In chap. 10 of in Bhagavad Gita, Lord Krishna says: ~ "I have given you the most secret teaching, now reflect over it all" Krishna plainly says reflect, think. (Verse 63 of Chap. 18)
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 for this idea of divine causality, and can, therefore, dispense with Sruti and arrive at the truth of Non-Dualism by pure reason.
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.
Sage Sankara himself has warned us not to use ambiguous words and to practice semantic analysis in his book "Definition of one's own Self. (Page 199, v.24 of "Sankara's Selected Works)
Sage Sankara founded his Advaita Vedanta either on reason independent of Sruti or on Sruti confirmed by reason."
Sage Sankara, in debates with Buddhists and others who did not recognize the authority of the Vedas, had been obliged to prove the truth of Advaita by means of reason alone.
Sage Sankara, in debates with Buddhists and others who did not recognize the authority of the Vedas, had been obliged to prove the truth of Advaita by means of reason alone.
Remember:~
Bhagavad Gita: ~ Reason as a means to reality. (Chap.18 verse 37)
In chap. 10 of the Bhagavad Gita, Krishna says: ~ I cannot save you, but I can give you Buddhi (reason). (chap. 10)
Mundaka Upanishad says: ~ Both states are harmful and take you away from the path of inquiry into truth. (Page 234)
Ashtavakra Gita: ~ It is not the absence of Buddhi (Reason) that can grasp Advaita but the man who possesses the highest intellect. Brains are necessary. Such a man, by merely hearing the truth mentioned will know it. (Page~ 224).
The mystic must become a constant slave to some line of "thought" or rather imagination, and then he will really see visions confirming his imaginations.
The mystic who sees God in vision has seen Him during the waking state. The waking experience itself an illusion. Thus, whatever seen within the illusion is bound to be an illusion. Thus, it is necessary for the mystic to realize his existence is a reality within the illusion.
Whatever belief of God one is familiar with through his inherited conditioning or samskara that he will see in his visions. When the man is the false self within the false experience, then whatever he believes is bound to be a falsehood.
God is The Soul, the Self. The Soul is present in the form of consciousness. God is not within you, but you and your experience of the world are within God. Self-realization is God-realization because The Soul, the Self itself is God. When you and your experience of the world disappear, then God alone prevails as a formless, timeless, and spaceless existence. : ~ Santthosh Kumaar
