Even 1% people will not show interest in the Atmic path. And the Atmic path is for those who found the path of religion, path of yoga and all theoretical philosophy and scriptural studies inadequate and useless in quench their inner thirst.
People are searching for remedies for their problems of practical life within the practical world. The path of love is very valuable in the practical world. A Gnani follows the path of love in the practical world and he loves the whole humanity but he inwardly he is fully aware of the fact that, the practical life within the practical world are part mere mirage.
Upanishads:~ They alone in this world are endowed with the highest wisdom who are firm in their conviction of the sameness and birthlessness of Atman The ordinary man does not understand their way. (Chapter IV — Alatasanti Prakarana 95-P-188 in Upanishads by Nikilanada)
Thus, Self-knowledge or Brahma Gnana or Atma Gnana is meant only for those who have intense urge, and courage to accept the truth with humility and reject the untruth. Since people start comparing with their scriptural knowledge, it becomes impossible to assimilate and realize the non-dual truth. Therefore, there is no need to convince anyone other than our own selves to get the firm conviction.
Seeing God implies duality. Mind or universe or waking, which appears and disappears is not permanent. There is no use of placing faith in the belief of individualized god, which is part of the falsehood, and it is impermanent. It is better to abide in formless consciousness, which is the innermost self and eternal by realizing the experience of diversity is created out of single stuff, which is consciousness. Consciousness is the ultimate truth and only ultimate truth or Brahman is GOD. Self-awareness is what one should seek, not visions of individualized God. It is only when the Mind is merged in its source, the soul or consciousness that true knowledge of one's identity with ultimate truth or Brahman will dawn.
Sage Sri, Sankara says: one must first know what is before him. If he cannot know that, what else can he know or understand? If he gives up the external world in his inquiry, he cannot get the whole truth.
Sage Sri, Sankara says: - VC- 63. Without causing the objective universe to vanish and without knowing the truth of the Self, how is one to achieve Liberation by the mere utterance of the word Brahman? — It would result merely in an effort of speech.
In Brahma Sutras Sage Sri, Sankara says: Brahman is the cause of the world, whereas in Mandukya he denies it.
This may be because that at the lower stage of understanding, the former teaching must be given, for people will get frightened as they cannot understand how the world can be without a cause, but to those in a higher stage, the truth of non-causality can be revealed.
As one goes deeper investigation he finds:-
Sage Sri, Sankara founded his Advaita Vedanta either on reason independent of Sruti or on Sruti confirmed by reason."
Sage Sri, Sankara's commentary on the Manduka Upanishad, II, 1: This [the unreality of duality] is borne out by the Srutis ... But it is possible also to show the unreality of the object world even from pure reasoning, and this second chapter is undertaken for that purpose.
Sage Sri, Sankara himself had often said that his philosophy was based on Sruti, or revealed scripture. This may be because Sage Sri, Sankara addressed the ordinary man, who finds security in the idea of causality and thus in the idea of God—and Revelation is indispensable to prove the latter. He believed that those of superior intelligence, have no need of this idea of divine causality, and can, therefore, dispense with Sruti and arrive at the truth of Non-Dualism by pure reason.
Those who lack the intelligence to discriminate between formless witness [subject] and three states (object) will not be able to grasp what is real and what is unreal. Both subject and object are consciousness, not subject alone.
The truth can never change. The nature of the truth is, it can never be changed under any circumstances. It may be misrepresented. It must apply to the whole of existence, to the whole of the universe. It is in the object [three states] alone that one has all changes, as deeper analysis points out.
The subject [formless witness] remains unchanged. The subject [formless witness], as such remains immortal. It can never die for it never changes. The body and world are an object, and goes, but the subject or knower of the body and the universe can never go. Seeker has to take this principle as his guiding thread and non-dual truth becomes easy to grasp. The formless witness can never be subject to the changes of the object; it is unchanged. The mistake usually made is that subject becomes an object, or that object is subject.
If one wants to have an absence of contradictions, absence of duality, there must be one entity, one being. If one has experience which is an object [mind], there is a contradiction between subject and object, for "mind” is an object.
The duality is a reality on the standpoint of the false self [ego or body as Self]. The duality is the mere an illusion on the base of the true self, which is formless consciousness. This understanding comes only to the serious seeker, who has a real urge to know the ultimate truth, which is beyond the all the teachings and teachers. There is neither teaching, nor a teacher, nor student in the realm of truth.
