By realizing the universe is nothing but an illusion created out of consciousness with a firm conviction leads to Self-awareness.+

First, realize the ‘Self is not within you. You are bound by the experience of the birth, life, death, and the world whereas the ‘Self is birthless and deathless because it is ever formless, timeless, and spaceless existence.

The Soul is the Self. The Soul is present in the form of consciousness. Consciousness is the cause of the world in which you exist and it, itself is uncaused. Consciousness is the ultimate truth or Brahman or God in truth.

From the standpoint of the Soul, the Self the world in which you exist is merely an illusion. Thus, the world in which exists hides the Soul, which is the real God.

Till you think the ‘Soul, the Self’ is within you, you will never be able to realize God. God is not limited to you but it pervades in everything and everywhere in the world in which you exist.

Those Gurus who speak of the ‘Self is within you are propagating half-baked knowledge made their own cocktail propagated it as nonduality or Advaita.

The Self is the Soul is the cause of you and the world in which you exist.

Your individual experience of birth, life, and the world has nothing to do with the Soul, the Self, because, you and your individual experience of birth, life, and the world is merely an illusion created out of the Soul, which is present in the form of consciousness.

You are not you but the consciousness; your body is not the body but the consciousness, the world in which you exist is not the world but consciousness.

Everything is known, seen, believed, and experienced by you is nothing but consciousness then what else remains, which is not consciousness.

There is nothing else to realize other than to realize that consciousness alone is, everything else is merely an illusion created out of consciousness.

By realizing the universe is nothing but an illusion created out of consciousness with a firm conviction leads to Self-awareness.

A perfect understanding and assimilation of ‘what is what’ leads to Advaitic awareness.

Remember:~

In reality: ~

Where is the body?

Where is the mind?

Where is the world?

The void; or despair in the true Self, which is the taintless Soul, which is present in the form of consciousness. They are or have become consciousness.

One thinks there is the mind when he has thoughts, but when thoughts are not considered different from consciousness, which is the true Self, then where is the division into, waking, dream and deep sleep, etc.

Void implies duality: the universe may not exist, but the thought of the second is there. If one knows there is a Void (emptiness/nothingness), then there is something there to be known and know. They are or have become consciousness.

All these appearances are merely an illusion that comes and goes; hence meaningless to the formless Soul, the Self.

The sun, the moon, the stars, planets shine because of the Soul or Spirit. The Soul shines and all things else shine as a result.

Everything in the universe reflects because of the light of the Soul which is present in the form of consciousness. Merely knowing the truth is not enough to escape from the tangle of illusion.

One who realizes the 'Self' discovers that everything in the cosmos-- energy and space, fire and water, names and forms, birth and death, thoughts and words and deeds is merely an illusion created out of consciousness.

All is consciousness. The whole universe is consciousness. From consciousness, the universe comes. When the universe disappears, consciousness still remains without form, time, and space.

Sage Sankara disagrees with Buddhists who say, there is nothing - a nonentity. Sage Sankara believes there is some reality, even though things are not what they appear to be.

If one knows the truth, he will know what to do to find inspiration for action. The seeker of truth‘s subject is to know what is it that is Real.

Buddhism says:- all things are illusory and nothing exists. However, Advaita avers that it is not so. It says that the universe, of course, is illusory, but there is Brahman (consciousness), that exists forming the very substratum of all things (illusion or universe).:~Santthosh Kumaar