Becoming adept in Advaita Vedanta does not mean that one has become Gnani.+

Swami Vivekananda:~ “The wicked are always looking for defects. Flies come and seek for the ulcer, and bees come only for the honey in the flower. Do not follow the way of the fly but that of the bee.

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.

Many 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.

The Soul, the Self, is God in truth. The Soul, which is present in the form of consciousness, is Infinite. Consciousness is all-pervading. The world in which we exist is nothing but consciousness.

People think by studying Vedanta thoroughly, they are under the delusion and conclude that they have become Gnanis.

Becoming adept in Advaita Vedanta does not mean that one has become Gnani. One gains thereby a mere intellectual understanding of the truth. The truth is e beyond the intellect.

Sage Sankara said:~Neither by the practice of yoga nor philosophy, nor by good works nor by learning, does liberation come, but only through the realization that Atman and Brahman are one in no other way. (1) VivekaChudamani v 56, pg 25

Fortunate is the one who does not lose themselves in the labyrinths of philosophy. The conceptual divisions invented by philosophers by their excessive analysis will create more confusion fortunately the seekers do not lose themselves in the labyrinths of philosophy but realize the truth which is hidden by the ‘I’.

Till you hold the ‘Self ‘as the ‘I’ you will never be able to get Self-realization. ‘I’ hides the Soul, which is the Self.

‘I’ is ignorance.

‘I’ is the duality.

‘I’ is form, time, and space.

‘I’ is the universe.

‘I’ is the waking.

‘I’ is the dream.

‘I’ is the illusion.

‘I’ is the experience of birth, life, death, and the world.

Remember:~

Without the ‘I’ there is no ignorance.

Without the ‘I’ there is no duality.

Without the ‘I’ there is no form, time and space

Without the ‘I’ there is no universe.

Without the ‘I’ there is no waking.

Without the ‘I’ there is no dream.

Without the ‘I’ there is no illusion.

Without the ‘I’ there is no experience of birth, life, death, and the world.

The ‘I’ hides the truth of the whole. The ‘I’ hides the truth.

That is why Ashtavakra Gita 16:10:~ If you desire liberation, but you still say ‘I', if you feel the ‘Self’ is the ‘I’, you are not a wise man or a seeker. You are simply a man who suffers.

Bhagavad Gita: ~ The permanent is always there, only the transient ‘I’ comes and goes. (2.18)

It is time to discard the ‘I’. Never use the word ‘I’ or I AM for the Self.

Among thousands of people, scarcely one strives for perfection; and of those who strive and succeed, scarcely one knows the ‘Self’ in truth. The truth is beyond the form, time, and space. : ~ Santthosh Kumaar