The Upanishad says: - Atman the innermost self is known by Reason alone, by sharpened and purified intellect. Yet still people worship Yoga and mysticism as the sole means of attaining Atman.

The Upanishad says: - Atman the innermost self is known by Reason alone, by sharpened and purified intellect. Yet still people worship Yoga and mysticism as the sole means of attaining Atman. 

The great mystic who claims  to have  experienced non-dualistic ecstasy must still come back to normal state and see the external world, after his ecstasy. And then he will find that world separates from him because he has ignored it and not tried to understand it. Only the Gnani can say of the external world, "This whole universe is Brahman." and prove his statement, and that it is none other than  the soul, the innermost self. 

The yogis are largely  self-deluded. Otherwise they would not set themselves up as different from others. They seek influence over others, or money, by thus differentiating themselves. The Gnani never does this. The yogis promise blessings etc. to those who surrender their wealth or person to them. 

The easiest thing is physical action. Who is better off--the man that digs the well or the man who calculates? Sitting still is a bodily act. Hence true yoga has been lost through it being in the hands of the mentally weak. 

When a yogi says "I feel Bliss" who is having the experience? His 'I' is the ego. Hence that is not the highest Gnana. 

 The ‘I’ is inborn samskara or conditioning, because of this inborn samskara or conditioning one has accepted the ‘I’ as ‘self, he is ignorant of the fact that, he has accepted illusion as reality.  The ‘I’ itself is illusion.  And whatever is connected to the ‘I’ is bound to be illusion.  The self is not an individual because it is birthless because it is formless.  The self is not limited to waking experience alone because it pervades all the three states.  Thus identifying the self without the form alone is erroneous.   The self is without the form, without the time and without the space. 

 Thought is nothing to do with the innermost self, which is ever formless because without the form, time and space the thought will not be formed.  The thought rises only to the waking entity or dream entity. Without the waking entity or dream entity the thoughts will not rise. Deeper self-search reveals the fact that the self is neither the waking entity nor the self is the dream entity but the self is the formless soul or consciousness, which witnesses the coming and going of the three states. The three states are nothing to do with the self because they are mere illusion. 

Swami Vivekananda: - The idea that you are Mr. So-and-so can never be true; it is a daydream. Know this and be free. This is the non-dualistic conclusion. "Self is neither the body, nor the organs, nor self is the mind; self is Existence, Knowledge, and Bliss absolute; the Self is the soul." This is true knowledge; all reason and intellect, and everything else is ignorance. Where is knowledge for the soul, the innermost self, for self is knowledge itself! Where is life for the soul, for self is life itself! The Self is sure it the live, for self is life, the One Being, and nothing exists except through the soul, and in the soul, and as me.

If one carefully examines the experiences of mystics, he finds that they do differ. It is superficial to say that yogis and mystics all have the same experience. 

Avadhuta Gita:-“The Atman cannot be purified through the practice of the six limbs of the yoga, or through the annihilation of the mind, or through the instruction of a teacher. The Atman is the Reality Itself and It is Purity Itself." 

Whatever idea of God one  familiar with through upbringing or teaching, that he will see in his   visions i.e. imagination. 

Mystics who promise a Garden of Eden, a joyous outlook on life, do not see that this must be duality , an object which is seen and must inevitably vanish. How long can it last? A Gnani  regard the  Self-awareness as higher, because it is apart from joy or sorrow, ecstasy or pain, and because it belongs to the Atman , the innermost self  and is therefore unbroken, permanent. 

In the  dream,  one  knows that the dream figures are also mind, not different from it; similarly when he  know that everything is Brahman, there is no need for yogic control of mind. 

Control presupposes second, a duality. Hence yoga is in the sphere of duality and is unnecessary to one who knows non-duality. (See Mandukya P.153 ). 

The Upanishad says: - Atman the innermost self is known by Reason alone, by sharpened and purified intellect. Yet still people worship Yoga and mysticism as the sole means of attaining Atman. 

The seeker of the truth has to  be active in order to examine the world and discriminate. Hence non- dualistic self-awareness means knowing that the form,time and space are one in essence. That essence is consciousness.  The three states and the formless witness of the three states are one in essence.    

The three states and their formless witness is the Atman ,which present in the form of consciousness . The Atman is the innermost self.  Realizing the Atman as self, the non- dualistic self-awareness arises in the midst of the duality. This is different from Patanjali Yogic Nirvikalpa samadhi, which is only deep sleep.

The Yogis and Mystics want meditation, sitting still, etc. only because it gives them pleasure: the satisfaction is for their own selves only,which  is something sought by the ego and cannot get non-dualistic self-awareness  in consequence. 

There is nothing to drive out. Even the yogi's ecstasies may be retained, provided one  does not let himself be deceived about them and accept them like everything else, as part of Brahman. 

The Yogi wants to do something, some action, even that of sitting still, to control this or concentrate that. This means he is still attached to the body. He wants his body to be quiet. He is still thinking of illusory body. He does not start with  that the body  and the world are  but an illusion a. On the contrary, he takes them  for a reality. 

To be desireless means to feel that he  everything in him; that there is nothing outside him; therefore, what has one  to desire?The populace misunderstand and think desirelessness means refraining from worldly pleasures. A Gnani has nothing to give up, when all is Brahman. 

Those who tell one  that Brahman is unity, that he  can get it only by intuition, that he should not reason, he  should not question or argue or inquire, are deluding him. Verification must come by thought. 

The world must be seen before one  can know its true nature in Gnana. The yogi who shuts it out, thereby deprives himself of the opportunity to achieve Gnana. 

Sage Sri, Sankara :-VC-63. Without causing the objective universe to vanish and without knowing the truth of the Self, how is one to achieve Liberation by the mere utterance of the word Brahman ? — It would result merely in an effort of speech.

Mandukya Upanishad:- Those that want ultimate truth Brahman will not practice control of mind. (p.231)

If a man gets Moksha after undergoing any discipline, his Moksha is only temporary: it will go again. Atman (consciousness)  cannot be got because it is already there. The witness(Atman) has never been in bondage because it is always apart from, untouched by witnessed (three state). This argument cannot be turned against A Gnani by yogis and religious believers , because they regard ignorance as an integral part of the soul to be got rid of by their practices, whereas a Gnani  says  the witness ( Atman) is ever pure, ever free from ignorance, being Knowledge itself, and that even all Gnana practice is within the realm of  the witnessed  (duality), never the witness (Atman). 

People talk  of liberation. They are  forming an idea. The idea is duality. Many thinkers who are so confused as to be unable to separate the the witness , talk of gaining liberation. But all such ideas are only within the  duality (witnessed)   which come and go, the witness (Atman)  needs no liberation.

The final state is that God is Everything, the All, there is nothing but God, whereas to say "God is in me" is mysticism. 

Brihadaranyaka Upanishad declares that:-Brahman is the form of the Athma, and it is indeed Athma itself. 

DVI" means two. DVI" connotes the dual existence and the non-dual. Which of these two is non-existence? People think that there is a God and that the jivas--souls-- like them form the second, other than them. There is no such duality at all. 

The "Soul”, which is present in the form of consciousness,   is the only reality and there is nothing other than this soul or consciousness, which is the innermost self. On the stand point the formless soul or consciousness, innermost self, there is no second thing exists other than consciousness.  Because the whole universe , in which we all exist is created out of consciousness.  There is no second thing exist other than consciousness. Hence it is nondual (non-duality). The soul or consciousness is ultimate truth or Brahman or God.     

Non-dualistic self-awareness is Brahmic bliss. In self-awareness  there is neither  enjoyer nor enjoyment not the world. Self-awareness is possible only in the midst of duality.  The mystic revels only in 'bliss' that is experienced i.e. that comes and goes, but his is not Non-dualistic self-awareness.

The  peace will be disturbed only if one  recognizes a second. Hence the mystic's peace is temporary: the only enduring peace belongs to the Gnani for it is non-dual. 

Mystics claim that their ego disappears in the mystic experience: we say it is not so. It is the ego that sees and enjoys the experience, otherwise they would not say afterwards "I had this great ecstasy, I felt such peace." 

When the ultimate truth is rightly known and one attains eternal life thereby. Through soul, the innermost self he gains strength and through its knowledge immortality.

 Not by intellectual   speculation but only by an awakening to the reality of his true existence he gets soul-centric vision. Soul, the innermost self’s nature is like state of deep sleep.

Religion, yoga and intellectualism are not the means to acquire self-knowledge or Brahma Gnana or Atma Gnana.  Without getting rid of the ignorance and trying to get self-awareness through religion and yoga is like a sleeping man trying to know what he is about, without waking up. As sleep is to waking, so is ordinary life to the state of realization.