Sacrifices and humanitarian works or Good or bad conducts are not a yardstick to judge the ultimate truth or Brahman.*****

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 

Yoga is practiced on the base of the false self(waking entity or ego) therefore; yoga cannot yield the non-dualistic or Advaitic truth***

People dip into meditation, but they do not understand that that is only one-half of the truth and that this dipping is also a mental discipline to for them to understand the true nature of the external universe, which understanding they must next get if they are to become a Gnani.

Bhagavad Gita (Chap.XII) Krishna tells Arjuna:~ Knowledge of both matter and spirit is the True knowledge. One is living in the body, which is the world, and he has to eat and move and work in the external environment. One cannot get away from it. It is his life.

Therefore,he ought to know, understand and grasp its meaning. A person who refuses to do so is refusing to face the whole of reality.

Sage Sri, Sankara says: - Yoga is not the means of liberation (page 132-133 of his commentary on Brihadaranyakopanishad).

Meditation is not the means to Self –Knowledge or Brahma Gnana or Atma Gnana. Meditation is not the goal itself. It is an important and useful tool to quiet the body, the mind, and emotions and allow one to enter a deep and quiet state of mind. Once the turbulent tendencies of the body or ego and emotions are brought into harmony, clarity and renewed strength are available to meet and overcome each life challenge as it presents itself. Meditation will not eliminate our life challenges but can enable us to harmonize our body, mind, emotions and spirit and to focus that energy like a powerful beam of light on the challenges that lie ahead in worldly life. 

When one sits down to meditate, he is thinking first of sitting, i.e. his body; then he tries to have only had the thoughts of getting rid of the thoughts, with the thoughts of getting rid of the thought.  Thus, he is thinking as a person within the world.  Thus,he remains as a person practicing meditation, thinking the ego alone is illusory, and the rest (universe) is  a reality within the illusion.  He only thinks of the object, within the object, as an object.  But he is never aware of the formless subject.  

Ashtavakra says: - "This is your bondage, that you practice Samadhi or meditation.”

When one puts aside the imagination and has the thinker-- what does he get with thinking—he can get only a thoughts. Meditation is only an effort; it is imagination, an idea; the soul,which is present in the form of consciousness   remaining the same with or without ideas.

As a person perceiving the world, one is unaware of the fact that, he and his experience of the world are within the object.  He as a person is completely unaware of the fact that, he is not the subject at all. The subject is formless and it is apart from the three states.  The subject is not an entity or identity within the three states.   Therefore, judging the truth on the base of the object as self is erroneous.  Such judgment leads to all sorts of speculation, doubts, and confusions.  

When one is absorbed in thinking of anything then he is thinking within the object (mind) that which witnesses all these three states is within, but always apart.

As a thinker, he gets only thoughts.  The thinker and thoughts are part of the illusion. Whenever there are thoughts and experiences, there is the duality (mind). Where there is the duality (mind) there is always ignorance. Where there is ignorance there is an illusion.  The duality, mind, and ignorance illusion are one and the same thing and they appear together and disappear.  The ignorance vanishes when the wisdom dawns.

The knower of the three states is within the three states, but it is   formless and apart from the three states.  

The whole universe and people and all its contents are within the mind.  The truth is hidden within the mind, but it is without the mind. As a Man, one thinks the mind is within the physical body, but the truth is the body and the universe are within the mind. Until this mistake is rectified to get the now -dual truth is an impossibility.  

Man thinks he is an individual separate from the world within the mind which appears as waking or dream and disappears as deep sleep. Therefore, one has to analyze the three states in order to realize the witness of the three states is formless and apart from the three states.   Thus, the man is not the witness of the three states. Realizing this fact, it is erroneous to judge the truth on the waking entity.

It is impossible to trace the mind within the physical body because the physical body and the world are within the mind.  The idea of the multiplicity of mind cannot be accepted. The dream appears as a whole with the dream entity, with people and dream world.   The dream is witnessed as whole without the physical apparatus.  The same witness witnesses the waking and deep sleep as a whole.  This truth has to be grasped to realize the fact that, the waking entity is not the witness of the three states. Only when this truth is grasped, then it becomes easier to assimilate the Self-Knowledge or Brahma Gnana or Atma Gnana.  

Therefore, how the meditation or Samadhi or any other practice can yield the fruit, when the waking entity is not the self and the true self is the witness of the three states, not waking experience  alone. This truth has to be grasped to rectify the mistake, which keeps one in the grip of duality makes him experience the duality as reality.  

Only when to become aware of the fact that, the waking entity is not the self, it becomes easier to understand the illusion. The form, time and space are within the mind.  The knower of the form, time and space, is formless, timeless and spaceless existence. Therefore, when the meditator comes out of meditation, he again confronts the form, time and space.  But for a Gnani without meditation, he is aware of the fact that, the form, time and space as consciousness,  and he is conscious of consciousness within the realm of form, time and space.  

All the actions and moments are happening within the mind.  In the realm of truth, there is neither action nor the moment. When the mind itself is an illusion on the standpoint of its formless substance, which is consciousness, then all the contents of the mind are bound to be an illusion.

 The idea of multiple souls is an unproven hypothesis. To say that each mind is different is unproven because no one has ever seen the mind. No one can say where it starts and stops, no one can measure its thickness, and all claims are mere supposition, not proof.

Yoga is practiced on the base of the false self(waking entity or ego)  therefore; yoga cannot yield the non-dualistic or Advaitic truth.  Everything that one practices on the false self is part of the illusion. It yields only relative truth, i.e. true from a particular viewpoint, not ultimate truth.