Ish Upanishads says: ~ People no wonder they grope in the dark, they must seek Self-knowledge or Brahma Gnana or Atma Gnana.+

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

Religion is the path of ignorance.  And ignorant worship mechanically performs the prescribed sacrifices without any thought as to why they are doing them.   

That is why Ish Upanishads says: ~ “Such people no wonder they grope in the dark.” They are doomed unless someday the truth dawns on them that to save themselves they must seek Self-knowledge.

Dogmas and beliefs, rituals, and ceremonies are the essences of the religion, not of spirituality. Religion has become merely a matter of external rituals and ceremonies. Religion hides the truth beyond form, time, and space.  Until the form, time and space are present the duality is present. The duality creates the illusory prison to the Soul, the innermost ‘Self’.

Religious rites and rigid ceremonies were passed down from one generation to the next as a practice or set customs and tradition and performed automatically with blind faith. Such worship based on the belief of God does not reach God.

Religious believers claim that happiness and sorrow are felt through our sense organs. Eating drinking and making merry are a reality. The above experiences will appear false to a Gnani because he is fully aware of the fact that, all three states are merely an illusion.  

People think God is somewhere, up there, monitoring every act of the people, guiding the lost, and uplifting the poor. God is the one who punishes the evil and rewards the benevolent.

Some people even claim of seeing them in stone idols or some conceptual belief, in inanimate or living things. Is it our faith that makes us believe that there is some supreme power above us or is it a reality, can never be answered.  Until this conviction is there one is in the grip of the dualistic illusion. The dualistic illusion keeps one in ignorance of our true existence.  Therefore, there is a need to verify the fact that the ‘Self ‘, is not you but it is the Soul, which is present in the form of consciousness. 

 When you become aware of the fact that, the ‘Self’ is the Soul, then you realize the fact that whatever is known, seen, believed, and experienced on the base of the false self is an illusion.

You are the false self within the false experience.  You are not the Self because you are the birth entity whereas the Soul, the innermost Self is birthless and deathless.  The Soul is birthless and deathless because it is the ever formless, timeless, and spaceless existence.

From the standpoint of the Soul, the innermost Self, you and your experience of the world and your religion and your religious God and your accumulated knowledge is a falsehood because the waking experience is merely an illusion.

Bhagavad Gita: ~ Brahmano hi pratisthaham ~ Brahman (God) 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. 

God is the Supreme Being the One eternal homogeneous essence, indivisible consciousness, and intelligence, which is beyond 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 Gods. (7- Verse -20)

The truth-seeker has to reject the devotional path if he wants to realize the truth beyond form, time, and space. The path of Bhakti is for the ignorant populace.

The Vedas talk about Brahman which refers to the ultimate truth or ultimate reality. The consciousness is the ultimate truth, therefore, the consciousness is Brahman and Brahman is God.

Vedas do not permit idol worship. All the idols are of the Puranic Gods priests are referring to the Puranic Brahma as God they are ignorant of the God in Vedas even though they speak of Vedas.

Priests do not understand the meaning of the Brahman, which is present in the form of consciousness.

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.

Bhagavad Gita: 7: 19:~ "Such a man who has attained true knowledge, the knowledge of Self, the knowledge of Atman, worships ‘Self’ as~ Atman (God) alone exists~ everything is Atman, there exists nothing except Atman. Such a man is extremely rare."

The dualistic worship of "God” is only for the ignorant populace. The God in truth is only Atman, the Self.   In reality,  there is no duality, no differentiation. Only Atman exists.

Bible says: ~ “God is a Spirit, and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth (John 4:24)”,

The Spirit is the root element of the universe. The Spirit is present in the form of the Soul, the Self. The Soul is present in the form of consciousness.  From the Spirit, the universe comes into existence. In the Spirit, the universe resides. And into the Spirit, the universe is dissolved.   The Spirit is the parent of all that is there is.

The Vedas confirm God is Atman (Spirit), the Self.

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. God cannot be seen directly by anyone. God pervades all beings and all directions. 

Thus, Idolatry does not find any support from the Vedas.

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 innermost self. May ye never accept another God in place of the Atman nor worship other than the Atman?" (10:48, 5)

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 accept another God in place of the Atman nor worship other than the Atman.

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

If God is the formless Spirit, then how does man know God created the world? There is no proof.  

If man had seen God creating the world, he could admit it, but how could he have seen God before he came into existence? (i.e. were created). :~ Santthosh Kumaar