Sage Sankara’s Gnanic path can help the seekers draw and prepare them for the journey to the reality hidden by the Maya.+

The seeker has to ignore the religion and its rituals and search for the truth of the existence. Religion and religious rituals are unsafe rafts for crossing the ocean of ignorance.

Doomed to shipwreck are those who try to cross the ocean of ignorance on these poor rafts or rituals. Ignorant of their own ignorance, yet wise in their own esteem, these deluded people proud of their vain learning go round and round like the blind led by the blind.

The essence of Mundaka is: Do not be satisfied with rituals, yoga, etc. which are good in their own way, but inquire. Into what? Brahman and Atman are things you can never see. So do not inquire into them. Inquire into the world around you, which you can see. Science tells you it is passing away every second. Everything is dying repeatedly. Where is it going? Thus you follow up your inquiry into what you can lay hands on. How can you inquire into Atma which you cannot see? So first we deal with the known and seen, this inquiry leads up to the unknown in the end.

Remember:~

The Orthodox person who performs rituals and aspires for rewards will view himself in terms of the caste into which he is born, his age, the stage of his life, his standing in society, etc. And he is required to perform rituals all through his life.

The scriptures dealing with rituals, rewards, etc. are therefore addressed to an ignorant person.

The Soul, the ‘Self’ has no attributes or tags. Hence, the person who superimposes all those attributes on the changeless, eternal Soul, the ‘Self’ and identifies the Self with the ‘I’ is confusing one for the other; and is, therefore, an ignorant person.

A person who engages in rituals with the notion of 'I' as the ‘Self’ is ignorant; the ‘I’ itself is ignorance. The ignorance can be removed by Self-knowledge.

The seeker of truth must have his belief in one eternal unchanging reality (Brahman) and the dualistic illusion.

A Gnani drives home the point that Self-knowledge deals not with rituals but with the knowledge of the Soul, the ‘Self’.

Sage Sankara gives us an insight into the essential nature of the Self, which is identical to the Absolute, the Brahman.

Sage Sankara: ~ Atman, the ‘Self’ is verily Brahman (God), being equanimous, quiescent, and by nature absolute Existence, Knowledge, and Bliss. Atman is not the body which is non-existence itself. This is called true Knowledge by the wise.

Realizing the universe is created out of single stuff and that single stuff is the Soul which is present in the form of consciousness leads to non-dualistic or Advaitic -awareness. Advaitic -awareness is freedom or Moksha. Moksha is unity in diversity in the midst of the dualistic illusion.

As regards the rituals, Sage Sankara says, that the person who performs rituals and aspires for rewards will view himself in terms of the caste into which he is born, his age, the stage of his life, his standing in society, etc. In addition, he is required to perform rituals all through his life. However, the 'Self' has none of those attributes or tags. Hence, the person who superimposes all those attributes on the changeless, eternal Self and identifies the ‘Self’ with the body is confusing one for the other; and is, therefore, an ignorant person. The scriptures dealing with rituals, rewards, etc. are therefore addressed to an ignorant person.- (11- Adhyasa Bhashya)

The orthodox people only teach and preach their knowledge of ignorance but none of them wants to know the God in Truth, which is hidden by the dualistic illusion or Maya.

Remember:~

First Mundaka - Chapter 2 (10) - Ignorant fools, regarding sacrifices and humanitarian works as the highest, do not know any higher good. Having enjoyed their reward on the heights of heaven, gained by good works, they still remain in ignorance of the Atman the real God.

As a person, one performs rituals throughout his life. The person who performs rituals and aspires for rewards will view the world in which he exists as a reality. However, the Soul, the 'Self' is unborn and eternal hidden by the world in which he exists. From the standpoint of the Soul, the world in which he exists is merely an illusion.

The scriptures dealing with rituals, rewards, etc. are therefore addressed to an ignorant person.

First Mundaka - Chapter 2 (9) ~ Children, immersed in ignorance in various ways, flatter themselves, saying: We have accomplished life's purpose. Because these performers of karma do not know the Truth owing to their attachment, they fall from heaven, misery-stricken, when the fruit of their work is exhausted.

First Mundaka - Chapter 2 (8) ~ Fools, dwelling in darkness, but wise in their own conceit and puffed up with vain scholarship, wander about, being afflicted by many ills, like blind men led by the blind.

Ish Upanishad declares:~ Those people who have neglected the attainment of Self-knowledge and have thus committed suicide 10/11/12

The religious orthodox people who have neglected the attainment of Self-knowledge and have thus committed suicide, as it were, are doomed to enter those worlds after death.

This is a condemnation of people who do not try to attain Self-knowledge. They are, in a real sense, committing suicide, for what can be worse than being a slave to sense enjoyment, completely oblivious of the real purpose of life, which is to be one ’s, own master?

Sage Sankara says “he who knows the Brahman (God in truth) is one and the ‘Self’ is another, does not know Brahman (God in truth).”

Sage Sankara also asserts that the Self is realized when All the effects of ignorance, root, and branch, are burnt down by the fire of Self- knowledge, which arises from discrimination between these two—the Self and the non-Self.

Sage Sankara’s Gnanic path can help the seekers draw and prepare them for the journey to the reality hidden by the dualistic illusion or Maya. : ~ Santthosh Kumaar