Binding to the scriptures and Guru and worshiping the Guru as God is the gretest obstical in pursuit of truth

Sage Sri, Sankara :- VC- 61. For one who has been bitten by the serpent of Ignorance, the only remedy is the knowledge of Brahman. Of what avail are the Vedas and (other) Scriptures, Mantras (sacred formulae) and medicines to such a one?

62. A disease does not leave off if one simply utter the name of the medicine, without taking it; (similarly) without direct realisation one cannot be liberated by the mere utterance of the word Brahman.

The soul, the innermost self. The soul is present  in the form of consciousness. Glorifying gurus’ form is erroneous, because  from ultimate standpoint the body and the universe are myth . Thus indulging glorifying and worshiping of myth becomes the greatest obstacle in the pursuit of truth.  Thus the seeker has to identify the soul, the innermost  self as guru and proceed in his spiritual endeavour.   The inner grace of the inner guru (self) will guide until the ignorance disappears and one realizes the body and the universe are a mere mirage created out of the consciousness.   


Sage Sri, Sankara :VC- 65. As a treasure hidden underground requires (for its extraction) competent instruction, excavation, the removal of stones and other such things lying above it and (finally) grasping, but never comes out by being (merely) called out by name, so the transparent Truth of the self, which is hidden by Maya and its effects, is to be attained through the instructions of a knower of Brahman, followed by reflection, meditation and so forth, but not through perverted arguments.

66. Therefore the wise should, as in the case of disease and the like, personally strive by all the means in their power to be free from the bondage of repeated births and deaths.

Vedas bars human worship:-

Translation 3.

"They are enveloped in darkness, in other words, are steeped in ignorance and sunk in the greatest depths of misery who worship the uncreated, eternal prakrti -- the material cause of the world -- in place of the All-pervading God, But those who worship visible things born of the prakrti, such as the earth, trees, bodies (human and the like) in place of God are enveloped in still greater darkness, in other words, they are extremely foolish, fall into an awful hell of pain and sorrow, and suffer terribly for a long time."- [Yajur Veda 40:9.]

Than why worship and glorify the Gurus and Yogis (human form)   in place of God when Veda bars such activities and  it also warns people who indulge in such activities are enveloped in still greater darkness, in other words, they are extremely foolish, fall into an awful hell of pain and sorrow, and suffer terribly for a long time.

Religious or yogic gurus propagate that, once a seeker identifies a Guru, he must totally surrender to the Guru and then from there onwards, the spiritual journey is fully the Guru's responsibility, not his... Hence the importance to choosing the right Guru is necessary, but in pursuit of truth the guru is not necessary, because the truth is not theoretical.  Truth has to be ascertained by the seeker on his own through a well-directed inquiry, analysis and reasoning based on the true self, which will lead the seeker to his destination.  

People who worship the guru as God in human form and there is a danger that they might establish a regular religious sect in his name.  This is an unhappy development of the religious movement.


Yoga Vasishtha :- "Teachers, interpretations of sacred texts, the force of religious merit--none of these lead to the realization of that Ultimate Truth which is revealed in the clear reflection of the heart, engendered from contact with the good."

It is better to take guidance from a Gnani and try to attain the same realization which he had, rather than spend their energy in defying him. Let us remember that to deify a Gnani is to defy wisdom”


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.”


Renouncing the worldly life and accepting sanyasa or monk-hood means incapacity to think deeper, an impotency to inquire and reason. 

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."

Hindu religious literature is full of such aphorisms as ' there is no higher deity than the Guru; the Guru is the ultimate Truth and Deity. God and  Avatars (incarnations) are secondary to the Guru in importance ;there is no higher refuge, no higher target, no higher destination than the Guru ; the Guru is God Himself ; God and the Guru are one ; he who makes a  distinction between the Guru and God is ignorant and stupid ; and scores of  similar others. They abound both in Sanskrit and in modern Indian languages.

No scriptures  or guru  can  help one to  find the ultimate truth or Brahman, and even without them he can get the ultimate  truth or Brahman within. Binding to  the scriptures  and Guru  and worshiping  the Guru as God is the gretest obstical in pursuit of truth. One should not blindly accept the gurus teaching without proper inquiry. No blind belief can save one,  he has to work out his own salvation. 


Sage Sri Sankara  says:- VC 59. The study of the Scriptures is useless so long as the highest Truth is unknown, and it is equally useless when the highest Truth has already been known.

60. The Scriptures consisting of many words are a dense forest which merely causes the mind to ramble. Hence men of wisdom should earnestly set about knowing the true nature of the Self.

That is whay Buddha said:- 

Believe nothing because a wise man said it,
Believe nothing because it is generally held.
Believe nothing because it is written.
Believe nothing because it is said to be divine.
Believe nothing because someone else said it.
But believe only what you yourself judge to be true.

People born in the different sect and they remain as its follower. Most of the sect is founded by some gurus, thus the Indian belief system is a Guru Cult, i.e. believes in the worship of the Guru as the Supreme Deity.

The seeker of truth read not to contradict and confute, nor to believe and take for granted, nor to find talk and discourse, but to weigh and consider and discover the truth by using his own reason.  The greatest and noblest pleasure which seeker can have is to discover new truths; and drop old prejudices and accumulated knowledge.

To understand and assimilate one needs spiritual language of silence; one must speak from the standpoint of the consciousness which the language of the soul – which is humility, intense urge of inner growth, listening and without arguing on some theoretical or some authority or some famous men‘s point of view.  

When a seeker could not get full enlightenment from his inherited belief system, then only he searches elsewhere. And tries to get enlightened himself further to clear the cobwebs of his understanding and seeks guidance to his progress.

The path of religion, the path of yoga and the path of wisdom were intended for different classes of people. The wisdom is for the advanced seekers of truth. It deals with the nature of the ultimate Truth and Reality. It is meant for superior aspirants who have an inner urge to know the truth and it is not for those who are immersed in earthly desires.

Katha Upanishad:- This Atman cannot be attained by the study of the Vedas, or by intelligence, or by much hearing of sacred books. It is attained by him alone whom It chooses. To such a one Atman reveals Its own form. (Katha Upanishad Ch-II -23-P-20)

Mundaka Upanishad  :- This Atman cannot be attained through the study of the Vedas, nor through intelligence, nor through much learning. He who chooses Atman—by him alone is Atman attained. It is the Atman that reveals to the seeker Its true nature. (3 page70  Mundaka Upanishad  Upanishads by Nikilanada)

When the Upanishad says:-  the human goal is to acquire Self-Knowledge or Bramha Gnana or Atma Gnana and they indicate the personal gods, scriptures, worship and rituals are not the means to Self –Knowledge or Bramha Gnana or Atma Gnana, then why anyone should indulge in it. The religion, concept of individualized god and scriptures are the greatest obstacle to realize non-dualistc or Advaitic truth, because they are based on false self.  Therefore, one has to search the ultimate truth without losing himself in the labyrinths of philosophy.  one should indulge in deeper,self-search and assimilate and realize it.  

The seeker's goal is  to acquire  Self-knowledge or Bramha Gnana or Atma Gnana and noting other than it.  The Guru is needed in religious and yogic paths which are meant for the people who are not searching for truth but they are searching for worldly comforts and temporary peace in this physical existence.  They fear of losing their physical identity and all that is connected to the physical identity. When one realizes the physical identity (ego) is false self and the true identity is the  formless soul, which is present  in the form consciousness, then he realizes that,  the fear factor is limited to the false self within the false experience. When the self is not physical  than all the burden and bondage of the duality. The duality  is a mere mirage created out of consciousness.

It is necessary to repeating the same truth again and again till it becomes reality. One needs to constant reflect on the subject until he gets a firm conviction of what is what. Words are needed until one gets firm conviction of ‘what is what’. People need reading and hearing the words to think deeply and reach the ultimate end.  

Sri, Sankara's commentary to Brahma Sutras (Chap.3.4.50) shows that the Gnani "should pass through life", not run away from life and should take a middle course between seeking worldly honor and worldly abasement. 

Sri, Sankara varied his practical advice and doctrinal teaching according to the people he was amongst. He never advised them to give up their particular religion or beliefs or metaphysics completely; he only told them to give up the worst features of abuse: at the same time he showed just one step forward towards the truth.  Sri, Sankara was extremely precise and careful in his choice of words. 

Why Sage  Sri, Sankara says in commentary in Vedanta sutra that what is accepted without proper enquiry will not lead a person to the final goal. On the contrary, such acceptance will result only in evil, in something which is detrimental to our spiritual progress.   Seeker of truth should not believe blindly in traditional orthodox nonduality without verifying all the facts from every angle. One has to reflect through reasoning over and over again without getting tired of the process.

Therefore, Self-Knowledge or Bramha Gnana or Atma Gnana is necessary to know the fact that, the mind (I)  which is present in the form of universe and universe appears as waking or dream and  and disappears as dee[ sleep (nothingness).   The universe  is   a mere mirage created out of is consciousness. The nature of the soul or conciousness is nothingness.   Thus the soul ( consciousness) is the source and substence and  witness of the universe (mind), which appears  as waking or dream  and disappears  as deep sleep.  Thus it is necessary to know the formless witness of the three states in order to know the fact that, the soul, the innermost  self is apart and  free from the  illusory three states.  the illusory experince of the form of birth, life, death and the world are reality with in the waking experience. Therefore, it is necessary for the seeker to make sure  on what standpoint  the three states are  a mere illusion.

One has to realize the fact that, it is not the waking entity (you) which witnesses the three states.  The formless soul is the witness of the coming and going of the three states. The soul is immutable. The soul is unaffected by the happening within the three states because the three states are mere mirage created out of the formless soul, which is present in the form of consciousness. The soul or consciousness is the innermost self.

The self is neither the waking entity nor the self is dream entity but the self is the formless soul. The on the standpoint of the soul, the innermost self the three states are non-existent as reality.     

The waking body and the waking  world are reality within the waking experience ,  same way as the dream body and the dream world were reality within the dream. The dream becomes unreal when the waking takes place; similarly the waking experience becomes unreal when the non-dual wisdom dawns. 

The one who thinks himself as a guru and the one who thinks himself as  a Chela (disciple) will not qualified for  Self- knowledge or Bramha Gnana or Atma gnana.