Self-knowledge or Brahma Gnana or Atma Gnana will releases one from bondage of experiencing the illusory duality as reality.

If one is seeking truth, then it is necessary for him to move beyond narrowly orthodox and traditional  attitudes of superiority.

Every religion   possesses its own set of virtues and vices.  From the ultimate standpoint, the worldly life means little: an illusion within an illusion! And also the suffering humanity which is part of the illusion does not expect our help, nor does the Gnani sees any service to render to a world which does not exist as reality for him.

One can mentally reduce everything to an entirely homogenous, sole Reality-- Consciousness.  The body, ego, the experience of the world, are nothing but mind, which is mirage. Mind in turn, reducible to pure Consciousness, the only Reality.

 The "direct road" of non-dual wisdom or Self-knowledge or Brahma Gnana or Atma Gnana , leads to the realization of this ultimate truth.  The "cosmological path,” that of religion and yoga, also leads to hallucinated reality. And they are more indirect and lengthy road, because they consider the world, the soul, and a personal God as real.

Seeker must be desirous to knowing the ultimate truth.   The ultimate truth frees the self from experiencing the illusion as reality. It is most difficult to grasp it in the beginning but if the seeker is sincere and serious to take inner journey to know the truth, it will start starts revealing on its own.

  

Pursuit of truth is only for those who want to realize ultimate truth.  What one do not like may contain truth?  Thus deeper investigation is necessary to unfold the mystery of one’s existence. 

The wave and the ocean cease to exist without the water. Until we are ignorant of the water we identify it as ocean and its waves. Same way all three states cease to exist without the consciousness. Until we are ignorant of the consciousness we will experience the three states as reality.  Thus, by getting rid of ignorance with sword of Self-knowledge one becomes aware of the fact that, the consciousness alone is real and all the three states are mere mirage created out of consciousness.  All the diversity is part of the mirage. The unity in diversity is possible only when we get rid of the ignorance.

The consciousness is neither the body, nor the ego nor the universe. In order to attain liberation from experiencing the individual experience along with the universe as reality one has to know the self is not the form but formless consciousness. Consciousness   is the formless substance and witness of the waking or dream in which man experiences birth, life, death and perceives the world as reality.

Thus the formless  soul, the innermost  self is the witness of the three states, which is in the form of consciousness. The mind is in the form of universe, which comes and goes as waking or dream. 

 The thought of the witness comes only when one inquires in to the witnessed (universe or waking).   The consciousness is the one witness of the whole and is really ever free. Because one sees one self as not as a formless seer but see the self as form is the cause of the bondage and bondage is the cause of experiencing the pain and pleasure as reality.   

Self is only one. The word witness is got at by eliminating the witnessed. One has to burn down the ignorance through Self-knowledge or Brahma Gnana or Atma Gnana  by realizing the self is not an individual but the self is consciousness that pervades in all the three states. 

If anyone could imagine a consciousness which does not objectify anything but remains in its own native purity, a happiness beyond which it is impossible to go, and a self which is unvaryingly one and the same, he would have the correct idea of the true self.

Every living being is a prisoner within the realm of this illusory duality. Self-knowledge or Brahma Gnana or Atma Gnana  will releases one from bondage of experiencing the illusory duality as reality.  This can be accomplished if the seeker who aspiring to know the truth of his true existence.  Only by realizing the fact that his individual experiences of birth, life and death within the world are mere mirage created out of consciousness, which he has been unaware.

 When he becomes aware of the fact that, the self is not the form but the self is formless consciousness then he wakes up in reality to realize his body and his experience of the world are mere mirage created out consciousness, which is his true identity.  Dream becomes unreal when waking takes place, so also the waking becomes unreal when one wakes up with his formless true identity.

Until there is Ignorance the world(waking) will prevail as reality. Until the world(waking) is considered as real the experience of birth, life and death will prevail as reality.  Ignorance is the cause of experiencing the duality(waking) as reality.

 Ignorance keeps one in the grip of the individuality.  Ignorance makes one think he is an individual separate from the world and world existed prior to him and he is born is in afterwards. Until this conviction is there it is very difficult to overcome the duality. Without overcoming the duality it is impossible to know and realize the ultimate reality or Brahman.

There is illusion because there is Ignorance.  The illusion will prevail as reality until the self –knowledge is acquired.  The freedom from illusory reality is the goal of every truth seeker. But this freedom is only through knowledge.  Without knowledge there is no emancipation. He, who knows the true self is not the form but formless consciousness, overcomes grief of experiencing the illusion as reality. He, who knows that consciousness as self, becomes consciousness. He, who knows consciousness as self, attains the freedom from experiencing the illusion as reality. Freedom is the absence of false knowledge based on the false self [ego] within the false experience [waking].