Dattatreya's Song of the Avadhut:!Nonduality is taught by some; some others teach duality. They don't understand that the all-pervading Reality is beyond both duality and nonduality.+

“Advaita” is a term used variously to express the unity of reality.  Advaita is unity in diversity.   The seeker has to begin by defining "What is real?" "What is unreal?,   to establish in Advaitic reality by sheer reasoning alone.   The reasoning is the right way to realize the truth, which is beyond the form, time and space. People must first know what is the truth? and what is untruth’. 

Sage  Sankara’s wisdom is not teaching or philosophy but Advaita is universal wisdom. Advaitic wisdom is neither a teaching nor a theory but it is mere guidance to those who are seriously seeking the ultimate truth or Brahman. Grasp the ultimate truth any time, any age, if the seeker has the spiritual maturity and capacity to grasp to grasp it.  

Sage  Sankara says: ~ VC-47   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.

It really depends on his inborn natural capacity to understand and assimilate it.  Sage Sankara’s wisdom is a Self-examiner, to test oneself to discover how near to Gnana he has approached and what progress has already been made on the path and what still remains to be done.  It sets up a criterion for Self-judgement.   There are millions in search of truth but one in million will be able to grasp it.

Without Sage Sankara, there is no Advaita (nonduality).  Since it was mixed up with orthodoxy there is a lot of confusion. I am highlighting all the obstacles, which is blocking one from realizing the ultimate truth or Brahman. 

There are so many non-dualistic masters of the east and also from the west   who expound Advaitic or non-dualistic knowledge but none of them are helpful to reach the ultimate end.

One has to know and realize the Self is Soul and identify it as his true identity to find liberation from the bondage of the illusion of birth, life, death, and the world(duality).   The goal of our life is to find and realize our identity with the Soul, the real Self. 

Many people believe by accumulating mastering the knowledge from the Vedas, the Upanishads, and the other scriptures and mastering the Sanskrit language makes one a Gnani.

The scholars who mastered the knowledge of the Vedas the Upanishads and the other scriptures and mastered the Sanskrit language looked upon other people as ignorant or as an illiterate. 

The religious scholars think people who have no knowledge of Vedas, the Upanishads, and the other scriptures and do not know the Sanskrit language are not qualified for higher truth. 

Mastering the Vedas the Upanishads and the other scriptures and mastering the Sanskrit language does not a qualifies one to acquire Self-knowledge or Brahma Gnana or Atma Gnana.

These religious scholars immersed in ignorance in various ways, flatter themselves, saying: We have accomplished life's mission. Because these performers of karma do not know the Advaitic Gnana owing to their accumulated knowledge they will never be able to cross the ocean of dualistic illusion.

Sage  Sankara says: ~VC-58-Loud speech consisting of a shower of words, the skill in expounding the Scriptures, and likewise erudition - these merely bring on a little personal enjoyment to the scholar but are no good for Liberation.

59. The study of the Scriptures is useless so long as the highest Truth is unknown, and it is equally useless when the highest Truth has already been known.

60. The Scriptures consisting of many words are a dense forest which merely causes the mind to ramble. Hence, men of wisdom should earnestly set about knowing the true nature of the Self.

Dattatreya's Song of the Avadhut 1.36-42:~ “Nonduality is taught by some; some others teach duality. They don't understand that the all-pervading Reality is beyond both duality and nonduality.

Mundaka Upanishad:~ “ 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)

A Gnani may be illiterate in the dualistic world, a scholar as literate, as a well-educated person in the dualistic world. But of what value is the scholar’s knowledge is limited to the form, time and space but a Gnani even if he is illiterate his knowledge is of the beyond the form, time and space.

Sage Sankara: ~ On Gnani: "The knower of Brahman 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 or yogi.

A scholar will go on and on about the immortality of the Soul but when death approaches he will be trembling and weeping and wailing. Scholars, interpretations of sacred texts, the force of religious merit--none of these lead to the realization of that Ultimate Truth or Brahman. 

Self-knowledge or Brahma Gnana or Atma Gnana is the knowledge of the immortal the Soul, the one and only ‘Self’ of all that exists as an illusion.

All this talk of immortality will crumble into nothingness because he has not known the knowledge of the Soul, which is immortal.

A Gnani knows what he is talking about is not an explanation, what he is talking about is the realization of the truth, which is beyond the form, time and space.

A Gnani shares his joy by sharing his wisdom; he is singing the song about the unsung truth. Remember whenever a Gnani speaks about God it is not a belief; he knows it, it is his realization. He is talking out of his realization; hence, he can be of immense help to the whole of humanity.

A Gnani always sees the world in which he exists as the Soul without any division of form, time, and space. And a Gnani watches his own actions as if they were another's. he is never puffed up by the praise or disturbed by blame.

As for Gnani, his individuality is dead. It is merged in the Soul like waves in the ocean A Gnani live in freedom have gone beyond the dualities of life. 

A Gnani is not competing with anyone, he alike in success and failure and content with whatever comes to him. He is e free, without Selfish attachments; his attention is fixed in the awareness of the Soul. 

A Gnani performs all practical duties of the practical world like others and he helps other seekers to get rid of the ignorance of their true existence. : ~ Santthosh Kumaar