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.+

One cannot realize the ultimate truth by reading books or by studying the scriptures, The ultimate truth can never be described in words. Spiritual books of the Eastern and Western philosophers but no actual help.

Eastern and Western philosophers have made it still more complicated. No amount of reading and understanding can lead to truth -realization. Books give only the outer husk; Self-Knowledge is not derived from books.

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.

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. '

The man who possesses the highest intellect can grasp Advaita, by merely hearing the truth mentioned and will know it

The ultimate truth has nothing to do with the Scriptures and it is independent of the scriptures.  The point is:  though it is taught by the Vedas, it does not require any belief in the infallibility of Vedas; in other words even if an individual or some other religion were to propose the same thing, a person with an open mind would come to the same conclusion that there is a fourth state, that it is Brahman - and that it is the same as the Self.

People think that the enlightenment is about the experience of the timeless, formless, spaceless unmanifested dimension and it is possible by transcending the ego.  They also think that the universe is born millions of years ago and the universe erupted from the big void, from nothingness.   But these ideas are mere speculation based on the false self within the false experience.

Where there is experience then there is duality.  Where there is duality then there is always an illusion. Where there is an illusion then there is always ignorance. Where there is ignorance there is always the ego. 

Where there is ego falsehood experienced as reality. Therefore, getting rid of the falsehood in its totality is necessary to realize the reality. Thus, by transcending ego alone one cannot get the Advaitic reality, the whole falsehood, which is in the form of mind or universe has to be transcended mentally in order to realize the ultimate reality.   

It is erroneous to say that only by transcending the ego; one is able to experience formless, timeless, and space-less unmanifested dimension. It is wrong to say that the universe erupted from the big void, from nothingness. All this is mere imagination based on the false self.  

It is the traditional belief that, if one meditates; he assumes no position in relationship with thoughts. One transcends his thought process. So when one transcends thoughts, he transcends the mind, one transcends time. But all these belief-based theoretical practices are not wisdom. 

Only through Advaitic wisdom one is able to realize the ultimate truth which is beyond illusory form, time, and space which is in the form of the universe.  

Those who lack the intelligence to discriminate between formless witness (subject) and three states (object) will not be able to grasp what is real and what is unreal. Both subject and object are consciousness, not subject alone.

The truth can never change. The nature of truth is, it can never be changed under any circumstances. It may be misrepresented. It must apply to the whole of existence, to the whole of the universe. It is in the object (three states) alone that one has all changes, as deeper analysis points out.

 The subject (formless witness) remains unchanged. The subject (formless witness), as such remains immortal. It can never die for it never changes. The body and world are an object and goes, but the subject or knower of the body and the universe can never go. 

The seeker has to take this principle as his guiding thread and non-dual truth becomes easy to grasp. The formless witness can never be subject to the changes of the object; it is unchanged. The mistake usually made is that the subject becomes an object, or that object is the subject.

In fact, Sage Sankara states a paradox- the world is and is not. It is neither real nor unreal. It leads us to recognize the existence of Maya (illusion). He thinks that the world is illusory from one perspective and from the second it is nothing but Brahman(God), Itself in manifestation. This apparent world is Maya and has its basis in Brahman, the Eternal. It looks real. It has names and forms and actually, it is not real In the light of true knowledge, it disappears and Self-alone shines as real. However, Sage  Sankara's Mayavada has not been accepted by many preachers and philosophers.

When Sage Sankara says clearly, the universe is not real. He says that Brahman and Atman are one. The ultimate and Absolute Truth is the Self, which is one though appearing as many in different individuals. The individual has no reality. Only the Soul, the innermost  Self is Real; the rest, mental and physical are but passing appearances, then it indicates the form (waking or duality or mind) is unreal and the formless soul (consciousness or soul) is real.  Therefore, only Atman is real because there is no second thing that exists other than Atman, which is in the form of consciousness.

Remember:~ 

Sage Goudpada: ~ 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)

***

The reasoning is interpretable in two ways. The egocentric interpretation is to apply it only to the waking experience. The soulcentric interpretation is to apply it to the three states. The latter leads to a final settlement of the problems because it takes all data into consideration.

As we keep digging deeper and deeper, the truth will shine as pure awareness in the midst of the duality (waking). 

The Soul the innermost Self is our ultimate teacher. It is only our inner teacher that will walk with us to the goal, for the Soul is the goal. From the ultimate standpoint, there is no teacher, there is no teaching and there is no student. Millions are searching for truth, but one in million will realize it. :~Santthosh Kumaar