A number of Upanishads are equally dogmatic and self-contradictory because they also begin by assuming Brahman. +

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 based on rituals and mythical Gods and Karma. The Advaitic wisdom of Sage  Sankara has nothing to 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 illusion to receive the Soul as the Self as it is in the midst of the dualistic illusion.

All the orthodox ideas rejected by Sage Sankara. There is no need to indulge rituals, in order 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 you 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 those rituals could in no way bring about wisdom, much less moksha.

Sage Sankara says the rewards of the rituals are not 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 the 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 has nothing to do with the religion, caste, rituals, worships, yoga and other practices. Therefore an obvious disparity between Sage Sankara‘s path of Gnana and path of Karma. Path of Gnana is meant for the advanced seeker of truth and path of Karma is meant for the ignorant populace.

Even Sage Sankara appears and tells 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 the 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 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 declares:~ Those people who have neglected the attainment of Self-knowledge and 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:~

One cannot realize the 'Self'  by reading books. The 'Self'  can never be described in words. One could have all books and scriptures but no actual help to realize the Self. 

Sage  Sankara:~ 'Like a servant who carries a lamp in front of you to find your way, and you have found it, so becomes the Veda to that person. What is the Veda? ~ utterances of those who have known the Truth. Here is one who has known the Truth; why should he or she depend upon the Veda further? Actual realization takes you beyond books. At a certain stage, books become a botheration. The Upanishad itself says that the 'words are only so much of distraction for such minds'

 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).

First, know ‘what is the truth’ and ‘what is untruth’ for sure. Without realizing what untruth truth is, it is difficult to know what truth is.

Mundaka Upanishad: - The study of the Vedas, linguistics, Rituals, astronomy and all the arts can be called lower knowledge. The higher is that which leads to Self-realization. The eye cannot see it; the mind cannot grasp it. The deathless 'Self' has neither caste nor race, neither eyes nor ears nor hands nor feet. Sages say this Self is infinite in the great and in the small, everlasting and changeless, the source of life.

Sage  Sankara himself had often said that his philosophy was based on Sruti, or revealed scripture. This may be because Sage  Sankara addressed the ordinary man, who finds security in the idea of causality and thus, in the idea of God—and Revelation is indispensable to prove the latter. He believed that those of superior intelligence, have no need for this idea of divine causality, and can, therefore, dispense with Sruti and arrive at the truth of Advaita by pure reason.

A number of Upanishads are equally dogmatic and self-contradictory because they also begin by assuming Brahman. Few Upanishads prove Brahman at the end of a train of proof but still, they are very confusing and vague.

First Mundaka - Chapter 1 - (1):~ “The Knowledge of Brahman, the foundation of all knowledge.

First Mundaka - Chapter 1 (4):~ “Two kinds of knowledge must be known that is what the knowers of Brahman tell us. They are the Higher Knowledge and the lower knowledge.

First Mundaka - Chapter 1 (5); ~ “The Higher Knowledge is that by which the Imperishable Brahman is attained.

First Mundaka - Chapter 1 (6):~  “By means of the Higher Knowledge the wise behold everywhere Brahman, which otherwise cannot be seen or seized, which has no root or attributes, no eyes or ears, no hands or feet; which is eternal and omnipresent, all-pervading and extremely subtle; which is imperishable and the source of all beings.

Sage Sankara strongly advocated the study of Upanishads, and at the same time cautioned that the study of Upanishads alone would not lead to moksha. In matters of such as spiritual attainment, one’s own realization was the sole authority and it cannot be disputed

Self-knowledge cannot be attained by the study of the scriptures and intellectual understanding or by bookish knowledge.  Therefore there is no use of studying the scriptures and other scriptures in order to acquire the non-dual wisdom.  That is why Bhagavan Buddha rejected the scriptures, and even Sage  Sankara indicated that the ultimate truth lies beyond religion, the concept of God, and the scriptures.

A Gnani is neither anyone’s Gurus nor any one’s disciple. He respects all the Sages of the past and he highlights good points in their teaching and he also highlights how their wisdom obstacles, which blocks the realization of the ultimate truth.

A Gnani does not transmit Gnana but he shares the pointers to realize the truth.   These pointers help the seekers to realize the truth which is hidden by ignorance.

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)

Katha Upanishad: ~ This Knowledge cannot be attained by common sense or by reasoning. Brahman-Atman is easy to comprehend when taught by one who knows.   [1.2.9]

Katha Upanishad: ~ “Some fools think they are wise and learned. They run around on various tortuous paths, like the blind led by the blind”.  [1.2.5]

A Gnani having realized Soul, which is present in the form of the consciousness dwelling within illusory t the illusory world in which we exist but itself is formless, timeless and spaceless existence.  The consciousness is pervading, is free from the experience of the birth, life, death and the world.

Self- Realization cannot be attained neither through the study of the Vedas, nor through religious rituals and ceremonies, or through intellectual investigations. The ‘Self’ chooses those to whom it will reveal itself.

Dattatreya's Song of the Avadhut: ~ “The ‘Self’ is the ultimate Reality; have no doubt. The Self is not something known by the mind; The Self is the very one which knows! How, then, could you think to know the Self? (1.36-42)

The cosmos is a reality within the domain of the form, time and space.  The cosmology is nothing to do with the ultimate truth, which is beyond the form, time and space.  

It is not possible to realize the truth, which is hidden by the form, time and space.  The whole cosmos is nothing but the Soul.  Therefore, there is no second thing exists other than the Soul, which is present in the form of consciousness.

For a Gnani sees the world in which he exists as the consciousness, just as the goldsmiths view the ornaments as nothing but the gold. : ~ Santthosh Kumaar