"Let us recall Adi Shankaracharya’s unequivocal rejection of social exclusions which he felt were not in line with Advaita’s tenets of inclusion and universalism. He says: “....I am that which pervades as a witness in the bodies of all living beings right from Brahma to the tiny ant. One who has the deep conviction that ‘I am That, not any of the objects of perception’, he is a Guru, whether a Chandala or a Brahmana...” (Venkataraman 2014:107)"