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 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.

Consciousness is that which knows everything, that which sees. Consciousness alone remains after one gets rid of all thoughts and ideas by identification with self. Consciousness is only the seer; it is not Brahman that is an error. It becomes Brahman only after inquiry and reasoning.

The ‘I ‘or mind or universe, waking or dream, duality are one and the same thing. Since, ‘I’ is identified as self all the confusion. And taking ‘I’ or ‘I AM’   as self is the cause of confusion. Taking ‘I’ or ‘I AM’ as self is blocking the realization of ultimate truth.  The ‘I’ or universe is an object to the formless subject. Thus it is necessary to include the universe in the inquiry to realize the unreal nature of the ‘I’ or universe. 

When the whole universe, movable and immovable, is known to be consciousness, which is the inner most self and thus the existence of everything else is negated, where is then any room to say that the body is the self.

Without causing the objective universe to vanish and without knowing the truth of the Self, how is one to achieve.

Dualist or realists could not distinguish between ‘I’ and ‘formless witness.’  They take ‘I’ as self or witness. Their highest is to say ‘I AM THAT’ without verification. They are so much attached to the 'I' that they do not want to think that 'I' does not exist. Again one is unable to detach the ‘I’ from the Real witness, which is ever formless.

The dualist object: - If everything else is false than   the statement I am   Brahman is itself false, the but when one says nonduality 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.  Formless witness of the ‘I’ alone is permanent. Anything that one says is a witnessed [waking], but there is the formless witness [consciousness] there before any statement could be made.

Dualist or realists approach is more practical, and they stuck with the reality of the world[I] , they take it as real.

The dualists or realists   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 consciousness, but is unreal, in the sense, that it is not absolute and eternal like consciousness itself. Thus from the ultimate stand point the world is unreal. Therefore whatever seen, known, believed and experienced as person within the practical world is bound to be unreal from ultimate stand point because of their impermanence. And the formless substance and witness of the mind or universe is real and eternal.