The seeker must discard the holy and sacred business because the holy and sacred business belongs to religion and yoga.+

The seeker must discard the holy and sacred business because the holy and sacred business belongs to religion and yoga, not spirituality. No one is holy or sacred other than Soul, the God because all these holy and sacred people belong to the dualistic illusion or Maya.

Holding them as holy and sacred blocks you from transcending from dualistic illusion to non-dualistic reality.

By identifying oneself as some gurus’ disciple one does not become a Gnani. A Gnana does not identify himself with and Guru or disciple. Those who identify themselves as gurus are Gnanis.

Religious or yogic Gurus propagate that, once a seeker identifies a Guru, he must totally surrender to the Guru, and then from there onwards, the spiritual journey is fully the Guru's responsibility, not his... Hence the importance of choosing the right Guru is necessary, but in the pursuit of truth, the Guru is not necessary, because the truth is not theoretical. Truth has to be ascertained by the seeker on his own through Soulcentric reasoning.

The one who identifies himself as a swami, a Guru or yogi, is not a Gnani. A Gnani never identifies himself as a swami, Guru, pundit, or yogi. Swami, Guru, pundit, and yogi belong to the religious or the yogic path not to the path of wisdom.

Sage Sankara on Gnani: On Gnani: "The knower of Brahman (Self-realized or Gnani) wears no signs. Gives up the insignia of a monk's life…his signs are not manifest, nor his behavior."

~ When the knower of Brahman wears no signs -- it means he does not identify himself as a Guru or a teacher. Therefore, those who identify themselves as gurus are not Gnanis. Those who have embarrassed sannyasa or monkhood are also not Gnanis. The Gurus and Sanyasis belong to the religious and yogic path, not a Gnani path.

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

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

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

A Gnani never claims himself as a Gnani, he guides the seekers, not posing himself as a Guru, and he does not force his wisdom on others.

Advaita is not a theory or a philosophy. Advaita is the nature of the Soul the innermost Self. There is no need for any other, philosophy or scriptures to acquire Self-knowledge. Only a perfect understanding of ‘what is what’ is needed.

Mundaka Upanishad 1.3: ~ Complete knowledge includes knowledge of the phenomenal world, the spirit behind it, and the source of both of them. When the cause of all causes becomes known, then everything knowable becomes known, and nothing remains unknown is Gnana.”

The birth is the birth of ignorance. Physical Life is a life of ignorance. Death is the death of ignorance. Whatever exists without ignorance is the ultimate reality or Brahman or God in truth.

Remember the ‘I’ itself is ignorance. I-centric’ and ‘you-centric’ knowledge blocks the seeker from realizing the ‘Self’ hidden by the ‘I’. those who are stuck up to the ‘I- centric' and you-centric gurus and teaching will never be able to cross the threshold of ignorance because the ‘I’ itself is ignorance.

The Self is not ‘I’ but the Self is the Soul hidden by the ‘I’.

What is Self?

If something is true, is real, is constant, is a foundation of a nature that is unchanging, this can be called the Self.

The Soul, the Self is the fullness of the consciousness without the illusory division of the form, time, and space. The Soul is formless, timeless, and spaceless and eternal existence.

People have not penetrated the meaning of the ‘Self’. The meaning is that the ultimate truth is the Self, which is eternal existence.

You are impermanent because the ‘Self’ is not you but the ‘Self is the Soul, which is present in the form of consciousness.

People have not penetrated the meaning of the ‘Self’. The meaning is that the ultimate truth is the Self, which is eternal existence.

You should not hold anything of the dualistic illusion (universe), which is impermanence. The world in which you exist makes you feel as though they are real but ultimately they are merely an illusion created out of the Soul, which is permanent.

You must cultivate to see the permanence (Soul) hidden by the impermanence (universe) as it is.

If you do this, you will be like one who sees a gem in the muddied water among the stones and rocks and waits for the water to settle before he skillfully plucks it out.

It is the same with cultivating the idea of the Soul, the Self hidden by the dualistic illusion (universe).: ~Santthosh Kumaar