Non-duality is taught by some; some others teach duality. They don't understand that the all-pervading Reality is beyond both duality and non-duality.

Dattatreya's Song of the Avadhut 1.36-42:- Non-duality is taught by some; some others teach duality. They don't understand that the all-pervading Reality is beyond both duality and non-duality.

When the ultimate truth is rightly known and one attains eternal life thereby. Through soul, the innermost self he gains strength and through its knowledge immortality.

 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.

No one has ever seen the coming and going of the universe, which is in the form of the mind, because he exists within the universe. All individual experiences happen within the universe, which is mind.    The mind or universe appears as waking or dream and disappear as deep sleep. The formless substance of the universe or mind is always present in all the three states. Cities and people   may multiply in one’s dream, but the mind itself does not therefore increase or gain. Yet the cities and people are none other than the Mind-Stuff itself.  Thus universe or mind is mere illusion on the standpoint of the formless substance, which is consciousness. 

When one regards three states as an object, then he must know that there is a formless subject which sees or knows them. In this sense only do we think of the formless witness. Hence object is a necessity in order to point to the existence of the formless witness. When one does not regard objects as objects he loses the knowledge that there is a formless subject.

People cannot think of the Mind without some object, thought etc. contained in it; they cannot believe in consciousness apart from the contents of consciousness. People regard objects only as material. One has to regard the thoughts and experience also as part of the object, because they are part of the three states, which are an object to the formless subject.

 The ignorant have no idea of a subject and hence never seeks for it.

Only by discrimination between real and unreal mentally the truth will be revealed. It means separating subject from object mentally.

Being means a thing is. How does one know his body and the universe exist? How does he know about his thoughts? It is the witness that gives him the idea of being but he is unaware of the fact that the he exists within the universe and his thoughts and his individual experiences are happening within the universe, which is an object to the formless subject. 

Scientists think only of the universe and they think man is the subject and everything else is an object; the thought that such a thing as the formless witness also exists never strikes them.

One has to give up whatever object, idea or thought he has, and then only he realizes the ultimate truth. When one gives up the mind or the universe ('I') he gets non-dualistic or Advaitic truth. One has to detach mentally from the mind or universe by realizing the formless witness is the true self, which is in the form of consciousness. 

The self is fullness of consciousness. Therefore, there is nothing apart from it.

Mundaka Upanishad 1:2:8:- “Remaining in the fold of ignorance and thinking “we are extremely wise and learned,” the fools with boastful nature ramble about like the blind led by the blind alone.” 

People think that, more they think, the more they will get; but it is really an error. It remains only a thought and gives them back only thoughts.  Anything seen, observed, cannot be the Self or the Witness.

Consciousness (soul) is the substance and the witness of the duality.  The duality is present in the form of mind. 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 non-dual 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

Consciousness is the shoreless Non-dual Ocean. Consciousness is beyond form, time and space. Consciousness is beyond instinct, intellect, imagination and inspiration. It is unconscious of its true nature when it is in illusion. Only beyond illusion it is in its true nature.

All the accumulated knowledge, experiences and understanding based on physical self (ego or waking entity)  are falsehood based on the false self, within the false experience (waking).   Thus, whatever is based on the waking entity is bound to be falsehood because waking experience itself is false hood.   Since many teachers and teachings are based on the false self (ego or body as Self) and they consider the false experience (three states) as reality, they are incapable of grasping the witness, which is within the three states, but it is without the three states.

 Thus, the formless knower of the three states has to be grasped mentally and realize the fact that, all the three states, which comes and goes, are mental.  They are impermanent. The formless witness or knower of the three states is permanent and eternal.  Therefore, there is a need to understand “What is Mind?” and “What is the substance of the Mind?” in order to understand and assimilate the non-dual truth.

 The Shruti has directly denied manifoldness in Brahman. The non-dual cause being an established fact, how could the phenomenal universe be different from It?  

The Shruti has condemned (the belief in variety) in the words, “The person who”, being deceived by Maya, “sees variety in this (Brahman), goes from death to death”.

Inasmuch as all beings are born of Brahman, the supreme Atman, they must be understood to be verily Brahman.

The Shruti has clearly declared that Brahman alone is the substratum of all varieties of names, forms and actions.

The Shruti in the form of the Brihadaranyaka has declared that this Atman, which is the Self of all, is verily Brahman.

 For this one has drop all his accumulate knowledge, which he is using as a yardstick and lands himself in pursuit of argument without reaching anywhere.  One has to think deeper and analyse and verify everything and accept only un-contradictable truth.  Nothing has to be accepted as truth because some great thinker says it or I am saying it.   

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 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 the world are an object, and goes, but the subject or the knower of the body and the universe, can never go. The 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 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.

 Sri Ramana Maharishi Says:-  The self is fullness of consciousness. Therefore, there is nothing apart from it.

 

The duality is reality on the standpoint of the false self (ego or body as Self).  The duality is a mere mirage 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 teacher, nor student in the realm of truth.  

The Ultimate truth or Brahman is universal it not the property of any religion.

The formless soul. which is present in the form the consciousness is everything. Thus consciousness is ultimate truth or Brahman.  There is no second thing but consciousness, whereas to say "God is in me" is mysticism.

Gnanic bliss is non-dual. Self-awareness is Gnanic bliss. . In self-awareness  there is no enjoyer present to enjoy it, or to distinguish it from misery. The yogi reveals only in 'bliss' that is experienced i.e. that comes and goes, but he is not Gnanic.

Gnanic peace will be disturbed only if one recognizes a second. Hence the yogic peace is temporary: the only enduring peace belongs to the sages of truth for it is non-dual.

Dualist or realists could not distinguish between ‘I’ and ‘formless witness.’  They take ‘I’ as self or witness. Their highest is to say I AM THAT without verification. They are so much attached to the 'I' that they do not want to think that 'I' does not exist. Again one is unable to detach the ‘I’ from the Real witness, which is ever formless.  Dualists’ sages foolishly hold that the “I” still persist in deep sleep; but he can't prove it.

Rig-Veda says: - “Truth is one; the wise call it many names”.

The Ultimate truth or Brahman  is universal it not the property of any religion. Religions in the past have been scared with inter religious conflicts that, to this day cause distress and devastation around the world.  Until there is self-knowledge or self-realization there will never be peace. Everyone will be thinking the false self as truth self and false experience as reality and the violence will continue in the name of god and religion, which are part of the illusion.

Unity in diversity is not possible through religion. This universal brotherhood is an impossibility through religion.  Thus there is a need to bifurcate religious, yogic and all theoretical paths based   on the false self [ego] to realize the ultimate truth, because the truth lies beyond the mind, which is in the form universe.  Until and unless one is able to trace the source of the mind from where it erupts and subsides truth realization is impossible.   Therefore, realizing the fact that, the self is not form but self is formless in order understand and assimilate and realize the nondual truth. Without the nondual wisdom the experience of duality will remain as reality. Without realizing the duality is unreal unity in diversity is impossible. 

All the accumulated knowledge of religion and yoga and paths and theories are mere dross in pursuit of truth. Religion and yoga are helpful for the mass and the society but they are obstacles in unfolding the mystery of the mind.

Even Upanishad says:

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. (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 –page-70)

When the Upanishads say, it is attained by him alone whom it chooses. To such a one Atman reveals its own form.  Then what is the use of indulging through our intelligence or our accumulated knowledge, when one is not chosen by the self, which is the soul, which is in the form of consciousness.

Even in the Buddhism: - Buddhist teaching has itself become a kind of interactive and self-evolving process, much like its idea of pratityasamutpada. However, the end goal is still Nirvana, which is an experience ultimately beyond all concepts and language, even beyond the Buddhist teachings. In the end even the attachment to the Dharma, the Buddhist teaching, must be dropped like all other attachments. The tradition compares the teaching to a raft upon which one crosses a swift river to get to the other side; once one is on the far shore; there is no longer any need to carry the raft. The far shore is Nirvana, and it is also said that when one arrives, one can see quite clearly that there was never any river at all.

 The scriptures and theories and teaching based on the ego are not the yardstick. Using them as yardstick to understand and assimilate the truth will lead one towards the pursuit of arguments. Seeker of truth has to discover on his own, the truth of his true existence by inquiring “what is mind?” and “what is the substance of the mind?” and move forward.  

The ultimate truth is one without the second, the one is not in the sense half or two, but the one that remains forever One, without the second.  The consciousness is all pervading. There is no place where consciousness is not.

Consciousness is in everyone, consciousness is in everything .Consciousness is one behind many. Consciousness alone is. It means the universe is the visible form of consciousness. Formless and colorless  consciousness’s creative and impulsive imagination to know itself as omnipresent, infinite and eternal. And consciousness in turn invisible form of the universe.

  

 Since not all people are aware of the fact that, they are an experience within another experience (waking or dream). The mind is an experience, which contains everyone and everything and the universe. Since one limits the mind to the physical entity, he forgets the fact that, his body and the universe are an experience, within waking or dream experience. It is impossible to unfold the mystery of his true existence without realizing the fact that, the self is not physical but the self is  formlesss consciousness.   If the self is not physical then it is erroneous to judge and conclude the truth on the base of the physical self or ego. Thus the truth has to be judged on the base of the formless soul, the innermost self. 

Without  rectifying  the reasoning  base from form to formless the truth will not be revealed.

On the standpoint of the formless soul, the innermost self:-

There is nothing to accept,
Nothing to reject,
Nothing to hold on to,
Nothing to let go of,
Nothing to grasp,
Nothing to spurn,
Nothing to embrace,
Nothing to relinquish,
Nothing to dissolve.