The Advaitic wisdom of Sage Sankara is nothing to do with religion, caste, rituals, worships, yoga, and other practices.+

In Advaita Vedanta: ~ “Brahman is without attributes and strictly impersonal. It can be best described as infinite Being, infinite Consciousness, and infinite Bliss. It is pure knowledge itself, similar to a source of infinite radiance. Since the Advaitins regard Brahman to be the Ultimate Truth, so in comparison to Brahman, every other thing, including the material world, its distinctness, the individuality of the living creatures, and even Ishvara (the Supreme Lord) itself are all untrue. Brahman is the effulgent cause of everything that exists and can possibly exist. Since it is beyond human comprehension, it is without any attributes, for assigning attributes to it would be distorting the true nature of Brahman. Advaitins believe in the existence of both Saguna Brahman and Nirguna Brahman; however, they consider Nirguna Brahman to be the absolute supreme truth.

Sage Sankara's work has got two aspects: the dualistic, which is applied to practical life, and the non-dualistic which is applied to Adyathmic or spiritualistic.

Sage Sankara gave religious, rituals, and dogmatic instruction to the populace but pure philosophy only to the few who could rise to it. Hence the interpretation of his writings by commentators is often confusing because they mix up the two viewpoints. Thus, they may assert that ritual is a means of realizing Brahman, which is absurd. 

People are stuck up with their inherited religious samskara they do not accept anything other than their inherited religious propagated myth.

Remember:~

Orthodoxy is the home of mysticism and deification that is why they are not keen on rational truth. Thus, Sage Sankara is the Jagadguru to the religious followers and he is a Brahma Gnani to the seeking world.

Advaitic Orthodoxy misinterpreted Sage Sankara and presented only the religious side of his teaching as the highest doctrine. Thus, people are misled.

The orthodoxy is based on rituals and mythical Gods and Karma. Advaitic wisdom of Sage Sankara is nothing to with Advaitic orthodoxy.

Let Advaitic wisdom annihilate ignorance (I) and reveal Soul, the Self the God in truth. Let your ears become deaf to the untruth propagated by the religion as a reality; enable you to realize the truth hidden by the ignorance (I). Let your eyes become blind to illusion to receive the Soul as the Self as it is in the midst of the dualistic illusion.

Remember: ~

The rituals mentioned in the Karmakanda of Vedas are sought to be negated in the Jnanakanda, which is also part of the same scripture. While Karmakand enjoins upon you the worship of various deities and lays down the rules for the same, Jnanakanda constituted by the Upanishads ridicules worshiper of deities as a dim-witted person no better than the beast.

This seems strange, the latter part of Vedas contradicting the former part. The first part deals throughout with karma while the second or concluding part is all about Jnana. Owing to differing, people have gone so far as to divide into two sections: the Vedas (that is the first part) to the mean the Karmakanda and Upanishads (Vedanta) to mean the Jnanakanda.

The rituals, which are practiced in Hinduism, are not Vedic rituals and the Puranic Gods are not Vedic Gods. Because: ~

The Vedas confirm God is Atman (Spirit), the Self.

Rig Veda: ~ 'Prajnanam Brahma'- Consciousness is the ultimate reality or Brahman or God in truth.

Do not accept any other God other than the Soul. The Soul is God in truth,  Nothing is real but the Soul, which is present in the form of consciousness. Nothing matters but realize  God in truth. God in truth is everywhere and in everything. Let these words be inscribed in your subconscious.

God in truth is hidden by the illusory universe. God in truth alone is real and eternal and all else is an illusion.:

Brahman is merely a word to indicate the ultimate truth or God in truth.  The ultimate truth itself is God in truth. 

All the orthodox ideas were rejected by Sage Sankara. There is no need to indulge in rituals, to realize the ultimate truth or Brahman. There is no need to study philosophy, to realize the ultimate truth or Brahman then why do you indulge in studying philosophy.

Sage Sankara pokes fun at ascetics and points out that all their austerities do not cause desires to go (Altar Flowers" Page 205, v.2 P.207 v.4)

Sage Sankara pointed out those rituals could in no way bring about wisdom, much less Moksha.

Sage Sankara says the rewards of the rituals are not the means to direct realization. Advaitic wisdom is based on personal realization.

The orthodox Advaitin believes that rituals alone would lead one to higher levels of attainment. Further, the deities would reward only those entitled to perform the rituals alone.

The entitlement involved the caste, creed, and other parameters.

The scriptural authority and value of rituals are part of the Advaitic orthodoxy, which is meant for ignorant people.

The Advaitic wisdom of Sage Sankara is nothing to do with religion, caste, rituals, worships, yoga, and other practices. Therefore an obvious disparity between Sage Sankara‘s path of Gnana, and the path of Karma.

The path of Gnana is meant for the advanced seeker of truth and the path of Karma is meant for the ignorant populace.

Even Sage Sankara appears and tells the orthodox people the path of orthodoxy is the path of ignorance they will not be able to drop their inherited samskara or conditioning, which they think is the only way to reach heaven and reap a happy life in the next life.

As regards the rituals, Sage Sankara says, the person who performs rituals and aspires for rewards will view himself in terms of the caste into which he is born, his age, the stage of his life, his standing in society, etc. Also, he is required to perform rituals all through his life. However, the Self has none of those attributes or tags. Hence, the person who superimposes all those attributes on the changeless, eternal Self and identifies the ‘Self’ with the body is confusing one for the other; and is, therefore, an ignorant person. The scriptures dealing with rituals, rewards, etc. are therefore addressed to an ignorant person.- (11- Adhyasa Bhashya)

The orthodox people only teach and preach their knowledge of ignorance but none of them wants to know the God in Truth, which is hidden by the dualistic illusion or Maya.

Remember:~

All the orthodox views have to be bifurcated to get the pure essence of Sage Sankara’s Advaitic wisdom.

The Advaitic wisdom of Sage Sankara can be summed up in the following statement: ~

Brahma Satyam, jaganmithya, jivobrahmaivanaparah ~ Brahman alone is real; the world is non-real, and the individual Self is essentially not different frommBrahman.

That is why 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 go only by an inquiry into the nature of the external world.

Mundaka Upanishad 1.3:~ complete knowledge includes knowledge of the phenomenal world, the spirit behind it, and the source of both of them. When the cause of all causes becomes known, then everything knowable becomes known, and nothing remains unknown is Gnana.”

Sage Sankara says the seeker must first know what is before him. If he cannot know that, what else can he know or understand? If he gives up the external world in his inquiry, he cannot get the whole truth.

The interpretation of Sage Sankara's writings by commentators is often confusing because they mix up the two viewpoints. Thus, they may assert that ritual is a means of realizing Brahman, which is absurd.

Sage Sankara wrote his commentaries on Manduka commentary first, and then as this revealed that he thoroughly understood the subject, his Gurus requested him to write the commentary on Badarayana's Brahma Sutras, which was a popular theological work universally studied by Advaitins. That is why his commentary is written from a lower dualistic point, for those who cannot rise higher, save that here and there Sage Sankara occasionally has strewn a few truly Advaitic sentences.

Sage Sankara's commentary on the Brahma Sutras is not on a philosophical basis, but on an orthodox and mystic basis, with the appeal to the Vedas as a final authority.

In Brahma Sutra Sage Sankara takes the position that there is another entity outside us, i.e. the wall really exists separately from the mind. This was because Sage Sankara explains in Manduka that those who study the Sutras are orthodox minds, intellectual children, hence his popular viewpoint to assist them. These people are afraid to go deeper because it means being heroic enough to refuse to accept Sruti, and God's authority, in case they mean punishment by God. A Gnani says the scriptures for children, but wise seekers will think rationally.

In Brahma Sutras Sage Sankara takes for granted, assumes that a world was created: He there mixes dogmatic theology with philosophy.

That God created the world is an absolute lie, nevertheless one will find Sage Sankara (in his commentary on Vedanta Sutras) clearly says this! He has to adapt his teachings to his audience, reserving the highest for philosophical minds.

The text of Brahma Sutras is based on religion, dogmatism but in the commentary, Sage Sankara cleverly introduced some philosophy. If it is objected that a number of Upanishads are equally dogmatic because they also begin by assuming Brahman, only a few Upanishads do not but prove Brahman at the end of a train of proof.

Scholars' translation of Brahma Sutras in Sacred Books of East must be read cautiously as he has not understood its highest sense, e.g. for Advaita, they wrongly put "Unity" instead of “Non-duality."

Sage Sankara gave religion and scholasticism and yoga no less than philosophy, to the seeking world. He was great enough to be able to do so. His commentary on Manduka Upanishad is pure philosophy, but many of his other books are presented from a religious standpoint to help those who cannot rise up to philosophy.

Sage Sankara's commentary on Manduka Upanishad is pure philosophy, but many of his other books are presented from a religious standpoint to help those who cannot rise up to philosophy. North India is the home of mysticism and deification and South India of keen rational truth.

Sage Sankara says in Brahma Sutras: ~“Brahman is the cause of the world, whereas in Manduka he denies it. This is because he says that at the lower stage of understanding, the former teaching must be given, for people will get frightened as they cannot understand how the world can be without a cause, but to those in a higher stage, the truth of non-causality can be revealed.

Sage Sankara varied his practical advice and doctrinal teaching according to the people he was amongst. He never advised them to give up their particular religion or beliefs or metaphysics completely; he only told them to give up the worst features of abuse: at the same time, he showed just one step forward towards the truth. Sage Sankara was extremely precise and careful in his choice of words.

Sage Sankara basis his Advaitic wisdom is either on reason independent of Shruti or on Shruti confirmed by reason."

Sage Sankara’s commentary on the Manduka Upanishad, II, 1: This (the unreality of duality) is borne out by the Struis ... But it is possible also to show the unreality of the object world even from pure reasoning, and this second chapter is undertaken for that purpose.

Sage Sankara gave religious, ritual s and dogmatic instruction to the ignorant populace but Advaitic wisdom only to the few who could rise to it. Hence the interpretation of his writings by commentators is often confusing because they mix up the two viewpoints. Thus they may assert that ritual is a means of realizing Brahman, which is absurd.

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 says the seeker must first know what is before him. If he cannot know that, what else can he know or understand? If he gives up the external world in his inquiry, he cannot get the whole truth.

That is why 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 go only by an inquiry into the nature of the external world.

Mundaka Upanishad 1.3:~ complete knowledge includes knowledge of the phenomenal world, the spirit behind it, and the source of both of them. When the cause of all causes becomes known, then everything knowable becomes known, and nothing remains unknown is Gnana.”

The orthodox Advaitic path is the path of ignorance and it is meant for the ignorant crowd. Orthodoxy is the home of mysticism and deification that is why they are not the keen rational truth. Orthodoxy has to be discarded if you want Sage Sankara’s Advaitic wisdom. The orthodox Advaitic path is based on ignorance. The buried wisdom has to be discovered by the seeker himself.

It takes time for the seeker to gain a perfect understanding of ‘what is the truth and ‘what is untruth’. : ~ Santthosh Kumaar