The dualist sages approach was more practical, and they stuck with the reality of the world***

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.  The 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. : ~ Santthosh Kumaar 

The nature of the formless soul, the innermost self is non-dualistic silence. Non-dualistic silence is like deep sleep state.  The silence indicates that the nature of the formless soul, the innermost self is in inexplicable, indescribable and unimaginable.  The formless soul, the innermost self is the one without a second. There is not the least shadow of multiplicity in the formless soul, which is present in the form of  the consciousness." 

 A   person, seeing a rope in dim light, mistakes it for a snake. He is as much frightened as he would have been if there had been a real snake there.  The snake is said to have ‘illusory reality’.  The illusory snake is described as a superimposition on the rope. The snake is not real, because, it is found on examination with a light that it never existed there. At the same time, it was experienced as reality till ignorance prevailed. Similarly, this waking experience experienced as reality due to ignorance. When the  wisdom dawns,  then the unreal nature of the waking experienced is exposed.

At the dawn of Self-knowledge or Brahma Gnana or Atma Gnana the waking experience has no existence apart from consciousness. Consciousness is ultimate truth or Brahman. The waking experience is therefore said to be superimposed on consciousness same way as the dream is superimposed on the consciousness.  The waking experience is the practical   reality,  because  it  is  real  until  the  attainment  of  Self-realization. The soul or the  consciousness alone has absolute reality; because it is absolutely changeless because it is formless.       

Maya and Brahman, Jagat (world) and lshvara (creator), Guru (teacher) and Shishya (disciple), the holy rituals, traditions, the three worlds, the three bodies and so forth are reality within the illusory duality.  This seeming duality is a hypothesis, not to establish the duality, but to disprove it. Advaitic or the non-dualistic truth has nothing to do with the illusory duality. The formless soul  is present in the form of consciousness is ultimate truth or Brahman. The  consciousness   is neither dual nor non-dual.  Some orthodox claim that, the  Atman is dual, some that  the Atman is non-dual; they do not know the ultimate truth. 

The Atman or soul is beyond  duality and non-duality". The seeker has to realize the fact that, the duality is reality only on the standpoint of the waking entity or ego. One thinks that he is an individual separate from the world and the world existed prior to him and he is born in it afterwards. Till this conviction is there he will not be able to grasp the Advaitic or the non-dualistic truth. 

The soul or the consciousness is that which knows everything, that which sees. The consciousness alone remains after one gets rid of ignorance. The consciousness is only the witness; it is not the  ultimate truth that is an error. It becomes the  ultimate truth or Brahman only after the  deeper inquiry.

 The dualist sages approach was more practical, and they stuck with the reality of the world, they took it as real.

The dualist sages are unaware on what standpoint the world is real and on what standpoint the world is unreal. 

The world is real,  because it is a manifestation of  the consciousness, but is unreal, in the sense, that it is not absolute and eternal like  the consciousness itself. Thus, the  from the ultimate standpoint the world is unreal. Therefore,  whatever seen, known, believed and experienced as a person within the practical world,  is bound to be unreal,  from the ultimate standpoint. 

Dualist sages could not distinguish between ‘I’ and ‘formless witness.’ The 'I' was the witness. Their highest was the Jiva. One is so much attached to the 'I' that he does not want to think that 'I' does not exist. Again one is unable to detach the ‘I’ from the Real witness. 

The dualist object:~ If everything else is false then   the statement I am   Brahman is itself false, the but when one says non-duality is false, there must be the awareness, consciousness, behind the very statement. You will also go, die. One has to rely upon that which is permanent. The soul, the  formless witness of the ‘I’ alone is permanent. The 'I'  is  the  witnessed (waking) . the soul or the consciousness is prior to anything that exist.

One knows of no changes in the consciousness; he knows only the changes in what is perceived by the consciousness. When one realizes the nature of consciousness he knows the Real can never change, hence never die. Birth, life, Death and the world are reality   only in the region of the "duality."  The duality is an object to the formless subject. 

That of which one is aware and which is nearer to him is the formless witness, which is the innermost self. Yet no statement can be made about it. All words will concern ideas about it, i.e. witnessed --never the formless witness. 

Without the individual self or ego one could never think. Through such thinking one is able to prove the existence of Atman, for the individual is finally identical with the Atman because the individual and experience of the world is created out of the  Atman which is in the form of  the consciousness.  If the unchanging had also been changing, then the fact of change would never be perceptible to us. The formless witness or consciousness never alters and is thus the true witness. 

The formless witness or consciousness is immortal because it is formless awareness.  One sees changes always within waking or dream. One never sees it in formless witness because he never sees formless witness. Thus, the  mortality cannot be ascribed to Formless witness as we do to witnessed. Everything of which one is aware as a person within the waking is an illusion. As the person or ego is something of which one is aware under certain conditions, it too is an illusion. 

Whatever one says as a person perceiving the world within the waking experience about ultimate truth or Brahman, it is only an idea, i.e. a duality. Reason when applied to duality one can grasp it,  but he can never grasp the formless witness. Reason can show mentally the existence of the formless witness, but it cannot grasp it. This is the limit of reason. But the Formless witness is always there; it cannot be known, or understood because knowing implies a second thing. But in all acts of knowledge, the formless witness or consciousness is there when one is thinking; he is therefore seeking ultimate truth or Brahman. Hence Brahman is known only in idealessness. 

 It is impossible to be free from consciousness, for it is impossible for any thought to arise without it. One must analyze himself and see that whenever there is it waking experience, there must be that formless witness which is aware of it. When one sees this, he knows the consciousness the innermost self. Analyzing formless witness (soul or consciousness) and witnessed (mind or the universe)is so fundamental and so difficult.