Sage Sankara is the only sage who has final authority on the Advaitic wisdom.+

Sage Sankara’s wisdom is nothing to do with 'I-centric' Gurus and their teaching. Sage Sankara is the only sage who has final authority on the Advaitic wisdom. The Advaitic truth is rational truth and scientific truth without dogma.

The Advaitic orthodoxy is not the means to acquire Self-knowledge or Brahma Gnana or Atma Gnana.  

Advaitic orthodoxy is meant for the ignorant populace that is unfit to grasp the highest truth.   The Advaitic orthodoxy is nothing to do with the ultimate truth or Brahman.

All sect based beliefs are dualistic and unphilosophical nothing to do with the ultimate truth or Brahman.  In spirituality, the ultimate truth is God in truth.  Thus, the Advaitic orthodoxy is a sect is nothing to do with the Advaitic wisdom of the Sage  Sankara. Advaitic orthodox sect is meant for the ignorant populace.

According to Sage Sankara, it is the ignorance of the ‘Self’ is the cause of experiencing the world in which we exist as a reality. The world in which we exist itself is Maya or the dualistic illusion.    Intense urge and longing to realize the truth leads to the realization of the ‘Self’ hidden by the dualistic illusion.  

When Sage Sankara says the world is an illusion, it includes the individual experience of the birth, life, and death, which happens within the world.  Thus the seeker's main aim is to mentally trace the formless substance of the illusion, which is also the witness of the illusion. The formless substance and witness of the illusion (world), is the Atman and this Atman itself is Brahman.

Sage Sankara:~ VC "As layers of clouds generated by the sun's rays cover the sun and alone appear (in the sky), so the illusion  generated by the ‘Self’, covers the reality of the ‘Self’ and appears by itself’." 

Sage Sankara: ~ “VC~ All this universe which through ignorance appears as of diverse forms, is nothing else but Brahman (Consciousness) which is absolutely free from all the limitations of human thought. 

The universe is the product of ignorance. The ignorance is present in the form of the ‘I’.  

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 a mere mirage created out of the consciousness and there is a conscious awareness of unity in diversity because there is no second thing exists other than the consciousness. 

Sage Sankara says: ~ VC. ~ "Without knowing and examining the external world, one can’t know Truth, as the idea that the external world exists, won't go. It can go only by an inquiry into the nature of the external world.

To say the universe is an illusion without first examining it and inquiring into its nature thoroughly is to delude oneself. This world is common to every one of us; therefore the seeker of truth must begin his inquiry with it. 

It is only after he has inquired into the nature of the objective world, he realizes the universe which through ignorance appears as of diverse forms, is nothing else but the Soul which is present in the form of consciousness is absolutely free from all the limitations of human thought.  

Sage Sankara says: ~VC- 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 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. : ~ Santthosh Kumaar