Sage Sankara: ~ Without knowing and examining the external world, one can’t know the Truth, as the idea that the external world exists, won't go.+

Sage Sankara: ~ VC~.63- "Without knowing and examining the external world, one can’t know the 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.

After verifying through deeper inquiry if one finds the world is the reality within the illusion then he cannot again say the world is not an illusion.

If one is frightened to accept the world as an illusion (waking) then he is unfit to acquire Self-knowledge or Brahma Gnana or Atma Gnana. 

Those who are stuck with the reality of the world are stuck with the reality of the individual experiences of birth, life, and death, which takes place within the unreal world. 

The pursuit of truth is for those who have the courage to accept the reality as it is, that is the reality without form, time and space.

All is consciousness.  The whole universe is consciousness. From consciousness, the universe comes. When universe disappears, the consciousness still remains without form, time and space.

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.

When you finally realize the ‘‘Self’ ‘is not you but the ‘‘Self’’ is the Soul then you will realize the world in which you exist is merely an illusion created out of the Soul. The Soul is present in the form of consciousness.

Sage Sankara says:~ VC-47 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 the ignorance will prevail as a reality. Till ignorance is there the universe prevails as reality.  

The person who believes the universe is real then: ~  

A person, who stamped his foot on the ground to refute to show the world, is real, ignores that in a dream he would do exactly the same--stamp his dream foot on the ground and assert it to be real.  

People think the world is external forgetting they exist within that world, which they feel external to them.  People feel their individual experiences of birth, life, death and the world as a reality.    

People feel their happiness, suffering their positive and negative emotions as a reality because they are unaware of the fact that the world in which they exist itself is the dualistic illusion or Maya. 

The look of an object will depend upon the medium through which the observer views it. In fact, our mental and intellectual conditions determine the world, observed and experienced. The commoner viewing the world will see differently from a Gnani viewing the same world. Each one interprets the world that they see in terms of their existing knowledge. The commoner sees everything based on the ego, therefore, experiences the birth, life, death and the world as a reality, whereas a Gnani sees everything as consciousness and is fully aware of the fact that, there is no second thing that exists other than the Soul or consciousness. 

Thus, all the egocentric knowledge has to be bifurcated to realize the ultimate truth, which is beyond form, time and space.

A Gnani has realized he is not he but consciousness; his body is not the body but consciousness, the world in which he exists is not the world but consciousness.  Everything is known, seen, believed and experienced by him is nothing but consciousness than what else remains, which is not consciousness.  There is nothing else to realize other than to realize the consciousness alone is, everything else is merely an illusion created out of consciousness. 

The world in which we exist is nothing but an illusion created out of the Soul, which is present in the form of consciousness.

The whole universe is nothing but the Soul. Therefore, there is no second thing exists other than the Soul, which is present in the form of consciousness.

It is not as if something that was not consciousness suddenly becomes consciousness. Rather, "knowing the truth” means a removal of the ignorance about one's own existence as the consciousness. Thus, to "know the truth” is to "be the consciousness." 

Advaitin Sage and Maya:~  

The King of the Hoysalas was a dualist and was greatly incensed at the doctrine taught by Advaitin Sage that everything here below is an illusion. He wanted to teach the exponent of this doctrine a lesson. So he invited the then Advaitin Sage to his palace. That Advaitin sage went there and stoutly maintained that everything in this world was an illusion. The king had arranged to let loose an infuriated elephant against, Advaitin sage. The beast rushed at Advaitin sage who took to a precipitate flight to save himself.

'Oh, Venerable Sir,' shouted the king, 'why do you run so fast seeing that the elephant is only an illusion?'

'Oh, king,' said Advaitin sage in the course of his flight, 'my running too is an illusion. Everything in this world is an illusion.’

Similarly, the practical life within the practical world is mere illusion. A Gnani is fully aware of ‘what is the truth’? and ‘what is untruth’. 

A Gnani e is fully aware of the fact that, the experiences the pleasure and pain within the waking experience is merely an illusion because the waking experience itself is an illusion.

Thus, life within the waking experience will go on, on its own.  It is nothing to do with the Soul the Self.  The waking or dream is merely an object to the invisible witness. 

The Soul is the Self. The Soul is the witness. The Soul the witness is nothing to do with the three states, because it is merely the witness of the coming and going of the three states or illusion.  : ~ Santthosh Kumaar