When Sri,Sankara says the world is illusion, it includes birth, life and
death, which happens within the world.
Thus 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 the soul ,which is present in the form of consciousness. soul or consciousness is ultimate truth that is 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.
In Vedic era a Brahmin was a person who had attained Self-
knowledge or Atma Jnana. This was an extremely difficult path of
discipline of body, mind, and intellect, and people irrespective of their birth
or class, who dedicated to such an austere life, were recognized as
Brahmins.
A great example of this tradition (that a person becoming a
Brahmin, rather than born as one) is the case of Vishwamitra, a warrior (Kshatriya),
who became a Brahmin after attaining Atma Jnana or Self-Knowledge.
A smritis, or
code of conduct composed by sage Atri defines brahminhood very clearly:-
"By birth, every man is a Shudra (an ignorant person). Through various types of disciplines (samskaras), he becomes a dwija (twice born). Through the studies of scriptures, he becomes a vipra (or a scholar). Through realization of supreme spirit (brahmajnana), he becomes a Brahmin."
The belief that people born in Brahmin caste, automatically
become Brahmins, is a much later concept in the very ancient India.
Thus, Brahmin means not caste but one who has attained Atma
Jnana or Brahma Jnana.
Swami
Vivekananda said: - “You have to grow from the inside out. None can teach you,
none can make you spiritual. There is no other teacher but your own soul.”
Sri, Sankara's commentary:-
Page
489: "The knower of Brahman (self-realized or Gnani) 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."
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.
There is no me or you and others, no seeking, no
enlightenment, no desire, no ego no world. There is no pain or pleasure, no world,
no purpose, and nothing that has to be achieved in the realm of reality. All
the diversity is reality within the illusory reality.
All appearance is spirit, because the formless substance of the appearance is spirit, and the formless substance itself is the witness of the appearance. Thus the substance and witness of the appearance is one and the sane spirit. Therefore thee is no second thing other then the spirit, hence it is non-dual.
All that apparently manifests in the
waking/dream is made of the formless stuff, thus the diversity has no value when
one becomes aware of the stuff from which the diversity has arisen and where it
subsides. The diversity rises from the
spirit and subsides back as spirit. Thus the source of the diversity is the true
self. On the standpoint of the true self the diversity is mere illusion. Thus
the individual experiences happening within the waking or dream are mere
mirage.
The search for the source, which is
appearing as many, the source or soul or spirit is appearing as waking or dream(duality/diversity)
and disappearing as deep sleep (non duality or soul or spirit) . therefore ,there is a
need to view and judge on the base of the soul, the innermost self to realize the fact
that the diversity(universe) is mere mirage.
Consciously becoming aware of the
true Self in the midst of the diversity (waking) is self realization.
