Religion and mysticism are so much preferred to philosophy because you have only to imagine, not to inquire.+

People are comfortable with religious path or of authoritarianism merely because they are the easiest ways. To seek proof is troublesome and time-taking.  Religion and mysticism are so much preferred to philosophy because you have only to imagine, not to inquire. The first is easy, and the second is hard.

Religion and mysticism are a species of mesmerism affecting weaker or impressionable minds.  The complete and impressive array of a Guru’s religious robes lifestyle creates an unconscious suggestion in a weaker mindset of superior power or magical knowledge.

Both poetry and religion are based on imagination.  Imagination implies duality. Theology, religion, poetry all belong to the same class~ appeal to belief, fancy, imagination, not the ultimate truth or Brahman.

When one cannot fully know another person, how can he hope ever to know God, who is not universal, because each religion has its own idea of God? Then why bring such God in?

"Religions place God as the unknown reality” some people place it as the unknown reality. Every religion has a different idea of God. Every man has a different idea of reality. Hence, there is a need for definition before the study.

Mystics claim that God really was in every particle, then every man will be able to create the universe because he will be God.

Suppose one sees God. How is he to know that He is God? His mere statement is not enough. He must have proof; He must show that He is God. How do the religious believers know God and how do they know that he is everywhere when their God is an individual.

Even if one performs Japam on the name of the religious God and meditates on the religious God he will not be able to realize ultimate truth or Brahman. Brahman is God.  The Soul, the ‘Self’ is the ultimate truth or Brahman. So, the Soul, which is present in the form of the spirit (consciousness), is God in truth. 

Even Bhagavad Gita says: ~ 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. 

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

Religious  Gods are based on blind belief. Religious God cannot be considered as the center because the Soul,  the innermost ‘Self’ is the center of all that exists. Without the Soul the world in which you exist ceases to exist, it means the religious God is dependent on the Soul for his existence.

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)

Brihadaranyaka Upanishad declares: "He who worships the deities as entities entirely separate from the Self does not know the truth. For the Gods, he is like a pasu (beast)". (1. 4. 10)

 No mantras help to get rid of ignorance. All the mantras and rituals are meant for the ignorant populace, which strongly believes, the world in which he exists as a reality.  For one who wants to acquire Self-knowledge or Brahma Gnana or Atma Gnana, the mantas will not help to realize the truth, which is beyond the form, time, and space.

That is why Sage Sankara VC~.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?

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 

Upanishad says: ~ The human goal is to acquire Self-Knowledge and they indicate that belief in the personal Gods, yoga scriptures, worship, and rituals are not the means to Self –Knowledge, then why anyone should indulge in it. The religion, concept of individualized God and scriptures are a great obstacle to  Self-realization because they are based on false Self.  The seeker of truth has to search the ultimate truth without losing himself in the labyrinths of philosophy, through deeper Self-search and assimilate and realize it.

That is why Sage Sankara, indicated in Bhaja Govindam says: ~ (Jnana Viheena Sarva Mathena Bajathi na Muktim janma Shatena) ~ One without knowledge does not obtain liberation even in a hundred births, no matter which religious faith he follows.

Thus, the path of wisdom is the only means. Then it is no use going the roundabout way, trace the Brahman which is the formless substance and the witness of the universe (mind).  By tracing the source of the mind or the universe, one will be able to realize the Brahman.:~Santthosh Kumaar