Sage Sankara is one of the greatest geniuses of all times. This world owes him a deep debt of gratitude.+

Sage Sankara is one of the greatest geniuses of all time. This world owes him a deep debt of gratitude. He not only consolidated the classical values of life but also spiritual wisdom. 

Sage  Sankara is the only Sage who has final authority on the Advaitic truth. The Advaitic truth is rational truth and scientific truth without dogmas.

Unfortunately, few philosophers in the world are as misunderstood and misinterpreted as Sage Sankara. Ironically, most of the harm came from his admirers and followers of Advaitic orthodoxy because they propagated rituals as a means to attain lower knowledge which is meant for those who believed in the physical existence (universe) as a reality.

The Advaitic orthodoxy is dualistic and it is not the means to acquire Self-knowledge or Brahma Gnana or Atma Gnana. Advaitic orthodoxy is meant for the ignorant mass that is unfit to grasp the highest truth. 

Thus, the Advaitic orthodoxy is nothing to do with the ultimate truth or Brahman. Those who have chosen the Atmic path have to discard orthodoxy to get the pure essence of Advaita.

Sage  Sankara's Advaitic wisdom has nothing to do with the religious Adriatic sect.  Sage  Sankara gave religion scholasticism and yoga no less than philosophy, to the seeking world. He was great enough to be able to do so. His commentary on Manduka is pure philosophy, but many of his other books are presented from a religious standpoint to help those who cannot rise up to philosophy.

Orthodoxy is the home of mysticism and deification which is why they are not keen on rational truth. Thus, Sage Sankara is the Jagadguru to the religious followers and he is a Brahma Gnani to the seeking world.   

Religion has nothing to do with Advaita. Advaitic sect belongs to religion. Advaita is pure spirituality. The Advaitic sect is dualistic and has nothing to do with the Advaitic truth which is hidden by the dualistic illusion or Maya. illusion.

Mixing religion and spirituality is like mixing oil and water.

Religion is regarded as sacred and real by the common people, by the wise as false, and by the rulers as useful.

Religion and its sects are based on form, time, and space whereas  Spirituality is based on the Atman the formless, timeless, and spaceless existence.

Religions hold birth, life, death, and the world as a reality. From the ultimate standpoint, the world in which we exist is an illusion created out he the Soul, which is present in the form of consciousness.

 The seeker must know the difference between religion and spirituality. Many people think the religion itself as Spirituality.

Spirituality leads to discovering the truth which is hidden by the dualistic illusion or Maya.

Advaita is universal. Advaita is not for sale. Do not buy Advaita from the spiritual supermarket. Advaita is the nature of the Soul, the Self.

The world in which you exist is created out of single stuff. That single stuff is consciousness. Knowledge of the single stuff is Advaitic wisdom.

Advaitic truth is very simple, but it is very difficult to realize because you have accumulated mental garbage from different sources in the name of Advaita. 

Until you discard all the accumulated knowledge you will never be able to realize the Advaitic truth, which is beyond the form, time, and space.

The Advaita is the nature of the Soul, the Self shines in its own awareness when wisdom dawns.

The Advaita is the Soul is the cause and the support of all that exists as the world in which we exist.

The Advaita is present in the form of consciousness. Advaita is the root element of the universe. From the Advaita, the universe comes into existence. In the Advaita, the universe resides. And into the Advaita, the universe is dissolved. The Advaita is the parent of all that is there is. 

Remember:~

The Advaita taught by Sage Sankara is a rigorous, absolute one. According to Sage  Sankara, whatever is, is Brahman. Brahman, Itself is absolutely homogeneous. All differences and plurality are illusory.

Sage Sankara gave out what was of most use to the greatest number of people. Therefore, in the commentaries on the Upanishads, such as the famous Mundaka, he gave the highest non-dual message of the identity of Atman and Brahman, revitalizing the philosophy and practice of Advaita, while in the commentaries on the Brahmasutra, he gave lesser teaching, positing both higher and lower Maya and higher and lower Brahman (Ishvara) to explain the creation for those of lesser intellects until they were ready for the highest truth.

Sage Sankara was very careful with his choice of semantic analysis and use of words - taught at different levels of doctrine at different times as the situation warranted. 

The Advaitic formula, to be successively realized, is: “The world is unreal; Brahman is real; the world is Brahman.” This is the vision of non-duality. Sage Sankara affirmed a progression of points of view depending on the stage of one’s practice. :

In fact, Sage Sankara states a paradox- the world is and is not. It is neither real nor unreal. It leads us to recognize the existence of Maya (illusion). He thinks that the world is illusory from one perspective and from the second it is nothing but Brahman(God), Itself in manifestation. This apparent world is Maya and has its basis in Brahman, the Eternal. It looks as real. It has names and forms and actually, it is not real In the light of true knowledge, it disappears and Self-alone shines as real. However, Sage  Sankara's Mayavada has not been accepted by many preachers and philosophers.

When Sage  Sankara says clearly, the universe is not real. He says that Brahman and Atman are one. The ultimate and the Absolute Truth is the Self, which is one though appearing as many in different individuals. The individual has no reality. Only the Soul, the Self is Real; the rest, mental and physical are but passing appearances, then it indicates the form (waking or duality or mind) is unreal and the invisible Soul (consciousness or soul) is real.  Therefore, only Atman is real because there is no second thing that exists other than Atman, which is in the form of consciousness.

Remember:~

Sage Sankara founded his Advaita Vedanta either on reason independent of Sruti or on Sruti confirmed by reason."   Sri, Sankara's commentary on the Mandukya Upanishad, II, 1:  This [the unreality of duality] is borne out by the Srutis ... But it is possible also to show the unreality of the object world even from pure reasoning, and this second chapter is undertaken for that purpose.

Sage Sankara himself had often said that his philosophy was based on Sruti, or revealed scripture.  This may be because Sage Sankara addressed the ordinary man, who finds security in the idea of causality and thus in the idea of God—and Revelation is indispensable to prove the latter.  He believed that those of superior intelligence, have no need for this idea of divine causality, and can, therefore, dispense with Sruti and arrive at the truth of Non-Dualism by pure reason. 

Sage Sankara, in debates with Buddhists and others who did not recognize the authority of the Vedas, had been obliged to prove the truth of Advaita through reason alone.  Mundaka Upanishad, a scripture, which appealed to reason to the exclusion of Revelation. 

Sage Sankara gave out what was of most use to the greatest number of people. Therefore, in the commentaries on the Upanishads, such as the famous Mandukya, he gave the highest non-dual message of the identity of Atman and Brahman, revitalizing the philosophy and the practice of Advaita, while in the commentaries on the Brahmasutra, he gave lesser teaching, positing both higher and lower Maya and higher and lower Brahman (Ishvara) to explain creation for those of lesser intellects until they are ready for the highest truth. 

The entire philosophy of Sage  Sankara can be summed up in the following statement:-

Brahma Satyam, jaganmithya, jivobrahmaivanaparah: - Brahman alone is real; the world is non-real, and the individual Self is essentially not different from Brahman.

This is the quintessence of Sankara’s Advaitic Gnana. 

All religious beliefs are dualistic and unphilosophical nothing to do with the ultimate truth or Brahman. In spirituality, the ultimate truth is God. Sage Sankara’s wisdom is nothing to do with orthodox belief systems. 

Sage 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.  (verses-6)

In spirituality, the ultimate truth is God. The Atman is the ultimate truth or Brahman or God. 

Sage Sri, Sankara’s wisdom is nothing to do with orthodox belief systems. Sage Sri, Sankara is the only sage who has final authority on the Advaitic truth. The Advaitic truth is rational truth and scientific truth without dogma. 

The Advaitic orthodoxy is not the means to acquire ‘Self’-knowledge or Brahma Gnana or Atma Gnana. Advaitic orthodoxy is meant for the ignorant populace that is unfit to grasp the highest truth. The Advaitic orthodoxy has nothing to do with the ultimate truth or Brahman.

Sage  Sankara said: -Neither by the practice of yoga nor philosophy, nor by good works nor by learning, does liberation come, but only through the realization that Atman and Brahman are one in no other way. (1) Vivekachoodamani v 56, pg~25

Mundaka Upanishad condemns rituals. The Para or Higher knowledge is the knowledge of the Supreme Being while the Apara or Lower Knowledge is that of following sacrificial rites and ceremonies. (1/2/ 1 – 6)

Mundaka Upanishads: ~ So-called spiritual pundits and learned are called children because a child takes whatever it thinks as truth. The question never occurs to children “Is what I have seen or thought really the truth?" (P.334 line 9) 

Lord Krishna confesses that the oldest wisdom of India (our true Advaita philosophy) has been lost: people misinterpret and falsify it today as they did then. It is not yoga but the philosophic truth. But nobody knows it. The teachers of philosophy and leaders of mysticism or religion do not want to inquire into truth and have no time for it. (Gita –Chap- IV-v.2) 

In Gita Chap.IV where Lord Krishna says: ~ "This yoga has been lost for ages" The word yoga refers to Gnana yoga, not other yogas: the force of the word this is to point this out. 

Lord Krishna describes some of the other yogas but devotes this chapter separately to Gnana Yoga. So, one sees even in those ancient days people did not care for Advaita; they wanted religion; hence Gnana got lost. That is why Krishna calls it "the supreme secret." Lord Krishna points out that yoga must see Brahman in action." 

Gita Chap.IV: "He who achieves perfection in Yoga finds the ‘Self’ in time." This means that after his yoga is finished, he begins the inquiry into ultimate truth, and in due course, this inquiry produces the realization of the universal spirit as a result. 

Lord Krishna says ~ “Those who know the Self in truth.". The last two words (tattvataha) are usually ignored by pundits, but they make all the difference between the ordinary concept of God and the truth about God. (Ch~ V)

The theosophist’s idea of the universe appearing and dissolving, days and nights of Brahma, entering pralaya, etc. is intended for mediocre intellects, who cannot rise to the truth. 

It is a convenient fable representing the philosophic truth that the whole universe dissolves in your mind in deep sleep, thus entering pralaya, and rises again the next morning, i.e. it is all imagination, idea. The Brahman -God has nothing to do with it. 

Although Sage Sankara puts the mystic goal highest in his mystical books, he is careful to say that this goal leads to Brahman, not that it is realization.: ~ Santthosh Kumaar