FORMLESS PATH

Ataman/Self is without any attribute or activity, Ataman/Self is eternal, ever free, and imperishable.
Ataman/Self is free from all impurity; Ataman/Self is immovable, unlimited, holy, un-decaying, and immortal.
Ignorant is unaware of the blissful, ever-existent Ataman/Self, which resides in the three states and is (evidently) different from it, because he thinks ‘I’ as self thus limits the mind to the physical entity.
Ignorant should try to know, through inquiry, analysis and reasoning, the fact that the true self is not the ‘I’ but the soul. The true Self is, which is different from the body, (not a void but) the very form of existence, and very difficult for ignorants to realize.
The soul/self is one, whereas the gross bodies are many. So this body cannot be the Self. “I” /ego is well established as the subject of perception whereas the body/world is the object. This is learnt from the fact that when one speaks of the body/world he says, “This is mine.” So this body cannot be the self.
It is a fact of direct experience that the Ataman/Self is without any change, whereas the three states are always undergoing changes. Thus, this ‘I’ cannot be Ataman/self because ‘I’ exists only in waking/dream.
Gnani have ascertained the real nature of Ataman/self through deeper inquiry, analysis and reasoning, “There is nothing higher than Ataman,” thus the ‘I’ cannot be Ataman. The three states are verily the Ataman, because their formless substance and witness is Ataman.
The soul/self is self-illumined”. So how can the three states which is inert (insentient) and illumined by an external agent be the soul/self?
The Karma-theory declares that the Ataman/Self is different from the body and permanent, as it endures even after the fall of the body and reaps the fruits of actions done in this life. When the body is not the doer/self how it can reap the fruits of action of last life, when it is not doer/self in the next life. When the self/doer is unborn then how can it be reborn? Thus karma theory is based on the false entity, and has accepted the false entity as the self.
The three states consist of diversity and are impermanent. It is also an object of perception, is changeable, limited and non-existent by nature. Thus it cannot be the self/soul, because the soul/self is the formless substance and witness of the three states and it is apart from the three states.

The immutable Ataman/Self, the substratum of the three states, is thus different from these three states, and is the soul, the Self of all; it is present in everything and everywhere in these three states and yet transcends them all.

Formless Path

What is ‘I’? How these three states are created? Who is its creator? Of what material is these three states are made? This is the way of that inquiry, analysis and reasoning on the true base.

Ataman/Self/soul is neither the body, nor the matter, nor is Ataman/Self an aggregate of the senses; Ataman/Self is something different from these.
Three states are produced by ignorance, and dissolves in the wake of self-Knowledge. Ataman/Self is the substance and witness and the true self.
The cause of these three states is the One without a second, subtle and unchanging, just as the earth is the material (cause) of the pot and the like.
As Ataman/Self is also the One, the formless, the Subtle, the Knower, the Witness, the Ever-Existent, and the Unchanging, so there is no doubt that Ataman/Self is the true self.
Ataman/Self/soul is verily one and without parts, whereas the body consists of many parts; and yet the people see (confound) these two as one! What else can be called ignorance but this?
Ataman/Self/soul is the ruler of the three states and is internal; the three states are the ruled and is external. Ataman/Self /soul is all consciousness and pure, the body and the world are diversity is impure.
Ataman/Self is the supreme Illuminator, which gives sentient; the three states is said to be of the nature of insentient. Ataman/Self is eternal, since it is Existence itself; the three states are transient, as it is nonexistence in essence.
The luminosity of Ataman/Self consists in the manifestation of all the three states. Its luminosity is not like that of fire or any such thing, for in spite of the presence of such lights darkness prevails at night (at some place or other).
How strange is it that a person ignorantly rests contented with the idea that he is the body, while he knows it as something belonging to him and therefore apart from him even as a person who sees a pot knows it as apart from him !
Ataman/Self is verily Brahman, being equanimous, quiescent, and by nature absolute Existence, Knowledge, and Bliss. Ataman/Self is not the body which is non-existence itself. This is called true Knowledge by the Gnanis.
Ataman/Self is without any change, without any form, free from all blemish and decay. Ataman/Self is not subjected to any disease; Ataman/Self is beyond all comprehension, free from all alternatives and all-pervading.

FORMLESS PATH

Self-knowledge is the destroyer of ignorance. Ataman/Self is all pervading and the cause of all the three states.
The means of attaining to Self-Realization for the acquisition of final liberation, serious seeker should constantly reflect into the nature of the mind/’I’.
The indifference with which one treats the excreta of a animal – such an indifference to the three states from the realm of Brahman in view of their impermanent nature, is called pure dispassion.
Ataman/Self the formless substance and witness of the three states itself is alone permanent, the three states [seen] is opposed to it that is transient – such a settled conviction is truly known as discrimination.
Turning away the focus of attention completely from the three states to the formless substance and witness of the three states with lots of patient endurance will help the seeking mind to establish in the Ataman/Self the true self.
Through self knowledge one can be free from the bonds of this world that is birth, life and deaths. To acquire self-knowledge seeker must have a burning desire.
Only that person who has intense urge and courage to accept the truth and reject the untruth and ready to drop all the pre-conceived ideas derived from the accumulated knowledge, and ready to learn to view and judge the worldview on the base of Ataman/Self as self, without arguing on the base of scriptural authorities, ready to accept only un -contradictable truth, is qualified indulge in pursuit of truth. Seeker of truth should constantly reflect with a view to attaining Knowledge, desiring his own good.
Self- Knowledge is not brought about by any other means than inquiry, analysis and reasoning on the true base, just as an object is nowhere perceived (seen) without the help of light.