Sacrifices and humanitarian works or Good or bad conducts of a person is not a yardstick to judge the ultimate truth or Brahman. The spiritual journey is a personal journey. It is better to verify the claims made in the teachings and highlight in what way the teachings are inadequate useless, instead of highlighting the personal life of the spiritual personalities.
Most of the spiritual teachers or gurus of the past and present are involved in some controversies or other. It is better to concentrate on the subject matter of the teachings and do research on it, and accept only the uncontradictable truth in their teachings and reject what is not the truth, rather than focusing attention on the personal life of the author of the teaching.
Personal conduct cannot be used as a yardstick in pursuit of truth. All the societal or religious code of conduct is meant for the physical plane. Deeper inquiry and reasoning reveals the fact that the waking entity (you) is not the self, but the true self is the formless soul, therefore, one has to view and judge the truth on the base the formless soul, in order to acquire nondual wisdom.
Mundaka Upanishad:~Ignorant fools, regarding sacrifices and humanitarian works as the highest, do not know any higher good. Having enjoyed their reward on the heights of heaven, gained by good works, they enter again this world or a lower one. - First Mundaka -10- Chapter I [Source: "the Upanishads - a new translation" by swami nikhilananda in four volumes]
The whole universe in which we exist is dependent on the soul for its existence. Thus, it is erroneous to view and judge the truth on the base of ‘waking entity’ or ‘ego’, which is the false self within the false experience(waking). Thus, it is necessary to know the true self is not ‘waking entity or ego’, but the formless soul or consciousness, in order to understand, assimilate, and realize the ultimate truth or Brahman.
It is erroneous to view and judge the ultimate truth, on the base of the false self, within the false experience, without verifying the facts about our present experience of form, time and space are mere illusion. Whatever viewed and judged on the false self (waking entity) within the false experience (waking) is bound to be a falsehood. Thus, it is necessary to have the mental yardstick realize ‘what is real’ and ‘what unreal’, and to mentally accept the truth and reject the untruth.
On the standpoint of the Soul or consciousness, the innermost self, the mind is mere illusion. The mind is present in the form of the whole universe. The universe appears as waking or dream (duality) and disappears as deep sleep (Nonduality).
Whatever has seen, known, believed experienced as a person within the world is a reality within the waking experience. But waking experience is bound to be falsehood because the waking entity is not the self. The self is the soul or consciousness. The consciousness is the formless substance and witness of the three states. Consciousness is real and eternal.
By adopting orthodox lifestyle and orthodox code of conducts are meant for the religious people. And religion is nothing to do with Self-Knowledge or Brahma Gnana or Atma Gnana because religion is part of the illusion. Thus, individual conducts are reality nothing to do with the path of wisdom. Therefore; it cannot be accepted as a qualification to Self-Knowledge or Brahma Gnana or Atma Gnana.
Sage Sri, Sankara:~ VC- Let erudite scholars quote all the scripture, let gods be invoked through sacrifices, let elaborate rituals be performed, let personal gods be propitiated---yet, without the realization of one‘s identity With the Self, there shall be no liberation for the individual, not even in the lifetimes of a hundred Brahmas put together (6)
It is clear that the liberation cannot be the result of good works, for Sruti itself declares that there is no hope for immortality by means of wealth. (7)
Actions help to purify the mind, but they do not, by themselves, contribute to the attainment of Reality. The attainment of the Reality brought about only by Self Inquiry and not in the least by even ten million acts. (11)
The fear and sorrow created by the delusory serpent in the rope can be ended only after fully ascertaining the truth of the rope through steady and balanced thinking. (12)
Neither sacred baths nor any amount of charity nor even Hundreds of pranayamas* can give us the knowledge about our own Self. The firm experience of the nature of the Self is seen to proceed from inquiry along the lines of the salutary advice of the wise. (13)
Ultimate success in spiritual endeavors depends chiefly upon the qualifications of the seeker. Auxiliary conveniences such as time And place all have a place indeed, but they are essentially secondary. (14)
He alone is considered qualified to enquire after the supreme Reality, who has discrimination, detachment, qualities of Calmness, etc., and a burning desire for liberation. The four-fold qualifications (17)
Until and unless one learns to view, judge and reason the three states on the base of formless Soul, the Self, the truth will not be revealed. :~Santthosh Kumaar
