Advaitic orthodoxy based on individualized God is not the means to acquire Self –knowledge or Brahma Gnana or Atma Gnana.+

Religion causes one to become crippled, Self-mortifying and Self-deprecating is not a religion, but the social system of controlling the populace through psychological deformation and retardation. 

Religious Gods are not God in truth. Bible says “God is a Spirit, and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth. Rig Veda says may ye never accept another God in place of the Atman (Spirit) nor worship other than the Atman.

What is the use of arguing with religious believers?  They think what they know as the ultimate truth.

 Whatever is real in the world in which we exist is God. All that is real in the world in which we exist is the Soul, the innermost Self.

Thus, by realizing the Self, which is the Soul, we discover the Soul, which is present in the form of the consciousness itself is God which is hidden by the ‘I’, which is the dualistic illusion.

Religion can never make you know God. Only an intense urge to know what God supposed to be in truth can make you realize God.  The Soul, the ‘Self is the Infinite God.  

Even The Bhagavad Gita says: ~ Brahmano hi pratisthaham ~ Brahman (God in truth) is considered the all-pervading consciousness, which is the basis of all the animate and inanimate entities and material. (14.27).

When Bhagavad Gita says, God is considered the all-pervading consciousness which is the basis of all the animate and inanimate entities and material then nothing has to be accepted as God other than consciousness. 

Even Brihadaranyaka Upanishad: ~ Brahman (God in truth) is in the form of the Athma, and it is indeed Athma itself.

Even Rig Veda: ~ The Atman is the cause; Atman is the support of all that exists in this universe. May ye never turn away from the Atman, the Self. May ye never accept another God in place of the Atman nor worship other than the Atman?" (10:48, 5)

Yajurveda – chapter- 32:~    God  IS Supreme Spirit has no ‘Pratima’ (idol) or material shape. He cannot be seen directly by anyone. He pervades all beings and all directions. Thus,   Idolatry does not find any support from the Vedas.

What God is like?

God is formless, timeless and spaceless existence. According to the Vedas God neither has any neither image nor God resides in any particular idol or statue. God cannot be seen directly by anyone. God pervades all beings and all directions.     

Those who indulge in a perverted argument from their own standpoint and opinion are not seeking the truth, which is beyond form, time and space.  They just want to exhibit their accumulated knowledge accumulated from here and there.  They think what they know is the ultimate truth. They think whatever they propagate is the ultimate truth. The question never occurs to them, “Is what I know is really the truth?

 Maher Baba said: ~   God is your innermost Self. Do not search for God outside of you.  Let these words be inscribed in your heart. Nothing is real but god. Nothing Matters but love for God. God is everywhere and does everything. God is beyond us and is everything. God alone is and all else is an illusion.

Jesus said: ~ Do not throw your pearls before pigs, lest they trample them underfoot and turn to attack you. (Matthew -7:6) 

~ Jesus meant knowledge of Spirit or God or Self-knowledge or Advaitic wisdom.

Spirituality is nothing to do with religion. Spirituality is based on the Spirit, the real God whereas the religion is based on the false self within the false experience.

The Bible says: ~ God is a Spirit, and they worship God must worship God in Spirit and in Truth. (John 4:24) 

The belief in religious God is not God in truth. Holding a belief as God is holding an illusion as reality because the belief is possible only within the realm of duality. Duality is merely an illusion from the ultimate standpoint.  Without the belief in religious God, the belief system holds no water.   God based on blind belief is not God in truth.   

The belief needs the believer.  The believer needs to be born in this world. If the believer is born than he is part of the illusion.   Without the believer, there is no belief.  The believer and his world and his belief in religious God are part of the illusion because the Soul, the  Self is birthless because the Self is unborn and eternal. 

The one, who is born, lives and dies, is not the Self.    The Soul, the Self is a formless substance and witness of the illusory universe. The Soul, the Self, which is present in the form of consciousness is the ultimate truth or Brahman or God in truth.

The Upanishads say in effect that: ~ If you believe that you are one and God  (Brahman) is another you cannot understand Truth.

Religions place God as diverse ideas and beliefs.  Every religious believer has a different idea of God. Every man has a different idea of the real.  There is a need to accept verify the facts about the religious Gods before accepting anything as God.  There is in religion the element of imagination and sentiments. The ordinary man is happy because the religion gives him satisfaction, and pleases his taste.

Every sect and creed concocts a God to suit its own purposes. Belief in such concocted Gods is a great hindrance in pursuit of truth.  The man himself’ suggests that there must be a God. It is an auto-suggestion. Belief in religion weakens as the man pays more attention to the facts of his practical life within the practical world.

Remember:~

An honest e seeker of truth says that he has not seen God. He does not know God's capacities, what God can do, and what God cannot do. Therefore any statement he might make about God would only be a lie. The seeker of truth does not wish to tell a lie. Therefore, he does not accept  God nor deny God's existence; he simply refuses to make any statement about God because he wants to discover what is supposed to be God.  Without verification, he does not want to accept anything as truth. 

Every sect and creed concocts a God to suit its own purposes. Belief in such concocted Gods is a great hindrance in pursuit of truth.  The man himself’ suggests that there must be a God. It is an auto-suggestion. Belief in religion weakens as the man pays more attention to the facts of his practical life within the practical world.

Spirituality is a new religion. Advaita is pure spirituality. Advaita is truth beyond the form, time and space. Advaita is the Spirit.  The Spirit is the universal God and God of the whole of humanity.

Do not believe God as a separate entity. Realize God is the cause of the existence of the universe in which we exist. God should not be worshipped but realized right in this very life, not in the next life or next world.  

Remember:~

A Gnani is not opposed to God, he is not an atheist, but he wants God free from the imagination, as God is in truth, as he exists apart from human imaginations. Imagined God is not God of reality.  Gnani does not say God is not there, God is, but not as one imagines God. God is above all imaginations. God exists as truth. Hence in the path of wisdom do not use the word, God. It will be misunderstood.  Thus Brahman, which means the ultimate truth, is the right word

Surrendering is a religious fable. Surrendering to ‘what’ when there is only one. Devotion and surrendering are a reality on the base of the false self (ego or you) within the false experience. Thus the guru, devotion, and surrendering are part and parcel of the illusion.  

Surrendering implies duality. Realizing there is no duality leads to nondualistic Self-awareness. Self-knowledge or Brahma Gnana or Atma Gnana is the only tool to realize the ultimate truth or Brahman.

He who thinks God is one and the Soul, the  Self is another can never be able to understand, assimilate realize the non- dualistic or Advaitic truth.  

It is not the man, who has to be free, but it is the Soul, the 'Self' has to be free by realizing it is not the man perceiving the world. People want to get freedom, but freedom comes only when the soul wakes up without the illusory body and the illusory world (duality).  It is the Soul, the Self is in the cage of illusion. 

It is the Soul that wants to get out of the illusion because the illusion and the reality are one in essence. That essence is the soul, which is present in the form of consciousness.  Thus, all that man experiences within the dualistic illusion of practical life within the practical world and seeing the vision, speaking to God, seeing God are a reality within the dualistic illusion. From the Nondualistic perspective, there is no second thing exist other than consciousness (spirit). Thus, consciousness is the ultimate truth or Brahman or God. From the standpoint of Brahman or God, everything is Brahman or God.   

The Soul, the ‘Self is the Infinite God. 

The Soul is the Self. God is the Soul, which is present in the form of consciousness. God is the fullness of consciousness without the illusory division of form, time and space.  Therefore, there is nothing apart from it. 

God in truth is Self-evident. God in truth is not established by extraneous proofs. It is not possible to deny God in truth because God is the very essence of the one who denies it. God in truth is the basis of all kinds of knowledge, presuppositions, and proofs. God in truth is hidden by the illusory universe in which you exist. God in truth is without the illusory universe in which you exist.

God in truth is the Supreme Being the One eternal homogeneous essence, indivisible consciousness, and intelligence, which is hidden by the illusory form, time, and space. To which the Sages describe in a variety of ways through diverse words.

Bhagavad Gita: ~ ‘All those whose intelligence has been stolen by material desires, they worship many God s. (7- Verse -20)

Only the path of wisdom leads the seeker of truth on his journey to the ultimate realization of the true nature of the universal essence, which is the Soul. The Soul is present in the form of consciousness.

People, who worship the belief of God, are hallucinating that they become one with such God.

Vedas itself says: May ye never accept another God in place of the Atman nor worship other than the Atman? Thus, to know the real God Self-realization is necessary. Self-realization is God-realization. Self-realization itself is real worship.

How can you worship God? That implies two ~ the worshipper and the worshiped, whereas God is nondual. One can worship his idea of God only or realize his unity with it when he can’t worship it as apart.  

When Upanishads and Vedas declare that “God is in the form of the Athma, and God is indeed Athma itself” then why to accept another God in place of the Atman nor worship other than the Atman.

Rituals are meant for the ignorant populace. 

Sage Sankara:~  (11) As regards the rituals, Sage Sankara says, the person who performs rituals and aspires for rewards will view himself in terms of the caste into which he is born, his age, the stage of his life, his standing in society, etc. In addition, he is required to perform rituals all through his life. However, the Self has none of those attributes or tags. Hence, the person who superimposes all those attributes on the changeless, eternal Self and identifies Self with the body is confusing one for the other, and is, therefore, an ignorant person. The scriptures dealing with rituals, rewards, etc. are therefore addressed to an ignorant person.~ Adhyasa Bhashya 

Sage  Sankara:~ (11.1)This ignorance (mistaking the body for Self) brings in its wake a desire for the wellbeing of the body, aversion for its disease or discomfort, fear of its destruction and thus a host of miseries(anartha).This anartha is caused by projecting karthvya(“doer” sense) and bhokthavya(object) on the Atman. Sage  Sankara calls this adhyasa. The scriptures dealing with rituals, rewards, etc. are, therefore, he says, addressed to an ignorant person. Adhyasa Bhashya  

Sage Sankara:~ (11.2).In short, the person who engages in rituals with the notion “I am an agent, doer, thinker”, according to Sage Sankara, is ignorant, as his behavior implies a distinct, separate doer/agent/knower; and an object that is to be done/achieved/known. That duality is avidya, an error that can be removed by Vidya.~ Adhyasa Bhashya  

Sage Sankara:~  (12). Sage Sankara affirming his belief in one eternal unchanging reality (Brahman) and the illusion of plurality, drives home the point that Upanishads deal not with rituals but with the knowledge of the Absolute (Brahma Vidya) and the Upanishads give us an insight into the essential nature of the Self which is identical with the Absolute, the Brahman.~ Adhyasa Bhashya 

So,  they clearly indicate rituals and theories are not meant for those who are searching for higher knowledge or wisdom.   The path of wisdom is the only means. 

All the orthodox Advaitins indulge and immerse themselves in a ritualistic-oriented lifestyle and follow the path of karma and Upasana which is meant for lower and middling intellect and not for realizing the Advaitic truth.  

Many chose these orthodox scholars as their gurus. But these gurus are good to learn the conceptual Advaita meant for those orthodox who believe their conduct oriented lifestyle leads to Moksha (liberation). 

Advaitic orthodoxy based on individualized God is not the means to acquire Self-knowledge or Brahma Gnana or Atma Gnana.  Those who are seeking the truth have to do their own homework in order to acquire Self-knowledge or Brahma Gnana or Atma Gnana.:~Santthosh Kumaar