Manduka Upanishads:~ A Gnani bears no external mark. Neither nudity nor the religious robe has anything to do with him.+

Many people are struck with awe or reverence at the outer indications of renunciation, and thus blindly accept a religious Guru or Godman to be a Gnani. 

The two have no connection. Because he has no wife, no family, and no possessions, they think a man who has merely repressed these desires as though these things had anything to do with the wisdom he is merely religious. 

Manduka Upanishads:~ A Gnani bears no external mark. Neither nudity nor the religious robe has anything to do with him.

A Gnani cannot have the idea of giving up, renouncing the world or some object or person in the world, because that would connote the idea of duality. Knowing no second thing at all, there remains nothing to be given up.

A Gnani, on attaining realization, will not give up his vocation in life but will continue it as before. If he were a billniore, he continues so; if a peasant, he will remain one. He still does his duty, but he is fully aware of the fact that his practical life within the practical world is merely an illusion.

People are quite incompetent to judge who is a Gnani between Godmen, intellectuals, and yogis. A Gnani is neither a Godman, nor a yogi, nor an intellectual.

The man who speaks about the religious God, scriptures, and religion is not a Gnani. A yogi who speaks about yoga is not a Gnani. A God-man who indulges in miracles is not a Gnani. An intellectual who argues on his own speculative theories is not a Gnani. 

A Gnani is the one who shares knowledge and guides people towards the source of the mind (physical existence). It is real Gnani. A Gnani never claims himself a teacher nor does he accept anyone as a disciple.

A Guru who speaks of knowing Brahman within the body is thinking only of his head or heart, i.e., of his body. He is hallucinating.

You will not be able to find the truth because you are blindfolded by dualistic illusion. 

If you have to traverse the path, you will have to seek the aid of the one who knows the truth beyond form, time, and space; else you will wind up meandering here and there without gaining anything.

The  Self is not within you because the Self is not the body. If the Self is not you, then why do you think the Self is within you? 

Deeper self-search reveals the fact that you and the world are within the invisible Soul, the Self. Perfect understanding and assimilation lead to Advaitic Self-awareness.

What is the nature of a Gnani?

Among thousands of people, scarcely one strives for perfection; and of those who strive and succeed, scarcely one knows the Self in truth. The one who knows the truth beyond form, time, and space is A Gnani.

 A Gnani is one who is endowed with the power of seeing the world in which he exists from a non-dualistic perspective.

Gnani shares Self-knowledge of Brahm Gnana or Atma Gnana with the seekers and helps them to reach the ultimate end of understanding.

A Gnani is unattached to the dualistic illusion, though externally living in the illusory world, but internally he is not of this world.

A Gnani has renounced all kinds of worship of religious God, rituals, yoga, and scriptural studies.

A Gnani’s sole aim is to impart the Self-knowledge of Brahm Gnana or Atma Gnana.

A seeker who has to learn to view the three states from the non-dualistic perspective will be able to cross the ocean of the dualistic illusion.

The seeker must first know the definition of the Self by realizing the  Self is not ‘I’, but the  Self is ‘I-LESS-Soul will be able to cross the ocean of transmigratory existence of the form, time, and space.

Nothing is needed for acquiring Self-knowledge of Brahma Gnana or Atma Gnana other than perfect understanding, assimilation, and realization of ‘what is what”.  : ~Santthosh Kumaar