Sage Sankara, is one of the greatest geniuses of all times. This world owes him a deep debt of gratitude. He not only consolidated the classical values of life but also spiritual wisdom.
Sage Sankara is the only Sage who has final authority on the Advaitic truth. The Advaitic truth is rational truth and scientific truth without dogmas.
Unfortunately, few philosophers in the world are as misunderstood and misinterpreted as Sage Sankara. Ironically, most of the harm came from his admirers and followers of Advaitic orthodoxy because they propagated rituals as a means to attain lower knowledge which is meant for those who believed in the physical existence (universe or waking) as a reality.
The Advaitic orthodoxy is dualistic and it is not the means to acquire Self-knowledge or Brahma Gnana or Atma Gnana. The Advaitic orthodoxy is meant for the ignorant mass that is unfit to grasp the highest truth. Thus, the Advaitic orthodoxy is nothing to do with the ultimate truth or Brahman. Those who have chosen the Atmic path have to discard orthodoxy in order to get the pure essence of Advaita.
Sage Sankara is Jagadguru for the ignorant populace and Brahma Gnani for the seeking world.
Sage Sankara’s wisdom is nothing to do orthodox sect. Sage Sankara is the only sage who has final authority on the Advaitic truth. The Advaitic truth is rational truth and scientific truth without dogma.
Religion is nothing to do with Advaitic wisdom. Advaitic sect belongs to religion. Advaita is pure spirituality. Advaitic sect is dualistic is nothing to do with the Advaitic truth which is hidden by the illusion. Mixing religion and spirituality is like mixing oil and water.
Religion is regarded as sacred and real by the common people, by the wise as false, and by the politicians as useful.
The religion and its sects are based on the form, time, and space whereas Spirituality is based on the Atman the formless, timeless, and spaceless existence.
Religions hold birth, life, death, and the world as a reality. From the ultimate standpoint, the world in which we exist is an illusion created out of the Soul, which is present in the form of consciousness.
The seeker must know the difference between religion and spirituality.
Sage Sankara Says:~ The Advaitic orthodoxy is meant for ignorant people. The orthodox people are ignorant.
Sage Sankara says the scriptures dealing with rituals are addressed to an ignorant person.
Those who are stuck to the rituals and worshiping the personal Gods are ignorant people.
Upanishad aspiration is best expressed in the following sutra:~
Om Asato ma sad gaMaya, tamaso ma jyotir gaMaya, the truthrityor ma aamritaam gaMaya. Shanti, Shanti, Shanti
"OM Lead me from ignorance to truth, from darkness to light, from death to immortality. Peace, Peace, Peace" (Brhadaranyaka Upanishad (1/3/28)).
According to Advaita Vedanta, the Veda addresses itself to two kinds of audiences - the ordinary ones who desire the transitory heaven and other pleasures obtained as a result of ritual sacrifices, and the more advanced seeker who seeks to know Brahman. 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. However, the Vedanta, with its emphasis on the jnana kanda, is meant for those who wish to go beyond such transient pleasures.
Those who lack the intelligence to discriminate between formless witness (subject) and three states (object) will not be able to grasp what is real and what is unreal. Both subject and object are consciousness, not subject alone.
Ish Upanishad says: - Those people who have neglected the attainment of ‘Self’-knowledge and have thus committed suicide.- 10/11/12
Those people who have neglected the attainment of ‘Self’-knowledge or Brahma Gnana or Atma Gnana 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?
The Brahma Sutras together with Sage Sankara's commentary thereon do not contain higher Vedanta. They are intended for duffers.
Sage Sankara's commentary on Brahma Sutras is not on the philosophical basis, but on a religio-mystic one, with an appeal to Vedas as a final authority.
In Brahma Sutra Sage Sankara takes the position that there is another entity outside us, i.e. the wall really exists separately from the mind. This was because Sage Sri, Sankara explains in Mandukya that those who study the Sutras are religious minds, intellectual children, hence his popular viewpoint to assist them. These people are afraid to go deeper because it means being heroic enough to refuse to accept Sruti, and God's authority, in case they mean punishment by God.
Sage Sankara says: Keep the scriptures for children but throw them on the fire for wise seekers.
In Brahma Sutras Sage Sankara takes for granted, assumes that a world was created: He there mixes dogmatic theology with philosophy.
That God created the world is an absolute lie; nevertheless, you will find Sage Sri, Sankara (in his commentary on Vedanta Sutras) clearly says this! He has to adapt his teachings to his audience, reserving the highest for philosophical minds.
The text of Brahma Sutras is based on religion, dogmatism, but in the commentary Sankara cleverly introduced some philosophy. If it is objected that many Upanishads are equally dogmatic because they also begin by assuming Brahman, but a few Upanishads do not but prove Brahman at the end of a train of proof.
The causality and creation, but these are for religious people only. Religion is only for those who are unable to understand the truth beyond the form, time, and space. Religion is not final. It only gives satisfaction to the populace. The ‘Self’ - knowledge is for the whole of humanity to free them from experiencing the birth, life, death, and world as reality.
People of small intelligence follow religion and believe that the world was created by God. But how do they know that He did so? When a pot is created, one can see both pot and its maker, but not in the case of the world.
This is the following prescription prescribed by orthodoxy in the name of Sage Sankara. The orthodoxy has listed down in 5 verses, 40 steps of Sadhanas (discipline) to be followed to achieve the (only meaningful) goal of human life Moksha, liberation. Use it as every day as the contemplative prayer
1. Study the scriptures (Vedas) daily
2. Perform diligently the duties (sva dharma) ordered by the scriptures
3. Dedicate all the actions thus performed (as above) to Ishvara (IshvarArpanna Buddhi)
4. Gradually give up the performance of ‘Selfish actions
5. Filter sinful/adharmic likes and dislikes
6. Recognize the inherent defects of material pursuits
7. Seek moksha with the consistent endeavor
8. Get out from the bondage of activity (specified to the ones which end up entangling us)
9. Seek companionship with men of wisdom
10. Be established in firm devotion to Ishvara and perform Upasana
11. Gain mind control, sense control, withdrawal, forbearance, faith, and focus
12. Give up kaUpasana Upasana when they have not required any longer for spiritual growth
13. Seek Knowledge from a Satguru
14. Serve his lotus feet.
15. Ask for Brahma Vidya.
16. Listen in-depth, to the Upanishadic declarations.
17. Analyze the meanings of Upanishadic commandments.
18. Perform such analyses by sticking to scriptures.
19. Get away from the logic-based system (logic is good when it corroborates scripture, in the sense, don't try to substitute it).
20. Dwell upon the discriminative rationale of Shruti (basically, develop Viveka)
21. Constantly remain steeped in the fact that you are Brahman.
22. Renounce pride/vanity/arrogance.
23. Give up the delusionary misconception- "I am the body".
24. Do not argue with wise men.
25. Consider hunger as a disease.
26. Treat hunger, the disease, by taking bhiksha food.
27. Beg no delicious food.
28. Live contentedly with whatever comes your way as prasadam.
29. Endure all pains of opposites- heat/cold, likes/dislikes, pleasure/pain.
30. Avoid wasteful talk.
31. Be indifferent and avoid groupism.
32. Don't get attached to either someone's love or criticism.
33. In solitude also, live joyously.
34. Quieten your mind in Ishvara.
35. Realize and see the ‘Self’ in everything, everywhere
36. Recognize the universe as a finite projection of the ‘Self’.
37. Destroy the effects of deeds done in earlier lives (sanchit karma) through the strength of knowledge.
38. Through pearls of wisdom, become detached from AgAmi karma (give up doership/enjoyership)
39. Experience and exhaust the prarabdh, fruits of past actions
40. Thereafter, live eternally as Brahman
But remember:~
Sage Sankara Says, that, the orthodoxy is meant for ignorant people.
Sage Sankara: ~ "Though I wear these robes of a Sanyasin, it is only for the sake of bread."
~ This shows Sage Sankara: was wearing the religious robe only for the sake of bread."
Sage Sankara criticized severely the ritualistic attitude and those who advocated such practices. However, the orthodox texts that combined rituals with wisdom (jnana_karma_samucchaya) more in favor of the Mimamsaka position came into vogue, projecting Sage Sankara as the rallying force of the doctrine.
Sage Sankara:~As regards the rituals, Sage Sankara says, 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. Also, 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 a 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. (Adhyasa Bhashya-11)
Sage Sri, Sankara:~This ignorance (mistaking the body for ‘Self’) brings in its wake a desire for the well-being of the body, aversion for its disease or discomfort, fear of its destruction, and thus a host of miseries(anartha). This anartha is caused by projecting karthvya(“doer” sense) and bhokthavya (object) on the Atman. Sankara calls this adhyasa. The scriptures dealing with rituals, rewards, etc. are, therefore, he says, addressed to an ignorant person. (Adhyasa Bhashya-11.1)
Sage Sankara:~ In short, the person who engages in rituals with the notion “I am an agent, doer, thinker”, according to Sage Sri, Sankara, is ignorant, as his behavior implies a distinct, separate doer/agent/knower; and an object that is to be done/achieved/known. That duality is Avidya, an error that can be removed by Vidya. -(Adhyasa Bhashya-11.2)
Sage Sankara affirming his belief in one eternal unchanging reality (Brahman) and the illusion of plurality, drives home the point that Upanishads deal not with rituals but with the knowledge of the Absolute (Brahma Vidya) and the Upanishads give us an insight into the essential nature of the ‘Self’ which is identical with the Absolute, the Brahman. (Adhyasa Bhashya-12)
No conceptual God can exist, apart from consciousness. People are not aware of the fact that there is no individual God can exist, apart from the Soul, which is in the form of consciousness. Thus the Soul or Consciousness is the true ‘Self’. If there is no consciousness, then there is no physical body, no ego, no universe, no religion, and no conceptual God. : ~ Santthosh Kumaar
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