'Oh, king,' said Advaitin Sage in his course of his flight, 'my running too is an illusion.+

Brihadaranyaka Upanishad says: ~ “In that unitive state there is neither father nor mother, neither worlds nor Gods nor even the Scriptures. In that state, there is neither thief nor slayer, neither low caste nor high, neither Monk nor ascetic. The Self is beyond good and evil, beyond all the suffering of the human Heart.

It is erroneous to mix practical life and the practical world in the pursuit of truth. The ups and downs of the practical life within the practical world have nothing to do with the invisible Soul, the Self.

In Self-awareness, nothing disappears at the dawn of wisdom, but the unreal nature of the waking is exposed in the midst of the duality.

One sees his body as the consciousness, his ego as consciousness, and the world as consciousness. Thus, there is a unity in diversity in his understanding. In Self-awareness, the unknown restlessness disappears. Self-awareness brings stillness of the mind in the midst of action or duality.

Thus, the search for the truth within illusion with the illusory Self, within the illusory world, is bound to be an illusion.

The illusion is created, sustained, and finally dissolves as the invisible Soul, which is present in the form of consciousness. Since there is no second thing other than the invisible Soul, the Self, which is present in the form of consciousness, the consciousness itself is the ultimate truth or Brahman.

Advaitin Sage and Maya

The King of the Hoysalas was a dualist and was greatly incensed at the doctrine taught Advaitin Sage that everything here below is an illusion. He wanted to teach the exponent of this doctrine a lesson. So he invited the then Advaitin sage to his palace. That Advaitin sage went there and stoutly maintained that everything in this world was an illusion. The king had arranged to let loose an infuriated elephant against, Advaitin sage. The beast rushed at Advaitin sage, who took to a precipitate flight to save himself.

'Oh, Venerable Sir,' shouted the king, 'why do you run so fast, seeing that the elephant is only an illusion?'

'Oh, king,' said Advaitin Sage in the course of his flight, 'my running too is an illusion. Everything in this world is an illusion.’

Similarly, the practical life within the practical world is merely an illusion. All our hopes and desires or pleasure and pain, are a reality within the illusion.

We are all searching for truth within the illusion, not being aware that the illusion is created out of a single stuff, which is the invisible Soul, the Self, which is present in the form of consciousness. The invisible Soul is the Self.

When the waking entity realizes it is not the Self in the midst of the waking experience, it enters the nondual awareness, which is free from illusory form, time, and space.

A Gnani is fully aware of ‘what is truth’ and ‘what is untruth’. A Gnani is fully aware that the experiences the pleasure and pain within the waking experience are merely an illusion because the waking experience itself is an illusion.

Thus, life within the waking experience will go on, on its own. It has nothing to do with the invisible Soul, the Self. The waking or dream is merely an object to the formless witness.

The invisible Soul is the Self. The invisible Soul is the witness. The invisible Soul, the Self, the witness, has nothing to do with the three states because it is merely the witness of the coming and going of the three states or illusion. : ~ Santthosh Kumaar