It is no use seeing God everywhere. One must see consciousness, the same soul, the same self, everywhere

Shankara's commentary:-

Page 489: "The knower of Brahman wears no signs.  Page 500 asks in effect "Tell us what you know, show it, and let us examine it under the mental microscope." It means we must bring notions and beliefs out of vagueness into clearness. It also criticizes the mystics who claim superior knowledge but who cannot communicate it for purposes of verification.

On page 482: On Gnani: "The knower of Brahman wears no signs. Gives up the insignia of a monk's life,…his signs are not manifest, nor his behavior."

It is no use seeing God everywhere. One must see consciousness, the same soul, the same self, everywhere, and then he will treat all people alike, with equal beneficence.

Seeker has to do his duty, work to set society right, and he should not remain inactive in practical life within practical world.  Those who sit in a cave and ashrams will no doubt be happy but it is their personal happiness limited to their individuality, whereas Gnana seeks welfare of all because it leads to self-awareness and brings unity in diversity in everyone’s understanding. .

The individual life is nothing to do with self because the individual life is reality within the waking experience, which is a mere object to the formless subject.

Monkhood or orthodoxy which prescribes certain way of discipline and wearing religious robe and indulging in religious rituals and celibacy are not qualification for acquiring self-knowledge because the individual conducts and deeds are not based on the false self within the false experience whereas the self is not an individual but it is universal because it pervades in everything and everywhere in all the three states.  

There is no wisdom realizing the ultimate Truth. By realizing the self is not and individual perceiving the world within the waking experience but self is the formless witness of the three states, which is beyond the sense of form, time and space. The self is formless consciousness which exits prior to the appearance of the mind also it prevails after the disappearance of the mind, which is in the form of universe or waking.

Yoga may alleviate one's individual trouble because it is based on individuality, but it is not concerned with the whole. It is concerned only with the part.  One will not get the truth   without inquiring in to the world confronts him.  Yoga leads to hallucinated fixed ideas or delusions.

The very purpose of analyzing the world confronts one is to discover that it is part of the ultimate reality and thus to enable one to carry on with activity from the highest possible viewpoint; where people fail to make this analysis, as with so many religious, yogic and intellectual minded seekers, they fail to do anything worthwhile in the material universe.

To effect this discrimination, one must be receptive and sharp enough to grasp the existence of formless witness which is ever apart from the three states, which comes and goes in succession the . Religious and yoga are based on individuality whereas the wisdom is based on universality.

Nothing is to be renounced in order to realize the ultimate truth or Brahman because the practical life within the practical world itself is falsehood form the ultimate standpoint. The self-knowledge is the knowledge of the whole not the part. Therefore universe, which confronts one, has to be included in the inquiry to get the truth of the whole.  Thus ‘WHO AM ’I’ inquiry is helpful in unfolding the half. Thus WHO AM ‘I’?, inquiry is  helpful  in the first stage  but seeker has to go much beyond ‘WHO AM’I’  ?.  Seeker has to do his own homework   to realize the truth of the whole.  

  If one ignores the world confronts him, then he will not get wisdom. The whole world confronts him must be known; if he gives up the world, what and how can he understand the truth of it?  Weak minds cannot take a comprehensive view and so decry what they cannot understand.

As the ascetics and yogis, there is no need for getting aversion to practical world; on the contrary one should go on living in the world, acting, working, etc. that he should accept life as it presents.

There is no need to renounce the practical life to realize ultimate truth or Brahman.  To realize the inner most self, which is consciousness is nothing to do with practical life because it is neither the waking entity nor the dream entity but is the formless substance and witness of all the three states.  And all the three states are one in essence.  Thus limiting the self to the waking entity and waking experience is cause of the ignorance.  Ignorance makes one feel the waking entity is the real self and waking world as reality.

Until one holds the waking entity and waking world as reality the truth realization is impossibility. 

Preliminary inquiry reveals the fact that, self is not the body than how can one get truth on the base of the false self.  When the body is not the self than it is erroneous to view, judge and conclude the truth on the base of the body or waking entity is erroneous.   The truth has to be based on the self, which is bodiless or formless.   Thus whatever seen, known, believed and experienced as person of the world within the waking experience is bound to be false hood because the waking experience itself is falsehood.   Thus it is necessary for the seeker to become aware of the formless witness of the three states which comes and goes in succession.  The witness only witnesses the coming and going of the three states, it is nothing to do with individual experiences happening within the waking or dream.  When the self is formless than what is it that sees the waking, dream and deep sleep state? 

The dream is witnessed as a whole the dream entity is not the experience of the dream entity because the dream entity was within the dream world. Likewise the waking experience also witnessed as a whole and the waking entity is within waking world thus it is necessary to realize the existence of the formless witness which is within the three states but it is apart from the three states. It is within the three states as their formless substance and it is apart from the three states as their formless witness.    The formless substance and witness are one in essence. Thus that essence is consciousness. Therefore the three states are mere mirage created out of consciousness.   Thus consciousness alone is real and all the diversities within the waking experience is as falsehood as of the dream.  Thus the three states are product of ignorance. Until the ignorance dominates they prevail as reality.  When the ignorance vanishes through wisdom their unreal nature is exposed.

WHO AM ‘I’ AND ‘I AM THAT’ is only for a lower stage where one gives up externally in order expose the false nature of the ego, which is not full truth. To get ultimate truth  one has to inquire into the nature of the mind, which is in the form of universe.  Inquiring into the nature the mind or universe is higher.  Thus ‘WHO AM ‘I’? or ‘I AM THAT’   is not complete and the journey is incomplete.

First one has to mentally detach the three states from the formless witness, as unaffected by coming and going of the three states. And then – the formless witness and the three states are one in essence. That essence is consciousness.  Thus everything is consciousness and nothing exist other than consciousness.

People stop their pursuit of truth at the ‘WHO AM ‘I’? or ‘I AM THAT’ , which is incomplete and keeps them in the grip of individuality and individuality leads then to intellectuality.

Seeker will complete his pursuit of truth only when realize the truth of the whole that is inquiring in to the nature of the mind or universe. 

Others Blessings are not the means for realizing the truth; blessings are religious fable nothing to with the ultimate truth. A Gnani neither blesses nor curses.

That the ancient sages had miraculous occult power and books relate stories of their feats, are fairy tales were meant for children, women and those whose minds had not developed. Mythological contains stories of people with 10 with seven heads etc., which are fables, yet are taken seriously by pundits.  All these stories are reality within the waking experience and waking experience itself falsehood from ultimate standpoint.

The yogi in Samadhi fails to see non-duality? Because he believes there is happiness to come to him from Samadhi. That shows he does not know truth, but still seeks bliss as something apart from his-self.

The common people draw a wrong inference in thinking a Gnani must ascetically reject the world; this is only for those religious or yogic minds in the lower rungs of the ladder.

Yoga is to be practiced only until one attains equilibrium of mind; when this is established, the continuance of yoga is foolish.  The indifference practiced by a seeker is external to the self, is formless; the indifference practiced by a Gnani is purely internal, is mental.

The greatest mistake is to think that a Gnani sees nothing. This blind reverence for Samadhi is as valuable as revering a man who has taken a dose of chloroform.

The Gnani sees the essential universal unity and the multiplicity of objects simultaneously. The person in deep sleep or Samadhi leaves out the objects and sees the essence; hence he has not full Gnana.

One must be soul centric to give all knowledge based on egocentric, which is cause of the ignorance. 

One knows of dream that the dream-figures are also created out of consciousness, not different from it; similarly when he know that everything  that exists in waking experience is consciousness and consciousness  is  ultimate truth or Brahman, there is no need for yogic control of mind; control presupposes a second thing, duality. Hence yoga is in sphere of duality and is unnecessary to one who knows non-duality.

It is erroneous to believe the general impression is that the universe disappears to a Gnani, that he sees nothing in Samadhi. Only by deluded persons will have such impression?   Nothing is destroyed. Only ignorance disappears and the unreal nature of the universe is exposed. A Gnani is fully aware of the fact with firm conviction that everything is consciousness in the midst of duality.  Being aware of the reality in the midst of duality is called wisdom.  

The universe or waking experience will not disappear.  It is there always but its unreal nature is exposed in the midst of duality or waking experience through wisdom?

If one thinks its mere disappearance in yogic Samadhi is ultimate truth or Brahman then he would get it in deep sleep.  Thus yogic Samadhi is not wisdom.