Thus waking or dream appears as a whole and disappears as a whole.

Sage Sri Sankara, indicated  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.

Religions place God as the unknown reality”.  Every religious believer has a different idea of God. Every man has a different idea of real. Hence the need of definition before study.

The fallacy of orthodoxy’s appeal to scripture lies in the varying and conflicting interpretations of the same scripture which different men feel entitled to give or hold.

Everyone likes religion because it belongs to the world of sentiments and emotions. Religion changes as it appeals to different emotions. One will find at one pole the nude Sadhu is admired; at the other the gorgeous life styled Godman is revered. Belief in religious prohibitions arises out of fear of God's punishment.

The man himself suggests that there must be a God. It is an auto-suggestion.  To say that one knows God exists always implies he must also exist always. It would be correct to say at this point, he does not know about the existence of God because Gods existence depends on individualized belief. 

Religion is “believers Truth”; spirituality is “Truth for the seeker of truth.” This means a believer takes his feeling of truth whereas the seeker of truth takes his reasoned judgment, which will be the same under test everywhere in the universe.

The position of the seeker of truth is this: he has not seen God. He does not know his capacities, what God can do, and what God cannot do. Therefore any statement he might make about God would only be a lie. The seeker of truth does not wish to tell a lie. Therefore he does not accept not God nor deny Him; he simply refuses to make any statement about the God.

Each sect concocts a God to suit its own purposes. Belief in   such concocted Gods is a great hindrance in pursuit of truth.  The man himself suggests that there must be a God. It is an auto-suggestion. Prayers and sacrifices belong to a premature stage of development. When no answers come to prayers to their belief of God, then the   doubt arises about the existence of such God. Belief in religion weakens as the man pays more attention to the facts of his practical life within the practical world. 

People who argue that truth is only in their religion are vain logicians based on mere ideas, imaginations.  Religions which say "If one follows the religion they will go to heaven, while others “go to hell," are stories invented on the base of false self within the false experience.

Religious   truth is not the truth because it always shows contradiction. A contradiction arises because different person's interpretation may disagree with others. 

Without breaking away from religion and ancient traditions it is impossible to acquire Self-knowledge or Brahma Gnana or Atma Gnana.  Religion and tradition will keep one locked in the ignorance. Belief in Yoga is a self-mesmeric condition out of which it is extremely difficult to escape.

Those who are of a dulled mind say that to be non-observant and to withdraw: keen powers of observation are desirable and will help, not hinder the pursuit of truth. The seeker has to take experiences as they come to him and he should not run away from the world in ascetic fear.

There is the proof that praise or prayers to the dead has reached them.  It is all Aesop's fables! 

Then it is no use going roundabout way, trace the Brahman which is the formless substance and witness of the universe, which is in the form of mind.  By tracing the source of the mind or universe one will be able to realize the Brahman.

Thus, self-knowledge is meant only for those who have intense urge, and courage to accept the truth with humility and reject the untruth. Since people start comparing with their scriptural knowledge, it becomes impossible to assimilate and realize the non-dual truth.   Therefore, there is no need to convince anyone other than our own-selves to get the firm conviction. 

It is difficult for people to direct their uncontrolled ego (waking entity) towards the ultimate truth because of their inherited and inborn   samskaras or conditioning.

This is the great difference between Advaitic path and other no matter how similar their tenets may seem because Non-dualistic path is a path of verification. There is no scope for accepting anything blindly. Most people’s tendency is to be lazy; whereas the seeker of truth wants proof because he realizes his own ideas may be false. Most of the people want their previous notions to be confirmed and unaffected. 

To navigate along the way, language can be very useful, if it is used to point beyond its symbols and descriptions. Its function is to sacrifice itself, to burn up so completely that no trace of smoke or ash remains, so as to interfere with what its meaning shows. It is the ‘higher reason’ that uses language in this way. The function of the higher reason is precisely to burn up all obscuring residues that language leaves behind.  

The reasoning base has to be rectified from form to formless in order to discover, understand, assimilate and realize the non-dualistic or Advaitic  truth. The rectified reason functions, through discerning inquiry, to dissolve the mind into pure consciousness. The soul is present  in the form of pure consciousness. The soul  is the source  from where the mind (universe) rises and subsides. And as the rectified reason functions, it makes use of the  ego (waking entity)   reflectively, in order to bring the ego  back to the soul (consciousness).   

The thoughts and feelings did not exist prior to the appearance of waking or dream(duality).  Only after the appearance of the waking or dream the man became aware of his individuality and  the world. 

 Only in waking experience one is aware of the experience of the  birth, life, death and the world. Thus waking or dream appears as a whole and disappears as a whole.  Deeper inquiry reveals the fact that, the self is not physical, therefore the waking, dream and deep sleep are not the experience of the physical body but the formless soul, which is in the form of consciousness. 

Sage Sri, Sankara says:-  the world is illusion, it includes birth, life and death, which happens within the 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.

This Brahman cannot be attained by indulging in egocentric religious orthodoxy. The knower of Brahman is Brahmin not the Brahmin who indulges in priest craft, which leads one to utter darkness as per Yajur Veda. 

 

Brahmin is the one who has realized the Brahman (ultimate truth) and helps fellow seekers towards inner path. The one who knows Brahman knows his body and his experience of the world are mere illusion and also he knows his body and his experience of the world are also as Atman (consciousness), which is Brahman.  Thus, the priest craft which are crafted on the body based theories will lead one to hallucinated moksha. But real moksha or freedom is possible only through non-dual wisdom.  

Thus it is necessary to follow the path of Brahman not the path of the orthodox priest- craft. Only by   dropping all the accumulated priest crafted baggage, one has to move forward to reach the non-dual destination in lesser time and effort.  

The process of ‘rectified reason’ is purely empirical. Each question is tried out to see what result it leads to. And then, further questions rise empirically. They arise from actual experience of the result, not just from imagining or theorizing in advance what it might be. Thus, the process must go on relentlessly, until the actual experience of a truth where questions do not further rise – where all possibilities of questioning are utterly dissolved. All this requires that each questioning attack is turned back upon one’s own mistakes of assumption and belief. Otherwise, the reasoning is merely theoretical based on the waking or dream.

The inquiry is to get un-contradictable truth.  That is possible only through soul-centric  reasoning . 

Since change and time do not apply to consciousness, that consciousness is a changeless and a timeless principle of all experience. Consciousness illuminates the whole waking experience. Consciousness illuminates the whole Dream. In deep sleep, consciousness shines alone. In all these states, it remains the same. It is always utterly unchanged in its own existence, which illuminates itself. 

Ultimate truth is accessible to anyone who has an intense urge to know the ultimate truth and who is ready to drop all his accumulated dross in order to acquire self-knowledge or Bramha Gnana or Atma Gnana. The seeker has to hold the deep sleep experience as a ‘key to the ultimate reality. If a seeker is ready to consider deep sleep as true self, then this alone is enough, without the need for a yogic cultivation of Nirvikalpa Samadhi.  On the standpoint of the deep sleep, the waking and dream are mere appearances. 

In the realm of duality one seeks truth. In the realm of Non-duality all contradictions are dissolved. The soul or consciousness never parts within any of the three states. In deep sleep, the consciousness  is in its true nature. In waking or dream, it witnesses the experience as the whole. It is nothing to with the individual experience happening within the waking or dream because the three states are mere an object to the consciousness, which is the subject.