"Caught in the grip of ignorance, self-proclaimed experts consider themselves learned authorities. They wander about this world befooled, like the blind leading the blind."

Katha Upanisad (1.2.5) says; -  "Caught in the grip of ignorance, self-proclaimed experts consider themselves learned authorities. They wander about this world befooled, like the blind leading the blind."

Each sect concocts a God to suit its own purposes. Such concocted Gods are mere belief.

Faith in religion weakens as man pays more attention to facts of practical life within the practical world. People, who argue that truth is only in their religion, are vain logicians, depending on mere inherited  ideas, imaginations.

One must make an effort to know the ultimate truth or Brahman.  The formless soul is the innermost self. Soul is present  in the form of consciousness, is there always. One has got it, there is nothing new to be acquired, only one has to  have the sharp enough to grasp, understand and assimilate it, when told about it. But there is a difference between understanding and realization.

Only Mental Effort is required for this understanding and assimilation only, whereas once understood and assimilated than no special effort is needed to remember one’s understanding and assimilation: until then he only has an idea of the ‘Self’, which is consciousness ,  he only partially understands it. But once he thoroughly grasps what it is and that all the three states  are created out of  consciousness, he will then constantly find its present everywhere without further effort, because he  will perceive consciousness, which is ultimate truth  by understanding and realizing , even in the midst of worldly existence.

When there is only one thing (consciousness) known, there is nothing to change, nothing to appear or disappear; when one speaks of remembering or forgetting ‘consciousness ‘( soul ) that implies one  believes in the existence of something else, i.e. a second thing, which is to be remembered. That would show one has not known that all is one. But knowing it, there is no second, consequently no intermittent perception of self or consciousness, but a permanent effortless understanding that it alone is.

When one gets a glimpse of truth mentally he has to try to reflect on it a constantly in order to establish it. The self must raise itself by the Self.

One need not renounce the world by taking sanyasa to remove doubts we ought not to one has  to wrestle with them until he conquers.sanyasa is religious fable. sanyasa is not the means to acquire Self-Knowledge or Brahma Gnana or Atma Gnana. 

If one says that he knows God exists always implies he must also exist always. It would be correct to say on this point, I do not know.

The inner revelation flash without any process of thought to mark the intervening stages; still they are ideas, mental phenomena in their full nature. When they project themselves into the mind or universe as an object then one becomes aware of the subject and object relation and also the fact that,  the object is mere mirage created out of the formless subject, which is consciousness.

Arjuna says in Verse 63, Chap.18, Gita: - that all his doubts are cleared, he means his doubts on every question. But this happy state could not have been reached if he had not begun by having doubts and asking questions and demanding proofs.

Krishna tells Arjuna: - to overcome doubt by the sword of wisdom, he does not mean that Arjuna should give up his doubt and believe, as the Pundits interpret it, but that he should keep on thinking about his doubts until they are solved; that he should not stop until this point is reached.

Non-dual truth is ultimate truth or Brahman.  Yogis, mystics and religious teachers do not accept the path of wisdom because it pries into the truth, the source and the validity of the knowledge they claim. Therefore it is the most difficult part of the study of non-duality.

Ashtavakra Gita page 224:- It is not the absence of buddhi that can grasp Advaita but the man who possesses the highest intellect. Brains are necessary. Such a man, by merely hearing the truth mentioned will know it.

The action, love and   virtue are very much necessary in practical life within the practical world. But they are not qualification for Self-Realization.   The freedom from duality  arises only when one becomes aware of the true existence, which is beyond form, time and space. Thus whatever is based on the form,time and space  are mere  illusion from the ultimate standpoint. 

The one which is aware of the form, time and space is not the form but formless.  The intellectuality based on the form is not wisdom. Thus one has to use his reason and base it on the formless self(soul) to understand, assimilate and realize the non-dual truth, which is ultimate truth or Brahman. Thus all intellectual theories based on the form, time and space are mere imagination based on the form, which is false self [ego] within the false experience (universe or waking).  

 Thus, there would be no freedom   without understanding facts about the Mind or universe.   Intellectuality is limited to form, time and space. Thus reason based on the formless self(soul) has to be used to grasp the truth, which is beyond birth, life, death and the world.

Thus belief, actions, conducts, love, virtue, scriptural mastery, religion, rituals, prayers which are mere theories based on the false self (ego or waking entity) within the false experience(waking)  are great hindrance in realizing the non-dual truth, which is ultimate truth or Brahman.     

  All religious theories are meant for those who believe in the practical life within the practical world as reality because practical life with in the practical world are mere illusion from ultimate standpoint. 

When one verifies the fact  about his true existence through deeper self-search than he becomes aware of the fact that, the self is not form but self is formless consciousness than he becomes aware of the fact that ,the practical life within the practical world is mere illusion created out of consciousness. 

The practical knowledge within the practical world is  is not wisdom but it is knowledge based on ignorance. The real wisdom is non-dual wisdom, which arise only when ignorance vanishes. 

By holding the blind belief of conceptual God and trying to get freedom by observing religious code of conduct and leading the orthodox oriented life within the waking experience  trying to get Moksha is like building the air castle in the sky because the waking experience itself is unreal. Same way as the dream becomes unreal when waking takes place the waking experience becomes unreal when wisdom dawns.     

Thus experience of birth, life, death and the world, pleasure and pain and all actions good deeds, ritual, faith, good or bad conducts, worships, prayers , belief in conceptual Gods, ancestor worship and yogic  Samadhi and practices    are not the qualification for moksha, because the waking experience itself  is as false from the ultimate standpoint .    

People take to the belief system or of authoritarianism merely because they are the easiest ways. To seek for proof is troublesome and time-taking.

Belief system and mysticism are so much preferred to wisdom because one has only to imagine, not to inquire and reason. The first is easy, the second is hard.

Belief system and mysticism is a species of mesmerism affecting weaker or impressionable people. Thus the panoply of a religious guru's religious robes and religious oriented life style creates unconscious suggestion in weaker minds of a superior power or magical knowledge. Similarly visitors to ashrams are suggested into thinking they experience great peace because they are unconsciously hypnotized into believing that will happen. But when a strong disciplined rationalistic mind meets a yogi, religious guru or visits an ashram, he is entirely unaffected.

Scriptures are being added to from time to time. This process will go on. There is the final authority among them? One contradicts the other: duality reigns supreme. 

Brihadaranyaka Upanishad says: - In that unitive state there is neither father nor mother, neither worlds nor gods nor even Scriptures. In that state there is neither thief nor slayer, neither low caste nor high, neither Monk nor ascetic. The Self is beyond good and evil, beyond all the suffering of the human Heart.

Belief system is Successful in propagating the life after death theory: -   what happens after death-- nobody can deny it because nobody has seen what happens after death it is mere assumption. When the self is formless than it birth less and deathless. This theory based on the physical self is false theory because true self is not physical.

 Nobody can disprove when some mystics even claim that they have seen God by intuition. But the onus of proof is on those who make an assertion. Mystics are required to prove; the burden to disprove is not on their critics.

Mystical experience is ancient psychology and it is mind game. And its reality is limited to the physical existence or duality.    The duality is mere illusion from the ultimate standpoint.  Mystics experience is based on the false self therefore it reveals no truth. A mystic, touching people forehead and thus putting them into mystic trance is purely a physical or at best a psychological one; based on the power of suggestions it has nothing to do with formless self, with the question of truth. It is just a higher variation of the effect produced by patting a person on the shoulder to encourage him.  The truth is not based on the individuality and individual experiences because the self is not an individual but it pervades in everything and everywhere in the universe as its formless substance and witness.

One mystic, experience can be overthrown by another mystic’s experience of another thus there is no universality in their experience. Any experience implies duality and duality is not reality from ultimate standpoint.   Mysticism charms people but reason does not. Faith, feeling or experience is on everyone's lips.

The mystic experience  like divine light,  divine sound , divine vibration, divine smell of perfume  etc. are felt interiorly in meditation is mere hallucination created by suggestions  and  unproved  because the self is not the form but self is formless.

When a seeker sees all this diversity and contradiction of beliefs and opinions, he should reflect that there is some foolishness somewhere. This doubt is the beginning of inquiry into truth.

Yogic six chakras and Seven Chakras in Raja yoga are based on fact and fiction. It was noted that there were nervous plexuses and nodules at intervals in the spine and other parts of the body. Upon this basis the yogis started imagining that if the mind is concentrated on each one a different mystic result would be obtained. But that is mere fancy. When self is formless the question chakras not arise. It is foolish to practice yoga after one becomes aware of the fact that self is not the body but the self is formless consciousness. The body based yogic or mystical theories are not the means for self-realization. 

Without having firm Inner conviction that the self is not the form but the self is formless consciousness it is difficult to acquire self-knowledge.  It is useless to argue on the standpoint form as self because self is not form but self is formless consciousness.

Man and his experience of the universe is the product of ignorance.  Therefore, everyone is in ignorance of their true existence. Everyone knows about their birth, life, death and the universe but they are unaware of the fact that their experience of the birth, life, death and the universe is mere illusion form ultimate standpoint.  

Illusion disappears in deep sleep, death or one gets the awareness of the true self through nondual wisdom.  If ignorance were permanent nothing could be known. Pursuit of truth is removal of ignorance by self - knowledge.

In all interpretation based on the “I” leads to hallucination.  Scriptural tenets may be accepted as authoritative only after one has shown the reality and proved the truth, for then he can point out that the texts teach the same thing. If one quotes them before having demonstrated truth, then it is scholasticism or punditry.

There have been so many conflicting belief systems, or so many changes, divisions and subdivisions of religion, therefore religious truth is individual not universal.

Only when one meets with suffering and disappointments, than the doubts arises about his inherited belief system. Doubts are absolutely necessary to make men inquire. Thus when man gets doubts than only he begins to question whether his inherited belief system is true or false. Pursuit of truth is the getting rid of all doubts.  Pursuit of truth begins with doubt.  That is, doubting one’s own self, one’s own beliefs.