The Upanishads are Self -contradictory.+

Nagarjuna:~ All the philosophies are a mental fabrication.  There has never been a single doctrine by which one could enter the true essence of things.

Swami Vivekananda: Vedanta does not believe in the book. It denies the authority of any book over any other book. It denies emphatically any one book contains all the truths about God, Soul, the ultimate reality.

Those of you who have read Upanishads remember that again and again, “Not by reading books can we realize the Self”

Second, it finds veneration for some particular person still more difficult to uphold. Those of you who are a student of Vedanta – Vedanta is always meant Upanishads- know that this is the only religion that does not cling to any person.

Not one man or woman has become object worship among the Vedantins. 

You see how very little room there is Vedanta for any man to stand ahead of us and for us to and worship him. Vedanta does not give you that. No book, no man to worship nothing.  

A still greater difficulty is about God. If you want to be democratic in this country.   It is a democratic God that Vedanta teaches.  ~ (Is Vedanta in future religion? BY Swami Vivekananda –lecture – San Francisco on April 8, 1900)

There has never been a single scripture by which has the whole wisdom in it. Sage  Sankara restrained himself from parting the Advaitic wisdom to the mass and imparted it only to a selected few. 

Advaitic wisdom was hidden from the people who were not qualified and receptive to it.  Advaitic wisdom was not written down in one book but was imparted orally to the chosen few. Thus, religion was given to the ignorant populace and the Advaitic wisdom is given only selected few.  Thus, we find traces of the Self-knowledge in the religious books in the form of parables. 

Sage Sankara says: ~ A buried treasure is not uncovered by merely uttering the words: “Come forth.” You must follow the right directions, dig, remove the stones and earth from above it, and then make it your own. In the same way, the pure truth of the Atman, which is buried under Maya and the effects of Maya, can be reached by discriminating between real and unreal, and renouncing of the false is real meditation.

Self-knowledge cannot be attained by the study of the scriptures and intellectual understanding or by bookish knowledge.  Therefore,  there is no use of studying the scriptures and other scriptures in order to acquire the nondual wisdom. 

Scriptures mastery, the force of religious merit--none of these lead to the realization of that Ultimate Truth or Brahman. The ultimate truth is revealed in the clear understanding and realization of ‘what is the truth and ‘what is the untruth.  When one realizes the untruth (universe) is created out of single stuff, Self-awareness rises in the midst of duality exposing the unreal nature of the form, time, and space.

                                                                                       

The ultimate truth has to be realized first then only it is possible to know what the scriptures are saying. I do not require any scriptures.

I quote Scriptural citation and also the citation of the sages of truth only after verification reality and proved the truth, to point out that the scriptures teach the same thing. If one quotes them before having demonstrated truth, then it is scholasticism.

Scriptures are being added from time to time. This process will go on. There is the final authority among them? One contradicts the other: duality reigns supreme.

Self-knowledge cannot be acquired by the study of the scriptures and intellectual understanding or by bookish knowledge.  Therefore,  there is no use of studying the scriptures and other scriptures in order to acquire the nondual wisdom.  That is why Buddha rejected the scriptures, and even Sage Sankara indicated that the ultimate truth lies beyond religion, the concept of God, and the scriptures. 

Sage Sankara:~ VC-  v6~ Let erudite scholars quote all the scripture, let Gods be invoked through sacrifices, let elaborate rituals be performed, let personal Gods be propitiated---yet, without the realization of one‘s identity with the Self, there shall be no liberation for the individual, not  even in the lifetimes of a hundred Brahmas put together 

The Upanishads are self -contradictory. Every pundit even gives conflicting interpretations of them. The final authority, therefore,  is using one’s own reason. One should apply his reason to them.

The scriptures are for ignorant masses, who wholly accept the material world as it presents itself. Gnana is for those who have begun to realize that things are not what they seem.

The Scriptures are of value only when dealing with persons who are incapable of understanding the truth. They have no value as authority for those who use reason.

I quote only verified citations from the scriptures. I need no scriptures,  but I quote them to help the seekers to realize the religion, scriptures and the belief of God are nothing to do with the ultimate truth or Brahman.

The Upanishads are the only scriptures in the world that say: ~

It is impossible to find and realize the truth via religion and scriptural study.

That is why Sage Sankara says: ~ VC~ 58. Loud speech consisting of a shower of words, the skill in expounding the Scriptures, and likewise erudition - these merely bring on a little personal enjoyment to the scholar but are no good for Liberation.

59. The study of the Scriptures is useless so long as the highest Truth is unknown, and it is equally useless when the highest Truth has already been known.

60. The Scriptures consisting of many words are a dense forest which merely causes the mind to ramble. Hence, men of wisdom should earnestly set about knowing the true nature of the Self.

61. For one who has been bitten by the serpent of Ignorance, the only remedy is the knowledge of Brahman. Of what avail are the Vedas and (other) Scriptures, Mantras (sacred formulae), and medicines to such a one?

62. A disease does not leave off if one simply utters the name of the medicine, without taking it; (similarly) without direct realization one cannot be liberated by the mere utterance of the word Brahman.

63. Without causing the objective universe to vanish and without knowing the truth of the Self, how is one to achieve Liberation by the mere utterance of the word Brahman? — It would result merely in an effort of speech.

64. Without killing one’s enemies, and possessing oneself of the splendor of the entire surrounding region, one cannot claim to be an emperor by merely saying, ‘I am an emperor’.

65. As a treasure hidden underground requires (for its extraction) competent instruction, excavation, the removal of stones and other such things lying above it, and (finally) grasping, but never comes out by being (merely) called out by name, so the transparent Truth of the Self, which is hidden by Maya and its effects, is to be attained through the instructions of a knower of Brahman, followed by reflection, meditation and so forth, but not through perverted arguments.

The religion is based on the birth entity whereas the Soul, the innermost Self is birthless and deathless. Spirituality is based on the Soul (formless). Thus, there is a need to bifurcate the religion from spirituality.:~Santthosh Kumaar