Every householder irrespective of any caste or religion is qualified to acquire Self-knowledge or Brahma Gnana or Atma Gnana.+

Yoga Vasistha says: ~ Self-knowledge or knowledge of truth is not had by resorting to a Guru (preceptor) nor by the study of scripture, nor by good works: it is attained only through inquiry inspired by the company of wise (Gnani). One’s inner light alone is the means, naught else. When this inner light is kept alive, it is not affected by the darkness of inertia.

Only an intense urge and sharpness to grasp seriousness and humility are the qualifications to acquire Self-knowledge, or Brahma Gnana or Atma Gnana.

Every householder, irrespective of any caste or religion, is qualified to acquire Self-knowledge or Brahma Gnana or Atma Gnana.

The caste ~ does not qualify you to acquire Self-knowledge or Brahma Gnana or Atma Gnana.

The religion ~ does not qualify you to acquire Self-knowledge or Brahma Gnana or Atma Gnana.

Yoga ~ does not qualify you to acquire Self-knowledge or Brahma Gnana or Atma Gnana.

Tantra~ does not qualify you to acquire Self-knowledge or Brahma Gnana or Atma Gnana.

Mantra~ does not qualify you to acquire Self-knowledge or Brahma Gnana or Atma Gnana.

Singing devotional songs ~ does not qualify you to acquire Self-knowledge or Brahma Gnana or Atma Gnana.

Belief and worship of mythical Gods ~ do not qualify you to acquire Self-knowledge or Brahma Gnana or Atma Gnana.

Belief in superstition or dogmas ~ does not qualify you to acquire Self-knowledge or Brahma Gnana or Atma Gnana.

Rituals ~ do not qualify you to acquire Self-knowledge or Brahma Gnana or Atma Gnana.

Customs or tradition ~ do qualify you to acquire Self-knowledge or Brahma Gnana or Atma Gnana.

Wearing the Religious robe or symbol ~ does not qualify you to acquire Self-knowledge or Brahma Gnana or Atma Gnana.

Meditations~ do not qualify you to acquire Self-knowledge or Brahma Gnana or Atma Gnana.

Hearing sermons ~ does not qualify you to acquire Self-knowledge or Brahma Gnana or Atma Gnana.

Bathing in the holy river~ does not qualify you to acquire Self-knowledge or Brahma Gnana or Atma Gnana.m

Visiting Ashrams and retreats ~ does not qualify you to acquire Self-knowledge or Brahma Gnana or Atma Gnana.

Walking up the mountain in search of truth ~ does not qualify you to acquire Self-knowledge or Brahma Gnana or Atma Gnana.

Worship of personal Gods and Goddesses ~does not qualify you to acquire Self-knowledge or Brahma Gnana or Atma Gnana.

Having a Guru ~ does qualify you to acquire Self-knowledge or Brahma Gnana or Atma Gnana.

Following any tradition or parampara ~ does qualify you to acquire Self-knowledge or Brahma Gnana or Atma Gnana.

Serving the Guru ~ does not qualify you to acquire Self-knowledge or Brahma Gnana or Atma Gnana.

Studying the scriptures and philosophy ~ does not qualify you to acquire Self-knowledge or Brahma Gnana or Atma Gnana.

Learning Sanskrit ~ does not qualify you to acquire Self-knowledge or Brahma Gnana or Atma Gnana.

Initiation of any sort~ does not qualify you to acquire Self-knowledge or Brahma Gnana or Atma Gnana.

Spending money in order to realize the truth ~ does not qualify you to acquire Self-knowledge or Brahma Gnana or Atma Gnana.

Taking vows to start the journey. ~ does not qualify you to acquire Self-knowledge or Brahma Gnana or Atma Gnana.

The grace of physical Guru ~ does not qualify you to acquire Self-knowledge or Brahma Gnana or Atma Gnana.

Drop all that is not needed for Self-realization.

Remember:~

Every human being is qualified to acquire the knowledge of Braham Gnana or Atma Gnana.

That is why 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.

If you are a truth seeker, then it is better to spend time discovering the facts about your own existence than waste precious time attending Satsang, meeting Gurus and yogis, traveling from one place to another by reading book after book, by staying in Ashrams, and by walking in the Himalayas.

Sage Sankara says ~ VC-162- There is no liberation for a person of mere book knowledge, howsoever well-read in the philosophy of Vedanta, so long as one does not give up the false identification with the body, sense organs, etc., which are unreal.

People dwelling in ignorance, but thinking themselves wise and erudite, go round and round by various blind beliefs and tortuous paths and practices, like the blind led by the blind. : ~ Santthosh Kumaar 

Acquiring Advaitic wisdom or Self-Knowledge or Brahma Gnana or Atma Gnana is the main aim of every seeker of truth. +

Acquiring Advaitic wisdom or Self-Knowledge or Brahma Gnana or Atma Gnana is the main aim of every seeker of truth.

Since everyone thinks of the waking entity (ego) as the self, their aim is misdirected, and they focus their attention on materiality, which makes one feel the duality (waking state) as reality.

In pursuit of truth, the ultimate truth has to be proved, not assumed. The individual experience of bliss is not Brahmic bliss or Atmic bliss.

Individual truth is not a universal truth. An individual cannot claim that he has experienced the whole.

There is no proof he has seen it because the whole is not an individual experience.

The man and the world are within the whole. Therefore, such claims of experiencing the invisible Soul, the Self, are hallucinations because the whole cannot be experienced because the experience of form, time, and space are merely an illusion created out of the Soul or Consciousness.

All claims of experiencing (anubava) the Self are a falsehood because experience implies duality, and duality is a falsehood from the ultimate standpoint.

Thus, 'Self 'or 'Brahman' cannot be experienced because it is prior to any experience, and there is no second thing that exists other than consciousness.

The Self has to be realized by getting rid of ignorance through Advaitic wisdom.: .:~Santthosh Kumaar

Sage Ramana Maharishi: Meditation on an object is not helpful.+

People dip into meditation, but they do not understand that that is only one-half of the truth and that this dipping is also a mental discipline for them to understand the true nature of the external universe, which understanding they must next get if they are to become a Gnani.

Ashtavakra says: - "This is your bondage, that you practice Samadhi or meditation.”

Ramana Maharishi: ~

Q: Which meditation will help me?

Sage Ramana Maharishi: Meditation on an object is not helpful. For this reason, you must learn to realize that the subject and object are one. In meditating on an object, you are destroying that sense of oneness and creating duality. Meditate only on the Self. Try to realize that the body is not you, the emotions are not you, and the intellect is not you. When all these are stilled, you will find something else is there; hold onto that and it will reveal itSelf.

Q: But when I have stilled everything, I almost fall asleep!

Sage Sri, Ramana Maharishi: That does not matter. Put yourself into the condition as deep as sleep, and then watch: be asleep consciously; then there is only the one Consciousness.

Bhagavad Gita (Chap. XII) Krishna tells Arjuna: ~ Knowledge of both matter and spirit is the True knowledge. One is living in the body, which is the world, and he has to eat and move, and work in the external environment. One cannot get away from it. It is his life.

Therefore, one ought to know, understand, and grasp its meaning. A person who refuses to do so is refusing to face the whole of reality. : ~ Santthosh Kumaar 

Sage Sankara says: - Self-knowledge, which arises from discrimination between these two—the Self and the non-Self.+

Advaitic wisdom does not come just by sitting quietly, observing silence, meditating, reading books, hearing sermons, meeting Gurus or yogis, and by doing pranayama, but Advaitic wisdom dawns only when you realize the fact that the Self is not you, but the Self is the invisible Soul. or the Spirit.

Advaitic wisdom arises when the seeker can discriminate the invisible Soul, the Self, from the illusory universe.

Mentally discriminate between the real and unreal to unfold the Self hidden by the 'I'. 

When you finally realize the Self is not you, but the Self is the invisible Soul, then you will realize the world in which you exist is merely an illusion created out of the invisible Soul, the Self. The invisible Soul, the Self, is present in the form of consciousness.

Sage Sankara: ~ VC~.63: "Without knowing and examining the universe, one can’t know the Truth, as the idea that the external world exists won't go. It can only go by an inquiry into the nature of the external world.

Sage Sankara says: ~ “What is accepted without a proper inquiry will not lead a person to the final goal. On the contrary, such acceptance will result only in evil, in something detrimental to our spiritual progress.

Sage Sankara says: - VC-47 All the effects of ignorance, root, and branch, are burnt down by the fire of knowledge, which arises from discrimination between these two—the Self and the non-Self.

Until you think you are an individual separate from the world and the world that existed prior to you, and you are born in it afterward, ignorance will prevail as a reality. Till ignorance is there, the universe prevails as reality.

Sage Sankara says: ~ “The exercise in discrimination between real and unreal and renunciation of the false is real meditation, then why indulge in other types of meditation.:~Santthosh Kumaar

Bhagavad Gita has been interpreted in a thousand ways, according to the author’s capacity to understand the test of all these is the reason.+

There are hundreds of commentaries from different authors on the Bhagavad Gita. Each one goes on spinning yarns, imagining as he likes what the meaning may be.

Bhagavad Gita has been interpreted in a thousand ways, according to the author’s capacity to understand the test of all these is the reason. Only a few understood the Bhagavad Gita.

Bhagavad Gita is a hodgepodge containing everything; hence it suits the populace because there is something in it for every type of mindset. It is difficult to find any tradition whose voice is not found in the Gita. It is difficult to find anyone who does not take solace from the Bhagavad Gita. But for such people, the Advaitic path will prove very difficult.

Once you are Soulcentric you will know what Bhagavad Gita and other scriptures really meant, you will see that there is only one possible interpretation, irrespective of your opinion or imagination.

The Bhagavad Gita does not contain higher wisdom. Bhagavad Gita is intended for those who are incapable of thinking rationally.

People love the Bhagavad Gita because it is very easy to extract one's own meaning from it. Reading the Bhagavad Gita a religious believer extracts something of which he can make a belief, because

Bhagavad Gita speaks of bhakti, devotion. The karma yogi extracts his belief because Krishna has spoken on karma yoga, the Yoga of action. The believer in knowledge finds what he wants because Bhagavad Gita has spoken on knowledge as well. Somewhere Krishna calls bhakti the ultimate, somewhere else he calls knowledge the ultimate, again elsewhere he calls karma yoga the ultimate.

Lord Krishna taught the Karma and Bhakti yogis their own paths only in order to lead them up to the Gnana yoga path, which is the highest and the real object of his teaching.

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 truth and have no time for it. (Gita ~ Chap ~IV~ v.2)

Why is the word Yoga used in so many different senses in the Gita? Because there are grades and the highest demands concentrated brains, not sitting mindless and imagining you are seeing God.

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 "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.

Understanding what is God is not so easy. Religious people can only imagine God based on their beliefs.

That is why Lord Krishna Says Ch ~V: ~ “Those who know me 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.

No dualities, no differentiation. Only Atman exists.

The Bhagavad Gita: ~ Brahman (God) is considered the all-pervading consciousness which is the basis of all the animate and inanimate entities and material. (brahmano hi pratisthaham, ( 14.27)

It proves that the all-pervading Atman, which is present in the form of consciousness, is God. Thus worshipping the form-based Gods is meant for the ignorant populace who are incapable of realizing the truth, which is beyond the form, time, and space.

Lord Krishna says Ch ~V: ~ “Those who know me in truth.".

Bhagavad Gita: 4: 22: ~ ".....who has gone beyond the conflicting dualities like good (happiness) and bad (sorrow)....."

Bhagavad Gita: 4: 42:~ ".....cut all such conflicting dualities (doubts) by the sword (weapon) of knowledge. ....."

Bhagavad Gita: 5: 18:~ “The learned men (who have come out of delusions (Māyā), got rid of Avidya) see no differentiation have equal vision for a revered Brahmin, a cow, an elephant, a dog and a cāndāla (outcaste, rogue, mleccha, demonic person, etc)"

Bhagavad Gita: 5: 19:~ "Those who have achieved the true knowledge i.e. the 'Self-Knowledge' or the 'knowledge of Atman' and see no difference, are free from conflicting dualities have merged in Brahman"

Bhagavad Gita: 5: 20:~ "One who does not get excited out of happiness on getting good and does not get depressed on getting bad is situated in Brahman i.e. is merged in Brahman"

Bhagavad Gita: 6: 9:~ "The one who has equal vision for a Selfless do-gooder, a friend, a foe, an unbiased, a well-wisher, a depressed and jealous man, relatives, a righteous and a sinner is the best (as he sees no duality and differentiation but sees everything as Ātman)"

Bhagavad Gita: 6: 32:~ “.....as one seeks and treats oneself with equal vision, the same way one who has equal vision for good and evil, for everybody is the best of all"

Bhagavad Gita: 6: 8: ~ "For whom soil, a pebble, and gold are alike, he is merged in Brahman"

Bhagavad-Gita Gita: 7: 27:~ ".....people are getting entangled in the primordial ignorance (Avidya) of the conflicting dualities like good and evil, happiness and sorrow caused due to attachments, desires, and hatred....."

Bhagavad Gita: 6: 28:~ “.....who have cut-off conflicting dualities (like good and evil) is determined in my service. ...."

Bhagavad Gita: 7: 19:~ "Such a man who has attained true knowledge, the knowledge of Self, the knowledge of Atman, in the last birth in the series of many births worships Me as~ Atman alone exists~ everything is Atman, there exists nothing except Atman. Such a man is extremely rare"

The earliest part of Bhagavad Gita deals with the religion because it is for mentally immature persons, but in the latter part, you get philosophy as that is intended for the intellectually evolved. You can’t make all men into genius, and therefore religion is provided for them.

Lord Sri Krishna himself says that he can do nothing to make a man intelligent straight away. The adepts give Prasad, blessing, initiations, mantrams, etc. only to confer temporary peace of mind, to help one to get rid of worries, but not to confer Gnana. The capacity to receive it must first be inborn in man by evolutionary degree.

In the statement in the Bhagavad Gita which says that the path of the Unmanifest is harder than others, this path means Gnana Yoga.

The Upanishads and Gita do not give detailed explanations because the knowledge of those days was not as advanced as it as nowadays. However, there are odd words here and there which give hints.

Bhagavad Gita gives dualistic worship of "God” only for the lower minds; it also indicates the Advaitic wisdom for the more evolved.

Likewise, thinkers and poets of the Age of Devotion (Bhakti) of the 16th century believed in a God with attributes who became very tangible when incarnating as Avatar and was attainable simply through love and devotion rather than scholastic and intellectual meditation.

For the religious people, the Bhagavad Gita became the main vehicle of inspiration with its qualified and deistic Monism, rather than the scholastic and the esoteric path shown by Sage Sri, Sankara Advaitic path. : ~ Santthosh Kumaar

Guru is not needed in the path of wisdom.+

The Guru is needed on the path of religion and yoga. Guru is not needed in the path of wisdom. The Gurudom is nothing to with the ultimate truth or Brahman.

The one who thinks of himself as a Guru and the one who thinks of himself as a chela (disciple) will not be able to get Self-Knowledge or Brahma Gnana or Atma Gnana because both of them accept themselves as the body. And all their understanding, practices, knowledge based on the false Self. Therefore, the Guru –Shisya concept is a great obstacle in the pursuit of truth.  

A Gnani never accepts himself as a Guru or accepts anyone as his disciple because he is fully aware of the ultimate truth.   

There was no division of illusory form, time, and space in his consciousness, even though he was in the midst of the division or the duality.

The one who claims himself as a Gnani is not a Gnani. A Gnani never claims himself as Gnani, he guides the seekers, not posing himself as a Guru, and he does not force his wisdom on others.

Remember:~

Manduka Upanishads: ~It is very difficult to find out who is a Gnani, because he bears no external mark. Neither nudity nor the religious robe has anything to do with him.

Sage Sankara clearly indicates in Viveka Chudamani (2) that the Knower of the Atman (A Gnani) "bears no outward mark of a holy man" (Stanza 539).

Sage Sankara page 482: On Gnani: ~ "The knower of Brahman wears no signs. Gives up the insignia of a monk's life…his signs are not manifest, nor his behavior."

Sage Sankara: ~ The Knower of the Atman or the knower of Brahman or Brahma Gnani.

When the knower of Brahman (Gnani) wears no signs it means he does not identify himself as Guru or yogi or teacher or Swami, because a Gnani sees the form, the time and space are one in essence. Thus, there is unity in diversity in his realization.

Swami Vivekananda said: - “You have to grow from the inside out. None can teach you, none can make you spiritual. There is no other teacher, but your own Soul.”: ~ Santthosh Kumaar 

Patanjali has not reached Gnana and therefore does not know the highest truth.=

All philosophical, yogic, and cosmological teachings, but at the end, it finally says, "All is imaginative and based on the false self (ego or waking entity) within the false experience (waking)."

Sage Sankara says: - Yoga is not the means of liberation. (P -132-133 of his commentary on Brihadaranyakopanishad)

One need not doubt that mystics saw God or Goddesses in their vision. That they saw visions may he an undeniable fact. But the question is, “Was what they saw the Truth? They no doubt had such a vision, but they never stopped to inquire if their visions were true.

One has to take all the facts and then find out which is the truth through deeper self-search.

The seeker of truth has to collect as much evidence as possible, even contradictory, and then proceed to examine all of it and analyze how far it is true.

What happens when thoughts are stilled? It is not the Self that is found. Rubbish. It is only the mind.

Patanjali has not reached Gnana and therefore does not know the highest truth. His yoga is good to give peace and concentration, but only to start reasoning, i.e., thinking again to find the truth.

Thoughts arise to the person within the waking or dream state. The thinker is the form. Without the form, the thinking is an impossibility.

Thus, thinkers and thoughts are part of the known. The witness of the knower and the known, including the world, is the invisible Soul.: ~ Santthosh Kumaar