Upanishads: - They alone in this world are endowed with the highest wisdom who are firm in their conviction of the sameness and birthlessness of Atman The ordinary man does not understand their way.+

Even 1% of people will not show interest in the Atmic path. And the Atmic path is for those who have found the path of religion, the path of yoga, and all theoretical philosophy and scriptural studies inadequate and useless in quenching their inner thirst.

People, immersed in ignorance in various ways, flatter themselves, saying: We have accomplished life's mission. Because these performers of karma do not know the Advaitic Truth owing to their attachment, they will never be able to cross the ocean of the dualistic illusion, the cycle of birth, life death is happening within the world. The world is a dualistic illusion or Maya.

All the orthodox Advaitins indulge and immerse themselves in ritualistic-oriented lifestyles and preach theoretical philosophies, which are obstacles to realizing the Advaitic truth.

Many chose these orthodox scholars as their Gurus. But these Gurus are good to learn the conceptual Advaita meant for those orthodox who believe their conduct-oriented lifestyle leads to liberation. But those who are seeking truth have to do their own homework in order to acquire Self–knowledge or Brahma Gnana or Atma Gnana.

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

Thus, orthodox-based Advaita is not meant for those seeking the ultimate truth or Brahman, but orthodoxy is meant for people of lower and middling intellect.

Those who are seeking Advaitic truth have to drop orthodoxy to realize the ultimate truth or Brahman.

Advaitic orthodoxy blocks the realization of the ultimate truth or Brahman.

Thus, if one wants to attain Advaitic wisdom, one has to drop the path of Advaitic orthodoxy, which is meant for the traditionalists who take the practical life within the practical world as a reality.

People are searching for remedies for their problems of practical life within the practical world. The path of love is very valuable in the practical world.

A Gnani follows the path of love in the practical world, and he loves the whole of humanity, but inwardly he is fully aware that the practical life within the practical world is part of the dualistic illusion.

Upanishads: - They alone in this world are endowed with the highest wisdom who are firm in their conviction of the sameness and birthlessness of Atman. The ordinary man does not understand their way. (Chapter IV — Alatasanti Prakarana 95-P-188 in Upanishads by Nikilanada)

Self-knowledge or Brahma Gnana or Atma Gnana is meant only for those who have an intense urge and the courage to accept the truth with humility and reject the untruth. Since people start comparing with their scriptural knowledge, it becomes impossible to assimilate and realize the non-dual truth. Therefore, there is no need to convince anyone other than our own selves to get the firm conviction.

Seeing God implies duality. The mind or universe or waking, which appears and disappears, is not permanent.

There is no use in placing faith in the belief of an individualized god, which is part of the falsehood, and it is impermanent. It is better to abide in formless consciousness, which is the Self and eternal, by realizing that the experience of diversity is created out of a single stuff, which is consciousness.

Consciousness is the ultimate truth, and the only ultimate truth or Brahman is God in truth.

Self-awareness is what one should seek, not visions of an individualized God. It is only when the Mind is merged in its source, the invisible Soul or consciousness, that true knowledge of one's identity with the ultimate truth or Brahman will dawn.

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.

In the Brahma Sutras, Sage Sankara says: Brahman is the cause of the world, whereas in Manduka, he denies it.

This may be because, at the lower stage of understanding, the former teaching must be given, for people will get frightened as they cannot understand how the world can be without a cause, but to those in a higher stage, the truth of non-causality can be revealed.

As one goes deeper investigation, he finds:-

Sage Sankara founded his Advaita Vedanta either on reason independent of Sruti or on Sruti confirmed by reason."

Sage Sankara's commentary on the Manduka Upanishad, II, 1: This [the unreality of duality] is borne out by the Srutis ... But it is possible also to show the unreality of the object world even from pure reasoning, and this second chapter is undertaken for that purpose.

Sage Sankara himself had often said that his philosophy was based on Sruti, or revealed scripture. This may be because Sage Sankara addressed the ordinary man, who finds security in the idea of causality and thus in the idea of God, and Revelation is indispensable to prove the latter. He believed that those of superior intelligence have no need of this idea of divine causality and can, therefore, dispense with Sruti and arrive at the truth of Non-Dualism by pure reason.

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

The ultimate truth can never change. The nature of the truth is, it can never be changed under any circumstances. It may be misrepresented. It must apply to the whole of existence, to the whole of the universe. It is in the object [three states] alone that one has all changes, as deeper analysis points out.

The subject [formless witness] remains unchanged. The subject [formless witness], as such, remains immortal. It can never die for it never changes. The body and world are objects and go, but the subject or knower of the body and the universe can never go.

The seeker has to take this principle as his guiding thread, and the non-dual truth becomes easy to grasp. The formless witness can never be subject to the changes of the object; it is unchanged.

The mistake usually made is that the subject becomes an object, or that the object is the subject.

If one wants to have an absence of contradictions, an absence of duality, there must be one entity, one being. If one has experience which is an object [mind], there is a contradiction between subject and object, for the mind is an object.

The duality is a reality from the standpoint of the false self [ego]. The duality is merely an illusion from the base of the invisible Soul, the Self, which is present in the form of consciousness.

This understanding comes only to the serious seeker, who has a real urge to know the ultimate truth, which is beyond all the teachings and teachers. There is neither teaching, nor a teacher, nor a student in the realm of truth.

Different paths will not converge to the same Ultimate Reality because they are based on the false self. They are not different stages in the same path.

People fight about the differences and greatness of their chosen paths, but only through wisdom can one realize the ultimate reality.: : ~ Santthosh Kumaar