Animal sacrifice in the Vedas.+

Hindus do not know of the sacrifice of animals in the Vedas.  There are references in the Rig Veda and others about the sacrifice of animals.

The horse sacrifice is a well-known ritual from the Rig Veda—though this has pretty much ceased to be practiced altogether. There is also mention of the sacrifice of a goat. In the Yajur Veda, there is an entire section devoted to the rituals of animal sacrifices—though the sacrifice of animals in some cases does seem to be optional. 

Animal sacrifice in the Rig Veda:

1.162.2-5 The dappled goat goeth before the Courser, covered with trappings and with wealth, the grasped oblation. The dappled goat goes straightforward, bleating, to the place dear to Indra and to Pusan. Dear to all the Gods, this goat, the share of Pusan, is first led forward with the vigorous Courser While Tvastar sends him forward with the Charger, acceptable for sacrifice, to glory.

1.162.6,9-11 (the horse sacrifice) those who prepare the cooking vessel for the Steed…what part of the Steed’s flesh the fly hath eaten, or is left sticking to the post or hatchet, Or to the slayer’s hands and nails adhereth…Food undigested steaming from his belly and any odour of raw flesh remaining This lets the immolators set in order and dress the sacrifice with perfect cooking What from thy body which with fire is roasted, when thou art set upon the spit.

1.162.12 They who observing that the Horse is ready to call out and say, the smell is good; remove it; and craving meat, await the distribution, may their approving help promote our labor.

1.162.18 Cut ye with skill so that the parts be flawless, and piece by piece declaring them dissect them.

1.163.12 The strong Steed hath come forward to the slaughter, pondering with a mind directed God-ward. The Goat who is his kin is led before him.

1.172.4 The horse neighs, the steer bellows before being sacrificed.

3.2.7, 3.6.6 Horse sacrifice

Here are a few references from the Yajur Veda as well.

Yajur 1.8.21.e To the Asvins he sacrifices a dusky, to Sarasvati a ram, to Indra a bull

Yajur 1.3.1.c He who hates us and whom we hate, here do I cut off his neck…
Sacrifices were done as 1) gift offerings to the Gods 2) as a way of gaining strength 3) and for accomplishing things that one wants through spiritual power (curses).

The flesh of the victim was offered partly as a burnt offering and partly eaten by the priests (who were not vegetarians).

Hinduism is not Vedic religion or Santana Dharma.  All this Vedic sacrifice of animals belongs to the Vedic era. Hinduism is not Vedic religion or Santana Dharma.  Hinduism is not a religion. Rather it is a group of castes and sects found within India that share common beliefs while still remaining very different. :~Santthosh Kumaar 

The Advaitic orthodoxy is based on personal God whereas Sage Sankara’s Supreme Brahman (God in truth) is impersonal.+

The Advaitic orthodoxy is based on a personal God whereas Sage Sankara’s Supreme Brahman (God) is impersonal, Nirguna (without Gunas or attributes), Nirakara (formless), Nirvisesha (without special characteristics), immutable, eternal, and Akarta (non-agent). God is above all needs and desires. God is always the Witnessing Subject. God can never become an object as God is beyond the reach of the senses. God is non-dual, one without a second. God has no other besides it. God is destitute of difference, either external or internal. God cannot be described because the description implies a distinction. God cannot be distinguished from any other than God. In God, there is not distinction between substance and attribute. Sat-Chit-Ananda constituted the very essence or Svarupa of God, and not just God's attributes. The Nirguna Brahman of Sage  Sankara is impersonal.

Advaitic orthodoxy accepts the experience of birth, life, death, and the world as reality, whereas Sage Sri, Sankara declares the world is unreal Brahman alone is real.

Thus the experience of birth, life, and death happening within the unreal world are bound to be a falsehood. Thus, religion and religious belief and its ritual based on the birth entity are bound to be a falsehood. Thus, the seeker has to realize ‘what is that is real and eternal?

Sage  Sankara: ~ ‘Reality can be realized only with the eye of understanding, not just by a scholar. What the moon is like must be seen with one's own eyes. How can others do it for you?"~Vivekachoodamani

Advaitic Orthodoxy misinterpreted Sage  Sankara and presented only the religious side of his teaching as the highest doctrine. Thus, people are misled.  The orthodoxy is based on rituals and mythical Gods and Karma. The Advaitic wisdom of Sage Sankara is nothing to do with Advaitic orthodoxy.

Let Advaitic wisdom annihilate ignorance (I) and reveal Soul, the Self the God in truth.  Let your ears become deaf to the untruth propagated by the religion as a reality; enable you to realize the truth hidden by the ignorance (I).  Let your eyes become blind to the illusion to receive the Soul as the Self as it is in the midst of the dualistic illusion.

 All the orthodox ideas were rejected by Sage Sankara. There is no need to indulge in rituals, to realize the ultimate truth or Brahman. There is no need to study philosophy, in order to realize the ultimate truth or Brahman then why indulge in studying philosophy.

Sage Sankara pokes fun at ascetics and points out that all their austerities do not cause desires to go. (Altar Flowers" Page 205, v.2 P.207 v.4)

Sage Sankara pointed out that those rituals could in no way bring about wisdom, much less moksha.

Sage  Sankara says the rewards of the rituals were not a matter of direct realization. Advaitic wisdom is based on personal realization.

The orthodox Advaitin believes that rituals alone would lead one to higher levels of attainment. Further, the deities would reward only those entitled to perform the rituals alone. The entitlement involved caste, creed, and other parameters.

The scriptural authority and value of rituals are part of the Advaitic orthodoxy, which is meant for ignorant people.

The Advaitic wisdom of Sage Sankara is nothing to do with religion, caste, rituals, worship, yoga, and other practices. Therefore an obvious disparity between Sage Sankara‘s path of Gnana and the path of Karma. The path of Gnana is meant for the advanced seeker of truth and the path of Karma is meant for the ignorant populace.

Even Sage Sankara appear and tell the orthodox people the path of orthodoxy is the path of ignorance they will not be able to drop their inherited samskara or conditioning, which they think is the only way to reach heaven and reap happy life in the next life.

As regards the rituals, Sage Sankara says, 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 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.-  (11- Adhyasa Bhashya)

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 still remain in ignorance of the Atman the real God.

As a person, one performs rituals throughout his life.  The person who performs rituals and aspires for rewards will view the world in which he exists as a reality. However, the Soul, the 'Self' is unborn and eternal hidden by the world in which he exists.  From the standpoint of the Soul, the world in which he exists is merely an illusion.

The scriptures dealing with rituals, rewards, etc. are therefore addressed to an ignorant person.

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 (8) - Fools, dwelling in darkness, but wise in their own conceit and puffed up with vain scholarship, wander about, being afflicted by many ills, like blind men led by the blind.

Ish Upanishad says:~Those people who have neglected the attainment of Self-knowledge have thus committed suicide.- 10/11/12

The religious orthodox people who have neglected the attainment of Self-knowledge 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?

Remember:~ 

Advaita means the Soul, the innermost Self. The Soul is one without the second. The Soul is present in the form of the Spirit or consciousness. The Soul is the ultimate truth or Brahman or God. Advaita is the nature of God, the innermost Self. Advaita is the real God. Advaita is the fullness of consciousness.

Remember this: ~

The Soul, the  ‘Self is hidden by the ‘I’.

The ‘I’ is present in the form of the mind, therefore; ‘I’ is the mind.

The mind is present in the form of form, time, and space

together; therefore, the form, time, and space together are the mind.

The duality is present only when the form, time, and space are present, therefore, the form, time, and space together are the duality.

Form, time, and space are present in the form of the universe, therefore, the form, time, and space together are the universe.

The universe appears as the waking or dream, therefore, the waking or dream is the universe.

The waking is a parallel dream and the dream is a parallel waking.

That is why Bhagavad Gita: ~ “The permanent is always there, only the transient ‘I’ comes and goes. (2.18)

The ‘I’ hides the Soul, the Self.

People think the ‘I’ without the body is the Self. The seeker has to understand the fact that ‘I’ is not the Self, but the witness of the ‘I’ is the true Self, which is eternal.

Remember this: ~

Without the ‘I’ there is only the Soul, which is present in the form of consciousness.

Without the mind, there is only the Soul, which is present in the form of consciousness.

Without form, time, and space, there is only the Soul, the fullness of consciousness.

Without the universe, there is only the Soul, which is present in the form of consciousness.

Without the waking or the dream, there is only the Soul, which is present in the form of consciousness.

Without the individual experience of birth, life, and death, there is only the Soul, which is present in the form of consciousness.

Remember this: ~

From the standpoint of the Soul, the ‘I’ is an illusion.

From the standpoint of the Soul, the mind is an illusion.

From the standpoint of the Soul, form, time and space are an illusion.

From the standpoint of the Soul, the universe is an illusion.

From the standpoint of the Soul, waking or dream is an illusion.

From the standpoint of the Soul, the individual experience of birth, life,  death, and the world is an illusion.

The Soul is the cause of all that exists as an illusion and the Soul itself is uncaused.

Bhagavad Gita: ~ “You must first see the ‘I’ as illusory before you see others as illusory. ~ CH.2 v.16

Realize, ‘what is this ‘I’ supposed to be in actuality’ and what is hidden by the ‘I’ will be revealed.

If you realize the ‘Self ‘is not the ‘I’ but the Soul then whatever is hidden by the ‘I’ will be revealed.

Realizing the Soul is not the ‘I’ but the Soul is the Self, is Self–realization.

The Soul, which is present in the form of consciousness, is ever-present. Without consciousness, the world, in which you exist ceases to exist. The consciousness is Self-evident. It is not established by extraneous proof. It is not possible to deny consciousness because it is the very essence of the one who denies it. Consciousness is the basis of all kinds of knowledge, presuppositions, and proofs. Consciousness is everything. Thus, consciousness is the ultimate truth or Brahman or God in truth.

The dualistic illusion or Maya hides the truth of the Advaita.

The Soul becomes an illusion in waking (duality) and waking become the Soul in deep sleep (non-duality).

The one that becomes the duality (waking or dream) and one that remains nonduality in deep sleep,  is the Soul, the  Self.

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).

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 truth other than consciousness. : ~Santthosh Kumaar

The difference between the Guru and a Gnani.+

The seeker must know the difference between a Guru and a Gnani.  A Gnani never identifies himself as a Guru or a Yogi or someone disciple.  The one who accepts himself as a Guru or someone’s disciple is not a Gnani.

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

Identifying as a Guru or some Guru’s disciple keeps one in the cage of ignorance.  A person who identifies himself as a guru or disciple will never be able to get Advaitic Gnana.

Guru and disciple concept is meant for the religious and yogic path.  In the Atmic path, the Guru and disciple concepts have no value.

A person who realized the ultimate truth or Brahman will throw off his religious robe and all religious identity and live like a commoner. He never identifies himself as Gnani nor does he identify himself as superior to others. He only shares his knowledge with fellow seekers.

A Gnani never identifies himself as a Guru or a Yogi or someone disciple.  The one who accepts himself as a Guru or someone’s disciple is not a Gnani.

Ashtavakra Samhita: ~ "The man of knowledge (Gnani), though living like an ordinary man, is contrary to him and only those like him understand his state.

A Gnani never claims himself as a Gnani, he guides the seekers, not posing himself as a Guru, and he does not force his wisdom on others.

A Gnani can point at the sky, but the seeing of the star is the seeker's own work. The one who he realizes Brahman becomes a Gnani.  A Gnani would be there to show the way to freedom from experiencing the duality as reality. A Gnani does not identify himself as a Guru or swami or yogi or sadhu.

The truth-seeker seeks only truth. The inner Sage will guide you with love. Your sincerity and seriousness lead you to your inner core.  Sincere and serious seekers are not excluded.

Sage Sankara says the transparent Truth of the Self, which is hidden by the illusion, is to be attained through the instructions of a knower of Brahman, (Gnani)

~ Then why you are sticking a Guru who is not a Gnani.

That is why Swami Vivekananda who was a disciple of Sage Ramakrishna Paramahansa himself said: ~   “You have to grow from the inside out. None can teach you, and none can make you spiritual. There is no other teacher, but your own Soul.”

Sage Sankara: ~ "Though I wear these robes of a Sanyasin, it is only for the sake of bread." (Select Works of Sage  Sankara" also his commentary on Brihad)

Thus, the above passage proves that all those who were the sanyasin robes are wearing them for the sake of bread belong to the religion; they are nothing to do with Self-knowledge or Brahma Gnana or Atma Gnana. 

There is no need to criticize and condemn the Gurus, yogis, and swamis because they are needed for the welfare of the ignorant masses in the dualistic world.

Katha Upanishads: ~ This Atman is attained by him alone whom It chooses. To such a one Atman reveals Its own form. (II -23-P-20)

All the chosen ones will get freedom from experiencing the illusion (duality) as a reality.  All the seekers of truth are chosen ones.  All the chosen ones will get freedom from experiencing the illusion (duality) as a reality.  All the seekers of truth are chosen ones. : ~ Santthosh Kumaar

Nirvikalpa Samadhi and deep sleep are the same from the standpoint of the Soul, the 'Self’.+

If yogis practice Yoga up to the limit and extent of getting a strong and concentrative mind, and to be able to think of particular subjects, it is good; beyond that, if they begin to weaken their mind and accept what they imagine as real, they begin to go insane. 

Yoga belief is a self-mesmeric condition of which it is extremely difficult to escape. Yogic and mystic experiences are imaginations projected outwards as the dreamer projects his dream visions.

Bhagavan Buddha gave up his austerities of yoga as impossible and useless. (Page.70/71 "Buddhism in Translation” by Warren)

Bhagavan Buddha got enlightenment only after he gave up Yoga. Unless one exercises his reason--there is no chance of getting the truth.

When the yogi enters this highest Nirvikalpa (effort-less) Samadhi, he will at once enter deep sleep. This will make plain to him after he wakes, that the inner ‘Self’ he sought and found, the Atman, is reached only when all his ideas are refunded into it, when there is then all the features of non-duality, one without a second. However, the yogi must later wake up, emerge from Samadhi and there is duality again, for the world of objects confronts him. So now he has to work on the next stage which is to find consciously in the waking experience the same non-duality that he unconsciously knew in sleep. This is done by learning that the universe is an object for the formless subject, and then refunding the universe ~idea back into its source, which is the Soul, which is present in the form of the consciousness. Only at this final stage dare, he says "Atman, which is present in the form of the consciousness, is the same as the Brahman. Brahman is the ultimate truth.  Now he is fully aware of it.

All yogic visions, however, wonderful will pass away; they go as they come. They have the value of dreams. They are not the truth which is un-passing and beyond change.

One can’t shut his eye to the universe, which confronts him as in Samadhi of yoga and see supreme reality. One can know it only by keeping himself clear and open.

 Sage Sankara says:-   The yogi must add discrimination to his quest.

Nirvikalpa Samadhi and deep sleep are the same from the standpoint of the Soul, the 'Self’' the absence of the known. The knower was there.

How does Samadhi give Gnana? Only by preparing yourself to see that the world disappears and re-appears and, that non-duality is here and duality there, to convince the man that in non-duality one won’t disappear as he doesn't disappear in Samadhi or deep sleep. Another advantage of Samadhi is one gets the capacity to forget the external world and to treat it as an idea.

Yoga can never give you the fundamental thing, that the world is an illusion. Only Gnana can give it. Nirvikalpa Samadhi is unquestionably the same as deep sleep, and all ideas are refunded back there too. One must learn what ideas are when all the ideas of the universe-existence go back into one’s mind through Yoga. Then one learns this. How has he learned that the entire universe is consciousness or Brahman if he stops at Nirvikalpa Samadhi? Without perceiving the universe, and having a duality before him, it is impossible.

Nirvikalpa has no duality, hence it cannot tell you about the universe. The yogi who emerging from Samadhi and says he found Gnana there, says it to a second person, hence there is duality again. If he were a real Gnani, there would be nobody for him to tell that he had experienced Gnana.

Self’-knowledge will interest only a few people; the rest are interested in Religion, yoga other paths and pleasure hunting.  : ~ Santthosh Kumaar 

Yoga helps to train the restless ego to get steadiness, but never Truth because it ignores the external world.+

Yoga can yield the only duality, because everything that one can do or practice becomes a vanishing 'known.' It yields relative truth based on imagination, which is true from the physical viewpoint of view, not the non-dualistic truth, which is the ultimate reality.

In Gita Chap.IV where Lord Krishna says: ~ "This yoga has been lost for ages" the word yoga refers to Gnana yoga, not other yogas: the force of the word this is to point this out.

Lord Krishna describes some of the other yogas but devotes this chapter separately to Gnana Yoga. So one sees even in those ancient days people did not care for Advaita; they wanted religion; hence Gnana got lost. That is why Krishna calls it "the supreme secret." Krishna points out that the yoga must-see "Brahman in action."

Sage Sri Sankara in the commentary to "Brahma Sutras:~ " "The highest beatitude is not to be attained by Yoga." (Sacred Books of East Series page 298 Vol.1.)   And he also says Samadhi is the same as sleep (p.312) ---this indicates that yoga is not the means to Self-realization.  And yogic Samadhi is not Advaitic Self-awareness.

Panchadasi: - the impossibility of yoga arrives at a successful end to its practices. (P.509 v, 109)

Yoga cannot remove ignorance. It is only a step. It removes obstructions. Yoga will help to train the restless ego to get steadiness, but never Truth because it ignores the external world.

Our chief argument against yoga is that it shuts its eyes against the world and then has the temerity to declare that it knows the world to be Brahman! Because it has not inquired into it, it knows nothing.

Yoga's secret from the Vedantic viewpoint is this: it helps the yogi by giving him the feeling that the world is not worth bothering about, it detaches him from the world; it makes him treat the world as a dream, i.e. an idea. It does the same to his ego to some extent because he becomes indifferent to what happens to him. But the great secret is that this is only feeling, he feels these things only but does not know that the world is an idea. Such knowledge can come only after philosophic inquiry and in no other way. That is why yogi cannot be Gnani. It is the difference between feeling and knowledge. 

Feeling of the yogi that the world is unreal may change tomorrow because all emotions are liable to change; and the fact is that yogis do change, as when going after women they lose their sense of world unreality though previously they felt it.

A permanent view of the world as unreal can come only after intellectual inquiry; such knowledge cannot change. Were the yogi of sufficiently sharp intellect he could discover the ideality of the world by reasoning alone and then it would not be necessary for him to have gone through yoga practice at all; that is why we say yoga is for dull or middling intellects.

Bhagavad Gita Chap.IV: "He who achieves perfection in Yoga finds the Self in time." This means that after his yoga is finished, he begins the inquiry into ultimate truth and in due course this inquiry produces the realization of the universal spirit as the result.

All other yogas lead finally to Gnana which transcends and fulfills them. The highest form of yoga is Gnana Yoga, according to which the individual soul realizes through knowledge its identity with the universal Soul or the Self.

It is not possible by mental control alone, by yoga, to achieve Brahman, but at best one falls into asleep. It is like eating fire or leading an elephant by a thread or draining an ocean drop by drop, to try the yogic way. When the yogi shuts his eyes and does not see the world he is like the cat in the Indian proverb who shuts its eyes when drinking forbidden milk although other people are there, and it imagines it is unobserved because it cannot see them. He does not examine the phenomenal world and hence cannot see Brahman for he takes that world as real but runs away from it.:~ Santthosh Kumaar

Who am ‘I’? – is Mystic inquiry based on the individual. Spiritualistic inquiry is to inquire: ~ What is this ‘I’? What is this universe? What is the whole?+

People have got the child mentality, and the slavish mentality, and accept statements as merely because they are uttered by famous Gurus. They lack the scientific method of inquiry.

The ‘Self-inquiry’ is finding out the ‘Self’ which is hidden by the illusory world, in which we exist. By inquiring ‘Who am I?’, the ignorance will not vanish because the ‘I’ itself is illusory.

Sage Sankara says: ~ ‘What is accepted without a proper inquiry will not lead to the final Goal. (Commentary on Vedanta Sutra)

The chief purpose of analyzing the external world is to discover that it is part of the ultimate reality and thus to enable us to carry on with activity from the highest possible viewpoint; where people fail to make this analysis, as with so many religious-minded seekers, they fail to do anything worthwhile in the material world.

Sage Sankara says: ~ “The exercise in discrimination between real and unreal and renunciation of the false is real meditation, then why you are indulging in other types of meditation.

To effect this discrimination, we need intelligence much sharper than the average, whereas too much religion and not a little mysticism drug this intelligence. The highest state is to be the “All”--not to shut your eyes to the world and to go off into the deep sleep of trance.

Swami Vivekananda says:~ Advaita encompasses everything. Since Advaita requires heavy-duty intellectualism, it had to be progressively simplified. (From 'The complete works of Swami Vivekananda).

Nothing is to be given up. If you omit anything, if you ignore any knowledge, then you are not a Gnani. All must be known; if you give up the world, what and how can you understand it?

Weak minds cannot take a comprehensive view and so decry what they cannot understand.

The seeker need not get an aversion to existence, as do the ascetics and yogis; on the contrary, the seeker should go on living in the world, acting, working, etc. that he should accept the practical life but realize the practical life within the world is merely an illusion because the world in which he exists is merely an illusion.

There is no need to give up anything, but to know the world is merely an illusion created out of the Soul, which is present in the form of consciousness.

The mental renunciation of ignorance is higher than the renunciation of the earthly desire.

The whole universe has to be resolutely weighed, and accurately, observed in search of the truth. The seeker must inquire:~

What is this ‘I’?

What is this universe?

Hence inquiry is a necessary foundation. Hence too, the Yogi who looks only inside and ignores the world throws away part of the materials needed to find the truth hidden by the ‘I’.

 Without knowing the nature of the universe, it is impossible to know the truth. What is the use of trying to find your inner self before you understand the world that confronts you?

This world that confronts you is nothing but an illusion created out of the Soul, which is present in the consciousness.

Look at everything in nature because everything is consciousness. Do not avoid them, do not shut your eyes to the world that confronts you; do not shut yourself away from the world which is nothing but consciousness.

The dulled mindset tells you to be non-observant and to withdraw: keen powers of observation are desirable and will help, not hinder your pursuit of truth.

The seeker must take his experiences as they come to him, he should not run away from the world in ascetic fear or shyness of them. To say they are an illusion (Maya) without first examining them and inquiring into them thoroughly is to delude him.

This world is common to all of us, therefore the seeker must begin our inquiry with it and not flee. It is only after you have inquired into the nature of the objective world, that he should inquire into who is the knower. If, however, he inquires into the knower before the inquiry into the universe, then it is mere mysticism. ‘What is this universe?’ - must precede ‘What is this I?’ -  in pursuit of truth.

If one doesn’t see objects, it does not mean he has Advaitic Gnana. Whoever looks at objects alone, at the external world, is wholly ignorant. But he, who looks at both the outside and inside, inquires; he is led towards Advaitic Gnana.

“Who am I? - The formula is useful as a first stage to show the illusoriness of ego and thus help the seeker to realize the illusoriness of the form. This prepares him to consider the higher question: What is this universe? , the truth about which cannot be learned by those attached to their ego, with its prejudices against idealism, etc.

Those mystics who ask "Who am I?" may succeed in finding the common factor in all ‘I’s, the I-ness but they have to come back afterward to the world. Their task is incomplete. They do not know the world is consciousness or Brahman.

It is a defect to make "What Am l?" a philosophic interrogation. It is not. The stages are: scientific: What is the world?

Who am ‘I’? – is Mystic inquiry based on the individual. 

The spiritualistic inquiry is to inquire: ~

What is this ‘I’?   

What is this universe?

What is the whole?

After having examined the seeker will realize there is no difference between the universe and the ‘I’ because the ‘I’ itself is the universe. The universe ceases to exist without the ‘I’.

Egocentric Reason tells you what is good and what is bad, what should be followed and what let alone.

Soulcentric Reason tells you what is real and what is unreal, what should be followed and what let alone.

Pursue this quest until your questions will be answered, until your problems in understanding the reality hidden by ignorance and your doubts will be solved. : ~Santthosh Kumaar