The purpose of the exercise is to negate all objects of consciousness, including thoughts and the mind, and to realize non-dual awareness.
With its aid the Jnani negates identification with all things of this world, which is Anatman ("not-self").
He attains the Absolute by denying the body, name, form, intellect, senses and all limiting adjuncts and discovers what remains, the true "I" alone.
[6] The sage of the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad II iii 1-6, beginning with there are two forms of Brahman, the material and the immaterial, the solid and the fluid, the Sat ‘being’ and tya, ‘that’ of Satya – which means true, denies the existence of everything other than Brahman.
And therefore, there exists no separate entity like Jiva which Shankara states is the reflection of Brahman in Avidya (ignorance).