It is very difficult to find out who is a Gnani because he bears no external mark. Neither nudity nor the yellow robe has anything to do with him.+

The one who identifies himself as a swami, a Guru or yogi,  is not a Gnani. A Gnani never identifies himself as swami, Guru, pundit or yogi. Swami, Guru, pundit or yogi belongs to the religious or the yogic path not to the path of wisdom.  

Sage Sankara's commentary:~ "The knower of Brahman (Gnani) wears no signs. 

Gnani wears no signs. Gives up the insignia of a monk's life…his signs are not manifest, nor his behavior."  When the knower of Brahman wears no signs -- it means he does not identify himself as a Guru or a teacher.  

Manduka Upanishads: - It is very difficult to find out who is a Gnani because he bears no external mark. Neither nudity nor the yellow robe has anything to do with him.

A Gnani is the one who has realized the universe in which he exists is nothing but the consciousness. A Gnani is fully aware of the division of form, time and space are merely an illusion created out of consciousness.   Thus, consciousness is one without the second

A Gnani is the one who has realized the Self is not the form but the Self is formless Soul. He is released from experiencing duality as a reality because he observes the worldview on the base of the Soul, which is present in the form of consciousness. A Gnani shares knowledge of what is beyond dualistic illusion or Maya.

Gnani is fully aware of “what is the truth?” and what is false in the midst of the waking experience. He lives in the world but he is not of the world in the midst of the form, time and space.

Gnani is always in  Self-awareness. He has no identification with the body and the world within the waking or the dream. Hence,  he has no idea of enjoyment or enjoyer when he exhausts the residue of his action within the waking/dream. He has no idea of action or agency. He roams about happily without attachment to duality, with a balanced mind and an equal vision. His state is indescribable. 

A Gnani is fully aware of the fact that his body and his experience of the world are merely an illusion created out of consciousness.  For him, everything is consciousness nothing but consciousness.

 A Gnani is a great spiritual spring. He is an enlightened Soul who has knowledge of the Self, which is in the form of consciousness. He is pre-eminent amongst men. He is the conqueror of the mind. He is absolutely free from experiencing dualistic illusion or Maya as reality.

 For a Gnani there is no distinction between a rogue and a saint, gold, and stone, high and low, man and woman, man and animal, censure and praise, honor, and dishonor. He beholds the one Self everywhere. He sees consciousness in everyone and everywhere in the three states. As he is mindless, all differences and barriers have vanished from him.

In the vast ocean of consciousness of nondual bliss, the Gnani neither sees nor hears. He remains in the tranquillity of the consciousness and in its nondual nature. He sees true –Self as second less as a natural state. His vision or experience is beyond description. He has attained supreme quiescence. He is ever peaceful. He is of pure nature. He has realized the real Self to be pure-consciousness alone. He is ever resting at perfect ease in the pleasure-garden of the Self. 

 The eye cannot perceive consciousness. The mind cannot reach consciousness. The gross worldly intellect cannot grasp Consciousness. The speech cannot describe Consciousness. The speech returns back along with with the mind, as it is not able to describe the consciousness inadequate terms because it exists in its true form prior to the appearance of the mind, which is in the form of the universe.   

Gnani says "They are baffled in their efforts to describe consciousness. Consciousness is indescribable. To describe consciousness or Soul is to deny his own existence." How can a finite mind grasp the infinite? But consciousness can be directly realized by that aspirant who is equipped with the sharp, subtle and pure intellect and learn to view and judge the worldview on the true base.  

Remember:~

A true Gnani can never renounce anything. It is impossible. He has only renounced the idea of a separate universe.

The Gnani does not belong to the Sanyasi Ashram. He is above all stages. He is "Adi-Varnasram". "One above all ashrams."

The Gnani will follow whatever occupation he wishes according to circumstances. There are no prohibitions for him. He may be a coachman or a king.

The Gnani’s position is that if enjoyment comes, he accepts it; if it does not, he keeps quiet. Even when he is taking pleasures, however, he is not deluded by them and he regards them as a game he is playing for he knows their unreality: he does not take them seriously. Clouds do not affect the sky, although they appear to; so the pleasures do not change the Gnani. 

A Gnani will not deliver public lectures for giving out the truth; we can only lecture for giving out falsehood, the illusions that appeal to the taste of the audience.

For a crowd at a hall will contain men of varying capacities to understand, of whom only one or two might be seekers for truth or ripe for truth. Similarly, if two persons come for an interview to a Gnani, and one is ripe for truth but the other unready, the sage will refuse to see both together and say he can only see them individually. Otherwise, a Gnani will confuse the unready people by going over its head, or he will be withholding the truth from the worthy person.

Gnani is fully aware of the fact that it is of no use unsettle the minds of ignorant by revealing the esoteric truth."

A Gnani may certainly stay in one place and not travel provided he is actively engaged therein helping others. 

The Gnani will teach according to their capacity to understand. With a religious audience, he will interpret the scriptures in a dualist way; he will keep the truth at a distance there: with truth seekers, he will give the non-dualistic interpretations.

Gnanis are not opposed to any doctrine, although the religious scholars of all doctrines may consider Gnanis as their enemies.

Remember:~

Why do not Gnanis perform miracles to attract attention to the truth? To whom are they to perform when there are none different from them?

The Gnani works no miracle, does not dismiss the universe which confronts him because he knows it as an illusion. He understands the true character of the universe. The only difference between him and the ordinary man is like the difference between the scientist and the ordinary man. 

The scientist knows that the water he drinks is really hydrogen and oxygen, whereas the ordinary man does not know. Yet both drink the water. Similarly, Gnani knows the universe is Athma, whereas ordinary man does not know, yet both live and work in the world in the same way.

There is no outside difference to be detected between Gnani and the ordinary man. The difference entirely depends upon the medium through which the observer views it. In fact, our mental and intellectual conditions determine the world, observed and experienced. The commoner viewing the world will see differently from a Gnani viewing the same world. Each one interprets the world that they see in terms of their existing knowledge. The commoner sees everything based on the ego, therefore, experiences the birth, life, death, and the world as a reality, whereas a Gnani sees everything as consciousness and he is fully aware of the fact that, there is no second thing that exists other than the Soul or consciousness.

Thus, all the egocentric knowledge has to be bifurcated to realize the ultimate truth, which is beyond form, time and space.

Gnani who does not go with the masses to church or mosque and the temples is misleading others, or who does not go with the yogis to their caves and ashrams; for they cannot understand him while he understands them.

Gnani helps them on their appropriate level. His duty, however, is to make known that the higher stages exist and that the others are but steps. Hence, he need not discourage them. :~Santthosh Kumaar