Sage Sankara:~ 'Like a servant who carries a lamp in front of you to find your way, and you have found it, so becomes the Veda to that person. What is the Veda? ~ utterances of those who have known the Truth. Here is one who has known the Truth; why should he or she depend upon the Veda further? Actual realization takes you beyond books. At a certain stage, books become a botheration. The Upanishad itself says that the 'words are only so much of distraction for such minds'
Advaitic wisdom of Sage Sankara cannot be surmised by merely reading the Vedas and Upanishads.
Ashtavakra:~There is no wisdom whatsoever in the scriptures-just a collection of words.
The seeker should not bother about finding the meaning of what is written in the scriptures.
Advaithc Wisdom is not found in scriptures or books. There are only hidden parables here and there. There is no clear-cut wisdom whatsoever in this. Mere words ~ just a collection of words. The wisdom is hidden by the world in which we exist.
The truth is not found in the world because the world is merely an illusion created out of consciousness. The Truth is beyond the form, time, and space.
Mundaka Upanishad:~ The study of the Vedas, linguistics, Rituals, astronomy, and all the arts Can be called lower knowledge. The higher is that which leads to Self-realization.
The eye cannot see it; the mind cannot grasp it. The deathless 'Self' has neither caste nor race, neither eyes nor ears nor hands nor feet. Sages say this Self is infinite in the great and in the small, everlasting and changeless, the source of life.
All these selected quotes from the scriptures are helpful to think deeply nothing more.
In pursuit of truth, the ultimate truth has to be proved, not assumed. Pundits who take scriptures for granted are not Gnanis.
Pundits 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 needed so that one arrives at knowing truth i.e. wisdom; punditry is mere dogma, parrotism, repetition of what they read in scripture. Scripters are not yardstick and the scriptural truth is not proof. Pundits take scripters as an authority. Authoritarianism merely assumes as true what another says, but what has yet to be proved.
Pundits have to test the truth in this world, not in the next world. There is no proof other than blind belief based on the scriptures, belief is not the truth. So, doctrines are not the means to realize the truth. There is no need to follow them in order to acquire self-knowledge or Brahma Gnana.
Doubts and confusions arise when the seeker finds the scripters and yoga are inadequate or useless to quench his spiritual thirst.
Disappointments in religion or yoga or even science imply error or ignorance. Seeker reaches a stage whether he is right?" Where is the certainty that he is proceeding on right lines?" Thus, the doubts arise and the inquiring spirit comes and impels them to search elsewhere for truth where it will not be possible even to have doubt. The test is therefore in realization out views or to have the difference of opinion can such doubtlessness be possible. Belief depends upon unstable bases whereas certainty depends on the proof.
Seeker of truth has to get rid of his doubts through deeper self-search on his own, to realize the fact that, the 'Self' is not the form but the ' Self' is formless. Thus, his analysis and reasoning have to be based on the formless (Soul), not on the form(ego).
By simply go on believing and accepting whatever said by the punditry will not lead one towards the path of wisdom. All the doubt has to be got rid of "by the sword of Self - Knowledge." The scriptures, yoga are not necessary if one follows the inner (formless) path. Religion and yoga are not the means to acquire Advaitic wisdom. : ~ Santthosh Kumaar
