Holding the ‘I’ or ‘I AM’ as self and trying to assimilate the self-knowledge or Brahma Gnana or Atma Gnana will not yield any fruit.

Holding the ‘I’ or ‘I AM’ as self and trying to assimilate the self-knowledge or Brahma Gnana or Atma Gnana  will not yield any fruit.  Thus deeper verification is very much necessary to drop the ‘I’ or ‘I AM THAT – declared by the sages in the past which are useful only in lower stages.    

That is why BUDDHA SAID: -Believe nothing just because a so-called wise person said it. Believe nothing just because a belief is generally held. Believe nothing just because it is said in ancient books. Believe nothing just because it is said to be of divine origin. Believe nothing just because someone else believes it. Believe only what you yourself test and judge to be true.

The ignorance is the cause of experiencing the duality [universe or waking] as reality. Thus eradicating the ignorance completely is necessary. And this is possible only through self-knowledge.   Thus, there is no other road to freedom other than Gnana.  There is no other entrance other than except Gnana.  The ignorance will vanish only when the non-dual wisdom dawns. Detachment to attachment is impossible without wisdom. Only when one realizes the fact that, the self is not form but self is formless, than only it is possible to detach the ‘self’ from the false attachment. 

That is Sri Sankara, in Bhaja Govindam says: - [Jnana Viheena Sarva Mathena Bajathi na Muktim janma Shatena] - one without knowledge does not obtain liberation even in a hundred births, no matter which religious faith he follows.

Thus it proves that wisdom is universal irrespective of any religion of faith one belongs.  Thus religion is not the means to self-knowledge.  Thus Sri, Sankara’s Advaita minus orthodoxy is true Advaita.

Sri Sankara himself says :- VC  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.

61. For one who has been bitten by the serpent of Ignorance, the only remedy is the knowledge of Brahman. Of what avail are the Vedas and (other) Scriptures, Mantras (sacred formulae) and medicines to such a one?

62. A disease does not leave off if one simply utter the name of the medicine, without taking it; (similarly) without direct realisation one cannot be liberated by the mere utterance of the word Brahman.

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.

So long as one is in the realm of duality, one has to explain how or why one thing came from another; and contradictory views are expressed. But when a Gnani shows there is no second, there is no production, and the contradictions do not arise at all, when the ultimate thing is consciousness alone. Thus consciousness is ultimate truth or Brahman.

The dualists’ arguments are based on false self [ego or waking entity] and false experience (waking or dream or universe)    to show the weakness of the position of dualistic view point.  They at their wits end to explain.

 Existent cannot be a cause and effect at the same time, from the point of view of the dualists, but deeper self-search shows the Existent is no-two and causality can’t rise at all. Dualistic theory says that whatever was in the cause was also in the effect. They say that the gold brick, the gold medal, the gold ornaments --are in the seed--the gold. Deeper self-search reveals the fact that, if cause and effect are one what is the difference between the two? –FORMLESS PATH