Sage Sankara: ~ All the effects of ignorance, root and branch, are burnt down by the fire of knowledge.+

Sage Sankara: ~ “All the effects of ignorance, root, and branch, are burnt down by the fire of knowledge, which arises from discrimination between these two—the Self and the not-Self”. Vivekachoodamani, 47

Sage Sankara:~    “There is no liberation for a person of mere bookish knowledge, howsoever well-read in the philosophy of Vedanta, so long as one does not give up the false identification with the body, sense organs, etc., which are unreal”.  ~Vivekachudamani, verse 162.

By holding on to theories, you remain in the realm of duality. You have to mentally go on dropping what is not truth by realizing ‘what is truth’.

Your ego, your body, and your experience of the world are created out of single clay and that single clay is consciousness. Knowledge of the single clay is Self-knowledge or Brahma Gnana or Atma Gnana.  Self-knowledge or Brahma Gnana or Atma Gnana leads to Self-awareness.

In Self-awareness, the ego is not considered as the ego, even though the ego is present, the body is not considered as the body even though the body is present, the world which confronts you is not considered as the world even though the world is present because everything is considered as consciousness.  There is unity in diversity in your understanding.  

When the Soul, the  Self wakes up from its sleep of ignorance the ignorance vanishes thus, whatever remains without ignorance is the Advaitic reality. 

Only through Advaitic wisdom Self-awareness rises in the midst of the dualistic illusion.

That is why Sage Sankara said-63-VC:~  “Without causing the objective universe to vanish and without knowing the truth of the ‘Self’ how is one to achieve Liberation”.  

The universe in which we exist will not remain as a reality when the Advaitic wisdom dawns. 

The universe is a mere illusion created out of consciousness and there is the conscious awareness of unity in diversity because there is no second thing exists other than consciousness. : ~ Santthosh Kumaar