Orthodox people are intoxicated with their karma-oriented lifestyle but they are unaware of the fact that their karma will not yield any fruit because their karma is part of the dualistic illusion.
First Mundaka - Chapter 2 (9) - Children, immersed in ignorance in various ways, flatter themselves, saying: We have accomplished life's purpose. Because these performers of karma do not know the Truth owing to their attachment, they fall from heaven, misery-stricken, when the fruit of their work is exhausted.
First Mundaka - Chapter 2 (10) - Ignorant fools, regarding sacrifices and humanitarian works as the highest, do not know any higher good. Having enjoyed their reward on the heights of heaven, gained by good works, they enter again this world or a lower one.
Sage Sankara Says: The orthodoxy is meant for ignorant people who desire the transitory heaven and other pleasures obtained as a result of ritual sacrifices
Sage Sankara says the scriptures dealing with rituals are addressed to an ignorant person.
Upanishad aspiration is best expressed in the following sutra:~
OM Asato ma sad gaMaya , tamaso ma jyotir gaMaya , mrityor ma aamritaam gaMaya . Shanti, Shanti, Shanti
"OM Lead me from ignorance to truth, from darkness to light, from death to immortality. Peace, Peace, Peace" (Brhadaranyaka Upanishad (1/3/28)).
According to Advaita Vedanta, the Veda addresses itself to two kinds of audiences - the ordinary ones who desire the transitory heaven and other pleasures obtained as a result of ritual sacrifices, and the more advanced seeker who seeks to know Brahman. Thus, the Purva mimam. sa, with its emphasis on the karma kanda of the Vedas, is meant for the first audience, to help lead its followers along the way. However, the Vedanta, with its emphasis on the jnana kanda, is meant for those who wish to go beyond such transient pleasures.
Those who lack the intelligence to discriminate between formless witness (subject) and three states (object) will not be able to grasp what is real and what is unreal. Both subject and object are consciousness, not subject alone.
Ish Upanishad declares:~Those people who have neglected the attainment of ‘Self’-knowledge and have thus committed suicide ~10/11/12
Those people who have neglected the attainment of Self-knowledge or Brahma Gnana or Atma Gnana and have thus committed suicide, as it were, are doomed to enter those worlds after death.
This is a condemnation of people who do not try to attain Self-knowledge. They are, in a real sense, committing suicide, for what can be worse than being a slave to sense enjoyment, completely oblivious of the real purpose of life, which is to be one’s, own master?
The Brahma Sutras together with Sage Sankara's commentary thereon do not contain higher Vedanta. They are intended for duffers.
Sage Sankara's commentary on Brahma Sutras is not on a philosophical basis, but on a religious-mystic one, with an appeal to Vedas as a final authority.
In Brahma Sutra Sage Sankara takes the position that there is another entity outside us, i.e. the wall really exists separately from the mind. This was because Sage Sankara explains in Mandukya that those who study the Sutras are religious minds, and intellectual children, hence his popular viewpoint to assist them. These people are afraid to go deeper because it means being heroic enough to refuse to accept Sruti, and God's authority, in case they mean punishment by God.
Sage Sankara says: Keep the scriptures for children but throw them on the fire for wise seekers.
In Brahma Sutras Sage Sankara takes for granted, and assumes that a world was created: He there mixes dogmatic theology with philosophy.
That God created the world is an absolute lie; nevertheless, you will find Sage Sankara (in his commentary on Vedanta Sutras) clearly says this! He has to adapt his teachings to his audience, reserving the highest for philosophical minds.
The text of Brahma Sutras is based on religion, and dogmatism, but in the commentary, Sage Sankara cleverly introduced some philosophy. It is objected that a number of Upanishads are equally dogmatic because they also begin by assuming Brahman, but a few Upanishads do not but prove Brahman at the end of a train of proof.
The causality and creation, but are for religious people only. Religion is only for those who are unable to understand truth beyond form, time, and space. Religion is not final. It only gives satisfaction to the populace. Self-knowledge is for the whole of humanity to free them from experiencing birth, life, death, and the world as reality.
People of small intelligence follow religion and believe that the world was created by God. But how do they know that He did so? When a pot is created, one can see both the pot and its maker, but not in the case of the world.
This is the following prescription prescribed by orthodoxy in the name of Sage Sankara. The orthodoxy has listed down in 5 verses, 40 steps of Sadhanas (discipline) to be followed to achieve the (only meaningful) goal of human life Moksha, liberation. Use it as every day as contemplative prayer.
1. Study the scriptures (Vedas) daily
2. Perform diligently the duties (sva dharma) ordered by the scriptures
3. Dedicate all the actions thus performed (as above) to Ishvara (IshvarArpanna Buddhi)
4. Gradually give up the performance of ‘Selfish actions
5. Filter sinful/adharmic likes and dislikes
6. Recognize the inherent defects of material pursuits
7. Seek moksha with the consistent endeavor
8. Get out from the bondage of activity (specified to the ones which end up entangling us)
9. Seek companionship with men of wisdom
10. Be established in firm devotion to Ishvara and perform Upasana
11. Gain mind control, sense control, withdrawal, forbearance, faith, and focus
12. Give up karma and Upasana when they are not required any longer for spiritual growth
13. Seek Knowledge from a Satguru
14. Serve his lotus feet
15. Ask for brahma vidya
16. Listen in-depth, to the Upanishadic declarations
17. Analyze the meanings of Upanishadic commandments
18. Perform such analyses by sticking to scriptures
19. Get away from the logic-based system (logic is good when it corroborates scripture, in the sense, don't try to substitute it)
20. Dwell upon the discriminative rationale of Shruti (basically, develop Viveka)
21. Constantly remain steeped in the fact that you are Brahman
22. Renounce pride/vanity/arrogance
23. Give up the delusionary misconception- "I am the body"
24. Do not argue with wise men
25. Consider hunger as a disease
26. Treat hunger, the disease, by taking bhiksha food
27. Beg no delicious food
28. Live contentedly with whatever comes your way as prasadam
29. Endure all pains of opposites- heat/cold, likes/dislikes, pleasure/pain.
30. Avoid wasteful talk
31. Be indifferent and avoid groupism
32. Don't get attached to either someone's love or criticism
33. In solitude also, live joyously
34. Quieten your mind at Ishvara
35. Realize and see the ‘Self’ in everything, everywhere
36. Recognize the universe as a finite projection of the ‘Self’
37. Destroy the effects of deeds done in earlier lives (sanchit karma) through the strength of knowledge
38. Through wisdom, become detached from AgAmi karma (give up doership/enjoyership)
39. Experience and exhaust the prarabdh, fruits of past actions
40. Thereafter, live eternally as Brahman
Remember:~
Sage Sankara says, that, the orthodoxy is meant for ignorant people.
Sage Sankara: ~ "Though I wear these robes of a Sanyasin, it is only for the sake of bread."
~ This shows he was wearing the religious robe only for the sake of bread."
All the rituals based on the false belief in religious Gods will not yield any fruits and they are meant for the ignorant populace who are unable to grasp the God beyond the form, time, and space.
One of Sage Sankara’s missions was to wean people away from a ritualistic approach advocated by Mimamsakas and to project wisdom (jnana) as the means of liberation in the light of Upanishad teachings.
Sage Sankara criticized severely the ritualistic attitude and those who advocated such practices. However, the orthodox texts that combined rituals with wisdom (jnana_karma_samucchaya) more in favor of the Mimamsaka position came into vogue, projecting Sage Sri, Sankara as the rallying force of the doctrine.
Sage Sankara:~ (11) As regards the rituals, Sage Sankara says, that the person who performs rituals and aspires for rewards will view himself in terms of the caste into which he is born, his age, the stage of his life, his standing in society, etc. In addition, he is required to perform rituals all through his life. However, the ‘Self’ has none of those attributes or tags. Hence, the person who superimposes all those attributes on the changeless, eternal ‘Self’ and identifies the ‘Self’ with the body is a confusing one for the other; and is, therefore, an ignorant person. The scriptures dealing with rituals, rewards, etc. are therefore addressed to an ignorant person.
Sage Sankara:~ (11.1) This ignorance (mistaking the body for ‘Self’) brings in its wake a desire for the well-being of the body, aversion for its disease or discomfort, fear of its destruction, and thus a host of miseries(anartha). This anartha is caused by projecting karthvya(“doer” sense) and bhokthavya (object) on the Atman. Sage Sankara calls this adhyasa. The scriptures dealing with rituals, rewards, etc. are, therefore, he says, addressed to an ignorant person.
Sage Sankara:~ (11.2) In short, a person who engages in rituals with the notion “I am an agent, doer, thinker”, according to Sage Sankara, is ignorant, as his behavior implies a distinct, separate doer/agent/knower; and an object that is to be done/achieved/known. That duality is Avidya, an error that can be removed by Vidya. -Adhyasa Bhashya
Sage Sankara: ~ (12) Sage Sankara affirming his belief in one eternal unchanging reality (Brahman) and the illusion of plurality, drives home the point that Upanishads deal not with rituals but with the knowledge of the Absolute (Brahma vidya) and the Upanishads give us an insight into the essential nature of the ‘Self’ which is identical with the Absolute, the Brahman.
No conceptual God can exist, apart from consciousness. People are not aware of the fact that there is no individual God can exist, apart from the Soul, which is in the form of consciousness.
Thus the Soul or Consciousness is the true ‘Self’. If there is no consciousness, then there is no physical body, no ego, no universe, no religion, and no conceptual God.
Remember:_
The Advaitic wisdom leads the seeker from darkness to light, from ignorance to wisdom, from unawareness of the ‘Self’ to Self-awareness, from unreality to reality.
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) alone exists~ everything is Atman, there exists nothing except Atman. Such a man is extremely rare."
All is consciousness. The whole universe is consciousness. From consciousness, the universe comes. When the universe disappears, the consciousness still remains without form, time, and space
The Soul itself is God, the One without a Second:
The Soul is the ultimate truth or Brahman or God in truth. God in truth is present in the form of consciousness. Thus, consciousness itself is God in truth.
Even the Bhagavad Gita says: ~ 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).
The consciousness, the God is Self-evident. It is not established by extraneous proofs. It is not possible to deny God because God is the very essence of the one who denies God. God is the basis of all kinds of knowledge, presuppositions, and proofs.
Even Rig Veda: ~ The Atman (Soul) is the cause; Atman is the support of all that exists in this universe. May ye never turn away from the Atman, the Self. May ye never accept another God in place of the Atman nor worship other than the Atman?"
Even in the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad: ~ Brahman (God in truth) is in the form of the Athma, and it is indeed Athma itself’.
All those whose intelligence has been stolen by ignorance believe in non-Vedic Gods.
The Vedas talk about Brahman (God in truth) which refers to the ultimate truth or ultimate reality or Advaita. The consciousness is the Advaita or the ultimate truth, therefore, the consciousness is the ultimate truth or Brahman. Brahman is Advaita God.
A Gnani wears no signs which means he does not identify himself as a Guru or teacher or swami. only the religious people identify themselves as Guru or teacher or swami
Sage Sankara: On Gnani: "The knower of Brahman wears no signs. Gives up the insignia of a monk's life…his signs are not manifest, nor his behavior."
When the knower of Brahman (Gnani) wears no signs it means he does not identify himself as Guru or Yogi or teacher or Swami. : ~ Santthosh Kumaar
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