Genuine Spirituality or Adyatma must be independent of religion.+

The history of Advaita is replete with interpretation and reinterpretation of Sage Sankara’s philosophical work the generation of Advaita followers that succeeded Sage Sankara wrote many commentaries on Sage Sankara’s work each commentator claimed that he grasped the essence and true intent of Sage Sankara and went on to write according to his own understanding. In that process, he wove into the commentaries, and his personal views and hoisted them on Sage Sankara.

This kind of adulation gave rise to several versions of Advaita. The numerous glosses written by his followers tried to blend a ritualistic attitude with the monistic inclination of the Master. The result was the distortion of Sage Sankara’s position.

The purpose of the scriptures, Sage Sankara said, was to describe reality as it is. Sage Sankara rejected the Mimamsa view and argued that scripture was not mandatory in character, at least where it concerned the pursuit of wisdom.

Upanishads, he remarked, dealt with Brahman (God in truth) and that Brahman could not be a subject matter of injunction and prohibitions.

Sage Sankara strongly advocated the study of Upanishads and at the same time cautioned that the study of Upanishad alone would not lead to liberation. In matters such as spiritual attainment, one’s own experience was the sole authority and it cannot be disputed.

Sage Sankara also said the study of Upanishad was neither indispensable nor a necessary prerequisite for attaining the human goal, the moksha.

Sage Sankara pointed out; that even those who were outside the Upanishad fold were as eligible for moksha as those within the fold were.

Sage Sankara declared that all beings are Brahman, and therefore the question of discrimination did not arise. All that one was required to do was to get rid of ignorance (Duality).

Remember:~

Genuine Spirituality or Adyatma must be independent of religion. Sage Sankara himself says Saguna Brahman or a personal God is only a part of the phenomenal (if not illusory) world, and the Nirguna Brahman is the only reality and has nothing to do with religion.

The main hurdle in his way of thinking was that Sage Sankara did not claim to be an original thinker at all, and his philosophy took the form of commentaries on the generality of Hindu scriptures, particularly the Upanishads and the Gita.

Sage Sankara was an independent thinker. Sage Sankara's Advaitic wisdom has not been taken seriously by many in India because most of the followers of Sage Sankara are orthodox.

It is that philosophy in India was for centuries more an exposition of the ancient classics than the independent thought of individual thinkers as in ancient Greece or modern Europe and America.

Sage Sankara and Sage Gaudapada are independent thinkers other schools of Indian philosophy are mere theologies. Advaitic Spirituality or Adyathma is a real philosophy. The dualistic spirituality cannot escape the charge of dogmatism.

Intelligence and thought, are not applicable to Advaitism intelligence and thought are based on the false self (ego) within the false experience (waking).

The whole Advaitic philosophy is an attempt to transcend the limitations of intelligence and thought.

The two points of view A Gnani is not cut off from the experience of practical life within the practical world because the Advaitic truth is neither realism nor idealism; it is beyond both these.

Sage Sankara said:- Talk as much philosophy as you like, worship as many Gods as you please, observe ceremonies, and sing devotional hymns, but liberation will never come, even after a hundred aeons, without realizing the Oneness.

Advaita does not begin with the ultimate truth. The ultimate truth has to be proved, not assumed. Hence, so-called philosophers who take Brahman for granted are not philosophers at all.

Lots of Advaitin scholars will teach that all is yourself, but none of them can show that this is so, none has analyzed it scientifically, and none can prove it.

The rational proof is required so that one arrives at knowing the ultimate truth or Brahman i.e. Gnana. Theirs are mere dogmas, parrotism, and repetition of what they read in scripture. Authoritarianism merely assumes as true what another says, but what has yet to be proved.

Consciousness is that which knows everything, that which sees. Consciousness alone remains after one gets rid of all thoughts and ideas by identification with the Self. Consciousness is only the seer; it is not Brahman that is an error. It becomes Brahman only after inquiry and reasoning. :~Santthosh Kumaar