Only way to get rid of the ignorance is through non-dual wisdom or self-knowledge.

Getting rid of the ignorance is renunciation. Inhering in the Self is Gnana or Self-realization. Duality is mere illusion.  And non-duality is ultimate reality.  Realizing the experience of the duality is created out of non-dual material, which is consciousness, leads one to self-awareness.

Ego is consciousness, body is consciousness, and mind is consciousness, whatever seen, known, believed and experienced as a person of the world is consciousness. Thus the universe and all its contents are also consciousness. Therefore everything is consciousness. Thus consciousness alone is real and eternal.

The consciousness is the true self. The true self is   only that which is conscious of all these. ‘I’ is not the self.  Thus one has to drop holding the false self as real self. People hold the ‘I’ or ‘I AM’ as self and trying to know the truth but they will never succeed in their venture because it revels only half truth.

 ‘I’ comes and goes and that which is permanent is I-less consciousness; beyond form, time and space.  Thus it is beyond Study of psychology and physics and chemistry because psychology and physics and chemistry are based on the ‘I’.

One has been duped by experiencing the illusory duality as reality, which comes and goes.  Duality is not reality because everything in the experience of illusory duality is created out of consciousness, which is the true self.

It is the awareness, which is the cause of the existence of the three states. Mind is in the form of universe. Universe appears as waking or dream and disappears as deep sleep. Universe is consciousness because it is created out of consciousness. Consciousness is the innermost self and cause of everything that exists and it itself is uncaused.  Thus, the universe is mere illusion on the standpoint of innermost self. The individual experience of birth, life and death that takes place within the universe is also part of the illusion.  Thus holding the birth, life and death as reality is holding the false self and false experience as reality which is the cause of ignorance.  thus inquiry based on the ‘I’ or ‘I AM  which is false self ,will not yield fruit.

The whole universe is mental, because the universe itself is mind.  The universe is mere illusion. Man is an individual and he experiences universe as reality.  In ignorance man has the inborn samskara or conditioning he is and individual separate from the world and world existed prior to him and he is born in it later on. Until this inborn conditioning which is ‘I’ or ‘I AM’ is there the ignorance will prevail. Thus getting rid of ignorance is possible only when one gets rid of ‘I’ or ‘I AM.  Getting rid of ‘I’ or ‘I am possible only when one drops holding the ‘I’ or ‘I AM’ as self. 

The consciousness is within the universe but it is without the universe.  If one confines ‘I’ to the body than he is ignorance and experiences the duality as reality. If one recognizes ‘I’ as mind and the mind as the whole universe than the truth will start reveling on its own. Therefore one has to drop all accumulated knowledge and start a fresh in order to grasp, understand, assimilate and realize the nondual truth. In deeper self-search come to know ’I’ is Mind is this entire Universe.

This means that only in the state of ignorance [waking] the consciousness can be recognized. But in the state of noting ness [deep sleep] it is impossible to recognize it. 

Duality is reality if one thinks universe is reality.  Universe is reality only on the standpoint of ‘I’ or ‘I AM’ as self.  If one recognizes the ‘I’ or ‘I AM’ is not the self , than the universe is mere illusion.   Therefore, ‘me’ and mine are reality within the duality.  There is nothing to say that this is mine when there is nothing beside consciousness; when whatever is, is consciousness alone. Deep sleep illustration, when waking or dream is converted into consciousness.

All is consciousness, meaning no second thing exist other than consciousness.  If God is everything, how can there be anything other than God. Hence nondual silences the nature of the self.  

The inner most self is God. Consciousness is the inner most self. Therefore if God is everything, then there is nothing else than God. Duality limits God. If one want to avoid conceptual God, either “keep quiet" or admit “non-duality." There is no room for duality in reality.  There is no God other than consciousness.

Considering the Universe - as something separate from the consciousness is cause of ignorance. One has to give up the idea of difference" That is what is meant by "Renounce" That is the value of Sanyasa.  Renunciation must be the renunciation of the idea of separateness or difference. 

Now what about the body? Body too is conciousness, for the Gnani, as the Universe, is equally consciousness. i.e. renounce the body as separate from consciousness, which is ultimate truth or Brahman.

Heaven is non-duality and hell is duality thus heaven and hell are side by side. Separation is ignorance. Hence one is in hell or duality because he is in ignorance. "Through wisdom" --i.e. wisdom consists in knowing ultimate truth.  That is “all is consciousness and consciousness alone is real and eternal.

"Non-dual freedom or Mukti is always there and yet one doesn’t know it, But to those whose reason, has turned away from external phenomena, who have grasped and assimilated the knowledge of the consciousness attained the serenity of the self, there is nothing else so well-known, so easily knowable, and quite so near as self.

To think one's own body and his experience of the universe as consciousness is a very difficult matter, and unless this is realized, one can’t have any glimpse of truth. When one realizes his body to be consciousness   than the whole experience of the universe naturally becomes consciousness.

The believers will not accept this truth because they have accepted their belief as their truth. People of faith have so much of faith, that they will not accept anything other than their conceptual God. Of course, faith is necessary at a certain stage. But faith is like poison at another stage.

Deeper Analysis shows Universe emanating from the soul, which is in the form of consciousness means universe being the effect from the consciousness is not different from it.  Analysis needs deeper thinking. Wave has form; but where is the form in water? Where did the form come from? All that one e can say is that the water, which is ocean, is not different from the ‘wave’. The universe is the same as consciousness, as ocean produces waves, so consciousness produces the mind, which is in the form of universe.  One has to know this through deeper self-search.  

There must be rational analysis without religious theories. Not the universe seen in dream but this waking world. The method of analysis is the essence of rational method, meaning ‘inquiry.’ Deeper self-search revels the fact that ultimately the mind itself is matter and matter is created out of consciousness or spirit.  The matter or mind or universe is mere illusion, and further we go, there is no second thing exist other than consciousness, which is ultimate truth or Brahman. Hence there is no second thing it is non-dual.  

If one does not fully self-search, he can’t know that this universe is nothing but consciousness. And those who do not want ultimate truth or Brahman, advise people to resort to take religious or yogic path of sanyasa.

Thus religious and yogic prescription of sanyasa or renunciation is not the means to liberation. How can one give up anything when everything is consciousness, how can one give up anything. Without getting rid of the ignorance    the freedom from experiencing the duality as reality is impossibility.  By being as ordinary householder without any philosophy one can get self-knowledge. Without the self-knowledge the ignorance will not vanish.

By living in the mountain cave o forest or by leading orthodox oriented life the ignorance will not vanish. Only in ignorance man wonders from one ashram to another and one guru to another. Wherever he goes ignorance follows him because man and his experience of the universe is product of ignorance.  

Those who live in caves or Ashrams or leading orthodox way of life will not be able to understand that the whole universe is consciousness and consciousness itself is ultimate truth or Brahman because they have accepted the false self [ego] as real self and false experience [universe] as reality.

The point is Self-knowledge or Atma Gnana or Brahma Gnana is quite different from Sadhanas and practices.  The sadhana is physical practice whereas wisdom dawns through mental effort of grasping, understanding, assimilation and realizing it as such.

Speaking of the ultimate truth or Brahman and then opining that one need not self-search through deeper investigation is   meaningless nonsense. Even as a method to get at ultimate truth Brahman one has to analyze the mind, which is present in the form of the universe. Lecturing is different from realization.

This can be understood only through the illustration waking, dream and deep sleep. The body is within the universe.  The mind is in the form of universe. The universe appears as waking or dream and disappears as deep sleep. It is the consciousness, which becomes the waking or dream.  And waking or dream disappears as consciousness, which is recognizes as deep sleep in waking, which is state of ignorance.  Until the ignorance remains the waking experience will prevails as reality.   Only way  to get rid of the ignorance is through non-dual wisdom or self-knowledge.

 That is why Sri Sankara, in Bhaja Govindam says: - [Jnana Viheena Sarva Mathena Bajathi na Muktim janma Shatena] - one without knowledge does not obtain liberation even in a hundred births, no matter which religious faith he follows.