The non-dual Atman is realized when the individual self is awakened from its ignorance***

Sage Sri, Gaudapada: - The non-dual Atman is realized when the soul the innermost self is awakened from its ignorance. Atman is unborn, dreamless, sleepless, and motionless, and is beyond duality. It is cognition at its purest. It is Brahman- Ayam Atma Brahma, this Atma is that Brahma; Thus epitomizing the core of Upanishad teachings.

There is no moment when the soul or   the  consciousness does not exist, nor can the witness remains apart from consciousness because the consciousness itself is the witness. 

A Gnani does not see his body as  the body, his ego as  the ego and his experience of the world as the world, but he sees them all as  the consciousness. the soul or the consciousness  is the innermost self. He sees the consciousness   like a jeweller estimating gold in various ornaments. For a Gnani the whole universe including his body and his ego is nothing,  but the consciousness.  Thus, he is fully aware of the fact that there is no diversity in reality, but there is only unity.      

The soul seems to be different from the ego or the waking entity,  because it is prior to the appearance of anything that exists, but they are one in essence. The soul is not an entity or identity or a thing within the universe, which appears as  the waking or  the dream. The soul, which is in the form of the  consciousness, is the very basis of the three states , because it pervades in everything and everywhere in all the three states,  as their formless substance and  the witness.  Thus, the universe or the  mind is  the consciousness in its substance.

The soul is only a mental picture or an idea within the waking experience. Even if one say that,  the self is immortal and exist eternally, it the ego or  the waking entity,  that must tell him this, i.e. to the mind that,  it is only an idea.

Ego never reaches  the soul or the consciousness. The ego never knows it. He who says he has a vision of the highest or describes it as supra-mental etc. does not understand  the consciousness, because it is free from imaginations.  It is free from imagination,  because it is formless. To imagine anything the form has to be there.  Without the form there is no ego. Without the ego there is no thinker. Without the thinker the imagination is  impossible. 

Ordinarily knowledge arises from experience of the object by  the subject; that all knowledge of objects will only lead to more thinking,  but never gives you the  ultimate reality.

Intellectuals think by thinking more and more of objective experience one may get the reality. The intellectuality is based on individuality and individuality is based on the form. When the self is not the form, but self is the  formless consciousness, then what is the use of thinking on the base of the form, which is the false self (you)  within the false experience(waking).It is impossible to know and realize nondualistic reality, without rectifying the reasoning base.

Intellectuals can never get at ultimate truth that way because it leads to endless thoughts and because it ignores the formless witness of the three states, intellectuals must first realize the existence of the formless witness,  in order to find the ultimate reality or Brahman.