Sage Sankara’s wisdom does not need any support of any scriptures the seeker can arrive at the Advaitic truth by pure reason.+

Yoga Vasistha:~ "Teachers, interpretations of sacred texts, the force of religious merit--none of these lead to the realization of that Ultimate Truth which is revealed in the clear reflection of the heart, engendered from contact with the good."

Anybody can write a commentary on the Upanishads and other great philosophic texts, all they need to do to pour out words. Some Westerners along with some orthodox pundits translated and published books.

Sage Sankara’s wisdom does not need any support from any scriptures the seeker can arrive at the Advaitic truth by pure reason.

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 of this idea of divine causality, and can, therefore, dispense with Sruti and arrive at the truth of Non-Dualism by pure reason.

In the past, the Gurus and the scriptural interpreters used the word ‘I’ to the ‘Self’ without knowing what is this ‘I’ supposed to be in actuality.

Deeper Self-search reveals that the ‘Self’ is not the ‘I’ but the ‘Self’ is the witness of the ‘I’, which appears as waking or dream (duality) and disappears as deep sleep (non-duality).

The witness of the ‘I’ is the Soul. The Soul is present in the form of consciousness is real and eternal.

WHO AM ‘I’ AND ‘I AM THAT’ is only for a lower stage where one gives up externally to expose the false nature of the form(ego), which is not the full truth.

To unfold the ‘Self’ hidden by the ‘I’ the seeker has to inquire into the nature of the ‘I’.

The ‘I’ appears as the universe. Inquiring into nature the universe is higher.

With the ‘WHO AM ‘I’? or ‘I AM THAT’- teaching is not the Advaitic wisdom of Sage Sri, Sankara wisdom. With the ‘WHO AM ‘I’? or ‘I AM THAT’- the journey is incomplete.

Sage Sankara introduced WHO AM ‘I’? or ‘I AM THAT’ for the lower stages and it becomes inadequate and useless as the seeker advances in his quest for truth.

Some Gurus in the past introduced WHO AM ‘I’? or ‘I AM THAT’ –as their own teaching with their own cocktail of imagination.

The Self-knowledge is the knowledge of the whole, not the part. The universe, which confronts one, has to be included in the inquiry to get the truth of the whole. Thus, the ‘WHO AM ’I’ inquiry will not help to unfold the truth.

WHO AM ‘I’?- inquiry is helpful in the first stage, but the seeker has to go much beyond ‘WHO AM ’I’ ?. The seeker has to do his homework to realize the truth of the whole. :~ Santthosh Kumaar