Sage Sankara’s wisdom is based on inquiring into the nature of the universe. +

Sage Sankara: ~ VC-63- "Without knowing and examining the universe, one can’t know the Truth, as the idea that the external world exists won't go. It can go only by an inquiry into the nature of the universe.  

If the inquiry does not include the universe, then it is incomplete.  

Sage Sankara’s wisdom is based on inquiring into the nature of the universe. Who Am ‘I’? and I AM THAT- teachings are based on the individual has no value, because the individual is a reality within the dualistic illusion or Maya.

Sage Sankara: ~ “VC~ All this universe, which through ignorance appears as of diverse forms, is nothing else but Brahman (Consciousness), which is absolutely free from all the limitations of human thought.

Sage Sankara: ~ VC- 63- "Without knowing and examining the external world, one can’t know the Truth, as the idea that the external world exists won't go. It can only go by an inquiry into the nature of the external world.

After verifying through deeper inquiry if one finds the world is the reality within the illusion, then he cannot again say the world is not an illusion.

If one is frightened to accept the world is an illusion (waking), then he is unfit to acquire Self-knowledge or Brahma Gnana or Atma Gnana.

Those who stick with the reality of the world are stuck with the reality of the individual experiences of birth, life, and death, which take place within the unreal world.

Thus, the pursuit of truth is for those who have the courage to accept reality as it is, that is, the reality without form, time, and space.

When you finally realize the Self is not you, but the Self is the Soul, then you will realize the world in which you exist is merely an illusion created out of the invisible Soul. The invisible Soul is present in the form of consciousness.

Sage Sankara says: ~ VC-47- All the effects of ignorance, root and branch, are burnt down by the fire of knowledge, which arises from discrimination between these two—the Self and the non-Self.

Till you think you are an individual separate from the world and the world existed prior to you, and you are born in it afterward, the ignorance will prevail as a reality. Till ignorance is there, the universe prevails as reality.

Sage Sankara says: ~ “The exercise in discrimination between real and unreal and renunciation of the false is real meditation, then why are you indulging in other types of meditation.

A perfect understanding and realization of ‘what is what’ leads to Self-awareness. By holding onto theories, one remains in the realm of duality.

You must mentally go on dropping what is not the truth through deeper Self-search. Finally, when you become aware that your ego, your body, and the world are one in essence, then there is Self-awareness in the midst of dualistic illusion or Maya. :~Santthosh Kumaar