A Gnani is the fountainhead of the Advaitic wisdom. +

Manduka Upanishads:~Even the Gods cannot find out who is a Gnani, because he bears no external mark. Neither nudity nor the yellow robe has anything to do with him.

A Gnani is the fountainhead of the Advaitic wisdom. Advaitic wisdom is Soulcentric knowledge. A Gnani is a rational thinker. A Gnani will not be so foolish as to argue with an irrational man; the latter will put great warmth of feeling into his words, whereas the other will remain cool and calm-headed, not wasting his time in attempting to reason with someone incapable of reasoning calmly, but can only rationalize his emotions. 

The Advaitic wisdom is both in its formless and manifest aspects. But today, the Advaitic wisdom is demeaned, distorted, and reduced by measuring it through a religious framework.

Only in ignorance, the universe in which we exist is an illusion created out of the Soul, the Self, which is present in the form of consciousness. 

The universe is both real and unreal. It is real because it is a manifestation of consciousness, but is unreal, in the sense, that it is not absolute and eternal like consciousness itself.

People's approach is more practical, and they stuck with the reality of the universe, they take it as real. That is why all the confusion.

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 universe, observed and experienced. The commoner viewing the universe 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 and, therefore, experiences birth, life, death, and the world as a reality, whereas a Gnani sees everything as consciousness and he is fully aware of the fact that, there is no second thing 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.

The universe is egocentric aspects of reality; the Soul is the ultimate reality that is hidden by the universe.  The Soul is the cause of the universe and it, itself is uncaused. From the standpoint of the Soul, the universe is merely an illusion.

Sage Sri, Sankara clearly indicates in Viveka Chudamani (2) that the Knower of the Atman (A Gnani) "bears no outward mark of a holy man" (Stanza 539).  

A Gnani wears no signs which means he does not identify himself as Guru or teacher or swami or yogi. 

Thus it means the one who wears the robes is not a Gnani, because he identifies himself with his birth entity and his inherited religion.  Thus he accepts the birth entity as the Self and the world as reality, whereas the Self is birthless and deathless because it is formless.  

A Gnani will always be concerned about humanity within the practical world, but same time he is fully aware of the fact that the universe in which he exists is merely an illusion. Gnani, through concentration on the true ‘Self’, realizes that ancient, effulgent hidden and which dwells and pervades in everything and everywhere in all the three states as its formless substance and witness. 

A crowd in the public place will contain men of varying capacities to understand, of whom only one or two might be ripe for truth, therefore, a Gnani will not indulge in delivering public lectures or indulge in public debate for propagating the Nondualistic or Advaitic truth; people can only lecture for giving out falsehood, the illusions that appeal to the taste of the audience.

A crowd in the public place will contain men of varying capacities to understand, of whom only one or two might be seekers for truth or ripe for truth. If anyone is ripe for truth a Gnani will guide them to reach the ultimate end of understanding. 

Bhagavad Gita says:~“Don't unsettle the minds of the ignorant by revealing the esoteric truth."

The Gnani is neither t a Sanyasi, nor swami, nor guru, nor a yogi. He is above all stages. He is beyond form, time, and space. Gnani, having realized Atman as dwelling within impermanent states is bodiless, pervades the three states as its formless substance and witness and permanent and eternal. 

Both Gnani and the ignorant see the multiplicity, but Gnani does not take the differences that he sees as being real. That is the difference between them. A Gnani sees the unity behind the differences and considers the form, time and space to be one in essence. 

A true Gnani can never renounce anything. It is impossible. He has only renounced ignorance. For Gnani, the world is an illusion. Viewed from the absolute there's neither birth nor life nor death, neither appearance nor disappearance, neither production nor destruction, neither bondage nor liberation. There's none who seeks for freedom nor is there any who is liberated - this is the highest truth. 

A Gnani knows that there's neither unity nor plurality - the world is neither one nor many. Just as a piece of rope is mistaken for a snake, the Atman is mistaken for this diverse world. Duality is an appearance and the non-dual Atman is the real truth.

Remember:~

Gnanis are one in millions for they have ignored the opinions of whole peoples in their independent search of truth and questioned all beliefs, all scriptures, and all authorities until they could be proved to be true. 

Even the arguments that religions have been followed since time immemorial make no difference to a Gnani because if people have believed a false thing over thousands of years, the length of time does not prove it true. 

The Gnani’s position is that if enjoyment comes, he accepts it; if it does not, he keeps quiet. Even when he is taking pleasures, however, he is not deluded by them and he regards them as a passing show he knows their unreality: he does not take them seriously. 

Clouds do not affect the sky, although they appear to; so the pleasures do not change a Gnani because he is fully aware of the fact that pleasure, pain, and the world are one in essence and that essence is consciousness.

The Gnani will live according to circumstances. There are no prohibitions for him. He may be a cab driver or a president. 

Gnanis do not perform miracles to attract attention to the truth because they are fully aware of the fact that, the universe in which they exist is merely an illusion created out of consciousness. 

Even whilst in the stage of imagined experience of objects, a Gnani has his realization of the ultimate truth or Brahman. A Gnani is fully aware of the fact that form, time, and space are one in essence. There is no division in consciousness. 

One who realizes his own Soul, as in deep sleep, is indifferent to pleasure or pain, whereas one who realizes the ultimate truth or Brahman i.e. the whole world, feels the pleasure and pain, but they are transient.

A Gnani is of no special use to the ordinary ignorant man as the latter cannot understand him nor grasp the truth propagated by him. Hence, such men do not need Gnanis to teach them. Only those seekers, who have doubts and questions of the highest order, should follow Gnanis. : ~ Santthosh Kumaar