On Advaita Vedanta: Let the ego be concerned with something beyond itself

The following excerpt is from a samvaad (dialogue) session with Acharya Prashant.

Vidyā does not take you to Brahman. That is another popular misconception, kindly get rid of it. Vidyā has to go away for only Brahman to remain. Brahman is immortality. When you believed in the universe, then you also believed in the study of the universe. So, a belief in the study of the universe implies a belief in the universe itself. When the universe will drop, the study of the universe, too, will simultaneously drop. So, with the universe gone, avidyā too has gone. Similarly, with the mind gone, vidyā too has gone.

No vidyā can, hence, take you to the Truth. Because though vidyā is the study of the mind, vidyā can only reveal to you the falseness of the mind. And if the mind is false, what have you been studying? If the mind has ultimately shown up as non-existent, then are you studying the non-existent? So, the entire field of the vidyā, too, must drop as non-existent. This is especially important for those who are seekers of spiritual knowledge.

~ Acharya Prashant

Questioner (Q): I have this conviction from what I have learned called nididhyāsana. However, through honest observation of my daily living, I see that I probably still have doubts because I suffer and at times take things too seriously. I feel as if the Truth is breathing down my neck, wanting to swallow me whole, which I know I deeply want. Yet doubt keeps me in conflict and at a distance from Him, and this is causing me too much grief. I feel I am Arjuna, trembling and frozen. I feel I am now just killing time until the…