Vedas talk of women being the path-makers and decision-makers in society since the dawn of civilization.+

It is ridiculous when women are successful in every field; the religious orthodox are barring women under some pretext or the other from learning Vedas is orthodox hypocrisy.

 Sage Sankara says even women can realize truth if they persist.

Accordingly, during the Vedic age, women were given the utmost position. Vedas says Gods reside where women are held in high esteem.

Vedas unequivocally proclaim equal rights for all people regardless of caste, gender or geography. While the west could give voting rights to women only in early 20th century, Vedas talk of women being the path-makers and decision-makers in society since the dawn of civilization.

Accordingly, during the Vedic age, women were given the utmost position. We see the names of Ghosha, Apaala, Lopamudra, and Ruchi-Indraani being cited as Rishikas similar to the names of Rishis like Vasistha, Vishwamitra, and Vamadeva etc. They had realized the truth contained in many Veda mantras.

Even they had full powers to administer various Vedic rituals called karmakanda. It is clear from the Vedic authority Stree hee Brahma babhuvita that women were partaking in the Yagnas. They conducted the yagnas seated as Brahma. They also had the access to learn the warfare and had the freedom to partake therein. They bequeathed the qualities of courage and heroism to their children also. A heroic mother proudly announces in Veda thus Mama Putro Shatruhane mamaduhita virat meaning that my son is a vanquisher of enemies and my daughter is honorable.

The tradition continued in the Upanishadic era also. There were many spiritual endowed women called Brahmavaadins like Gargi, Maitreyee, etc. They were master debaters and even reputed Rishis were hesitant to engage them in debates. Gargi’s intellectual combat with Rishi Yagnavalkya is quite well-known.

However, it must be said that the position of women detracted during the middle ages. Her prestige suffered during Puranic age. In Sanskrit literature, she was treated as an object of enjoyment.

Orthodoxy described characterized women as a way to hell and untrustworthy. The dualist sages called women as anuchari and not as sahachari. The men who led the Bhakti movement also disregarded women.

Women  Sages. 

Women saints and sages of India have been given less importance, for several reasons obvious to anyone studying history...

In the medieval period, women were confined to homes and according to some moral codes, women were not allowed to study scriptures and chant mantras while mantras were invoked as female deities or Goddesses.

The Vedic rishis had wives who were learned women and took part in philosophical discussions. The crippling social practices for women, considering them as inferior, unfit for scriptural studies were introduced by male-dominated societies...While women monastics or nuns were introduced in Buddhism; it was not a common practice to have nuns in Hindu monastic orders till recent times.

Sage Sankara says in Mand.P.351 and also in Vivekachoodamani, that even women can realize truth if they persist.

Thus, it proves that Sage Sankara wanted even women to acquire Advaitic wisdom, whereas the orthodox Advaitins Bars women to indulging in the path of wisdom even in this modern days.

The orthodoxy is based on the experience of birth, life, death, and the world as a reality whereas the ultimate truth is based on the formless Soul, the ‘Self’. Thus, Advaitic wisdom is for the whole universe irrespective of any gender, race, creed, and religion.

Sage Sankara has philosophical disputes and debates with an equally great scholar, Mandana Mishra. Mishra's learned wife Bharathi served as the umpire.

However, the credit for uplifting women and restoring their rights should go to liberals like Maharishi Dayananda the founder of the movement called Arya Samaj to work incessantly for their all-round welfare. He called women as the most honorable. And criticizing those who prevented women from learning Vedas

Maharshi Dayananda(Arya Samaj) quoted: ~ Yajurveda mantra ~Yathemam Vacham kalyani mavadhani janebhyah: Brahmararjaanaabhyam shudrayacharyaa cha swaya chaaranaya|| ladies and even persons lower than shudras. Here shudras mean ignorant people. Condemning certain verses whose authority was doubtful like Stree-shudro Na deeyataam, he countered them with the Vedic mantra Bramhacharyena kanya yuvaanaam vindate patim which enabled women to go for marriage after observing Brahmacharya and after studying the true shastras like Vedas etc.

He also quoted amply from other sources which sanction women the authority to learn Vedas. Recalling those days he said women like Gargi were total scholars. Citing another incident he pointed out how a queen like Kaikeyee could assist her husband in a war unless she had training in martial arts. His assertions in favor of women learning Vedas had the desired effect and the opposition to women from learning Vedas has waned but not totally eliminated. : ~ Santthosh Kumaar 

Whatever exists without ignorance is the ultimate reality.+

The birth is the birth of ignorance. The physical life is the life of ignorance. The death is the death of ignorance. Whatever exists without ignorance is the ultimate reality.

Remember, the ‘Self is not you. You are born within the world and you are going to die within the world. The world in which you exist is an illusion created out of the Soul, the ‘Self’, which is present in the form of consciousness. The Soul is birthless and deathless because it is a formless, timeless, and spaceless existence.

If you want self-realization, but you still say "I,” and still you think the ‘Self’ is the ‘I’, you are not a wise seeker. You are still ignorant who is stuck to the ‘I’. you are foolish to cling to the ‘I'.

This is your bondage that you cling to the ‘I’. The world in which you exist appears when the ‘I’ appears and it disappears when the ‘I’ disappears. The ‘I’ is not the ‘Self’ but the ‘I’ is the world in which you exist.

The ‘Self’ is the Soul, which is present in the form of consciousness. Consciousness is the cause of the world in which you exist, which is the dualistic illusion. And consciousness itself is uncaused.

The world, in which you exist, is the dualistic illusion. There is a Goal. You are not the Self; therefore, you are not the Goal. You are the false Self within the false experience.

Sage Sankara: ~VC~ if the universe is true, let it then be perceived in the state of deep sleep also. As it is not at all perceived, it must be unreal and false like dreams. The ‘Self’ is not the ‘I’. The ‘I’ hides the Soul. Where there is ‘I’ there is no Soul. Where there Soul there no ‘I’. The ‘Self’ is the Soul. The Soul, the ‘Self’s without the ‘I’. If the ‘Self’ is without the ‘I’ then: ~ It is without ignorance. It is without the dualistic illusion. It is without form, time, and space. It is without the universe.

Advaita only means the negation of duality. The Soul, which is present in the form of consciousness, is the ultimate truth or Brahman or God in truth. Consciousness is the cause of the origin, maintenance, and withdrawal of the universe is Advaita (i.e. non-dual), which means that the consciousness transcends all conceptions, positive and negative. Nothing positive can ever be imagined or said about it.

It is without the experience of birth, life, death, and the world.

It is the fullness of consciousness without division and diversity.

Advaitic wisdom is to realize there are no two. Advaitic wisdom is impossible without inquiring into the nature of the mind. The knowledge of the matter and spirit is Gnana, not the knowledge of matter alone.

Consciousness is existence absolute, awareness absolute. The Existence absolute means that the consciousness is not unreal or non-existent. And it is not unconsciousness. Nothing positive can be stated about consciousness. : ~ Santthosh Kumaar

It is impossible to make a horoscope of the unborn Soul, which is the cause of the world in which you exist and it itself is uncaused.+

From the standpoint of the Soul the Self, the Astrology, Planetary positions belong to the dualistic illusion or Maya. The experience of birth, life, death, and the world, are within the dualistic illusion or Maya.

Astrology is based on the birth entity (form). Astrology is a reality within the domain of the form, time and space.

Without the form, time and space there is no astrology. It is impossible to make a horoscope of the unborn Soul, which is the cause of the world in which you exist and it itself is uncaused.

Astrological calculations are based on the birth entity. The birth entity is the false self (waking entity or ego) within the false experience (waking) whereas the Soul, the innermost Self is the birthless, and deathless because it is the ever formless, timeless and spaceless existence.

On the standpoint of the birthless and deathless Self ~ the form, time and space cease to exist. Without form, time and space the whole cosmos ceases to exist. Thus, the planetary strength does not arise because it is part of the illusion.

Astrology is meant for the ignorant mass, who believes the form, time and space as reality.

From the nondualistic perspective, the dualistic Astrology has no value.

Remember:~

From the dualistic perspective, the planetary positions are a reality.

From the nondualistic perspective, they are merely an illusion because the whole cosmos is created out of single stuff. That single stuff is the Soul, which is present in the form of consciousness.

From the standpoint of the Soul the cosmos ceases to exist because the illusory cosmos has merged as the consciousness, in reality, there is no second thing exists other than the consciousness.

If you had asked the same question within the dream and many agree and disagree within the dream. The dream becomes unreal when the waking takes place. Similarly, the waking experience (in which we exist) becomes unreal when you realize the Self is not you but the Soul. If the ‘Self is the Soul then the whole cosmos becomes an illusion created out of the Soul. Whatever good and bad happen with the illusion is bound to be an illusion. Thus all the planetary position is within the dualistic illusion because the whole cosmos itself is an illusion.

My observation is based on a nondualistic perspective.

The look of an object will depend upon the medium through which the observer views it. In fact, our mental and intellectual conditions determine the universe observed and experienced. The commoner viewing the universe will see differently from a Gnani viewing the same universe. Each one interprets the three states that they see in terms of their existing knowledge. The commoner sees everything based on the ego, therefore, the universe in which he exists as a reality, whereas a Gnani sees the universe as consciousness and he is fully aware of the fact that, there is no second thing exists other than the Soul or consciousness (subject).

Therefore, whether I agree or disagree with the illusion has no value from the ultimate standpoint. Within the world in which we exist, whatever is reality is bound to be an illusion, from the standpoint of the Soul, unborn Self.

Thus, the effect on human beings by the planetary position, negative or positive is part of the illusory reality.

Thus, all the objective observation is based on the false self, has to be bifurcated to realize what I am saying.:~Santthosh Kumaar

When the yogi enters this highest Nirvikalpa (effort-less) Samadhi, he will at once enter deep sleep.+

Manduka Upanishads:- Those that want Brahman will not practice control of the mind. That is Yoga for duffers. The others will inquire and practice discrimination. (p.231)

Brih. Upanishad: page 32. "Yoga does not yield truth or liberation."

One may read the Mahabharata for all philosophical, yogic, and cosmological teachings but at the end, it finally says "All is imaginative."

Brihad Upanishad:~ It too declares Yoga cannot give you the truth.

Bhagavan Buddha gave up his austerities of yoga as impossible and useless. (Page.70/71 "Buddhism in Translation” by Warren)

Bhagavan Buddha got enlightenment only after he gave up Yoga. Unless one exercises his reason--there is no chance of getting the truth.

When the yogi enters this highest Nirvikalpa (effort-less) Samadhi, he will at once enter deep sleep. This will make plain to him after he wakes, that the inner ‘Self’ he sought and found, the Atman, is reached only when all his ideas are refunded into it, when there are then all the features of non-duality, one without a second. However, the yogi must later wake up, emerge from Samadhi and there is duality again, for the world of objects confronts him. So now he has to work on the next stage which is to find consciously in the waking experience the same non-duality that he unconsciously knew in sleep. This is done by learning that the universe is or idea or an object for the formless subject, and then refunding the universe, ~idea back into its source, which is the Soul, which is present in the form of the consciousness.

Only at this final stage, does he says "Atman, which is present in the form of the consciousness is the same as the Brahman.  Brahman is the ultimate truth. " Now he is fully aware of it.

All yogic visions, however, wonderful will pass away; they go as they come. They have the value of dreams. They are not truth which is un-passing and beyond changes.

One can’t shut his eye to the universe, which confronts him as in Samadhi of yoga, and see supreme reality. One can know it only by keeping himself clear and open.

Sage Sankara says: - The yogi must add discrimination to his quest.

Nirvikalpa Samadhi and deep sleep are the same from the standpoint of the Soul, the innermost ‘‘Self’’ the absence of the known. The knower was there.

How does Samadhi give Gnana? Only by preparing yourself to see that the world disappears and re-appears and, that non-duality is here and duality there, to convince the man that in non-duality one won’t disappear as he doesn't disappear in Samadhi or deep sleep. Another advantage of Samadhi is one gets the capacity to forget the external world and to treat it as an idea.

Yoga can never give you the fundamental thing, that the world is an illusion. Only Gnana can give it. Nirvikalpa Samadhi is unquestionably the same as deep sleep, and all ideas are refunded back there too. 

One must learn what ideas are when all the ideas of the universe go back into one’s mind through Yoga. Then one learns this. How has he to learn that the entire universe is consciousness or Brahman if he stops at Nirvikalpa Samadhi? Without perceiving the universe, and having a duality before him, it is impossible.

Nirvikalpa has no duality, hence it cannot tell you about the universe. The yogi who emerges from Samadhi and says he found Gnana there, says it to a second person, hence there is duality again. If he were a real Gnani, there would be nobody for him to tell that he had experienced Gnana.

Self-knowledge will interest only a few people; the rest are interested in Religion, yoga other paths, and pleasure hunting. : ~Santthosh Kumaar 

When the Soul wakes up from its sleep of ignorance and it remains in its own awareness in the midst of the dualistic illusion or Maya then is called Moksha.+

Sage Sankara says: ~ “What is accepted without proper inquiry will not lead a person to the final goal. On the contrary, such acceptance will result only in evil, in something which is detrimental to our spiritual progress.

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 non-Self.

Until you think you are an individual separate from the world and the world existed prior to you and you are born in it afterward the ignorance will prevail as a reality. Till ignorance is there the universe prevails as reality.

Sage Sankara says:~ “The exercise in discrimination between real and unreal and renunciation of the false is real meditation, then why you are indulging in other types of meditation. 

Perfect understanding and realization of ‘what is what’ leads Self-awareness. By holding onto theories one remains in the realm of duality. You have to mentally go on dropping what is not the truth through deeper Self-search. 

Finally when you become aware of the fact that, your ego, your body, and the world are one in essence then there is Self-awareness in the midst of duality.

Remember:~

The 'Self is not you, but the 'Self is the Soul. The Soul is a formless, timeless and spaceless existence.

The ‘Self’ is not an individual because ‘Self’ is birthless, deathless; therefore it is erroneous to base the truth of the individual experience of the birth, life, death, God and the world.

Suffice it to say that the world remains as reality for all except those who have attained the Self-knowledge or Brahma Gnana or Atma Gnana.

He who realizes the ‘Self’ as the Soul, is free from the experiencing the dualistic illusion or Maya as reality.

Self-knowledge or Brahma Gnana or Atma Gnana frees the Soul, the ‘Self’ from its cage of ignorance and consequently its freedom from experiencing the dualistic illusion or Maya as reality.

When the Soul wakes up from its sleep of ignorance and it remains in its own awareness in the midst of the dualistic illusion or Maya  then is called Moksha. : ~ Santthosh Kumaar 

Holding ‘Self’ as ‘I’ is holding the falsehood as a reality.+

The Soul is the ‘Self’. ‘I’ is not the Soul. Holding ‘Self’ AS ‘I’ is holding the falsehood as a reality. There is a need to know what is ‘I’ before indulging in the pursuit of truth.

The dualist gurus including many thinkers could not distinguish between ‘I’ and ‘Self’. They hold 'I' as the ‘‘Self’’. Their highest was the Jiva. They are so much attached to the 'I' that they do not want to think that 'I' does not exist. Again they are unable to detach the ‘I’ from the Real ‘Self’.

The dualist object: - If everything else is false then the statement I am Brahman is itself false, but when one says non-duality is false, there must be the awareness, consciousness, behind the very statement. You will also go, die. One has to rely upon that which is permanent. The formless witness of the ‘I’ alone is permanent. Anything that one says is the witnessed (waking), but there is the formless witness (consciousness) there before any statement could be made.

They mean the body by “I", but it is the formless witness which is the real “‘Self’ ". Theists dualists did not, or could not analyze further than ‘I’ on this point because they thought the ‘I’ without the body as ‘Self’.

WHAT IS ‘I’?

The ‘I’ disappears as deep sleep, so what is the use of being attached to it? It is impermanent and illusory.

There is really no ‘I’. The ‘I’ is present in the form of the mind. And the mind is in the form of the universe. The universe appears as the waking or dream. The ‘I’ or mind or universe or waking or dream dies disappears as deep sleep.

One that appears as ‘I’ or the mind or universe or waking or dream is nothing but consciousness and it disappears as deep sleep is also consciousness. In deep sleep, it is in its formless nondual true nature. The one, which witnesses the coming and going of the three states, is also consciousness. Thus, the witness and the witnessed are one, in essence.

Thus, the universe is a reality on the base of the ego. You are the ego. The ego is the false ‘Self’ within the false experience (waking).

The universe is unreal on the base of the Soul, the ‘Self’. The Soul is present in the form of consciousness. The seeker gradually will grasp and realize the unreal nature of the universe (‘I’ or mind).

Individuality is illusory because the ‘Self’ is not an individual because ‘Self’ is formless, timeless, and spaceless existence and it pervades in everything and everywhere in all the three states.

Dualist’ sages have written big volumes about the Soul. Yet they are quite ignorant of the fact that the ‘I’ about which they write itself’ comes and goes and has no permanent existence, is only an idea after all.

What is it that appears as the ‘I’ and disappears as the ‘I-less? It is the Soul, which is present in the form of consciousness.

Do not make the mistake of holding the ‘I’ as the Self because it is not permanent. ‘I’ disappears and becomes ‘I’-less.

‘I’ is an illusion and the ‘I-LESS’ is real and eternal. The ‘I-LESS ‘appears as ‘I’ and ‘I ’‘disappears as I-LESS.

Bhagavad Gita: ~ The permanent is always there, only the transient ‘I’ comes and goes. (2.18)

The ‘I’ hides the Soul, the Self, which is ever nondual.

People think ‘I’ without the body is the Self. The seeker has to understand the fact that ‘I’ is not the Self, but the witness of the ‘I’ is the true Self, which is Soul, the unborn eternal.

That is why Ashtavakra Gita 16:10:~ If you desire liberation, but you still say "I," if you feel the ‘Self’ is the ‘I’, you are not a wise man or a seeker. You are simply a man who suffers. : ~ Santthosh Kumaar

Nonduality is an idea that is antithetic to the idea of duality. A Gnani is above all the ideas.+

In Tattireya Upanishad:~ "satyaM vada. dharmaM cara ." Speak the truth, and practice dharma. Now if you want to practice dharma, you should first know what it means. (1.11.1)

The word, “dharma" is found in the karikas, which means Atma in Advaita Vedanta.

In Self-awareness where there is no separation of the form, time, and space and there is no ‘I’, there is no mind, there is no universe, there is no individual, and there is no duality then:~

Where is Dharma?

Where is karma?

Where is Artha?

Where is discrimination?

Nonduality is an idea that is antithetic to the idea of duality. A Gnani is above all the ideas.

Really no time is required if the seeker is sharp enough to grasp the Advaitic truth. All the accumulated knowledge and inherited religious conditioning or samskaras block the realization of the ultimate truth or Brahman or God. All the seeker needs are an intense urge to realize the truth. If the seeker is serious and sincere, he has it. After all, it is a matter of attitude.

Nothing stops you from being a Gnani, right in this very life, not in the next life or the next world. Fear of losing your physical identity people are afraid to inquire. There is nothing to be afraid of. Nothing is lost by realizing the truth only the unreal nature of the world in which you exist is exposed, the same way the unreal nature of the dream is exposed when the waking takes place.

Remember:~

Imparting the Advaitic wisdom to the unprepared mindset would be ‘equivalent to giving sermons to the stone statues.

Everyone is not ripe enough to understand, assimilate the Nondualistic or Advaitic truth. Some people want to exhibit their intellectual wealth, but it has no value in the pursuit of truth.

The seeker must have enough patience, humility, and an intense urge to know the truth.

Arguments and provocation will not yield truth. Perfect understanding of ‘what is what ‘leads to the realization of Nondualistic or Advaitic truth

First, know what this unknown truth you are seeking. The seeker is seeking the truth of his true existence, which is hidden by the form, time, and space.

Truth means certainty. The dualistic truth is not a certainty because the dualistic truth is based on the ego and is limited to the form, time, and space whereas the non-dualistic truth is based on the Soul, which is formless, timeless, and spaceless existence.

If there is any uncertainty it is not the truth. It does not deal with imagination.

People do not have a scientific attitude because they take things as presented to them. They have rather an emotional and sentimental attitude. The correct attitude is to verify all the facts, to see a problem in them, something to investigate and inquire into them.

Truth must be verifiable; unless it is verifiable it is of no value. Those who lack the capacity to doubt are not fit for the pursuit of truth.

Analogical, inductive, and deductive reasoning, is good only within the domain of the form, time, and space; none is absolutely and universally infallible because they are based on the ego or the physical self.

The religious truth is based on blind belief. But in pursuit of truth, doubt is the main ingredient.

Most people have the desire to know the truth but the capacity to understand and grasp the truth, which is beyond the form, time and space is limited.

The result is that people resolve the conflict by jumping to the first and simplest and easiest conclusion as the correct one, and smugly but unjustifiably thinking “I know”: Thus, they commit the fallacy of primitivity.

Gurus or pundits or yogis statements shouldn’t be accepted blindly as the ultimate truth because they are based on the dualistic perspective that is not proof. The truth based on the dualistic belongs to the dualistic illusion therefore not the truth.

All the claims have to be verified before accepting them as truth. Because all the religious and yogic and mystic truth is based on the form, time, and space.

From the ultimate standpoint, form, time, and space are an illusion. Thus, whatever is based on the form, time and space are a dualistic illusion. Whatever is based on the dualistic illusion is bound to be an untruth.

The Soul, the Spirit is the highest truth. The Soul is the cause of the universe and it itself is uncaused.

The ultimate truth cannot be known by intuition but it can be grasped from Soulcentric reason by discriminating between the Soul and the ego. Whatever is based on the Soul is the ultimate truth and whatever is based on the ego is the untruth.

Therefore, there is a need to know first the ‘Self’ is not you but the Self is the Soul, the Spirit.

You learn to start reasoning on the base of the Soul, then all your clouds of confusion start clearing on their own. And you will finally realize that form, time and space are nothing but an illusion created out of the Soul, which is present in the form of consciousness.

From the standpoint of the Soul, the Self, there is no confusion left because everything is consciousness. There is no second thing that exists other than consciousness.

Thus, the Soul alone is real and all else is an illusion. The Soul is one without the second therefore, the Soul is Advaita. The Advaita is the ultimate truth or Brahman or God.

The spiritual writings, writers, the readers, and the world in which they all exist were created out of single stuff. That single stuff is the Spirit. Knowledge of the single stuff is Self-knowledge. Self-knowledge leads to Self-awareness.

Self-awareness leads to unity in diversity (oneness) because everything is created out of single stuff. The whole universe in which we exist is nothing but the Spirit.

The Spirit (Soul) alone is real and the universe in which we are discussing is merely an illusion. Thus, our words, thoughts, and our intellectuality have no value in the Atmic discussion. The Atmic discussion is not based on the form, time, and space, but it is the knowledge of the beyond the form, time, and space.

There is no scope for argument in the Atmic discussion. The argument is possible only on the dualistic perspective. On the non-dualistic perspective, there is no dualistic illusion, because, there is unity in diversity or Oneness.

The truth is oneness. There is no scope for duality in Advaitic truth. ~

Santthosh Kumaar