Sage Sankara criticized severely the ritualistic attitude and those who advocated such practices.+

The Vedas do not talk about idol worship. In fact, till about 2000 years ago followers of Vedism never worshiped idols.

Vedic worshippers did not use temples and idols as Hindus of today do. For them, the sacrificial rituals were more important than the temple or idol worship the major Hindu feasts of today are based on the epic feats of Rama and Krishna and the Puranic lore pertaining to Shiva and the Goddess.

The Hindus believed in polytheism, believing all of their Gods to be separate individuals, which was introduced much later by the founders of Hinduism which contains diverse beliefs caste, and creed.   The Bhakta Gods are separate individuals. Without an individualized God, there is no path for Bhakti.

The Advaitin orthodox  Gurus say:~  Instead of worshipping many deities, the seeker must reach the state in which he will recognize that he has no existence other than that of his being dissolved in the Brahman.

Sage Sankara:~  The rituals, rewards, etc. are addressed to an ignorant person. 

Then why remain ignorant by indulging in worshipping the deities and indulging the rituals which are addressed to an ignorant populace. 

The religious samskara or conditioning is so strong that people refuse to believe what they are worshipping as Gods are not real Gods according to Vedas and Upanishads.  It is very difficult for religious people to accept what they are worshipping is a false God.

Vedas and Upanishads clearly say, what God is supposed to be and what not to worship in place of God.

The Hindus believed in polytheism, believing all of their Gods to be separate individuals, which was introduced much later by the founders of Hinduism which contains diverse beliefs caste, and creed.  

When the religion of the Veda knows no idols then why so many Gods and goddesses with different forms and names are being propagated as Vedic Gods. Why these conceptual Gods are introduced when the Vedic concept of God is free from form and attributes. 

Hindus indulge in idol worship, while Vedas bar idol worship.   According to Vedas, God pervades everything and everywhere.

According to Advaita Vedanta, the Veda addresses itself to two kinds of audiences - the ordinary ones who desire the transitory heaven and other pleasures obtained as a result of ritual sacrifices, and the more advanced seeker who seeks to know Brahman. Thus, the Purva mimam. sa, with its emphasis on the Karma Kanda of the Vedas, is meant for the first audience, to help lead its followers along the way. However, the Vedanta, with its emphasis on the Jnana Kanda, is meant for those who wish to go beyond such transient pleasures.

The Orthodox Advaitins Gurus say: ~  

The purpose of the Vedic rituals is to take us, by degrees, to this state. So long as we believe that the world is real we worship the deities to be vouchsafed happiness. And this world, which we think is real, also benefited from such worship.

 Thinking the deities to be real, we help them and in return, we are helped by them. Living happily on this earth we long to go to the world of the celestials and enjoy the pleasures of paradise. So far so good. But if we stopped at this stage would it not mean losing sight of our supreme objective? Is not this objective, this goal, our becoming one with the Paramatman? Would it not be foolish to ignore this great ideal of ours and still cling to mundane happiness?

In our present state of immaturity, it is not possible to think of the world is unreal. Recognizing this, the Vedas provide us the rituals to be performed for happiness in this world. Because of our inadequacies we are unable to devote ourselves to a formless Paramatman from whom we are not different.

So the Vedas have devised a system in which a number of deities are worshiped. But, in course of time, as we perform the rituals and worship the deities, we must make efforts to advance to the state of wisdom and enlightenment in which the world will be seen to be unreal and the rites will become unnecessary. Instead of worshipping many deities, we must reach the state in which we will recognize that we have no existence other than that of our being dissolved in the Paramatman. We must perform Vedic sacraments with the knowledge that they prepare us to go to this state by making our minds pure and one-pointed.

If we perform rituals with the sole idea of worldly happiness and carry on trade with the celestials by conducting sacrifices (offering them oblations and receiving benefits from them in return), we will never come face to face with the Truth. Even if we go to the world of the celestials, we will not be blessed with the ‘Self’-realization. Our residence in paradise is commensurate with the merit we earn here and is not permanent.

Sooner or later we will have to return to this world and be in the womb of a mother. The ritual worship and other sacraments of the Vedas are to some extent the result of making an adjustment to our present immature state of mind. But their real purpose is to take us forward gradually from this very immature state and illumine us within. It would be wrong to refuse to go beyond the stage of ritual worship.

If to begin with, it is not right to refuse all at once to perform Vedic rites, it would be equally not right, subsequently, to refuse to give them up. Nowadays, people are averse to ritual to start with itself’. "What?” they exclaim. "Who wants to perform sacrifices? Why should we chant the Vedas? Let us go directly to the Upanishads.

“Some of them can speak eloquently about the Upanishads from a mere intellectual understanding of them. But none has the inward conviction of the truths propounded in them and we do not see them emerging as men of detachment with a true awareness of the ‘Self’. The reason for this is that they have not prepared themselves for this higher state of perception through the performance of rituals. If this is wrong in one sense, refusal to take the path of jnana from that of karma is equally not justifiable.

Remember:~

First of all the Orthodox indulge in non-~Vedic rituals and worship.  Worship of the deities.

All Hindus indulge in non-Vedic practices barred by the Vedas introduced by the different founders of the different sects of Hinduism at different times, whereas the Vedic religion or Santana Dharma is ancient and has no founder.

All Hindu  Gods are Puranic Gods.  Puranas deals with symbols Puranas are not history; it is concerned with objective reality. Puranas are not concerned with subjective reality. These Puranic Gods do not exist outside the physical existence but they have a psychological existence and that psychological existence is a great hindrance to realizing the reality beyond the form, time, and space.

So the first thing to be understood is that Puranic Gods are not real persons in the world but they create a barricade and hide the truth, which is beyond form, time, and space.

Lord Krishna says: ~ “Those who know the Self in truth". The last two words (tattvataha) are usually ignored by pundits, but they make all the difference between the ordinary concept of God and the truth about God. (Ch~ V.)

“Know me in truth”: ~   It means to know God without the form, time, space, and name.

From the Vedic perspective, Lord Krishna is not a Vedic God because Rig Veda says:   May ye never accept another God in place of the Atman nor worship other than the Atman?"

Vedas are not the important sacred scriptures for the Hindus. The Vedas as a body of scripture contains many contradictions and they are fragmentary in nature. For most Hindus of today, scriptures like the Bhagavad-Gita, Ramayana, Mahabharata, and Puranas are more attractive and appealing than the Vedas. In addition, the Gods and Goddesses they worship differ considerably from the Vedic ones.

Yajur Veda indicates that:~   They sink deeper in darkness those who worship sambhuti. (Sambhuti means created things, for example, table, chair, idol, etc. - (Yajurveda 40:9).  

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

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

One of Sage Sankara’s missions was to wean people away from a ritualistic approach advocated by Mimamsakas and to project wisdom (Gnana) as the means of liberation in the light of Upanishad teachings.

Sage Sankara criticized severely the ritualistic attitude and those who advocated such practices. However, the Orthodox texts that combined rituals with wisdom (jnana_karma_samucchaya) more in favor of the Mimamsaka position came into vogue, projecting Sage Sankara as the rallying force of the doctrine.

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, and 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 the Self with the body is a 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 well-being 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

No conceptual God can exist, apart from consciousness.  People are not aware of the fact that there is no individual God that can exist, apart from the Soul, which is in the form of consciousness. Thus the Soul or the consciousness is the  Self.   If there is no consciousness, then there is no physical body, no ego, no universe, no religion, and no conceptual God. : ~ Santthosh Kumaar