OTHERWISE JUST NOISE

Study of the scriptures is fruitless as long as Brahman has not been experienced, Shankara said.  He went on to say, surprisingly, that even after Brahman has been experienced, it is still useless to read the scriptures.

A network of words like the scriptures is like a dense forest that causes the mind to wander hither and thither.  Those who themselves have discovered this should struggle all the harder to know Brahman.

When a person has been “bitten by the snake of ignorance” he can only be cured by realizing Brahman.  Ignorance is the false perception that the world of form is real.  Anything that changes is not real.  Anything that does not change, such as Brahman, IS real.

A sickness is not cured by saying the word “medicine,” Shankara continued.  The medicine must be taken.  Liberation is not gained by, as the scriptures teach, saying the word “Brahman.” 

Until one allows this apparent universe, this smoke and mirrors, to dissolve from his consciousness, no word from the scriptures can help him.  It is just noise.