When Sage Sri, Sankara says the world is an illusion, it includes the experience of birth, life and death, which happens within the illusory world.

When Sage Sri, Sankara says the world is an  illusion, it includes the experience of  birth, life and death, which happens within the illusory  world.  Thus the seekers main aim is to mentally trace the formless substance of the illusion, which is also the witness of the illusion. The formless substance and witness of the illusion (world) is the Atman, and this Atman itself is Brahman.  

The Dualist Sages have written big volumes about the soul. Yet they are quite ignorant of the fact that the ‘I’ about which they write itself comes and goes and has no permanent existence, is only an idea after all.

Just to show that there is something which has not disappeared, as waking or dream  deep sleep are mere object to the “Self” . The self is the seer of the objects and object disappears and the self, which is the subject, prevails eternally. No one can see “Self” appearing or disappearing. One can only grasp mentally that it must have been there.

It is not body alone that constitutes mind, but body plus world.  one becomes aware of this truth by  his study of analysis of the three states.

One is aware of his thoughts, feeling, and emotion are within the waking experience. The  waking experience is present in the form of mind(I). And mind is an object to the  formless  witness. the soul is the innermost self. the soul is the witness. Mind will pass away; it is only the "known. Analysis reveals fact that mind is passing phenomena and not the soul, the innermost self is the witness of the coming and going of the three states.

The “Self “is seeing or knowing the changes, not that “Self” is changing. The word change is not applicable to the “Self”. Therefore the word "immortal" is used regarding the soul. “Self” is seeing the mortal; in this sense we call the formless “Soul or the witness immortal. There cannot be two Selves. It is impossible. Change can have a meaning only when there is more than one. Soul, the innermost self being unchanging must be only One.

Changes occur because of the existence of something unchanging. The changing and the unchanging is always present.

The experience is part of the change and is impermanent. Therefore, the formless witness of the experience is   real and eternal. The man and his experience of the world together is an experience, which is waking experience.  Waking and its changes, one could not possibly think of the Unchangeable or realize it. The seeker should not get attached themselves to all that changes which constitutes the three states. The very fact that one is constantly thinking shows that the world is always changing.

People do not distinguish between formless witness and the three states. If they knew that the three states are an object to the formless witness, then, even the gods, are  only an idea they might perceive truth, not otherwise.

When one thinks of the individuality, he is thinking within the waking or dream experience. The mind appears  as waking or dream (duality)  and disappears as deep sleep (non-duality). 

People try to overcome their inherited religious conditioning but  by getting rid of the religious conditioning one will not be able to overcome the physical shackle.  One has to get rid of the inborn samskara or conditioning itself by realizing the fact that ‘I’ or ‘I AM’   is not the self.

Only by getting rid of the ignorance one can get rid of the inborn samskara or   conditioning.

v  What is the use of arguing on base of the birth entity, which is not the self?

v  What is the use of knowing what happens after death when the self is birthless? 

v  What is the use of thinking of the heaven and hell when the self is not an individual and it is never born and never dies?

But he is unaware of the fact that, he and his experience of the world are within the waking experience.  The waking experience appears and disappears, same way as the dream. When there is dream than there is no waking. When there is waking than there is no dream.  When there is neither the dream nor the waking it is identified as deep sleep in waking experience.   One is aware of the dream or deep sleep only in waking.  The one which is aware of the coming and going of the three states is neither the waking entity nor the dream entity but the formless soul ,which  witnesses  the coming and going of the three states.  

All the scriptures indicate that Atman is Brahman, and Brahman is ultimate truth. Therefore the soul, which is in the form of consciousness, is ultimate truth.  Thus to realize the ultimate truth is the prime goal.   A well-directed inquiry, analysis and reasoning will lead one to his non-dual destination.

The ‘I’-thought, the ego, belongs to the duality as does the universe thought. Intellectuals   may get the knowledge that the witness  is separate from witnessed , but they  will never know ultimate truth or  Brahman without inquiring into the universe , because they are giving up the universe , and hence cannot discover their  unity with the universe . The Gnani regards everything in the universe as consciousness; the intellectuals reject the universe because intellectuals base themselves on individuality. The individuality is greatest hindrance in pursuit of truth because they base themselves on ‘I’ as a witness, which is not a witness but ‘I’ is mere an object to the formless witness.

Consciousness cannot be known in the sense in which one knows objects of thought. It can be known only to the extent to which he knows them, he can only think of the knower when he is in the presence of the known, i.e. objects, for the latter make him aware that a knower must exist. Thus duality makes him think of the knower, but it cannot make him know the knower. The knower is known in the world of duality only by implication, as he cannot think without him. The knower is a concept, and cannot be known in itself.

Consciousness   is known only in the negative way. One cannot make it an object of knowledge. One can know that he cannot have an idea of an object unless he posit a knower, unless the knower is implied already. The Formless witness itself is Gnana, that is, it knows everything else.

The self is known only when one sees something else, for that other thing reminds him of it. The self is unknowable as an object. Knowing the ultimate truth means knowing that consciousness exists. The word knows implies duality, something known; on the other hand Gnana does imply an object. Consciousness knows the ego as an object. The knowing powers, the formless witness, the knower can have no statement made about it, other than that its existence cannot be negated. The ultimate truth which one can know is that consciousness is not something to be known.