Advaita: the supreme reality of miracle-working saints and a trap for intellectuals

Advaita-"non-duality"-is the philosophical pinnacle of Hinduism. It is this teaching that reflects the worldview of most of India's true holy miracle workers. However, for those who have not risen in their development above the level of the mind-manas, that is, have not developed the supramental structures of superconsciousness through the proper practice of samadhi/shamatha, this is just another beautiful philosophical concept, like a glittering candy wrapper. At the same time, the actual sweetness-superconsciousness-remains inaccessible to them. In fact, it turns out to be a mental trap, often hindering the continuation and deepening of the practice of proper meditation due to the illusion created by juggling lofty semantic terms at the level of the very same mind-manas. Attempts to force the consciousness of the average person-which is not yet truly ready for such a paradigm-to be guided in everyday life by this supreme concept resemble a cargo cult. This book examines all these issues in detail in the context of the history of the development of yoga and Hinduism (and partly Buddhism) in the territory of Hindustan. The book also contains complete translations of three of the most important Advaitic texts of Hinduism: the Avadhuta Gita, the Jivanmukta Gita and the Ashtavakra Gita.