinking and reflect on the subject umpteen times, then only he will be able to get a firm conviction. The external spoon feeding are mere signposts are to direct him towards reality, which is within the form, time, and space, but it is beyond the form, time, and space.

When the seeker independently starts thinking and reasoning then the truth will start unfolding. The inner satisfaction comes only when one gets a firm conviction of the truth, which is beyond form, time, and space.

Upanishads All this is full / from fullness, fullness comes when fullness is taken from fullness/ fullness still remains.

Remember:~

From the dualistic perspective, people see the world in which they exist as a reality. They see their body as the body, their ego as the ego, and the world in which they exist as the world whereas a Gnani sees everything from the non-dualistic perspective.

A Gnani sees his body as the consciousness, his ego as consciousness, the world in which he exists as the consciousness.

For a Gnani, whatever is seen, known, believed, and experienced is nothing but consciousness. There is unity in diversity in Gnani's understanding whereas the ignorant people see only diversity and separation.

Thus it is necessary to learn to view and judge the worldview from the non-dualistic perspective in order to realize that form, time and space are one in essence. There is nothing to realize other than realizing that consciousness is everything. The consciousness is second to none.

When everything is nothing but consciousness then what remains is not consciousness. : ~ Santthosh Kumaar

The Soul becomes the universe in waking (Duality) and the universe becomes the Soul in deep sleep (Nonduality).+

The Soul becomes the universe in waking (Duality) and the universe becomes the Soul in deep sleep (Nonduality).

Chandogya Upanishads: ~ “This universe comes forth from Brahman and will return to Brahman. Verily, all is Brahman. A person is what his deep desire is. It is our deepest desire in this life that shapes the life to come. So let us direct our deepest desires to realize the Self.

Ashtavakra Gita: ~ “The universe rises from the Soul, the innermost Self like bubbles from the sea. Thus know the ‘Self’ to be One and in this way enter into the state of dissolution."

Sage Sankara said: ~A.A~ 88 - When the whole universe, movable and immovable, is known to be Atman (consciousness), and thus the existence of everything else is negated, where is then any room to say that the body is Atman?

The ‘Self’ is not the mind. The mind is present in the form of not the world in which we exist. The world appears as the waking or dream (duality) and disappears as deep sleep (nonduality). The ‘Self’ is the Soul.

The Soul is present in the form of consciousness. Consciousness pervades everything and everywhere in all three states. Thus, diversity is created out of single stuff. That stuff is consciousness.

Consciousness is the ultimate truth or Brahman because there is no second thing that exists other than consciousness. From the standpoint of the Soul, the form, time, and space are one, in essence.

In spirituality, God means the ultimate truth or Brahman. Self–realization is truth-realization. Truth- realization is God-realization.

Sage Sankara: ~VC~ if the universe be true, let it then be perceived in the state of deep sleep also. As it is not at all perceived, it must be unreal and false like dreams.

That is why Sankara's declaration: ~ “Brahman is the truth The World is Unreal everything is Truly Brahman and nothing else has any value.

In ignorance there is duality. In wisdom, there is the only nonduality. The Soul the ‘Self’ is one without the second.

The Soul is present in the form of consciousness (spirit). It is the same consciousness (Soul) manifests as the whole universe. Consciousness itself is the ultimate truth or Brahman. Consciousness is the ultimate cause of the universe and it itself is uncaused. The seeker of truth must convince himself of this truth by Soulcentric reasoning. : ~ Santthosh Kumaar