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. 

Sage Sri, Sankara says:~ "This Atman is Self-evident***

Sage Sri, Sankara has declared Advaitic truth centuries back.  The seeker has   to reach the inner destination with soulcentric reasoning.    Until one mentally reaches the final conclusion and the conviction of the truth, which is beyond the form, time and space, the Advaitic wisdom, will not dawn. Without realizing the fact that, the Self is not the ‘I’ but the Self is ‘I-LESS Soul, the truth will not reveal. The Soul, which is present in the form of the consciousness, is the ultimate truth or Brahman.  

The Soul, which is present in the consciousness, is real and eternal and all else is a myth, which Sage Sri, Sankara declared as the world is myth Brahman alone is real.

It is no use arguing Buddha is wrong or Sage Sri Sankara is right, but the seeker has to find out where he is going wrong in his understanding of the nondualistic or Advaitic   truth, what is blocking him to realize the truth propagated by the great Sages of the past.  The seeker has to find out what are the obstacles?

Some say, that without the Sunyavada, Advaita philosophy could not have come into existence because Advaita starts from where Sunyavada ends. That is why they say it is the extension of Buddhism. If Advaita existed prior to Buddha, he would not have advocated Sunyavada at all because Advaita is final and the ultimate truth.

Since the Buddhist and the Vedic scriptures have been passed down by hearing, they were written down only relatively late, so one wouldn't know whether to rely on the times they give. Also, a lot depends on the translation. Each 'Sloka' or sutta is open to many layers of interpretation.

Sage Sri, Sankara said:~Talk as much philosophy as you like, worship as many Gods as you please, observe ceremonies and sing devotional hymns, but liberation will never come, even after a hundred aeons, without realizing the Oneness.

Sage Sri, Sankara himself had often said that his philosophy was based on Sruti or revealed scripture.  This may be because Sage Sri, Sankara addressed the ordinary man, who finds security in the idea of causality and thus in the idea of God—and Revelation is indispensable to prove the latter.  He believed that those of superior intelligence, have no need of this idea of divine causality, and can, therefore, dispense with Sruti and arrive at the truth of Non-Dualism by pure reason. 

Sage Sri, Sankara’s supreme Brahman is Nirguna (without the Gunas), Nirakara (formless), Nirvisesha (without attributes) and Akarta (non-agent). He is above all needs and desires.

 Sage Sri, Sankara says:~  "This Atman is Self-evident. This Atman or Self is not established by proofs of the existence of the Self. It is not possible to deny this Atman, for it is the very essence of he who denies it. The Atman is the basis of all kinds of knowledge. 

The Self is within, the Self is without, the Self is before and the Self is behind. The Self is on the right hand, the Self is on the left, the Self is above and the Self is below".

Satyam-Jnanam-Anantam-Anandam,  are not separate attributes. They form the very essence of Brahman. Brahman cannot be described because description implies the  distinction. Brahman cannot be distinguished from any other than He.

The objective world-the world of names and forms have no independent existence. The Atman alone has real existence. The world is only phenomenal.

Sage Sri, Sankara was the exponent of the Advaitic truth. His wisdom  can be summed up in the following words:~

Brahma Satyam Jagat Mithya,

Jeevo Brahmaiva Na Aparah

Brahman alone is real, this world is unreal; the Jiva is identical with Brahman.

The critics who declare Sage Sri, Sankara's philosophy as negative (because of his Neti, Neti) do not know that this is applied only to the witnessed (three states), the critic ignorantly believes that it is also applied to the formless witness (Soul). The seeker should never negate the formless witness, only the witnessed.

The Advaitic wisdom is nothing to do with the Advaitic orthodoxy.  The orthodoxy meant for the ignorant populace whereas the wisdom is meant for those who are seeking the higher truth.

According to Advaita Vedanta, the Veda addresses itself to two kinds of audiences - the ordinary ones who desire the transitory heaven and other pleasures obtained as a result of ritual sacrifices, and the more advanced seeker who seeks to know Brahman. Thus, the purva mimam.sa, with its emphasis on the karma kanda of the Vedas, is meant for the first audience, to help lead its followers along the way. However, the Vedanta, with its emphasis on the jnana kanda, is meant for those who wish to go beyond such transient pleasures.

There is a need to do deeper Self-search in order to know the true essence of Advaitic wisdom propounded by Sage Sri, Sankara and Sage Sri, Goudpada and emptiness of the Buddha.

In Brahma Sutras Sage Sri, Sankara says that Brahman is the cause of the world, whereas in Mandukya he denies it. This is because he says that at the lower stage of understanding, the former teaching must be given, for people will get frightened as they cannot understand how the world can be without a cause, but to those in a higher stage, the truth of non-causality can be revealed.

Brahma Sutras, i.e. "Vedanta Sutras" by Badarayana, are intended for those of middling intellects, not for those who have the best brains:  it is a semi-theological, semi-philosophical work; it starts with the assumption that Brahman exists.

The opening sentence is "All this is Brahman." But nobody knows or has seen Brahman.

If one says "All this is gold" and show a piece of gold, the words are understandable. Suppose one has never seen gold. Then what is the use it becomes meaningless when the object indicated is seen by none.

Hence, the Brahma Sutra opening is equivalent to "All this is Brahman". Both have no meaning so long as they are not understood if we take them as the data to start from. It is for this reason, the Brahma Sutra is intended for theological mindsets because it begins with dogma although its reasoning is close. For it starts with something imagined.

The critics who declare Sage Sri, Sankara's philosophy as negative (because of his Neti, Neti) do not know that this is applied only to the witnessed (three states), the critic ignorantly believes that it is also applied to the formless witness (Soul). The seeker should never negate the formless witness(Soul), only the witnessed(I).