Sage Sankara’s Advaita as the fairest flower of wisdom that the world in any age has produced. Learn yourself, make everyone aware of the truth of their true existence, call upon the sleeping Soul and see how it awakes.
Power will come on its own, glory will come on its own, grace will come, purity will come on its own, and the truth hidden by the ‘I; will be revealed when the Soul, the Self wakes up from its sleep of ignorance. this sleeping Soul is roused only through Self-knowledge or Brahma Gnana or Atma Gnana.
Sage Sankara’s Advaitic wisdom is universal. The whole of humanity owns it because it is the knowledge of their true existence.
The Atmic path or the Path of wisdom is not meant for those who are strongly attached to Advaitic orthodoxy. Atmic path is not suited for the orthodox people.
The orthodox people must continue with their inherited path because they are sentimentally and emotionally involved with their orthodox there is no hope that they will adopt anything new.
The orthodoxy is the self-imposed prison. It is very difficult for the orthodox people to come out of their religious outfits.
For those who want to realize the ultimate truth or Brahman, there is no need for this orthodox baggage they have to discard it as useless because they block the realization of the ultimate truth or Brahman.
Theistic Advaita has to be bifurcated to realize the ultimate truth or Brahman or God in truth.
Theistic Advaita is based on the ego whereas the Advaitic wisdom is based on the Atman.
Theistic Advaita is based on the experience of birth, life, death, and the world as reality whereas Sage Sankara declared the world in which we exist is an illusion. The Atman the cause of the world, in which exist is real and eternal.
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.
According to Advaita Vedanta, the Veda addresses itself to two kinds of audiences - the ignorant people who desire the transitory heaven and other pleasures obtained as a result of ritual sacrifices, thus, the Purva mimam. sa, with its emphasis on the karma kanda of the Vedas, is meant for the first audience, to help lead its followers along the way. Thus, the All the theistic Advaita is meant for the ignorant populace.
The serious seeker who is seeking the truth is nothing but the truth or Brahman or God the Vedanta, with its emphasis on the jnana kanda, is meant for those who wish to go beyond the form, time, and space to realize true existence is formless, timeless and spaceless existence.
All the theistic Advaita belongs to religion it is nothing to do with Sage Sri, Sankara’s Advaitic wisdom
Sage Sankara Advaitic wisdom is purely based on soulcentric reason and independent without the support of any scriptures.
Sage Sankara:~ “This (the unreality of duality) is borne out by the Srutis ... But it is possible also to show the unreality of the objective world even from pure reasoning. (Commentary on the Manduka Upanishad, II, 1)
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 of this idea of divine causality, and can, therefore, dispense with Sruti and arrive at the truth of Non-Dualism by pure reason.
Sage Sankara gave out what was of most use to the greatest number of people. Therefore, in the commentaries on the Upanishads, such as the famous Manduka, he gave the Advaitic message of the identity of Atman and Brahman, revitalizing the philosophy and practice of Advaita, while in the commentaries on the Brahmasutra he gave a lesser teaching, positing both higher and lower Maya and higher and lower Brahman (Ishvara) to explain creation for those of lesser intellects until they were ready for the highest truth.
Sage Sankara says: - Whatever thing remains eternal is true, and whatever is non-eternal is untrue. Since the world is created and destroyed, it is not true.
The truth is the thing that is unchanging. Since the world is changing, it is not true.
Whatever is independent of space and time is true, and whatever has space and time in itself is untrue.
Just as one sees dreams in sleep, he sees a kind of super-dream when he is waking. The world is compared to this conscious dream.
The world is believed to be a superimposition of the Brahman. Superimposition cannot be true.
On the other hand, Sage Sankara claims that the world is not absolutely false. It appears false only when compared to Brahman. In the pragmatic state, the world is completely true—which occurs as long as we are under the influence of Maya. The world cannot be both true and false at the same time; hence Sage Sankara has classified the world as indescribable. The following points suggest that according to Sage Sankara, the world is not false (Sage Sankara himself gave most of the arguments).
Maya or illusion is the most important contribution of Sage Sankara. Maya or illusion is that complex illusionary power of the Atman (Soul), which is present in the form of consciousness.
This Māyāvāda of Sage Sankara was highly criticized and misunderstood. Bhaskaracharya described Sage Sankara to be indebted to the Buddhists for his concept of Maya. The term Maya however, appears in the Bhagavad Gita 7.14 and also in many Upanishads.
The concept of Māyā seems to be a hypothesis. Since according to the Upanishads only Brahman is real, but we see the material world be real, Sage Sankara explained the anomaly by the concept of this illusionary power Māyā.
Sage Sankara:~ “The world, filled with attachments and aversions, and the rest, is like a dream: it appears to be real as long as one is ignorant, but becomes unreal when one is awake.
Sage Sankara: ~ “As fire is the direct cause of cooking, so knowledge, and not any other form of discipline, is the direct cause of Liberation; for Liberation cannot be attained without Knowledge." (Self-Knowledge)
Sage Sankara: ~ As the moon appears to be moving when the clouds move in the sky, so also to the non-discriminating. Atman appears to be active when in reality the senses are active.
Sage Sankara's commentary to Brahma Sutras (Chap.3.4.50) shows that the Gnani "should pass through life", not run away from life and should take a middle course between seeking worldly honour and worldly abasement.
Sage Sankara varied his practical advice and doctrinal teaching according to the people he was amongst. He never advised them to give up their particular religion or beliefs or metaphysics completely; he only told them to give up the worst features of abuse: at the same time, he showed just one step forward towards the truth. Sage Sankara was extremely precise and careful in his choice of words.
Sage Sankara gave religious, rituals, and dogmatic instruction to the mass but pure philosophy only to the few who could rise to it. Hence, the interpretation of his writings by commentators is often confusing because they mix up the two viewpoints. Thus, they may assert that ritual is a means of realizing Brahman, which is absurd.
Sage Sankara, indicated in Bhaja Govindam says ~ (Jnana Viheena Sarva Mathena Bajathi na Muktim janma Shatena) - one without knowledge does not obtain liberation even in a hundred births, no matter which religious faith he follows.
Sage Sankara believed that those of superior intelligence, have no need of this idea of divine causality, and can, therefore, dispense with Sruti and arrive at the truth of Non-Dualism by pure reason.
Sage Sankara’s supreme Brahman is Nirguna (without the Gunas), Nirakara (formless), Nirvisesha (without attributes), and Akarta (non-agent). He is above all needs and desires.
Sage Sankara says, "This Atman is Self-evident. This Atman or Self is not established by proofs of the existence of the Self. It is not possible to deny this Atman, for it is the very essence of he who denies it. The Atman is the basis of all kinds of knowledge. The Self is within, the Self is without, the Self is before and the Self is behind. The Self is on the right hand, the Self is on the left, the Self is above and the Self is below".
Satyam-Jnanam-Anantam-Anandam is not a separate attribute. They form the very essence of Brahman. Brahman cannot be described because description implies distinction. Brahman cannot be distinguished from any other than God.
The objective world-the world of names and forms has no independent existence. The Atman alone has real existence. The world is only phenomenal.
Sage Sankara was the exponent of the Kevala Advaita philosophy. His teachings can be summed up in the following words:~
Brahma Satyam Jagat Mithya,
Jeevo Brahmaiva Na Aparah
~Brahman alone is real, this world is unreal; the Jiva is identical to Brahman.
Sage Sankara said: ~ Just as the snake is superimposed on the rope, this world and this body are superimposed on Brahman or the Soul the innermost Self. If one gets knowledge of the rope, the illusion of the snake will vanish. Even so, if he gets knowledge of Brahman, the illusion of the body and the world will vanish.
The snake is only an idea: it disappears on inquiry, but deeper Self-search reveals the fact that, the rope is also an idea and its reality will be exposed when wisdom dawns. There is neither a snake nor the rope in reality because from the ultimate standpoint the duality is an illusion created out of consciousness.
Sage Sankara’s Supreme Brahman is impersonal, Nirguna (without Gunas or attributes), Nirakara (formless), Nirvisesha (without special characteristics), immutable, eternal, and Akarta (non-agent). It is above all needs and desires. It is always the Witnessing Subject. It can never become an object as It is beyond the reach of the senses. Brahman is non-dual, one without a second. It has no other besides it. It is destitute of difference, either external or internal. Brahman cannot be described because description implies a distinction. Brahman cannot be distinguished from any other than It. In Brahman, there is not distinction between substance and attribute. Sat-Chit-Ananda constitutes the very essence or Svarupa of Brahman and not just Its attributes. The Nirguna Brahman of Sage Sankara is impersonal. : ~ Santthosh Kumaar
