Physical & mental discipline such like Karma, Dyana, Mantra Yaga, Yajna, Puja Japa blind devotion to deity or guru is not a means to for liberation or freedom from experiencing the duality as reality

Physical & mental discipline  such like Karma, Dyana, Mantra Yaga, Yajna, Puja Japa blind devotion to deity or guru is not a means to  for liberation or freedom from experiencing the duality as reality. It is dualistic cult including tradition Advaitic orthodoxy propagate this discipline has no value if one is seeking ultimate truth or Brahman to get nondual moksha. 

Swami Vivekananda:-  Knowing this, stand up and fight! Not one step back that is the idea. ... Fight it out, whatever comes. Let the stars move from the sphere! Let the whole world stand against us! Death means only a change of garment. What of it? Thus fight! You gain nothing by becoming cowards. ... Taking a step backward, you do not avoid any misfortune. You have cried to all the gods in the world. Has misery ceased? The masses in India cry to sixty million gods, and still die like dogs. Where are these gods? ... The gods come to help you when you have succeeded. So what is the use? Die game. ... This bending the knee to superstitions, this selling yourself to your own mind does not befit you, my soul. You are infinite, deathless, birthless. Because you are infinite spirit, it does not befit you to be a slave. ... Arise! Awake! Stand up and fight! Die if you must. There is none to help you. You are the entire world. Who can help you?

- Swami Vivekananda 

(Delivered In San Francisco, on May 28, 1900)

The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda/Volume 1/Lectures And Discourses/The Gita II

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.

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.

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.

Atman or consciousness, the One and Undifferentiated, which by the manifold application of its powers produces the dual and non-dual experiences (waking/dream/deep sleep) and, in the end, withdraws the three states into itself, is indeed the self—luminous.

The Maker of all the three states, self—luminous and all—pervading, Atman dwells always in the three states as its formless clay and witness. Atman is revealed by the negative way, discriminative wisdom and the Knowledge of Unity based upon reflection. The one who know Atman is the true self becomes one with the immortal self.

When there is no ignorance, there is no day or night, neither being nor none—being; the pure Atman alone exists. That immutable Reality is the meaning of "Atman. From it has preceded the non-dual wisdom.

No one can grasp Atman ,which is in the form of consciousness  as separate entity apart from duality because it is the formless clay and the witness of the experience of duality thus it cannot be grasped as above, across, or in the middle.

Its form is not an object of vision; no one beholds it with the eyes. They who, through pure intellect and the Knowledge of Unity based upon reflection, realize Atman as the true self becomes one with the immortal.

 Not by intellectual   speculation but only by an awakening to the reality of his true existence he gets soulcentric vision. Soul, the innermost self’s nature is like state of deep sleep.

Religion, yoga and intellectualism are not the means to acquire self-knowledge or Brahma Gnana or Atma Gnana.  Without getting rid of the ignorance and trying to get self-awareness through religion and yoga is like a sleeping man trying to know what he is about, without waking up. As sleep is to waking, so is ordinary life to the state of realization.

Mysticism, scriptural knowledge, penance based Scholasticism are great are great hindrance to self-realization. Inherited blind belief   with corresponding actions based on scriptures, worship, ritual faith which imply certain mental and physical discipline, or scripture supporting belief, faith, creed, ritual, theological knowledge personal or opinion leads to hallucinated knowledge.  All these become great hindrance in grasping understanding, assimilating and realizing the Advaitic or nondual truth.     

Scriptural mastery including ancient Sastras, Tarka, Samkhya disciplines to support Karmas & belief Bhakti Argument & interpretation with help of logic, grammar etc.to support beliefs, revelations, prayers etc. Also dogmas, theological or other based on authorities.

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.

Yoga, Silence, meditation, rituals and devotion are based on the false self and false experience does not yield truth one seeking for, because the truth is beyond false self (ego) and false experience (universe). Mysticism is based on individual experience. The self is not individual because the self, which s in the form of consciousness, pervades in everything and everywhere in all the three states. Blind beliefs without verification and argument and interpretation on the base of false self are not verified knowledge therefore it is not truth.

Deeper self-search revels the fact that, The soul(consciousness) ,body and world are one in essence therefore no second thing exists other than soul , which is in the form of consciousness.  Thus realizing all the three states as consciousness leads to self-awareness.

We have to grow from the inside out. None can teach us, none can make us spiritual. There is no other guru but our own soul.”

Self-knowledge or Atma Gnana or Brahma Gnana cannot be attained by one who is without strength or earnestness or without the receptiveness and courage to accept the truth and reject the untruth. If a serious seeker strives sincerely by means of inquiry, analysis and soulcentric reasoning, he will be able to realize it.

It is only seekers sincerity and earnestness in his spiritual pursuit, the knowledge started revealing on its own.  Anyone who has humility and patience and is sincere and ready to drop their accumulated dross and receptive to accept the truth will enter nondual Self-Awareness when his conviction becomes firm. 

‘I AM' is not Self and Self is not 'I AM'

Without overcoming the ignorance one is in the grip of form, time and space.  If self is in the grip of form, time and space, the duality will prevail as reality.   If duality prevails as reality the ignorance prevails.  If ignorance prevails the wisdom will not dawn.  Without wisdom detachment to attachment is impossibility. Liberation from experiencing duality as reality is absolutely impossible without Self-knowledge or Brahma Gnana or Atma Gnana. 

When one realizes the self is not ‘I’  or ‘I am’ but the self is the formless substance and witness of the ‘I’ or ‘I AM’ , he is freed from the attachment to result and then what ever he does it detached work. Similarly, when he recognizes that consciousness is everywhere and in everything in all the three states than that very recognition leads to a total dissolution of the ignorance and leads to self-awareness.

What is required is only nondual wisdom. All else follow. Without Self- Knowledge or Brahma Gnana or Atma Gnana self-awareness is impossible.  he feels he is the doer because of ignorance.  The doer ship and doing belongs to individuality. Individuality is falsehood from the ultimate standpoint because the self is not an individual entity; it pervades the whole of the illusion, which is in the form of the universe. universe appears as waking or dream(duality) and disappears as deep sleep(non-duality). 

Self is nothing more than a mental idea within the falsehood, how can one surrender to his own mental idea, as surrender itself means dropping of the inborn conditioning or samskara of ‘I’ or ‘I AM’ by realizing ‘I’ or I AM’ is not the self but the self is the soul. the soul is in the form of consciousness. Consciousness is the  formless substance and witness of the ‘I’ or ‘I AM’ is the true self. 'I' or 'I AM' is inborn conditioning or samskara.

‘I AM' is not Self and Self is not 'I AM'. 'I AM' is bound by form, time and space. Without the form, time and space 'I AM' cease to exist. Holding ' I Am as Self one remains in clutches of duality. When there is duality than there is ignorance. Ignorance is cause of experiencing the duality (illusion) as reality. The person who identifies Self as 'I AM' will not be able to cross the threshold of duality. There is no point in saying 'I AM' this or 'I AM THAT' because the 'self' is that which witness the 'I AM' and the world together without the physical apparatus.

Nothing works unless one knows the true self is not the form but formless consciousness. Once one knows the formless true self as it is, everything naturally falls in place. When one knows the formless true self, then he is free and automatically detached mentally from illusion, because there remains no second thing other than consciousness to get attached.

Self is the “Soul”. The soul is in the form of consciousness. The consciousness pervades in everything and everywhere in all the three states. Consciousness is essentially the Self Luminous in everything that exists in waking or dream because the consciousness is the formless substance and witness of the three states.

The consciousness is the cause of everything that exists and it itself is uncaused. The self is the soul.  The Soul is in the form of consciousness.  Thus consciousness is ultimate truth or Brahman, knowing which one is free from experiencing the duality as reality. 

One cannot speak of the known without the knower.

One cannot speak of the known without the knower. However, when the known has vanished, there is nothing to be said about the knower. The act of conceiving in thought demands two factors. One cannot conceive the Formless Witness, the seer or knower, because nothing can be said  about it, without making it an object. It cannot be pulled down to the level of the seen/known.

The duality between the  Formless Witness and Three states is not the same as the duality of two things in the objective world , for here both are known and seen, whereas there one is known; the Formless Witness remaining unknown and one  cannot make any statement about it. It is incomprehensible."

 If Formless Witness disappears, as does, the three states then it must posit another seer to replace it; but in fact, no one has ever seen its disappearance. Thus, it is erroneous to  use the word Formless Witness without the three states. It has no meaning apart from it.

Self is not a thing unknown to anyone at any time. The seeker has to think . As soon as a he becomes aware of himself and the world  he is in waking experience. Where was he and his world when he was in a dream or in deep sleep. When he was  not present in the dream, then what is that witnessed  the dream without his physical apparatus  and what is it that knows that he slept well,   therefore , there must be a knower there before in order to know the experiences within the three states.

The Formless Witness exists before the waking  appears; otherwise, neither knowledge nor sensation could happen. The Formless Witness is always there. Even if one  say it can be reached only at the end of a long path, it is impossible for it to be ever absent even while he  say this. The knower alone makes it possible for it to know anything at all.

Gnani says: “Though, thus quite self-evident, easily known, quite near, forming the self, the consciousness (soul or Atman) appears, to the unenlightened mind as unknown, very remote, as though he were a separate thing.

 Those who do not look at the  formless witness, and perceive it is the only thing that neither comes nor goes, are deluded, and turn outward towards the objective world which comes and goes. So long as the mind only runs from one object to another, from one idea to another within the waking , which is  impermanent and unreal, they ignore the  soul(Atman) and are ignorant. There is no patience for them to think about the formless  Witness. They are immersed in the worldly life believing it as reality.    

The formless  soul  when it  is immersed in illusion(waking nor dream) is  called mind! When it ceases to be immersed illusion  that is sinks back to its formless non dual true nature  it is then the soul. The formless  soul can be called as the formless  essence, the substance or material of the three states. The formless soul   is also called as the self, and the Seer, knower, formless witness. the formless soul is present in the form of consciousness. 

The formless substance  itself is the Formless Witness: it can never be seen. The form and name has nothing to do with the formless soul because everything is created out of one substance. Since one is habituated to view and judge and bifurcate  on the base of name and form , without being aware of the fact that every form and name bifurcates consciousness (soul) which is the whole.

  As a person one  knows nothing of the soul(Atman) directly.  Only when he starts verifying the fact about his own existence, he becomes aware of the fact that ,all the three states, which comes and goes; they  do not really exist. Nothing external  to the soul, the innermost self exists.  The one, which witnesses  the three states ,which  comes and goes,  is  the Formless Witness(soul); the three states are mere illusion on the standpoint of formless witness. To perceive this requires a special sharpness of mind.

The religion propagates that there is a separate soul or mind in each person ignores that Self is  only the seer of  the three states; take only the knowing aspect, and how does anyone differ therein from another person? It may see separate bodies but that does not prove that they contain separate seers.

The essence/substance of the mind is consciousness(soul). Consciousness(soul) is the true self.  The Self-means  the Soul. The three states originate from the soul. Hence, mind  is a created out of the soul.  Mind is mere illusion, because nothing exist in the mind other then the soul ,which is the consciousness or   spirit  Thus, the whole experience of diversity, which is of form and name has mere mirage, because it created out a  single substance which is soul(Atman). 

Consciously becoming aware of the soul( Atman) in the midst of the waking experience is non-dual Self-awareness.

The self is lying immersed in the sleep of ignorance of its formless nondual true nature and experiences the illusion as reality.  When it wakes up from the sleep of illusion, then the body and the universe will never again will prevail as reality because they are just illusion created out of the inner most self, which is in the form of consciousness.    A Gnani still remain absolutely unattached to the illusory reality in the midst of the illusory reality.

The ignorance is the cause of experiencing all sorrow and calamities as reality. Thus eradicating the ignorance completely is necessary. And this is possible only through self-knowledge.   Thus, there is no other road to freedom other than Gnana.  There is no other entrance other than except Gnana.  The ignorance will vanish only when the nondual wisdom dawns.

 Sage Sri Sankara, in Bhaja Govindam says: - [Jnana Viheena Sarva Mathena Bajathi na Muktim janma Shatena] - one without knowledge does not obtain liberation even in a hundred births, no matter which religious faith he follows.

 Detachment to attachment is impossible without wisdom. Only when one realizes the fact that, the self is not form but self is formless, than only it is possible to detach the ‘self’ from the false attachment. 

Man and his individual experience of the birth life and death are reality within the falsehood. Until one has a firm conviction he is an individual separate from the universe and universe existed prior to him, and he is born in it afterwards he will never be able to acquire nondual wisdom. Because of this reason he will not be able think beyond form, time and space.    Until this conviction is there all his views, judgments and conclusions are based on the false self within the false experience. Thus there is a need for overcoming this conviction by realizing the fact that the self is not form but self is formless. 

Anyone puts their hand in fire it is the universal experience that the nature of the fire is hot, and that even if a man says it is cold, the fact of heat remains. Same way the one who is aware of the three states in waking is aware of the awareness of the three states. The "three states" is the totality of man's experience, which gives one the dual and non-dual experiences. Waking experience is converted into idea. People do not want to go deeper.   They do not want to know what an idea is. Where has the deep sleep gone? It disappears as the soul(Atman) when waking takes place.  The whole experience of diversity(waking experience) disappears as the consciousness (soul or  Atman). That is the point. That the soul (Atman) is what the seeker of truth has to get at.

v  What is experience?

 It implies a second thing, i.e. duality. Unless one rise to a unity, he has no peace.

v  Why does man have wants, peace?

Because, he has sense of duality, which is the cause of experiencing the illusory pain and pleasure as reality

 Absence of experience, then whole experience of duality is converted into non-duality. When one knows that all the three states have merged into the formless soul the innermost self, and then there is nothing to experience because there is no second thing other than the soul (Atman).  

soul(Atman) creates and in which the creator is dissolved. "Awareness is self”. The three states are dissolved in the soul(Atman). The waking or dream is a mirage; the waking or dream gets merged in  the soul(Atman) in sleep.

The whole waking or dream is merged in  soul(Atman) in sleep, and then one gets the same position as soul, the innermost self unconsciously in deep sleep.  Consciously becoming aware of the soul( Atman) in the midst of the waking experience is non-dual  Self-awareness. 

A Gnani is neither believer nor an atheist. He does not say there is no God. He says the ultimate truth is God.

People suffer from the syndrome known as "identification", here identifying itself with the ego or physical self  to such an extent that no reasoning can dislodge it. Even the genius and lunatic suffer from this identification syndrome.

A Gnani is neither believer  nor an atheist. He does not say there is no God. He says the ultimate truth is God.  He means the  the formless soul, the innermost self is the ultimate truth or Brahman. The soul, the innermost self  which knows the negation of all the three states, is itself not negated.

Most people believe that following some doctrine, dogma or egotistical self-appointed "agent of God" makes them religious, when in fact following anything blindly without verifying the validity of their inherited belief leads to believe their inherited hallucination as reality.

Not being able to think to verify the validity of their belief is not a mark of great religious piety, but a sign of being cut off from knowing the reality of their true existence. No person blindly following the religious/yogic oriented life prescribed by a religious doctrine is close to the non-dual truth.

In fact, not knowing true self represents ignorance. Human experience and the world exist only in ignorance. Thus religious experiences which are based on ignorance have no value in the realm of nondual truth.

Till  the wisdom dawns one is caught up in the cycle of birth, life and death. Until soul becomes "self” the spiritual state of union with soul, one is still an ignorant, not a complete Gnani.

The whole point of  wisdom  is to create enlightened, awakened, a Gnanis who take responsibility for themselves and do not pass it off on any savoir, messiah or God men.

Religion causes one to become crippled, self-mortifying and self-deprecating is not a religion but a social system of controlling the masses through psychological deformation and retardation

One can think only within the waking experience. Therefore, even if one stop thinking he still remains man without the thoughts.  The thoughts will not form without form, feeling perception and mental formation and consciousness. If one of these things are not thee there no thoughts. The thoughts will not stop until one becomes aware of the fact that, the self  is formless.  It is impossible  to get rid of the form without understanding what is mind and what is substance of the mind. 

the formless soul, the innermost self when known becomes an object. The soul when realized, then it becomes consciousness. This is the distinction between knowing and realizing.

v  Where does the mind go?

 It has merges back as consciousness.

There is only one mind. Physical body, ego and world  are mere mirage on the standpoint of soul , the innermost self   or  universal mind. This explains how personal separateness is an illusion. Those who believe they will really die cannot understand the fundamental distinction between Formless Witness and three stats. If they did, they would know they could not die.

The soul, the innermost self pervades all the three states, as its formless substance and witness.  Thus  it is impossible for the witness  Self to become a physical self alone.  The soul, the innermost self is immortal not the physical body and the world, because the body and the world are part of the mirage. The formless substance and witness of the three states is immortal . The waking experience which contains man and the world is as unreal as the dream. 

No  one can   ever see the  formless witness of the three states  changing. The seen(three states) is ever changing, but not the Formless Witness. Birth, death, knower are idea characteristic of the Seen (Waking or dream) only. Where is the proof that the knower is subject to them? Should the pseudo-proof exist then the Formless Witness becomes only an object of thought, and is thus no more the formless witness. It never sees the birth or death of the knower. Senility and death it perceive only where there is an object. The Atman ’s senility or death is never seen. Thus Ataman is  immortal.

The second point to be learnt in subject(Formless Witness)  and object (Three states) Analysis is  one becomes aware of the fact that, the self is neither the waking entity nor the self is dream entity but the self is formless soul,which witnesses the coming and going of the three states.

It is the Self that is in illusion and it is the self that gets free from the bondage of the illusion. The illusion is present in the form of mind. Mind is in the form of universe. Universe appears as waking or dream and disappears as deep sleep.  The individual experiences of birth, life, death and the world are within the waking experience.  The dream is parallel waking experience and waking is parallel dream.

Deeper self-search reveals the fact that the, self is neither the waking entity nor the self is the dream entity but the self is formless soul, which witnesses the coming and going of the three states in succession without the physical apparatus.  This has to be mentally grasped and assimilated to realize the formless soul, the innermost   self is nothing to do with the three states. On the standpoint of the three states, the three states are mere illusion. 

  it is erroneous to view and judge and conclude  the truth on the base of the  ego or waking entity, which is the false self within the false experience.

If one has to understand the soul, the innermost self than he  must first understand Mind,which is present in the form of universe. Religionists mistake mind as being separate from the soul This is only true in preliminary of inquiry. In pursuit of truth  one  knows and begin with only two things--mind and substance of the mind. When he reaches the stage of unity of things, then the substance of the  mind (consciousness) becomes the Self and there is no second thing exist other than consciousness. 

Religionists distinction between mind and matter is incorrect. Gnani  further goes  and says mind itself is matter, and matter/mind is an object to the formless  self.  and he separates the knower or the seer from mind(three states) which is an object. Formless Witness and three states are ultimately consciousness, because they are one in essence.

One has never seen the birth of the Formless Witness, (soul or consciousness) as it sees the birth of the three states, so it is not possible to say that it is mortal, it is birth less and deathless. There is no such thing as knowing the knower.

 That knowledge implies two factors, and the knower not being something to be seen, can never be known as such. When one  speaks of relation, he  deals only with the known Waking or dream. When the known goes, one says that because he actually see the known going; but he can never see the knower go. He  can only say, "he  do not know" about it.