A Gnani is not a religious person. The religious person is not qualified to acquire Self-knowledge or Brahma Gnana or Atma Gnana.+

A Gnani is not a religious person. The religious person is not qualified to acquire Self-knowledge or Brahma Gnana or Atma Gnana because the religion is based on faith, not the truth. Religion propagates ignorance, not the truth.

How religious man can get Gnana? He has not even taken the first step is to knowing what God supposed to be in actuality.  He believes in heaven and hell as if he has personally been there on a conducted tour.

Religious man blindly prays without even knowing what God is supposed to be according to his own scriptures.

Know God in truth.

Religious Gods are merely beliefs. Belief is not God.  Religious God cannot be considered as the center because the Soul, the ‘Self’ is the center of all that exists. 

Without the Soul the world in which you exist ceases to exist, which means the religious God is dependent on the Soul for his existence. God in truth is only the Soul, which is present in the form of consciousness.

Even Bhagavad Gita says: ~ Brahmano hi pratisthaham ~ Brahman (God) 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. 

Even Brihadaranyaka Upanishad: ~ Brahman (God in truth) is in the form of the Athma, and it is indeed Athma itself.

Even Rig Veda: ~ The Atman 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?" (10:48, 5)

Brihadaranyaka Upanishad declares: "He who worships the deities as entities entirely separate from him does not know the truth. For the Gods, he is like a pasu (beast)". (1. 4. 10)

 The religious man prays -- to the mythical Gods of his belief.  Mythical Gods are not God in truth.   There is a tremendous difference between prayer and Gnana.

Swami Vivekananda: ~ “The masses in India cry to sixty million Gods, and still die like dogs. Where are these Gods?

Knowing this, stand up and fight! Not one step back is the idea. ... Fight it out, whatever comes. Let the stars move from the sphere! Let the whole world stand against us! Death means only a change of garment. What of it? Thus fight! You gain nothing by becoming cowards. ... Taking a step backward, you do not avoid any misfortune. You have cried to all the Gods in the world. Has misery ceased? The masses in India cry to sixty million Gods and still die like dogs. Where are these Gods? ... The Gods come to help you when you have succeeded. So what is the use? Die game. ... This bending the knee to superstitions, this selling yourself to your own mind does not befit you, my Soul. You are infinite, deathless, and birthless. Because you are the infinite spirit, it does not befit you to be a slave. ... Arise! Awake! Stand up and fight! Die if you must. There is none to help you. You are the entire world. Who can help you? - Swami Vivekananda  (Delivered In San Francisco, on May 28, 1900) -The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda/Volume 1/Lectures And Discourses/The Gita II

Prayer is directed towards a mythological God, a fiction. Prayer is always directed outward. Gnana is an inward journey, not to some fiction but the reality hidden by ignorance. Enlightenment happens when the Soul, the 'Self' wakes up from its sleep of ignorance.

Religious people are busy praying and worshipping to a God of their belief, thinking God is somewhere, up there, monitoring every act of the people, guiding the lost, and uplifting the poor. God is the one who punishes the evil and rewards the benevolent.

Some people even claim of seeing them in stone idols or some conceptual belief, in inanimate or living things. Is it our faith that makes us believe that there is some supreme power above us or is it a reality, that can never be answered?  

Until this conviction is there one is in the grip of the dualistic illusion (I). The dualistic illusion keeps one in ignorance of the Self.  Therefore, there is a need to realize the fact that, the Self is not ‘I’ but it is the formless Soul, which is present in the form of consciousness.

Sage Sankara: ~ Neither sacred baths nor any amount of charity nor even Hundreds of pranayamas* can give us knowledge about our own Self.  The firm experience of the nature of the Self is seen to proceed from inquiry along the lines of the salutary advice of the wise. (13)

 God is divine, only held in the bondage of ignorance (matter); perfection will be reached when this bond will burst, and the word they use for it is, therefore, freedom, freedom from the bonds of imperfection, freedom from ignorance.

No prayers or mantras help to get rid of ignorance. All the prayers and mantras and rituals are meant for the ignorant populace, which strongly believes, the world in which he exists as a reality.  For one who wants to acquire Self-knowledge or Brahma Gnana or Atma Gnana, the mantas will not help to realize the truth, which is beyond form, time, and space.

That is why Sage Sankara VC~.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?

VC-  v6~ Let erudite scholars quote all the scripture, let Gods be invoked through sacrifices, let elaborate rituals be performed, let personal Gods be propitiated---yet, without the realization of one‘s identity with the Self, there shall be no liberation for the individual, not even in the lifetimes of a hundred Brahmas put together.

Sage Sankara goes on to say: ~A sickness is not cured by saying the word “medicine.” You must take the medicine. Liberation does not come by merely saying the word “Brahman (God).” Brahman must be realized. Until you allow this apparent universe to dissolve from your consciousness until you have realized Brahman, how can you find liberation just by saying the word Brahman? The result is merely noise. Until a man has destroyed his enemies and taken possession of the splendor and wealth of the kingdom, he cannot become a king by simply saying “I am a king.”

When one becomes aware of the fact that the Soul is the Self, then he realizes the fact that whatever is known, seen, believed, and experienced on the base of the ‘I’ is an illusion.

Sage Gaudapada: ~ ‘To establish the truth of Non-duality by sheer reasoning alone. He begins by defining "What is real?" "What is unreal?" etc, because that is the right way to discuss or teach. People must first know what they are talking about. (Manduka Karika)

There is no comparison of anyone's wisdom with Sage Sankara’s wisdom. Without Sage Sankara, there is no Advaita. All the Gurus and intellectual version of Advaita is from the dualistic perspective.

Many Gurus describe perfection is the awakening to Reality ~the realization that pure Consciousness alone is, that the perpetually fluctuating and evanescent contents of the mind derive from it. This awakening effectively happens in an instant. But in order for the lightning flash to take place, resulting in a firm and unshakable certitude, long labor is necessary, which they seem to underestimate. “Truth is formless is their answer.

 Many Guru's teaching seems essentially negative, potent but bitter medicine for those imprisoned by institutional cults. They break the disciple's bonds but then lead him to a vast desert where they abandon him.

The ultimate state of consciousness they describe is that of the traditional sage or fully enlightened being, but they do not show us the process leading to the realization of this state. They describe marvelously the goal but do not indicate the steps to be taken: their recurring phrases "unified consciousness" and "let go" and "'love alone" are not a road map.

Most of the Gurus and Yogis s approach was more practical, and they stuck with the reality of the 'I', they take it as real. All their teachings of Advaita are based on the dualistic perspective. Such teaching will not yield the truth of the whole.

Everyone is not on the same level of understanding. Everyone’s inner work is on. You will slowly steadily but surely be able to understand, assimilate and realize nondualistic or Advaitic truth if you have an intense urge to know the ultimate truth. Because man is egocentric he feels the world in which he is born, lives, and dies as a reality. But when he becomes Soulcentric he realizes his body, his ego and the world in which he exists is merely an illusion created out of the Soul, which is present in the form of consciousness.  

Remember:~ 

Religion is based on blind belief whereas spirituality is based on Spirit, the truth, which is the existence itself.

Spiritual truth is universal whereas religious truth is the individualized truth. Religion is based on the dualistic perspective whereas spirituality is based on the nondualistic perspective. Whatever is based on the dualistic perspective is egocentric and whatever is based on the nondualistic perspective is soulcentric.

Advaita is pure spirituality is nothing to do with religion, sect, or dualistic-based spirituality. 

That is why Bhagavan Buddha rejected the religion, scriptures and religious Gods and Sage Sankara indicated the truth is beyond the religion, scriptures, and belief in a religious God.

Sage Sankara said:~Talk as much philosophy as you like, worship as many Gods as you please, observe ceremonies and sing devotional hymns, but liberation will never come, even after a hundred aeons, without realizing the Oneness.

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

Comparing Vedas with Koran or Bible or any other scriptures will not yield the truth, which is beyond form, time, and space.

Religion was introduced in the past for the benefit of the populace which was incapable of grasping the ultimate truth, which is beyond form, time, and space.

All religions of the world are based on form, time, and space. Thus, religion is nothing to do with the pursuit of truth, because the truth is not belief, and religion is based on belief.

The belief is based on the individual whereas the Soul, the Self is not an individual because the Soul is ever formless, timeless, and spaceless existence.

The scriptures are not necessary to realize the ultimate truth or Brahman or God or Spirit. The scriptures are meant for the ignorant populace.

Sage Sankara said:~Neither by the practice of yoga nor philosophy, nor by good works nor by learning, does liberation come, but only through the realization that Atman and Brahman are one in no other way. (1) VivekaChudamani v 56, pg 25

Sage  Sankara said: The world is unreal and Brahman alone is real. It means that birth, life, and death, which happen within the world, have to be unreal. If birth, life, and death are unreal, then the rebirth and reincarnation Avataric concept has to be unreal. Thus, it is for the seeker to find out, from what standpoint the world becomes unreal, to know the Brahman, which is the ultimate truth or God in truth.

Studying the Vedas or Koran or Bible or any other scriptures will not yield the truth, which is beyond form, time, and space. The truth beyond form, time, and space is the Spirit or God. One must know God in truth not the belief in God. 

The belief is not God. The diverse beliefs have diverse ideas of God. The beliefs have no value in the domain of truth.

That is why 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.

Rig-Veda 1-164-46 and Y.V 32-1 clearly mention that God is “One”.

Rig Veda: ~ The Atman 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?" (10:48, 5)

Yajur Veda also says:~ God has no image and His name is Holy. (32.3)”

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

The rituals based on belief are meant for the ignorant populace.

That is why Mundaka Upanishad condemns rituals. The Para or Higher knowledge is the knowledge of the Supreme Being while the Apara or Lower Knowledge is that of following sacrificial rites and ceremonies. (1/2/ 1 – 6)

The scriptures are meant for the ignorant mass, which strongly believes, in the experience of the world in which they are born, live, and die as a reality.

The ultimate truth or Brahman or God in truth cannot be attained by the study of the scriptures of any religion, or by intelligence, or by much hearing of sacred books then why compare Vedas with Bible or Koran or any other religious scriptures to realize the ultimate truth, which is beyond form, time and space.

Katha Upanishad: ~ This Atman cannot be attained by the study of the Vedas, or by intelligence, nor by much hearing of sacred books. It is attained by him alone whom It chooses. To such a one Atman reveals Its own form. (Katha Upanishad Ch-II -23-P-20)

Mundaka Upanishad: ~ This Atman cannot be attained through the study of the Vedas, nor through intelligence, nor through much learning. He who chooses Atman—by him alone is Atman attained. It is Atman that reveals to the seeker Its true nature. (3 –page-70 Upanishads by Nikilanada)

The above passages further prove that: Self-knowledge cannot be attained by the study of the Vedas and intellectual understanding or by bookish knowledge.

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. If 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 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. The 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 God did so? When a pot is created, one can see both pot and its maker, but not in the case of the world.

Self-knowledge or Brahma Gnana or Atma Gnana is meant only for those who have an intense urge, and courage to accept the truth with humility and reject the untruth. Since people start comparing with their scriptural knowledge, it becomes impossible to assimilate and realize the Advaitic truth. Therefore, there is no need to convince anyone other than our own selves to get a firm conviction. : ~ Santthosh Kumaar