The guru is necessary only in religious and yogic paths, but guru is not necessary in pursuit of truth.

There is really no separate form when one inquiries into the matter; but separateness exists for those who do not inquire but accept appearances. One may say I am a white; he is a black. But there is no difference between the bodies in reality. Everyone exists in each other’s waking experience. And waking experience is created out of single substance, which is the consciousness and it is  the true self.

The soul is the source of the experience of diversity [waking/dream]. Therefore soul pervades in everything and everywhere in the three states, as their formless substance and witness. Thus, there is no second thing exists, other than the soul, because everything is created, sustained and finally dissolves as Atman, which is in the form of consciousness, thus consciousness alone is ultimate reality. That is why Sri,Sankara said: Atman itself is Brahman.  That is consciousness is ultimate truth.  

 It is immaterial what ideas one may have of the universe. Anything that one says is only an illusion, because he saying it within the duality [illusion]. The Atman only witnesses. One may be president of prime minster or god men, but when their waking disappears than the soul[consciousness]  becomes naked and non-dual.

Non dual truth is reasoned and proved truth; mysticism relies on personal experience as truth; scholasticism takes personal interpretation as truth yogi thinks his Samadhi as ultimate truth.    Path of wisdom aims at the unification of the whole experience of diversity. Scholasticism is an excellent exercise for the mind but not as a means to truth. 

The argument that any teacher or mystic or priest has got so many followers and therefore there must be some truth in their teaching, is a fallacy. It proves only what I am often saying, that any fool can find a number of greater fools to follow him.

That is why Sri, Sankara says in Viveka Chudamani:- 

58. Loud speech consisting of a shower of words, the skill in expounding the Scriptures, and likewise erudition - these merely bring on a little personal enjoyment to the scholar, but are no good for Liberation.

59. The study of the Scriptures is useless so long as the highest Truth is unknown, and it is equally useless when the highest Truth has already been known.

60. The Scriptures consisting of many words are a dense forest which merely causes the mind to ramble. Hence men of wisdom should earnestly set about knowing the true nature of the Self.

61. For one who has been bitten by the serpent of Ignorance, the only remedy is the knowledge of Brahman. Of what avail are the Vedas and (other) Scriptures, Mantras (sacred formulae) and medicines to such a one?

62. A disease does not leave off if one simply utter the name of the medicine, without taking it; (similarly) without direct realisation one cannot be liberated by the mere utterance of the word Brahman.

People get worried by many things; his mind gets distracted, their family may trouble him. For such a people the practice of yoga will confer peace and thus provide useful preparation of mind, prior to taking up the course of thinking and reasoning which alone lead to truth. Yoga is helpful in   preparation to pursuit of truth.

Only when the mind is made sharp as a razor then only it can grasp the non-dual truth. Inquiry and reasoning on the true base takes away all those things which are not truth, and, if the mind is sharp enough, eventually reveals truth. 

 The ordinary people want this God or that, wants this belief or that, and thus renders themselves unfit for inquiry and reasoning because they are prejudiced at the start. Therefore they must get rid of these "wants" first: when they have done so, they are called level-headed. 

Yoga as a mind-leveling and conflict-removing tool should not be carried to excess; otherwise it will create new illusions and fancies and hallucinations. 

Seeker of truth has to develop an attitude of impartial cautious critical examination to be fit for pursuit of truth.  

The seeker must be level-headed before it can profitably understand the non-dual truth; otherwise its inquiries will turn into conflicts between ideas which please and ideas which are true. Yoga helps to remove of these conflicts of the novices.

Path of wisdom is the opposite of Yoga, because it wants one to exercise his mind and get at non dual truth by discrimination.  People are interpreting scriptures, faiths etc. by reason, more or less imperfect but emotionally are attached to the scriptures, and they get upset if anyone say anything about their scriptures. Such mind-sets are still in primitive stage, it takes a long time for them to understand the scriptures are not the means for self-realization.  

If one talks of sleep or Samadhi, he is still in duality for he knows that he was in those states only afterwards when awake. Hence Yoga, like Sankhya teaches duality, not non-duality.   

That is why Sri, Sankara says in Viveka Chudamani:- 

56. Neither by Yoga, nor by Sankhya, nor by work, nor by learning, but by the realisation of one's identity with Brahman is Liberation possible, and by no other means. 

There are unfortunately so many different kinds of Yoga. But no yogi uses reason based on the soul.  Yoga means killing reason, thus it is no use in to acquire non dual wisdom. Yoga is good as a preparation only.

Those who resort to gurus and ashrams of a mystic character for peace do not know that they can get the same result by taking some opium pills

 The pseudo-sage who distinguishes himself from others is evincing duality and thinking only of the body, i.e. ignorance. On the other hand if a sanyassin attains Gnana, he will not give up his yellow cloth but remain so, but henceforth devote his life to service of humanity.

 “Every fool has got a greater fool to admire him." Hence admiration is of no value as a guide.  The yogi who is concerned with breathing exercises, holding his nose and postures is merely concerned with his body and unfit for Gnana.

Mundaka Upanishad 1:2:8

 

“Remaining in the fold of ignorance and thinking “we are extremely wise and learned,” the fools with boastful nature ramble about like the blind led by the blind alone.”

 

Mundaka Upanishad 3:2:3
 

“The weak and timid cannot realize the Self. Self-Realization is not possible through intellect or hearing spiritual discourse. One who welcomes God in every activity, through a thorough controlled and disciplined life, to him also the Soul is revealed." 

Mundaka Upanishad 3:2:3

 

The Soul cannot be realized by the weak and timid.

 

It is said in Mandukya that even the Gods cannot find out who is a Gnani, because he bears no external mark. Neither nudity nor the yellow robe has anything to do with him. 

Sri Krishna himself says that he can do nothing to make a man intelligent straight away. The adepts give prasad, blessing, initiations, mantrams, etc. only to confer temporary peace of mind, to help you to get rid of worries, but not to confer Gnana. The capacity to receive it, must first be inborn in man by evolutionary degree. 

The teachers leave their experience behind in scriptures and books, as a legacy to posterity. They know that books are illusory, but they also know they will be useful as a means of progress from lower to higher ideas of truth. 

Chandogya Upanishad:- "When a person is sleeping soundly, free from dreams, with a still mind, that is the Self, fearless and deathless. That is Brahman, the supreme."

In dualistic philosophies the imaginary god is made as creator basing on cause and effect theory. Then the doubt natural arises, who is the cause of the creator. The creator is dependent on creation for his existence.  Without the creation the creator ceases to exist. Thus the dualistic theory holds no water, because it is based on mere imagination and speculation, which they try to prove it on citing the mythological stories and doctrine of code of conducts. When the self is not the body then all these dualistic ideologies hold no water.   Therefore the devotional paths, which are based on the human conducts, are not the means for TRUTH –REALIZATION. 

Even the religious based non-dualism is not the means for truth realization, because   their preaching is based on the non-duality but their practice is based on dualistic view point.  Therefore, it is difficult to get   TRUTH –REALIZATION from conduct based orthodox non-dualism. Thus it looks like the real essence of non-dualism is lost or destroyed in the past by the orthodox oriented priest craft and propagated and injected only priest-crafted non-dualism, to the mass, the reason best known to the masters of the past.  Therefore, it is impossible to come out of all these priest crafted confusions in one life time. Through orthodox non-dualism it is impossible to get truth realization.     

 There is no need to collect all these baggage of confusions, if one is seeking truth, nothing but truth. The guru is necessary only in religious and yogic paths, but guru is not necessary in pursuit of truth.  Path of truth is a personal path and it is the path of verification. But in religion and yoga the verification is not allowed. Blind faith is main ingredient in belief system and yoga.   Gurudom is playing with words because maybe the meaning is floating somewhere in between the spaces of words...

People who think themselves to be in a position to air their knowledge forget one basic fact, namely that they go by mere appearances. Someone expounds knowledge and the one who receives it begins to ape the person from whom he has received the knowledge.  They never question the validity of that knowledge. 

Thus, whatever the guru wears, he will wear; whatever mannerisms the guru affects, he will imitate.  Thus, they only learn to pretend. And all so-called accumulated knowledge" is mere speculation based on the physical self or waking entity or ego. This is how tradition became established and traditional forms of worship came into being and passed it on the one generation to the next.  All these have nothing to do with the Self- Knowledge.

Whatever One has heard, whatever he has been told, will have no value as far as the ultimate point of view. Whether one accepts the fact that, the only knowledge that he really has is the knowledge that he exists, that is consciousness. Other than that, whatever knowledge he thinks he has as a person, is part of the illusion, something acquired, based on the illusory consciousness. 

The realization of truth is not intellectual understanding. Self- Realization is about realizing the fact that, the self is not physical, but it is the formless soul or consciousness.  Intellectual, logical, analytical perspective is based on the false self, will not help the seeker to reach his non-dual destination. The truth is beyond intellectual understanding and only the serious seekers who are free from preconceived accumulated ideas can get there.

The seeker of truth moves ahead by verifying the facts and by removing all the obstacles and reaches his non-dual destination.

Till man thinks as a man, the duality will prevail as reality, and he is bound to believe the birth, life and death as reality.

It is not only the physical body alone exists the whole universe exists together. Science and religion bases their theory based on the birth, life and death; there is an unknown aspect. Thus they view and judge and conclude on base of waking entity. Thus the whole truth is not revealed.  Even when all physical measurements are exhausted by the modern science there still remains the mysteries of mind and life-activity. 

 Science does not really know that the man can exist without the world or vice versa. Therefore the truth is one can never know the origin of the universe without knowing origin of the mind or ’I’. Only suppose and guess work is not the truth. For practical purposes science is very useful for making the life easier, but in pursuit of truth for science is unjustifiable, because pursuit of truth is completely a mental journey beyond physicality.   

The contradiction of universe as illusion is in thoughts and occurs when it is resolved into consciousness. Existence is meaningless without non-existence; hence one can neither say universe exists or not exists.

 Our forefathers they are no more entities now.  The ruined townships of the ancient world, if one carefully analyze, the world and persons of the past are now mere memories. Similarly one thinks he has the same physical body as yesterday but that is only his illusion, his imagination. Yesterday's body has disappeared already.   If one sees anything it is bound to pass away. 

         How is it seen? 

By the consciousness. 

Therefore, consciousness alone produces ideas of world.  Seeker has to realize the fact that, all things pass away, that just as dream world passes away, waking world also passes.

At the first stage of human life, everyone is a realist. One feels pain, and enjoys the pleasures of life and accepts its reality. The second stage is to inquire into the nature of one’s experience.

Such inquiry leads to the discovery of its unreality. But people do not worry about truth? They do not want inquire. They want to find   satisfaction in the physical world.

If possible All the 24/7, seeker should be reflecting on the subject. Every object one sees, seek to know the truth about it, not mere appearance to make sure the objective awareness is possible only in waking/dream.  The waking/dream appear and disappear thus they are impermanent in their nature.  

Millions of creature and animals and human beings suffer and die annually. Why! Where is the benevolent God in all this? What is its meaning? Only wisdom alone one gets replies satisfactorily. 

The physical entity, world, Himalayan Mountains disappear along with waking and dream. Thus all form in the waking or dream dissolves as consciousness, which is the source of the waking or dream from where it has erupted.  

Discrimination between Self (soul or spirit or  consciousness) and Non-self (mind or waking or dream) is the first step in pursuit of truth. Begin by analyzing the physical body: the same applies to the universe. 

The birth, life and death are part of the illusion. Thus until and unless and until one makes sure, on what standpoint the birth, life and death are illusion. Without analyzing it one experiences duality as reality. 

Till man thinks as a man, the duality will prevail as reality, and he is bound to believe the birth, life and death as reality. And he views and judges and concludes everything on the base of his birth entity, which is part of the illusion.  Therefore there is a need to know the fact that, whether the physical body is the true self or the soul (consciousness)is the true self. 

If one proves the body is the true self, and then one can take the birth, life and death are reality. If physical body is not the self, then the birth, life and death are mere illusion.  Thus one has to know, the one knower of the illusion(birth, life and death) to unfold the mystery of the existence. Searching for the knower mentally will lead one to realize the fact that the consciousness is the true self. And the consciousness is the formless substance and witness of the three states (illusion).

No one has ever seen God; they only heard or read about him.

People who are incapable to inquire and reason are tending to follow some philosophy without verification. Therefore the more ignorant they are the easier to get them into a religious fold. Religion is so strong and popular because it makes no demand on the intelligent; it simply requires belief in guru and his teachings. 

It never strikes believer to doubt whether his inherited belief system is true. They never use their reason because they start and conclude that their belief system   alone is true, because they never question the validity of their inherited belief.  

For religion one can interpret texts as he likes, in whatever way that pleases him, he simply imagine away.  The idea of god injected in the past and inherited by people and they refuse to verify the facts, because they think it blasphemy even to question their inherited belief system.  

In pursuit of truth the ultimate truth has to be proved, not assumed. Pundits who take scriptures for granted are not Gnanis. 

Pundits teach that all is your-self, but none of them can show that this is so, none has analyzed it scientifically, and none can prove it. Rational proof is needed, so that one arrive at knowing truth i.e. wisdom; punditry is mere dogma, parrotism, repetition of what they read in scripture. Scriptures are not yardstick and scriptural truth is not proof.   Pundits take Scriptures as authority.   Authoritarianism merely assumes as true what another says, but what has yet to be proved. 

Pundits have to test truth in this world not in the next world.  There is no proof other than blind belief based on the scriptures, belief is not truth.  So, doctrines are not the means to realize the ultimate truth. There is no need to follow them. 

Scholastic or mystic argument leads nowhere. If one says “God is formless “another will say, God has a form. If one says "this scriptures has higher then all other scriptures” another will say, "No, that is lower and there are many scriptures higher then that." It is impossible to get anywhere with such talk because both sides are merely assuming and imagining. 

The soul /spirit dwell in all the three states as their formless substance and witness. People worship only images, thinking that God is there. People do not recognize Spirit /Soul / Self to be the real God, but that they do not realize that god, as the spirit, which pervades in everything and everywhere in all the three states.

The ignorant people are not capable of   discriminate and reason to unfold the mystery of the mind. Therefore, they will not be able to grasp the non-dual truth. It is realization the true self that will free one from bondage of duality.  But the belief system makes them to believe the duality is reality therefore, they cannot think beyond physicality.   

No one has ever seen God; they only heard or read about him. Some may claim they seen him in the vision.  But vision is mere an experience similar to dream. If one takes the visions as real then the dream also be taken as reality.  No one knows god’s capacities, what He can create, and what he cannot create. Therefore any statement one might make about God would only be a lie, because god can exist only when man exists, and believes in the belief of god. If there is no belief then there is no god. Thus god is the religious software in belief system.  If the software is removed then it is only physical existence.  The truth will unfold only when one is able to think beyond physical existence. 

The truth of religion can only be proved by physical strength or by imagination, or power of the weapon or political power, never by reason.  Belief in religious prohibitions arises out of fear of God's punishment.  Seeker of truth has to regard the theosophy in the same way as he regards the idea of God- of religion. 

Religionists   place God as the unknown reality. Every religionist has a different idea of God. Every man has a different idea of reality, hence there is need to know the ultimate truth.  The fallacy of religionist’s appeal to scripture lies in the varying and conflicting interpretations of the same scripture which different persons feel entitled to give or hold. 

Therefore, one has overcome all the inherited conditioning of belief system to unfold the mystery of the physical existence or mind or universe.  

The god exists only when the man exists. Man and his experience of the world exist only when the mind exists.  Until and unless one is able to unfold the mystery of the mind, which appears and disappears, he will not be able to know the reality of the true existence. 

Individualized God propagated by the belief system exists only in duality. Deeper self-search  reveals the fact that, the self is not physical but it is the formless spirit. The experience of duality(mind or universe)  is mere mirage on the standpoint of the formless soul or consciousness, the innermost self. 

Thus, man and his experience of world and his belief of god is part and parcel of the mirage. The mirage is created, sustained by spirit and finally it dissolves as spirit. The formless substance and witness of the mirage is real and eternal. 

Therefore, deeper reasoning is necessary in order to unfold the mystery of the physical existence or mind or universe, to realize the physical existence or universe  is mere mirage.

To describe consciousness is to deny his own existence."

When the reasoning base is rectified from form to formless than the judgment and reasoning base also changes from form to formless. 

One has to grasp the subject thoroughly.  No changes can occur in the physical level. Only through deeper understanding, the truth has to be grasped. By listening to sermons or by reading books or by hearing discourses realization will not happen.  By following the guru or sentimentally involving with guru and by hearing his ornamental and inspiring discourses realization will not happen.  

Why Ignorance does not come to pass? The reason is when one is based on the physical based ideas and thought and never relay on the inner revelation, that means his understanding is never very deep. 

Until and unless one learns judge and reason the world-view on the inner core [consciousness] no real change can be wrought. Thus rectifying the reasoning base from for to formless is necessary to assimilate the self-knowledge. 

Character is formed by inner urges based on the form. The illusion arises from the formless core. Thus it is necessary to judge and reason the world-view on the base of the formless core which is consciousness, which is the true self.

 There are two bases one is intellectual and the second is spiritual. The intellectual base is used for the worldly life. The spiritual base is for the understanding and assimilation of self- knowledge. Until the intellectual base is rectified to the spiritual base, there can be no grasping of the non-dual truth.   Thus one has to understand when he judges and reasons the world-view on the base of physical body [ego] as self, he cannot think beyond duality.  If he judges and reasons the world-view on the formless self, then the truth will start unfolding on its own. 

 The eye cannot perceive consciousness. The mind cannot reach consciousness. The gross worldly intellect cannot grasp consciousness. The speech cannot describe consciousness in adequate terms. 

People are baffled in their efforts to describe consciousness. Consciousness is indescribable. To describe consciousness is to deny his own existence." How can a finite intellect grasp the infinite? But consciousness can be directly realized by that seeker who is sharp, subtle and grasping power and learn to judge and reason the world-view on the true self. 

We can only sympathies with a person who has severe bodily pain, but we cannot experience that person's pain. This can be applied to all experiences of personal nature, such as dream, vision and astral. As no one can deny the fact of another person's pain since he personally do not experience it. Similarly, no one can deny validity of any person's personal experience.  

All the experiences such as dream/vision/ astral experiences are true, and no one can deny the fact. However, one has to realize the fact that, the waking is also is similar to a vision or dream or astral experience.   The point is waking/ dream/ vision/ astral are witnessed by one and only formless witness.   In absence of waking entity the dream/vision/ astral are witnessed. The one which is aware of all experiences, which appeared and disappeared is not the form but formless. 

 It is necessary to know the formless witness, which is apart from the waking/dream/ vision and astral.  This is hard to digest in the beginning, but through deeper self-search one will be able to assimilate it. Once one becomes aware of the formless witness, he realizes the fact that, waking/dream/ vision/astral, all are mere mirage, on the standpoint of formless witness, which is in the form of consciousness.

The consciousness exists as formless substance and witness of the three states. Consciousness is the witness of the waking experience and the dream.

In deep sleep when there is no determinate knowledge, but pure consciousness in its formless non-dual true nature. Consciousness witnesses these three states, and it is one, and it is never attached to these experiences and it is apart and it is eternal because it is not an entity or identity or thing within the waking or dream.

Thus self is neither the waking entity nor dream entity Therefore, judging the truth on the base of waking entity  will lead only to imagination and hallucination. Thus, seeker has to learn to judge and reason the truth on the base of the formless witness of the three states, to overcome the ignorance. Without overcoming the ignorance the illusion will be experienced as reality.  Until illusion remains as reality the birth, life, death and the world will be experienced as reality.

“What is truth?” and “What is untruth?”

Seeker of truth has to know somewhere he is going wrong, and it is for the seeker to go on his own and remove the obstacle.  The greatest hindrance is mixing religion, god, scriptures, and yogic theories. Moreover, attachment to scriptures, personal god and religious code of conduct keeps one permanently in the grip of duality.

For the same reason Sri, Raman Maharshi said:-  fortunate are the one who do not lose themselves in the labyrinths of philosophy. Bhagwan says: Take Vedanta, for instance: it speaks of 15 pranas the names and functions of it   which the student is asked to commit memory. Will it not be sufficient if he thought, only one prana does the whole work of maintaining the body? Again the antakaran is said to think, to desire, to will, to reason etc. Why all these details? Has anyone seen antakarana, or all these pranas? Do they really exist? They are conceptual divisions invented by teachers of philosophy by their excessive analysis. Where do all these concepts end? Why should confusion created and then explained away? Fortunate is the man who does not lose himself in the labyrinths of philosophy, but goes straight to the source from which they all arise. (GURU RAMANA .By S.S Cohen -vii Danger of philosophy-Page -58-59)

Therefore, highlighting the obstacles in pursuit of truth, that helps the fellow seekers, to reach their nondual destination, in lesser time and effort. 

Mundaka Upanishad:- The rituals and the sacrifices described in the Vedas deal with lower knowledge. The sages ignored these rituals and went in search of higher knowledge. ... Such rituals are unsafe rafts for crossing The sea of samsara, of birth and death. Doomed to shipwreck are those who try to cross The sea of samsara on these poor rafts. Ignorant of their own ignorance, yet wise In their own esteem, these deluded men Proud of their vain learning go round and round Like the blind led by the blind.

To do good to the world is to enlighten mankind and bring them out of pain and miseries, rather than leaving them to the grace of God. It is only through the wisdom of God, that man can understand his mistakes. It is imperative to disseminate the Vedic knowledge and assist in liberating souls and at the same time elevate your own soul.

Undoubtedly, India can boast or pride herself in being the most secular nation in the whole world. Refugees of religious persecution in all religions including Charvaka Christians, Jews, Zoroastrians, Muslims and Buddhists all took refuge in India. Throughout the ages, religious tolerance has become a universal message. There are thousands or perhaps millions of temples, churches and mosques, an exploitation no other nation in the world can surpass. 

Almost a billion people engage in some form of spiritual worship. This takes place in temples, mosques, synagogues and churches, homes, factories, along riverbanks, in forest or mountains, streets, in trains, buses, wherever they may be. One can easily relate to such profound symbolatry as truly a divine paradise for the seekers of spirituality. But strangely and unfortunately, it was not meant to be so. 

The prevailing conditions of India have cleared the oppugnancies that all religious dogmas do lead ultimately to Salvation. The practices of these doctrines have definitely proved that destitution is a languishing pain for the poor, and happiness, a distant dream for the privileged. The diminished glorious ages of India, once the cradle of civilization, where only one people worshipped one God, is long gone.

[Source:-SATYARATH PRAKASH]

 

Looking at all these facts there is a need to bifurcate whatever is not Vedic to know the pure Vedic essence which is mixed in the sea of mythology, Superstitions and dogmas.  No god can exit without man. Man has to exist first for god to exist. Thus god is dependent on man’s existence.   Therefore, there is a need to unfold the mystery of man’s existence, and then only it is possible accept the god’s existence. 

It looks like the idea of god is adopted from Abrahamic religion and introduced with mythological base.  There is no use of arguing with anyone with all these facts because all these things make one believe the illusion [universe]  as reality.  The main goal of the truth seeker is to acquire self-knowledge or Brahma Gnana or Atma Gnana.   

The belief system preaches that God is one and the ways to God are many. It simply tries to lead them to darkness with its dogma and idea of many gods, which is apart from the self. 

The eternal truth  is within the universe [mind] and it is without the universe [mind]. Direct knowledge of self can be acquired by one through the Self while realizing the Self. Self- realization is the essence of human existence. Where there is unity, one without a second; there is world of non-dual reality. The non-dual truth is ultimate truth. And ultimate truth itself is God. 

"The religion of the Veda knows no idols, then why worship such things as god, which are non -Vedic and enter darkness in to darkness (ignorance).   

"Andhatama pravishanti ye asambhuti mupaste". [Yajurved 40:9]

Translation 1.
They enter darkness, those who worship natural things (for example air, water, sun, moon, animals, fire, stone, etc).

They sink deeper in darkness those who worship sambhuti. (Sambhuti means created things, for example table, chair, idol etc.)
[Yajurved 40:9]

Translation 2.
"Deep into shade of blinding gloom fall asambhuti's worshippers. They sink to darkness deeper yet who on sambhuti are intent."

[Yajurveda Samhita by Ralph T. H. Giffith pg 538]

Translation 3.
"They are enveloped in darkness, in other words, are steeped in ignorance and sunk in the greatest depths of misery who worship the uncreated, eternal prakrti -- the material cause of the world -- in place of the All-pervading God, But those who worship visible things born of the prakrti, such as the earth, trees, bodies (human and the like) in place of God are enveloped in still greater darkness, in other words, they are extremely foolish, fall into an awful hell of pain and sorrow, and suffer terribly for a long time."
[Yajur Veda 40:9.]

"Na tasya pratima asti"
"There is no image of Him."[Yajurveda 32:3]

"Ekam evadvitiyam"
"He is One only without a second." [Chandogya Upanishad 6:2]

"Na casya kascij janita na cadhipah."
"Of Him there are neither parents nor lord." [Svetasvatara Upanishad 6:9]

"Na tasya pratima asti"
"There is no likeness of Him." [Svetasvatara Upanishad 4:19]

"shudhama poapvidham"
"He is bodiless and pure." [Yajurveda 40:8]
"Na samdrse tisthati rupam asya, na caksusa pasyati kas canainam."
"His form is not to be seen; no one sees Him with the eye." [Svetasvatara Upanishad 4:20]

The religion of the Veda knows no idols

"The religion of the Veda knows no idols," says Max Müller; "the worship of idols in India is a secondary formation, a degradation of the more primitive worship of ideal gods."

Self- knowledge is the highest knowledge. Self is closer to man than his own veins." "With the knowledge of the self, man will begin to know the self is not physical but self is formless consciousness, so as to finally achieve the self-awareness." "With the perfect understanding of the true self, man becomes conscious that self is the consciousness. For Advitin- the self alone is the God or Lord .

 Mysticism gives only temporary peace within the illusion, because it is based on the mystical experience experienced in the unreal world. Only self-knowledge can yield permanent peace.

Krishna is teaching no particular religion, but Religion in general. The Gita nowhere refers to Hindu, Vaishnava or Saiva Matam or Dharma. The entire civilized world's need is now, to lift its viewpoint from particular religions to universal truth. 

In Vedas the God has been described as:-

v  Sakshi (Witness)

v  Chetan (conscious)

v  Nirguna (Without form and properties).

v  Nitya (eternal)

v  Shuddha (pure)

v  Buddha (omniscient)

v   Mukta (unattached).

It indicates clearly all the gods with form and attributes are mere imagination based on the false self.  The true god is self, which Atman.  Therefore Self-Realization is god realization. 

As indicated in ISH Upanishads: - By worshiping gods and goddesses you will go after death to the world of gods and goddesses. But will that help you? The time you spend there is wasted, because if you were not there you could have spent that time moving forward towards Self-knowledge, which is your goal. In the world of gods and goddesses you cannot do that, and thus you go deeper and deeper into darkness.

It clearly indicates that:-If the human goal is to acquire Self-Knowledge then why one has to indulge in rituals and glorifying the conceptual gods, goddesses and gurus to go in to deeper darkness. Instead   spend that time moving forward towards Self-knowledge, which is one’s prime goal.  

Since it is eternal and infinite, it comprises the only truth. The goal of Vedic religion, through the various yogas, is to realize that the consciousness (Atman) is actually nothing but Brahman.

Brahman means universal truth. Brahman is considered the all-pervading consciousness, which is the basis of all the animate and inanimate entities and material. (brahmano hi pratisthaham, Bhagavad Gita 14.27)

Sri, Sankara’s notion of Maya, the cosmic illusion, which must be transcended in order to realize the truth of Brahman, which means ultimate truth.   

If Brahman is considered the all-pervading consciousness then, it is necessary to realize, the consciousness as self, which pervades all the three states, to realize the fact that, there is no second thing exists other the consciousness. Thus, consciousness [Atman] is ultimate truth [Brahman].   

Yoga also gives temporary peace because yogi considers the body as self and his experience is experienced as body as self.  Thus yogic Samadhi is not wisdom.

 Panchadesi, P.509 v, 109:-  shows the impossibility of yoga arriving at a successful end to its practices.  

As one goes deeper in self-search he will becomes aware all the material in religious annals are mere assumption and imagination based on the false self.   Even if one takes them as reality one has to realize the fact that, the waking experience itself is falsehood. Therefore whatever one sees, knows, believes and experiences as person within the falsehood is bound to be falsehood.   Thus all these religious fables has no value on the ultimate stand point. 

As one verifies one becomes aware of the fact that:-

The Puranas

Acharya Dharamkriti has enumerated five characteristics of ennui and stupefaction. One of them is to consider a scripture on authority. The tendency to consider a book on authority is widely prevalent in India, though most of the contents of these scriptures have been proven fallacious on the basis of reason and reality.

When scientists have proved that the moon is 24,000 miles away from the earth and the sun is 9.30 crore miles away, what is the sense in asserting that according to the Vishnu Puran, the sun is near the earth and the moon is far off.

Nothing is true

The writers of the Puranas say that there are seven seas on the earth. One is full of saltish water; the other contains pure water; the third is full of milk; the fourth is full of ghee and so on. Today everybody knows that all the seas are full of brine. No sea contains milk or ghee. Inspite of this, if somebody cites the puranas as authority and advances the view that the seas are full of sugarcane juice, he will be considered as a fool. The scriptures cannot be taken as authority because man's knowledge increases and changes day by day. Truths of yesterday may not be truths of today, and todays opinion and views may be proved wrong tomorrow. Books only reflect the knowledge of contemporary people.

Everybody knows that the knowledge of the Puraniks about the astronomy and science was very limited, and that of geography almost ridiculous. According to the Markandeya Puran, the area of earth is 50 crore 'yojanas'. There are seven continents on the earth - Jambu, Plaksh, Shalmal, Kush, Kronch, Shak and Pushkar. One of these continents is double the size of others. The continents are surrounded by seas of salt, sugarcane juice, wine, ghee, curd milk and pure water respectively. One sea is double the size of others.

A 'yojana' is equivalent to 8 miles. According to the Puranas, the area of the earth is 50 crore'yojanas' or 4000 million miles. Scientists and geographers have proved that the diameter of the earth is 8000 miles and its circumfrence is 25,000 miles. The Puraniks say that the 'extent' of earth is 4,000 million miles, whereas it is actually only 25,000 miles. In case they meant area by the word 'extent', even then it comes out to be 62 crore square miles, after multiplying its length (25,000) and breadth (25,000) miles.

Ocean of cane juice

Students of geography know it too well that there are only six continents on this earth - Asia,Europe, North America, South America, Africa and Australia. According to the Puraniks, the Jambu continent or Asia extends to one lakh 'yojanas'. According to them the Plaksh continent (presumably Europe) extends to two lakh 'yojanas' or 16 lakh miles and the sea surrounding it extends eight lakh miles and is full of cane juice.

It is known fact that no sea seperates Asia and Europe, and when there is no sea it is sheer imagination to say that it extends 16 lakh miles and is full of cane juice. In case the sea surrounding Europe was full of cane juice, the European would have exported sugar to Asia, America, Africa and Australia. 

According to the Markandeya Puran, the Shalmal continent (perhaps Africa) extends to 32 lakh miles. It is surrounded by a sea which extends to 32 lakh miles and is full of wine. Readers know that Maditerranien Sea and the Red sea seperate Africa from Europe and they extend only a few hundred miles. They are full of brine like the Indian Ocean. The Puraniks say that Africa is four times bigger than Asia, whereas it is almost equal to latter.

The Puraniks say that the Kush continent (perhaps North America) extends to 64 lakh miles and is surrounded by a sea which extends to 64 lakhs miles and is full of ghee. Similarly the Kronch continent (perhaps South America) extends to 128 lakh miles and is surrounded by sea of equal area and is full of curd.

In fact no sea separates North and South America. On one side there is the Atlantic Ocean and on the other there is the Pacific Ocean and both are full of Brine. These continents are smaller than Asia.

Imaginary geographical knowledge 

It is surprising that the Puraniks imagined only 'rivers' of ghee and milk in India and 'seas' of ghee and and milk preety far off. The Shak continent(presumably Australia) is said to be 32 times bigger than the Jambu continent(Asia).What to talk of 32 times, it is not even one fourth. 

The imaginary geographical knowledge of the Puraniks does not end here. Their observations about the Jambu Continent (Asia) and India are rather strange. 

In the middle of the Jambu continent, there is a golden Meru mountain which is 84,000 'yojanas' high. It is rooted in the deep earth and its depth is 16,000 'yojanas' the width of its top is 32,000 'yojanas' and that of base is 16,000 'yojanas'. 

The Himalayas are situated in the middle of Asia and are covered with snow. It is fantastic to say that its height is 84,000 'yojanas' when it is actually 29,000 feet high. According to the Puraniks, it is 256,000 miles wide, whereas the width of asia from Kanyakumari to North pole is hardly 7,000 miles. The length of himalayas is not 128,000 miles, it is about 1500 miles. According to the Puraniks, the depth of Sumeru mountain inside the earth is 128,000 miles. When the diameter of the earth is hardly 8,000 miles what about the rest of the milage, which comes to 120,000 miles ? 

According to the Devi Bhagwat puran, there are four mountains in the four directions of the Sumeru mountain - Mandar in the east, Merumandar in the South, Suparshv in the west and Kumund in the north. All these mountains are like the legs of the main mountain. The area of each is described as 80,000 miles. Each of them has a tree on the top - mango, rose-apple, neulea orientalis and banyan. They serve as their flags are 1,100 yojanas' high. All four trees extend like the mountain on which they are growing. These four mountains are further beutifies by their four tanks which contain milk honey, sugarcane juice and so on.

All these prove the fact that, religion is based on the physical self and physical existence itself is falsehood from ultimate standpoint.  Therefore, Self-knowledge is necessary to realize the fact that, the birth, life death and the world are part of the falsehood. 

Therefore until one bifurcate the religion from spirituality one will not be able to grasp and realize the non-dual truth.   The people who are stuck with religious based non-dual teachings will find it difficult to realize the non-dual truth.   

Self is 'that which is at first known as the soul in the human experience, but which, in the end, is found to be identical with the supreme Reality.

The pursuit of truth or spirituality is discovering the truth of the true existence   as its goal the realization of one's identity with the Ultimate Truth.

 Seekers goal is always a spiritual one. In fact, a true knowledge is said to be a science which shows the way of approach, or rather of return, to the spirit, which is the true Self.

There are no other paths other than the formless path by which a seeker may realize the ultimate truth.

 When one is in the realm of inner equilibrium - that is, perfect co-ordination between the Spirit [soul] and the Matter [mind]. In this balance lies the secret.  When the seeker of truth has learnt to view and judge the three states, on the standpoint of the soul as self, so to say, and does not allow himself to be imprisoned in the grip of ignorance. This is a very difficult thing to achieve, but it is an important aspect of pursuit of truth, inasmuch as it paves the way to detachment and gives freedom from the burden of experiencing the duality as reality.

The three states are external to the formless soul or consciousness is the innermost self.  The three states are dependent and the soul or consciousness, the innermost self is independent. 

Thoughts arise to the person within the waking or dream. Thinker is the form. Without the form the thinking is impossibility. Thus thinker and the thoughts are part of the known. The knower of the known is formless. 

Thoughts and thinker is nothing to do with the formless witness. The witness is that witnesses the thoughts and thinker together and remains always in the within the waking or dream as their formless substance.

People think that, more they think, the more they will get; but it is really an error. It remains only a thought and gives them back only thoughts.  Anything seen, observed, cannot be the Self or the Witness. 

The good and evil is part of the falsehood; pure and impure is part of the falsehood.  No one can purify another because the duality is itself is impure and duality is created, sustained and finally dissolves as purity, which is the soul/spirit.

When one starts exploring the mystery of the self, he is still mired in habituated patterns. Limited in perception to a world projected by these patterns, he does not and cannot see things as they are because his understanding is based on the false self/ego, whereas the truth is based on the formless soul.   He needs a guide, who can show how to proceed in pursuit of truth.

The soul   is the subject, and mind is an object. When the understanding is based on the object as subject the realizing the truth is impossibility.  Object is unreal created out of the formless subject, which is real. 

Mind means ignorance. Overcoming the ignorance through wisdom is the aim of the truth seeker.    The Gnani is the one who is fully aware of “What is truth?” and “What is untruth?” in the midst of experience of diversity/illusion. 

Gnani is fully aware of the fact that the birth, life and death are mere illusion and views all the pain and pleasure of the life as mere illusion. 

The Mind[waking]  rises then only  man and his experience of the world comes into existence and dissolves into nothing in deep sleep.  To the Gnani there is no world, no body, and no ego because for him, the form,name ,thoughts,words and experience   are mere mirage created out of consciousness . Thus,   everything is consciousness