Religious upbringing is a major cause, which blocks one from realizing the Self hidden by ignorance.+

Religions are based on the belief, not the truth. Religions are more concerned with its beliefs dogmas and superstitions.

Religious believers constantly quarreling with one another claiming that their religion is superior to other religions. They haven't the intelligence to understand that in reality there is nothing exist other than the universal God, which is present in the form of the Spirit.  The Spirit is the Self. 

Religious upbringing is a major cause, which blocks one from realizing the Self hidden by ignorance.  

The orthodox people have narrow-minded outlook because they think what religious samskaras they inherited from their forefathers as the ultimate truth. 

The garbage of the religious beliefs dogmas superstition is confounded with the human imagination. The great reality of the glory of the religious Gods hyped and obscured by so much tinsel and commercialism.

Spirituality is not theology. Advaita is not a philosophy but Advaita is the ultimate truth or Brahman or God. Advaita is Self-knowledge or Brahma Gnana or Atma Gnana or knowledge of the Spirit or God in truth.

The word “Advaita” is one without the second. Advaita essentially refers to the Atman and the whole existence. Advaita is the fullness of consciousness without the division of the form, time and space.

Theology is nothing to do with spirituality. Advaita is pure spirituality. The theological Advaita is nothing to do with the Advaitic wisdom, which is based on the Spirit the Atman.

Theological Advaita is conceptual having its own doctrine is nothing to do with the Gnanic Advaita because Gnanic Advaita is Self-knowledge or Brahma Gnana or Atma Gnana.

Both approaches are not workable together because the theological Advaita is based on the birth entity (ego) Gnanic Advaita is based on the Atman (Soul).

Thus, the theological Advaita has to be discarded without mercy to get Advaitic Gnana.

“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 the 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 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 Soul, the Self is Soul and identifies 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 our Soul, which is the real  Self.

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

To come to a more precise understanding of what non-duality is or might mean, we must return to the original linguistic and philosophic backgrounds from which the word has been translated into English.

If we limit a probe of the meaning of non-duality to Hindu Sanskrit literature, we find that the most frequently used term is “Advaita.

Advaita” is not a religious concept. Advaita is the nature of the existence hidden by the form, time and space. The seeker has to attempt to rule out from the start a false understanding of reality by perfect understanding of ‘what is what’.

The Advaita is hidden by the dvaita. Advaita is the Soul, which is present in the form of consciousness. Dvaita is the universe.

Advaita is basically a denial; it is literally the negation of the dvaita. That means whatever remains by negating the universe by realizing the universe is created out of single clay and that clay is the Soul, which is present in the form of consciousness, the hidden truth by dvaita uncovered.

Consciousness is the cause of the universe and it itself is uncaused. 

Remember:~

The ultimate truth is One and universal. All people are seeking the same Truth..... Everyone is going toward the ultimate goal. They will all realize the ultimate truth or Brahman or God if they have sincerity and longing to realize it. 

NIHILISM, the 'Void' of Sunyavada Buddhism is only a stage. It cannot be ultimate. It says there is really nothing. The mistake of Hinayana Buddhism is to jump to assumptions where Buddha kept silent.

How is one to know the real Self? To think of the self is an object, as something that can be known and experienced is a fallacy. All that is known within the waking or dream is a fallacy because the three states are an object to the formless Soul, the Self, which is the subject. 

The Soul, the subject is hidden by the object, but it is without the object. The Soul the Self is always formless, timeless and spaceless existence because it is not an entity or identity within the waking or dream, but consciousness(Soul) pervades in everything and everywhere in all the three states. 

People think that to withdraw from all sense-activity, from all thoughts, all life-experiences, i.e., to cease to be active, is the highest state.

All the senses, thoughts and individual experiences and the world are present only in waking or dream. Waking or dream (duality) disappears as deep sleep non-duality. 

Thus, what becomes dual and non-dual experience is most important than inquiring ‘WHO AM I?’  or saying ‘I AM THAT’  or affirming I AM BRAHMAN. 

The Soul, the Self is not an individual because the Soul, the Self is ever formless, timeless and spaceless existence. If the Self is formless than where is the body, where are the senses, where is the ego, where is the universe. 

If the Self is not the physical body than it proves the fact that,  you are not the Self, but the formless knower of the man and the world is the true Self.   Thus, knowledge based on 'you 'as self is false knowledge within the false experience.

One has to go beyond Vedas means to go beyond religion. Go beyond religion means, go beyond the concept of god.  Thus, Going beyond Veda, religion and conceptual God means going beyond illusion.   That is the end of Vedas (Veda –antha).

When one goes into the annals of history, you will realize the Gnanic Advaita expounded by Sage Sankara and  Sage Goudpada is not orthodox Advaita, which is adulterated with add-ons from time to time.  

 It is necessary for the seeker to do his homework, and verify the validity of all the claims, rather than blindly believe, what others expound as knowledge, till; the uncontradictable truth is obtained.

The seeker must have the courage of Bhagavan Buddha to accept the truth and reject the untruth. Since Buddha rejected religion, the idea of God and scriptures, therefore, it is evident that he has gone through every aspect and verified and found them to be inadequate and useless for the pursuit of truth.

Even Buddhism is mixed up with regional culture and traditions of the local religion, wherever it existed. Thus to get the full essence from Buddhism is very difficult.

The PURANAS, including Vishnu Purana and Siva Purana, are based on the false idea of personal God because the writers have thought of God as a glorified man and woman.

The translations made till now of Indian philosophical works have represented religion and mythology, not philosophy. The greatest pundits do not understand it, for they do not understand science. 

What has this mythological teaching done for India? Look at its state today. Look at the conversions. Imagining that God has ashes on his forehead or blazing like the sun-- that is all poetry and depends only on faith.

The Saiva Siddhanta sect is a dualistic, unphilosophical religion like Ramanuja's sect.

Acharya Sri, Ramanuja, and Acharya  Sri, Madhva did not write commentaries on the Upanishads as Sage Sankara did to establish Brahman, but stopped, content with writing a commentary on Vysa Sutras and culling some paras only from the Upanishads with convenient vagueness to establish their God and Theology. 

Indians are more religious than other people. The six systems of Indian Philosophy are really six systems of Indian speculation. For there is only one Truth.

The  Hindu tenet borrowed by theosophists of universe appearing and dissolving, days and nights of Brahma, entering into 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 Brahma-God has nothing to do with it. 

That is why Swami Vivekananda said:~  

THE MASSES IN INDIA CRY TO SIXTY MILLION GODS AND STILL DIE LIKE DOGS. WHERE ARE THESE GODS?

Knowing this, stand up and fight! Not one step back, that is the idea. ... Fight it out, whatever comes. Let the stars move from the sphere! Let the whole world stand against us! Death means only a change of garment. What of it? Thus fight! You gain nothing by becoming cowards. ... Taking a step backward, you do not avoid any misfortune. You have cried to all the gods in the world. Has misery ceased? The masses in India cry to sixty million Gods and still die like dogs. Where are these gods? ... The gods come to help you when you have succeeded. So what is the use? Die game. ... This bending the knee to superstitions, this selling yourself to your own mind does not befit you, my soul. You are infinite, deathless, birthless. Because you are the infinite spirit, it does not befit you to be a slave. ... Arise! Awake! Stand up and fight! Die if you must. There is none to help you. You are the entire world. Who can help you? - Swami Vivekananda  (Delivered In San Francisco, on May 28, 1900) The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda/Volume 1/Lectures And Discourses/The Gita II

Vivekananda said: ~Creeds and sects have their parts to play, but they are for children, they last but temporarily. Books never make religions, but religions make books. We must never forget that. No book ever created God, but God inspired all the great books. And no book ever created a soul. We must never forget that. -Talk given at Unity Hall, Hartford (Connecticut), USA, on March 8, 1895, as reported in "Hartford Times" (March 11, 1895). Complete Works, 1.324.

Remember:~

All the Guru Parampara is for religious people. There is no need for a Guru in the path of wisdom.

Even swami Vivekananda was Ramakrishna Paramahansa's disciple. Swami Vivekananda himself said: ~ “You have to grow from the inside out. None can teach you, none can make you spiritual. There is no other teacher, but your own Soul.”

There are two kinds of audiences - the ordinary ones who desire the transitory heaven and other pleasures obtained as a result of ritual sacrifices, and the most advanced seeker who seeks to realize the ultimate truth or Brahman or God in truth. 

The Guru and Guru paramparas are meant for the first audience, to help lead its followers along the way. However, there is no need to follow any parampara and follow any Guru those who wish to realize the truth which is beyond the form, time, and space. 

We should not mix religion with spirituality because religion is based on the ego and spirituality is based on the Soul. 

The religion is concerned with its paramparas, not truth whereas spirituality is concerned only with the truth, which is beyond the form, time, and space. Religion is not spirituality.

Sage Sankara: ~ "Though I wear these robes of a Sanyasin, it is only for the sake of bread." (Select Works of Sage Sankara" also his commentary on Brihad)

Thus, the above passage proves that all those who were the sanyasin robes are wearing them for the sake of bread belongs to the religion; they are nothing to do with Self-knowledge or Brahma Gnana or Atma Gnana. 

There is no need to criticize and condemn the Gurus, yogis, and swamis because they are needed for the welfare of ignorant mass in the dualistic world.

Sage Sankara in Viveka Chudamani (2), states that the Knower of the Atman (i.e., a Gnani) "bears no outward mark of a holy man." (Stanza 539).

It means the Gurus, Swamis, and Yogis who identify themselves as holy people are not Gnanis.

 Those who are seeking truth need not follow any Guru or any teaching. Those Gurus and Yogis who make them make the seeker sentimentally get involved in the name of love are playing with the feelings of the seeker.

Emotionally getting stuck with the Gurus or yogis leads to hallucination, emotionally getting involved with the Guru will not yield truth. 

If you are the seeker of truth then you must know the Gurus and Yogis are not Gnanis. If you want to tread the path of wisdom you must be free from the Gurudom.

That is why Sage Sankara: ~On Gnani wears no signs. Gives up the insignia of a monk's life…his signs are not manifest, nor his behavior."

A Gnani wears no signs it means he does not identify himself’ as Guru or Yogi or teacher or Swami. Thus, Gurudom is meant for the ignorant populace not meant for the seekers of truth. : ~Santthosh Kumaar