A householder who becomes a Gnani will attend his duties as usual to his family and society.+

Advaitin Sage and Maya.

The King of the Hoysalas was a dualist and was greatly incensed at the doctrine taught by Advaitin Sage that everything here below is an illusion. He wanted to teach the exponent of this doctrine a lesson. So he invited the then Advaitin sage to his palace. That Advaitin sage went there and stoutly maintained that everything in this world was an illusion. The king had arranged to let loose an infuriated elephant against, Advaitin Sage. The beast rushed at Advaitin sage who took to a precipitate flight to save himself.

'Oh, Venerable Sir,' shouted the king, 'why do you run so fast seeing that the elephant is only an illusion?'

'Oh, king,' said Advaitin Sage in the course of his flight, 'my running too is an illusion. Everything in this world is an illusion.

Similarly, the practical life within the practical world is merely an illusion. All our hopes and desires or pleasure and pain are a reality within the illusion.

We all are searching for truth within the illusion not being aware of the fact that the illusion is created out of a single stuff which is the Soul or consciousness.

The Soul is the innermost Self. When the waking entity realizes it is not the Self in the midst of the waking experience it enters the Advaitic -awareness, which is free from form, time, and space.

A Gnani is consciously aware of ‘what is truth’ and ‘what is untruth’.

A Gnani is fully aware of the fact that the experiences the pleasure and pain within the waking experience are merely an illusion because the waking experience itself is an illusion.

A Gnani sees the reality (Soul) hidden by the illusion as it is in the midst of the illusion.

Thus, life within the waking experience will go on, on its own. It has nothing to do with the Soul the Self. The waking or dream is merely an object to the formless witness.

The Soul is the Self. The Soul is the witness. The Soul the witness has nothing to do with the three states because it is the witness of the coming and going of the three states or illusion.

The world is both real and unreal. It is real because it is a manifestation of consciousness, but is unreal, in the sense, that it is not absolute and eternal like consciousness itself.

A Gnani sees the reality (Soul) hidden by the illusion as it is in the midst of the illusion. That is why all the confusion.

The look of an object will depend upon the medium through which the observer views it. In fact, our mental and intellectual conditions determine the world, observed and experienced. The commoner viewing the world will see differently from a Gnani viewing the same world. Each one interprets the world that they see in terms of their existing knowledge. The commoner sees everything based on the ego and, therefore, experiences birth, life, death, and the world as a reality, whereas a Gnani sees everything as consciousness and he is fully aware of the fact that, there is no second thing exists other than the Soul or consciousness.

Thus, all the egocentric (religious) adulteration has to be bifurcated to realize the ultimate truth, which is beyond form, time, and space.

Those who assert the world is reality must know: The person, who stamped their foot on the ground to refute to show the world, is real, ignore that in a dream he would do exactly the same--stamp his dream foot on the ground and assert it to be real.

A householder who becomes a Gnani will attend to his duties as usual to his family and society but he is fully conscious of the fact that his individual experience of birth, life, death, and the world are a reality within the dualistic illusion created out of the Soul, which is God in truth.

A Gnani lives in the world as a commoner but he is consciously not of this world.

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.

Ashtavakra Samhita: ~ "The man of knowledge, though living like an ordinary man, is contrary to him, and only those like him understand his state.

As per the scriptures, the three "Ashrams" or stages in life were originally intended for three grades of intelligence thus:

 Religion:~ low intellects had to do 'karmas' works, ritual actions, chanting of mantras indulging in bhajans and prayers, etc.

 Yoga:~ Middle intellects- taking yellow robes, going to caves, ashrams, etc.

 Wisdom:~High intellects:- who wants to realize the truth is concerned with no external rites no prayers or sanyasa but depend solely on the Soulcentric reasoning for their path.

Thus, the seeker has to choose his path according to his choice.

Without an intense urge to know the truth and sharpness to grasp the truth, it is difficult to tread the path of wisdom never mix different paths with each other, and make a cocktail because it leads to all sorts of doubts and confusion.

The seeker of truth should be aware of everything that is untrue: stick to the truth and he shall succeed, maybe slowly, but surely. :~Santthosh Kumaar