If you seek reality you must set yourself free of all backgrounds, of all cultures, of all patterns of thinking and feeling.

Nisargadatta Maharaj :- If you seek reality you must set yourself free of all backgrounds, of all cultures, of all patterns of thinking and feeling. Even the idea of being man or woman, or even human should be discarded.

The waking experience is the states of ignorance. Waking entity  is ignorant of the innermost self. 

Why does one assert the blissful, ever-existent soul (consciousness), which is within the three states as its formless clay and is evidently apart from it as its formless witness? The three states are absolutely non-existent in the realm of the true self which is consciousness or soul.

The seeker of truth has to know, with the help of soul-centric reasoning , the true Self, which is different from the three states, not a void but the very form of existence, and very difficult for persons who view and judge the  three states on the base of ‘ego’.

The true self is not  the  ego or waking entity  but it is  the formless  soul ,which is present in the form of consciousness . 

The  formless soul , the innermost self  is the subject of perception whereas the ego, body and the world is the object. This is learnt from the fact that,  when one speaks of the body, ego he says, “This is mine.” So how can this body and ego be the self?

It is a fact of the direct realization of the “Soul, the innermost self  is without any change, whereas the mind (waking or dream) is always undergoing changes. So how can this body be self, which is present only within the mind (waking or dream)?

Gnana is   ascertained the real nature of the formless  soul, the innermost self  through deeper self-search. “There is nothing higher than the formless  soul, the  innermost self.  So how can this body be the self, when the body and the world are present only when the mind is present.  The mind is present in the form of the universe. The universe appears as waking or dream and diapers as deep sleep. The one which is aware of the coming and going of the three states is neither the waking entity nor the dream entity but the formless soul, which is present in the form of consciousness.  When the soul becomes aware of its formless nondual true nature in the midst of duality it is called self –awareness. It is foolish to limit the consciousness only to duality because the consciousness pervades all the three states

All the three states are verily the consciousness” because they are created out of consciousness. So how can this  waking entity  be self, when the self is neither the  waking entity  nor the self is dream entity but the self is the formless soul,which witnesses the coming and going of the three states without the physical apparatus. 

The formless soul, the innermost  self is completely unattached” from the three states (mind), because true self is not an entity or identity within the three states (mind). How can this waking entity  be the self, when the waking entity  exists only within the waking experience.

 Gaudapada’s rational exposition of Advaita: - that whatever is seen, whether external or internal, whether by the ordinary persons or yogis, is unreal.