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 unborn 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 says:~ 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) is one and the ‘Self’ is another, does not know Brahman (God).
Sage Sankara also asserts that 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
