Advaitha has been the fundamental teaching of Vedanta i.e Upanishads. Teachers belonging to different lines or sects have adopted different methodologies and their own ideas, ignoring traditional Vedic teaching. Hence Advaitha philosophy has been adulterated beyond belief and the beginner does not know what is right and what is wrong. The lines below are a gist of advaitha, mostly quoted by Sri Adisankaraachaarya Swami or equally good scholars.

Just as light shines, dispelling the darkness, so also the supreme self shines, dispelling ignorance. Just as a lamp spontaneously goes out if not fed with oil, so also the ego becomes extinct if one meditates unceasingly and becomes merged in the self.

As the mind turns more and more inward it is gradually freed from external desires and when all such desires are fully extinguished there are no more obstacles for self realisation.

Brahman(Parabrahman or satyam Jnanam Anantham) is real and the universe is mithya or maya which means it is neither real nor unreal. As the universe is being seen by people and appears to be in use(vyavaharkamu).

The jiva or the individual soul is none other than Brahman itself provided the Shastra is understood(Scriptural teaching) the proper way.

Knowing that I am different from the body, I need not neglect the body. It is a vehicle that I use to transact with the world. It is the temple which houses the pure “Self” within.

All objects are pervaded by Brahaman, all actions are possible because of Brahman. Therefore Brahman permeates everything as butter permeates milk.

Even after the truth has been realised, there remains that strong obstinate impression that one is still an ego(Aham) - the agent and experiencer. This has to be carefully removed by living in a state of constant identification with supreme non dual self. Full awakening is the eventual ceasing of all the mental impressions of being an ego.

Give up identification with the mass of flesh and bones as well as identification of what thinks it as a mass(Mind). Both are intellectual imaginations. Recognise your true self as undifferentiated awareness, unaffected by time, past, present or future. And then enter peace-everlasting.

One should become aware of oneself, indivisible and perfect like space itself when free from identification with such things as one’s body, senses mind and its functions, sense of doership and enjoyership. Which are all the products of one’s own ignorance.

The self is an ever present reality. Yet because of ignorance it is not realised. On the destruction of ignorance the self is realised.

So long as one has association with this awful sense of being the doer, there cannot be the least achievement of liberation which is something very different.

You can’t be heard or smelt, or tasted you can’t be seen, or sensed by touch. Truly you are the ultimate reality. Why then should you be troubled so.

You never identify yourself with the shadows cast by your body, or with its reflection, or with the body you see in a dream or in your imagination. Therefore you should not identify yourself with this living body either.

The soul appears to be finite, because of ignorance. When ignorance is destroyed, the self which does not admit of any multiplicity truly reveals itself by itself;like the Sun when the clouds pass away.

Direct the mind resolutely towards God, restraining the senses in their various seats and looking on the state of the body as a matter of indifference. Realise your oneness with God, remaining continually intent on identifying with the nature and joyfully drink the bliss of God within. For what use is there, empty things?

Who indeed is your beloved and who indeed is your son? Strange indeed are these family bonds. Who belongs to you and to whom do you belong?Where did you come from? Oh brother, reflect on the truth of it all.

Long strapped in the snare of identification with the body, sever the snare with the knife of knowledge that “I am awareness” and be happy my son.

He who renouncing all activities, who is free of all the limitations of time, space and direction worships his own atman which is present everywhere, which is the destroyer of heat and cold, which is bliss eternal, and stainless, becomes all knowing, and all pervading and attains thereafter immortality.

Those who see all things in themselves and themselves in all beings, relinquish hatred. How can the seeming diversity of life delude the one who has seen its unity.

God made the senses turn outwards not into himself. But occasionally a daring soul desiring immortality has looked back and found himself.

We are like the spider. We weave our life and then move along in it. We are like a dreamer who dreams and then lives in the dream. This is true for the entire universe.

I am one. I am all of this. Undifferentiated, beyond all forms. How then do I regard the self? As both the unmanifest and the manifest world.

For you there is no birth or death. For you there is no mind, for you there is no bondage or liberation, no good or evil. Why do you shed tears my child? Neither you nor I have a name and a form.

Contributions from Sri Adisankaracharya, Dattatreya(Avadhootha gita), Ashtavakramaharshi(Astavakra Gita) & Upanishads.