A Gnani is the one who helps you to realize the 'Self' hidden by the dualistic illusion or Maya.+

Beware of the Gurus and yogis because your quest for the truth will be misdirected.  A Gnani is the one who helps you to realize the 'Self'  hidden by the dualistic illusion or Maya.   

A Gnani will make you think independently so that you can tread the path independently.   A Gnani never becomes a crutch for you.   A Gnani will never play with your emotions and sentiments.   

A Gnani will never force anyone to accept the path of wisdom. He will constantly bring the seeker back to the fact of his inherent perfection and encourage him to seek the truth, which is beyond form, time, and space.  

A Gnani knows you need nothing, not even him, and is never tired of reminding you.  A Gnani continuously shares Self-knowledge or Bramha Gnana or Atma Gnana with like-minded fellow seekers.  

Manduka Upanishads:~  A Gnani bears no external mark. Neither nudity nor the yellow robe has anything to do with him.

A Gnani cannot have the idea of renouncing the world or giving up something of the practical world, because that would connote the idea of duality.  Duality is merely an illusion from the ultimate standpoint. Knowing no second thing at all there remains nothing to be given up.

A Gnani will only guide the seeker he will never make the seeker stick to him because he knows that sticking to him will hinder the seeker's spiritual progress. 

Without a perfect understanding of ‘what is what Advaitic wisdom can never be acquired. There is no practice as such. 

Sage Sankara himself said: ~ A Gnani "bears no outward mark of a holy man.  

Religious Gurus and Yogis are not Gnanis because they identified themselves as holy people.   

Mundaka Upanishads: ~ ‘So-called spiritual pundits and learned are called children because a child takes whatever it thinks as truth. The question never occurs to children “Is what I have seen or thought really the truth?" (P.334 line 9)

By listening to the egocentric sermons and discourses of religious Gurus and yogis the Advaitic wisdom will not dawn.

To attain Self-Realization one has to realize the Self is not you but the Self is the Soul, which is hidden by the ‘I’. Identifying the Self as 'you' is a great obstacle in the quest for truth.

To overcome the obstacle one has to concentrate on the conviction, the Self is not ‘I’ but the Self is hidden by the ‘I’. The Soul, the Self has nothing to do with you and the world in which you exist.

Remember: ~

First, realize the ‘Self is not within you. You are bound by the experience of birth, life, death, and the world whereas the ‘Self is birthless and deathless because it is ever formless, timeless, and spaceless existence.

The Soul is the Self. The Soul is present in the form of consciousness. The consciousness is the cause of the world in which you exist and it, itself is uncaused.  

Consciousness is the ultimate truth or Brahman or God in truth. From the standpoint of the Soul, the   Self the world in which you exist is merely an illusion.  Thus, the world in which exists hides the Soul, which is the real God. 

Till you think the ‘Soul, the Self’ is within you, you will never be able to realize God. God is not limited to you but it pervades in everything and everywhere in the world in which you exist.

You are with the body. You are born in this world. You are living in this world and you are going to die in this world.  The world itself is an illusion.

When the ‘Self’ is not you but the ‘Self is the Soul, which is present in the form of the consciousness then what is the use of discussing the birth, life, death, and the world because the one which is born, lives and dies is not the ‘Self.   The Soul is birthless and deathless because it is an ever-formless, timeless, and spaceless existence.

Remember:~

You are the birth entity. Your existence is limited to form, time, and space. Your religion, your religious Gods your beliefs, your religious rituals and prayers, your race, and your nationality have nothing to do with the Soul, the Self because the Soul, which is present in the form of the consciousness itself is the ultimate truth or Brahman or God in truth. 

It is not you have to establish in consciousness but by realizing you and your experience of the world is nothing but an illusion created out of consciousness the Self-awareness raised in the midst of the dualistic illusion.  

Mentally reduce the world in which you exist into consciousness by realizing the world in which you exist is nothing but consciousness.  If everything is the consciousness then how can anything exist which is not the consciousness?

When the conviction about the consciousness becomes firm then everything falls into the right slot.

Self-realization is very much necessary to realize the world is an illusion.   Until and unless you realize the Self is not you but the Self is the Soul Self-realization is an impossibility. :~Santthosh Kumaar