Seekers only goal is to remove all the obstacles which his blocking his realization

Self-realization cannot be bought in the spiritual supermarket because truth cannot be patented as individual property because the ultimate truth or Brahman is declared by the sage scientists Sri, Sankara and Goudpada 1400 years back.

Only the orthodoxy which is meant for the lower stage of understanding, who are incapable of grasping the non- dualistic truth, but to those who are capable must use their own reason.

Thus nondual truth can be attained by scientific or rational inquiry and reasoning without guru, without scriptures by anyone who has urge to know the universal truth or Brahman.

  Thus if one is seeking  non-dual or Advaitic   truth he need not go anywhere because it is within his mind and it is without his mind. Thus perfect understanding is necessary to assimilate and realize it.     

Seeker of truth has to avoid getting involved with the guru or teaching if wants acquire Self-Knowledge because emotionally getting involved with a guru or teaching becomes great hindrance and one will permanently remain in the prison of physicality or duality.

One finds lots of differences between orthodox  Advaitic preaching and practice. There is a need to bifurcate religion, the concept of god and scriptures from Advaitic philosophy to assimilate the essence of Advaita.   

Sage Sri, Sankara says in Brahma Sutras: that Brahman is the cause of the world, whereas in Mandukya he denies it. This is because he says that at the lower stage of understanding, the former teaching must be given, for people will get frightened as they cannot understand how the world can be without a cause, but to those in a higher stage, the truth of non-causality can be revealed.

Sri, Sankara himself has warned us not to use ambiguous words, and to practice semantic analysis in his book "Definition of one's own Self. (" Page 199, v.24 of "Sankara's Selected Works)

Sri, Sankara founded his Advaita Vedanta either on reason independent of sruti or on sruti confirmed by reason."   Sri, Sankara's commentary on the Mandukya Upanishad, II, 1:  This [the unreality of duality] is borne out by the Srutis ... But it is possible also to show the unreality of the object world even from pure reasoning, and this second chapter is undertaken for that purpose.

 Sri, Sankara himself had often said that his philosophy was based on Sruti, or revealed scripture.  This may be because Sri, Sankara addressed the ordinary man, who finds security in the idea of causality and thus in the idea of God—and Revelation is indispensable to prove the latter.  He believed that those of superior intelligence, have no need of this idea of divine causality, and can therefore dispense with Sruti and arrive at the truth of Non-Dualism by pure reason. 

Sri, Sankara, in debates with Buddhists and others who did not recognize the authority of the Vedas, had been obliged to prove the truth of the Advaita by means of reason alone.  Mandukya Upanishad, a scripture which appealed to reason to the exclusion of Revelation. 

Nonduality does not need the support of any Scripture or Revelation like the Veda. Since it is based, not upon the varying theological fancies, which are as numerous as the sands of the sea, but upon reason, the common heritage of all mankind, irrespective of color or creed or clime.

Thus, self-knowledge is meant only for those who have intense urge, and courage to accept the truth with humility and reject the untruth. Since people start comparing with their scriptural knowledge, it becomes impossible to assimilate and realize the non-dual truth.   Therefore, there is no need to convince anyone other than our own-selves to get the firm conviction. 

In pursuit of truth seeker has to use his reason in order to have knowledge and understanding.  First one must become aware of the fact that, ‘I’ is not the self and realize the fact that holding ‘I’ or ‘I AM’ as self is obstruction his realization.    This is possible only when one becomes aware of the fact that ‘I’ is not limited to the body but to the whole world confronting him.

Seekers only goal is to remove all the obstacles which his blocking his realization.  Thus whatever blocks his realization has to be mentally discarded to realize the ultimate truth or Brahman.    Orthodox or theist nonduality is no means to self-realization.