Sage Sankara says It is of no use of renouncing the worldly life, and become and sanyasi or monk or Sadhu to acquire Advaitic Gnana.+

A Sanyasi or Guru who dressed in a religious robe, with coiled hair and a beard, and his whole body was smeared with ashes and for years he has lived aloof like a recluse, he has been visiting places of pilgrimage, but unless and until he gets Advaitic Gnana he will gain no Advaitic Gnana.  He will remain as ignorant.

Sage Sankara himself said: ~ A Gnani "bears no outward mark of a holy man" (Stanza 539).

Sage Sankara: ~ "Though I wear these robes of a Sanyasin, it is only for the sake of bread."

So, he wore a Guru's robe only for the sake of the ignorant. So, he was identified as Guru with parampara by religious people. For the truth seekers, Sage Sankara is a Brahma Gnani.

Thus, it proves that religious Gurus and yogis are not Gnanis because they identified themselves as holy people and their religion. 

Sage Sankara says the knower of Brahman wears no signs. Gives up the insignia of a monk's life then it is of no use of renouncing the worldly life, and become and sanyasi or monk or Sadhu to acquire or Advaitic Gnana or Self-knowledge or Brahma Gnana or Brahma Gnana.

It is easy to renounce the world by taking sanyasa and wearing a religious robe, but to find a Gnani is very difficult. Realizing the Self is even more difficult for the Sanyasi because they are unaware of the fact that the region is built on a false foundation based on the ego.  The most difficult of all is discarding religious conditioning.

The seeker of truth need not renounce the worldly life run to the mountains or run behind the Gurus or Yogis waste their precious life and fortune in order to get ‘Self’-knowledge. If the seeker has an intense urge to realize the truth, then that very urge leads to the realization of the ultimate truth or Brahman or God in truth.

What is the use of renouncing anything within the dualistic illusion? By giving up anything the ignorance will not vanish. By hearing ornamental words from some guru wisdom will not dawn. Sticking to some Guru trying to get ‘Self’-realization is trying to drain the sea drop by drop.

The path of wisdom is the inner path. The inner path is a mental path. Without stepping out of the boundary of form, time, and space, it is impossible to assimilate Advaitic truth. The Advaitic truth is the ultimate truth or Brahman or God in truth.

This Path of wisdom is Soulcentric, therefore, it is very difficult to tread this path on the egocentric perspective. Even the yogis and saints have not come to understand the state of the Soul, the Self’.

Ignorance is the cause of the ‘I’. The ‘I’ is present in the form of the mind. The mind is present in the form of the universe. The universe appears as waking or the dream (duality) and disappears as deep sleep (nonduality).

Man and his experience of the world are the results of ignorance. Man and his experience of the world cease to exist as a reality in the realm of the Soul, the ‘Self’.

Consciousness is the ultimate truth or Brahman. The world in which you exist is created out of consciousness. When this truth is revealed from the inner core then the Advaitic wisdom will dawn. When wisdom dawns then the Soul, the innermost ‘Self’, remains in its own awareness in the midst of the diversity.

Remember:~

Clinging to any physical Guru is clinging to ignorance. The half-baked knowledge propagated as the ultimate truth leads the seeker to a hallucinated version of the truth.

Sage Sankara page 482: 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."

Sage Sankara: ~ The Knower of the Atman or the knower of Brahman or Brahma Gnani.

When the knower of Brahman (Gnani) wears no signs, it means he does not identify himself as Guru or yogi or teacher or Swami because a Gnani sees the form, the time and space are one in essence. Thus, there is unity in diversity in his realization. : ~ Santthosh Kumaar