Self-realization is not just a matter of literal or intellectual understanding, but as something that is to be grasped and realized by the individual in his/her own personal realization.
Yogic practices will not help in acquiring Self-knowledge or Brahma Gnana or Atma Gnana. Yogic practices help only in repertory stages to be calm, to have patience and humility, and keep away unwanted thoughts.
Yoga is no the means to acquire Self-knowledge or Brahma Gnana or Atma Gnana because yoga is based on the chakras, which are within the body whereas the Soul, the Self has no chakras because it is ever formless, timeless, and spaceless existence.
Sage Sankara said:~ Neither by the practice of yoga nor philosophy, nor by good works nor by learning, does liberation come, but only through the realization that Atman and Brahman are one in no other way. (1) Vivekachoodamani v 56, pg. 25
The practice of yoga is not recommended for seekers by Sages of truth.
Sage Sankara in the commentary to "Brahma Sutras: ~ " "The highest beatitude is not to be attained by Yoga." (Sacred Books of East Series page 298 Vol.1.) he also says Samadhi is the same as sleep (p.312) - This indicates that yoga is not the means to Self-realization. And yogic Samadhi is not nondual Self-awareness.
Sage Sankara says: - Yoga is not the means of liberation (page 132-133 - Commentary on Brihadaranyakopanishad.
Yoga can yield only the duality, because, everything that one can do or practice becomes a vanishing 'known.' It yields relative truth based on imagination, which is true from the physical viewpoint of view, not the non-dual truth, which is the ultimate reality.
The essence of Mundaka is: Do not be satisfied with rituals, yoga, etc. which are good in their own way but inquire. Into what? Brahman and Atman are things you can never see. So do not inquire into them. Inquire into the world around you, which you can see. Science tells you it is passing away every second. Everything is dying repeatedly. Where is it going? Thus you follow up your inquiry into what you can lay your hands on. How can you inquire into Atma which you cannot see? So first we deal with the known and seen, this inquiry leads up to the unknown in the end.
Belief in Yoga is a Self-mesmeric condition from which it is extremely difficult to escape.
The yogis say only yoga alone leads to Self-realization.
The seeker has to investigate “Why Yoga is right and other paths can't give truth?" Or how is one to know that Yoga leads to the final truth?"
Lord Krishna confesses that the oldest wisdom of India (Advaitic wisdom) 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)
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 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.
It is important to remember that Moksha is not a result of yogic ritualistic practice. The seeker has to be equipped with requisite qualities such as patience, humility ability to focus one's concentration in an intense manner, an ability to discriminate between the Real and the non-Real, and an intense urge for liberation.
First, the seeker has to realize the ‘Self’ is not 'I' but the ‘Self’ is the Soul, which is present in the form of consciousness. Mentally hold on to the Soul and mentally reduce the world in which you exist as consciousness by realizing the world in which you exist is nothing but an illusion created out of consciousness.
Swami Vivekananda: ~Jñāna Yoga is divided into three parts. First: hearing the truth--that the Atman is the only reality and that everything else is Maya. Second: reasoning upon this philosophy from all points of view. Third: giving up all further argumentation and realizing the truth. This realization comes from being certain that Brahman is real and everything else is unreal. : ~ Santthosh Kumaar
