Katha Upanishad :~Self-proclaimed experts consider themselves learned authorities and hey wander about this world befooled, like the blind leading the blind.+

Lecture consisting of a shower of ornamental words, the skill in expounding the accumulated bookish knowledge, and likewise erudition - these merely bring on a little personal enjoyment to the scholar, but it is not Gnana or wisdom.

The accumulated scriptural and bookish knowledge is useless so long as the highest Truth is unknown, and it is equally useless when the highest truth has already been known. Hence men of wisdom should earnestly set about knowing the true nature of the Self.

To get rid of ignorance, the only remedy is the Self-knowledge or Brahma Gnana or Atma Gnana. There is no need to study the scriptures to get rid of ignorance. The scriptures themselves declare this valuable truth. 

Without direct realization, one cannot be liberated from experiencing the dualistic illusion as a reality.

By saying I know the truth; I know Brahman is not wisdom. The Truth is found only in the Unity of understanding which is the knowledge of both the matter and Spirit. That is the matter and the spirit, are one in essence.  And that essence is the Spirit, which is present in the form of the Soul or consciousness.

Katha Upanishad (1.2.5) says; -"Caught in the grip of ignorance, self-proclaimed experts consider themselves learned authorities. They wander about this world befooled like the blind leading the blind."

Upanishad says:~ "He who thinks he knows, does not know." This means that to know anything implies a second, an object of knowledge, hence duality, i.e. no Gnana.

If you know what is this ‘I’?, then you will know the whole truth of the Oneness, which is hidden by the ‘I’. If you know the world that confronts you is nothing but an illusion then there is nothing else there for you to seek.

Sage Sri, Sankara says you must first know what is before you. If you cannot know that, what else can you know or understand? If you give up the external world in your inquiry, you cannot get the whole truth.

That is why Sage Sankara says:~ ~ 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.

VC-65. As a treasure hidden underground requires (for its extraction) competent instruction, excavation, the removal of stones and other such things lying above it, and (finally) grasping, but never comes out by being (merely) called out by name, so the transparent Truth of the Self, which is hidden by Maya and its effects, is to be attained through the instructions of a knower of Brahman, followed by reflection, meditation and so forth, but not through perverted arguments.

66. Therefore the wise should, as in the case of disease and the like, personally strive by all the means in their power to be free from the bondage of repeated births and deaths.

God is the Supreme Being the One eternal homogeneous essence, indivisible consciousness, and intelligence, which is beyond the form, time, and space. To which the Sages describe in a variety of ways through diverse words.

Bhagavad Gita: ~ ‘All those whose intelligence has been stolen by material desires, they worship many gods. (7- Verse -20)

Only the path of wisdom leads the seeker of truth on his journey to the ultimate realization of the true nature of the Universal Essence, which is the Soul. The Soul is present in the form of consciousness.

Bhagavad Gita: 7: 19:~ "Such a man who has attained true knowledge, the knowledge of Self, the knowledge of Atman, worships ‘Self’ as~ Atman (God in truth) alone exists~ everything is Atman, there exists nothing except Atman. Such a man is extremely rare."

Bhagavad Gita: ~ Brahmano hi pratisthaham ~ Brahman (God in truth) is considered the all-pervading consciousness, which is the basis of all the animate and inanimate entities and material. (14.27).

When Bhagavad Gita says, God is considered the all-pervading consciousness which is the basis of all the animate and inanimate entities and material then nothing has to be accepted as God other than consciousness.

Lord Krishna says Ch ~V: ~ “Those who know the ‘Self’ in truth.  The last two words (tattvataha) are usually ignored by pundits, but they make all the difference between the ordinary concept of God and the truth about God. 

The dualistic worship of "God” is only for the ignorant populace. The God in truth is only Atman, the innermost Self. In reality, there is no duality, no differentiation. Only Atman exists.

Brihadaranyaka Upanishad IV-13:~ ‘As a mass of salt has neither inside nor outside, but is entirely a mass of taste, thus indeed, has that Self neither inside nor outside but is altogether a mass of Knowledge. Just as a lump of salt has inside as well as outside one and the same saltish taste, not any other taste, so also that Brahman (consciousness) has inside as well as outside one and the same intelligence. Inside and outside are mental creations only. When the mind melts in silence, ideas of inside and outside vanish. The sages cognize one illimitable, homogeneous mass of consciousness only.

Causality taught in the Upanishads is only to enable us to understand the supreme truth of no-origination. The world is not different from the consciousness and the consciousness is not different from the Soul, the Self, and the Soul is not different from the ultimate truth or Brahman. That consciousness appears as a diverse world is only an illusion. If it really became diverse then the immortal would become mortal.

The dualists who seek to prove the origination of the unborn, by that very enterprise try to make the immortal, mortal. Ultimate nature can never change - the immortal can never become mortal and vice versa.

Sage Goudapada quotes from the Upanishads: ~ "There's no plurality here"; "The Soul through its powers appears to be many"; "those who are attached to the creation or production or origination go to utter darkness"; "the unborn is never reborn, for what can produce it?”. : ~ Santthosh Kumaar