From Advaitic perspective, the yoga is useless for realizing the truth, which is hidden by the form, time, and space.+

From the Advaitic perspective, yoga is useless for realizing the truth, which is hidden by form, time, and space.

The yogi shuts his eyes against the world and then has the temerity to declare that he knows the world to be Brahman! Because he has not inquired into the world in which he exists, he knows nothing.  Yoga cannot remove ignorance. It is only a step. It removes obstructions.

Bhagavan Buddha gave up yoga after practicing it for six years. He saw it could not yield truth. 

Bhagavan Buddha gave up his austerities of yoga as impossible and useless. Thus, Buddha got enlightenment only after he gave up Yoga. (Page.70/71 "Buddhism in Translation” by Warren)  

Sage Sankara definitely says: ~ Yoga is not the means of liberation (pages 132-133 of his commentary on Brihadaranyakopanishad).

In Sutra Bashya and Manduka: ~ Samadhi and sleep are identical.

Brihad Upanishad does not advocate Samadhi.

Self-knowledge or Brahma Gnana or Atma Gnana cannot come if anything is left out. The whole universe must be included. For only when all is known can all be known to be but ideation. Hence, the yogis blotting all out in Samadhi cannot lead to Gnana.

The yogi holds the Self as ‘I’ his practice is based on the ‘I’ without knowing what ‘I’ is in actuality.  The yogi may get the knowledge that the Seer is separate from Seen, but he will never know Brahman without inquiring into the world, because he is giving up the world, and hence cannot discover his unity with the world.

 The Gnani regards everything in the world as Brahman; the yogi rejects the world. Thus, there is a fundamental difference.

The seeker of truth should not believe all the stories about the magical power of mantrams, visions, samadhis, and astral travel because they are a reality within the dualistic illusion.   Wherever there is duality there is no truth. 

Remember:~

When you know that everything is Brahman, there is no need for the yogic control of the mind. Control presupposes a second, a duality.

Hence, yoga is in the sphere of duality and is unnecessary to one who knows non-duality.

If anyone talks of liberation he is forming an idea.  The idea belongs to duality. Those philosophers, who are so confused as to be unable to separate the subject from the object, talk of gaining liberation. But all such ideas are only the dualist illusion (object) which comes and goes, the Subject needs no liberation because the object is created out of the subject. Knowledge of the subject frees the subject from the illusory object.

The Soul, which is present in the form of consciousness, is the ultimate truth.  The ultimate truth is Brahman or God.

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

The world in which you exist is consciousness. Unless the world in which you exist is there in your realization, the Advaitic wisdom will not dawn.

Ignorance cannot go through merely knowing the Soul, for it is known in sleep and Samadhi. It can go only by the realization of the Soul, which is present in the form of the consciousness, is the ultimate truth or Brahman because there is no second thing exists other than the consciousness.:~Santthosh Kumaar 

The ‘I’ is not Atman.+

Atman (Soul) is the “Self’. The ‘I’ is not Atman. There is a need to know what is this ‘I’ before indulging in the pursuit of truth. 

Dualist Sages including many sages and thinkers could not distinguish between ‘I’ and ‘formless witness.’ They hold ‘I’ as the witness. Their highest was the Jiva. One is so much attached to the 'I' that he does not want to think that 'I' does not exist. Again one is unable to detach the ‘I’ from the Real witness.

The dualist object: - If everything else is false then the statement I am Brahman is itself false, but when one says nonduality is false, there must be the awareness, the consciousness, behind the very statement. You will also go, and die. One has to rely upon that which is permanent. 

The Soul, the s witness of the ‘I’ alone is permanent. Anything that one says is a witnessed (waking), but there is the formless witness (consciousness) there before any statement can be made.

They mean the body by “I", but it is the Soul formless witness of the ‘I’.  The Soul is the real Self.  Theist dualists did not, or could not analyze further than ‘I’   on this point because they thought the ‘I’ without the body as the ‘Self’. ~ Santthosh Kumaar

Manduka Upanishads: ~ A Gnani bears no external mark. Neither nudity nor the religious robe has anything to do with him.+

Manduka Upanishads: ~ A Gnani bears no external mark. Neither nudity nor the religious robe has anything to do with him.

The truth-seeker need not become a sanyasi or yogi or a monk in order to acquire Self-knowledge or Brahma Gnana or Atma Gnana.

Many people think of becoming a monk or by taking sanyasa they get self-realization. This is the religious and yogic fable.

Many highly educated youngsters left their family and renounced worldly life in order to get self-realization.  But they are unaware of the fact that by becoming sanyasi or monk they have become a prisoner of ignorance.

Gurus are meant to propagate religion and yogis are meant to propagate yoga.  Gurus and yogis are not meant to propagate Gnana. 

Religion and yoga are based on the false Self (ego) within the dualistic illusion (world) first; seeker of truth must realize religion is not spirituality.  Spirituality is based on the Spirit, the ultimate truth whereas the religion is based on Matter the illusion.

People dwell in ignorance, but think themselves wise and erudite, and take tortuous paths of sanyasa or by becoming a monk and they are like the blind led by the blind. 

They are unaware of the fact their path of sanyasa meant for religious people. Religion is the path of ignorance. Religion keeps people permanently in ignorance. There is no escape if one is attached to religion.

Religion is regarded as sacred and real by the common people, by the wise as false and by the rulers as useful.

The path of sanyasa is not the Atmic path. The path sanyasa meant for ignorant people.  Flies come and seek for the ulcer (ignorance), and bees come only for the honey (Gnana) in the flower. Do not follow the way of the fly but that of the bee.

Sage Sankara says ~ VC-162- There is no liberation for a person of mere book knowledge, howsoever well-read in the philosophy of Vedanta, so long as one does not give up the false identification with the body, sense organs, etc., which are unreal. 

Swami Vivekananda said:~ "The Vedas teach that the Soul is divine, only held in the bondage of matter; perfection will be reached when this bond will burst, and the word they use for it is, therefore, Mukthi - freedom, freedom from the bonds of imperfection, freedom from death and misery." 

A person who realized the ultimate truth or Brahman will throw off his religious robe and his religious identity and becomes Avadhuta and live as he wishes. 

Sage Sankara: ~ "Though I wear these robes of a Sanyasin, it is only for the sake of bread."

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

Mandukya Upanishads: ~    “Even the Gods cannot find out who is a Gnani because he bears no external mark. Neither nudity nor the religious robe has anything to do with him.

Sage  Sankara writes on a Gnani: - “Sometimes he appears to be a Fool, sometimes a wise man. Sometimes he seems splendid as a king, sometimes feeble-minded. Sometimes he is calm and silent. Sometimes he draws men to him. Sometimes people honor him greatly, sometimes they insult him. Sometimes they ignore him.

Unless one realizes the Soul as the innermost ‘Self’ as it really is” it is impossible to realize the nondualistic or Advaitic truth. 

A person who realized the ultimate truth or Brahman will throw off his religious robe and his religious identity and becomes Avadhuta and live as he wishes.

The Soul, the Self is not sanyasi because it is the formless, timeless and spaceless existence.  By becoming a sanyasi is becoming more ignorant of the reality of the true existence. 

The seeker should not have individuality complex because the Soul, the 'Self' does not reside in the body because it pervades the whole world in which he exists.

Thinking the Soul is within the body is a great error.  The seeker must rise above the form, time and space to realize the Soul the Self is formless, timeless and spaceless existence.  

You, your body, your experience of the world are a reality within the dualistic illusion.  The dualistic illusion is created out of single clay. That single clay is the Soul, the Self.  The Soul is present in the form of consciousness. 

Remember:~ 

Perfect understanding and realization of ‘what is what’ leads Self-awareness. By holding on to the accumulated knowledge from here and there, one remains in the realm of ignorance.  

One has to mentally go on dropping what is not the truth through deeper Self-search. When the seeker realizes the fact that, his ego, his body, and the world are created out of single stuff and that single stuff is the Soul, which is present in the form of consciousness then that knowledge of the single stuff leads to Self-awareness in the midst of the duality. 

In Advaitic Self-awareness, the ego is not considered as ego, even though the ego is present, the body is not considered as the body, even though the body is present, the world which confronts him is not considered as the world even though the world is present, the duality ceases even though the duality is present, because of the wisdom everything is considered as consciousness. Thus, there is conscious oneness in the midst of diversity. 

When the Soul, the  ‘Self’ remains in its own awareness it becomes empty of ignorance. Thus, whatever remains empty ignorance is the non-dualistic reality. Only through wisdom, one becomes aware of the Advaitic truth in the midst of the duality.

That is why Sage  Sankara said:~ VC ~63~ Without causing the objective universe to vanish and without knowing the truth of the Self, how is one to achieve Liberation.

The universe in which we exist will not remain as reality when wisdom dawns. The universe is merely an illusion created out of consciousness and there is a conscious- awareness of the unity in diversity because there is no second thing exists other than consciousness. : ~ Santthosh Kumaar