Bhagavad Gita : - All those whose intelligence has been stolen by material desires, they worship many Gods.+

From the Vedic perspective, all our religious Gods we believe and worship are non-Vedic Gods based on imagination.

Religious Gods are based on blind belief.  God based on blind belief, is not God in truth.  

The religious God cannot be considered as the cause of the universe because the invisible  Soul, the Self, is the cause of the universe. 

Without the invisible Soul,  the Self, the world in which you exist ceases to exist; it means the religious God is dependent on the universe for his existence. The universe is dependent on the Soul, the Self, for its existence. 

God in truth is only the invisible and unborn Soul, the Self, which is present in the form of consciousness. 

Sage Sankara’s Supreme Brahman (God in truth)  is impersonal, Nirguna (without Gunas or attributes), Nirakara (formless), Nirvisesha (without special characteristics), immutable, eternal, and Akarta (non-agent). It is above all needs and desires. It is always the Witnessing Subject. It can never become an object as it is beyond the reach of the senses. Brahman is non-dual, one without a second. It has no other besides it. It is destitute of difference, either external or internal. Brahman cannot be described because the description implies a distinction. Brahman cannot be distinguished from any other than It. In Brahman, there is no distinction between substance and attribute. Sat-Chit-Ananda constitutes the very essence or Svarupa of Brahman, and not just its attributes. The Nirguna Brahman of Sage Sankara is impersonal.

The God you see and meet and in your vision is not God in truth, but a hallucination. How can you see and meet God without knowing what God is in actuality? Praying and meditating on God without knowing what God really is leads to hallucination.    The world in which you exist hides God. Thus, Self-realization is necessary to realize ‘what God is in actuality.

The Brihadaranyaka Upanishad:~ "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)

That is why 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 

Bhagavad Gita: ~ 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.

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

Lord Krishna says Ch ~V: ~ “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.

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.

Thus, by sticking up to the Gods, which are not God in truth, you are sticking up to the illusion. Sticking up to illusion means sticking up to ignorance. sticking up to ignorance means you are not qualified to acquire Self-knowledge or Brahma Gnana or Atma Gnana.

Sage  Sankara said:~ Talk as much philosophy as you like, worship as many gods as you please, observe ceremonies, and sing devotional hymns, but liberation will never come, even after a hundred aeons, without realizing the Oneness.

The beliefs of God, religion, and yoga are based on the false self, which has nothing to do with the mental (inner) journey.   The religious rituals, worship, prayers to God, and guru glorification may be useful in worldly life, for those who believe in birth, life, death, and the world as reality, but they are not useful tools in realizing the ultimate truth. 

From the base of the invisible  Soul, the ‘Self’, everything other than consciousness is merely an illusion.  Thus, man and his experience of the world and his belief in God and religion are part and parcel of the mirage created out of consciousness. 

Mundaka Upanishad: ~ “The study of the Vedas, linguistics, Rituals, astronomy, and all the arts can be called lower knowledge. The highest is that which leads to Self-realization. The eye cannot see it; the mind cannot grasp it. The deathless Self has neither caste nor race, neither eyes nor ears nor hands nor feet. Sages say this Self is infinite in the great and in the small, everlasting and changeless, the source of life.

Arguing with believers is fruitless. Belief in tradition and scripture as if they were true or factual quite clearly is delusion, but the payoff for holding such delusions is, for those who hold them, extremely compelling--the avoidance of the "wrath of God," the hope of heaven or salvation, or the imagined "end of suffering."

Goudpada says that: ~ “The merciful Veda teaches karma and Upasana to people of lower and middling intellect while Jnana is taught to those of higher intellect”.

Sage Sankara gave religious, ritual or dogmatic instruction to the masses but pure philosophy only to the few who could rise to it. Hence, the interpretation of his writings by commentators is often confusing because they mix up the two viewpoints. Thus, they may assert that ritual is a means of realizing Brahman, which is absurd.

This clearly indicates that religion, which is based on individual conduct, prescribes karma and Upasana to people of lower and middling intellect, therefore religion is for the lower intellect. And wisdom is for those are capable of inquiring into their own existence to know and realize the ultimate truth, which is Brahman.

Sage Sankara: ~ “The illusion must be transcended by getting rid of the ignorance to realize the truth of the Soul, which is the ultimate truth or Brahman.  

If Brahman is considered the all-pervading consciousness, then it is necessary to realize the consciousness as the Self, which pervades all three states, to realize the fact that there is no second thing that exists other than the consciousness. Thus, consciousness (Atman) is the ultimate truth (Brahman).  

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

Rig Veda: ~ The Atman (Soul or Spirit) 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)

Rig-Veda 1-164-46 and Y.V 32-1 clearly mention that God is “One”.

Rig Veda declares God is ‘ONE’ and God is Atman, then why believe and worship in place of the real God.

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

Thus, it refers to a formless and attributeless God, which is the Atman (Soul), the innermost ‘Self’ within the false experience. 

Thus, it indicates clearly all the Gods with form and attributes are merely an imagination based on the false self.  Thus, Atman or Soul, the Self, is God.

There is a clear-cut idea of God in the Vedas, Upanishad and Bhagavad Gita. And also there is a clear-cut idea of what not to worship as God in place of real God.

That is why the ISH Upanishads says: ~“By worshipping Gods and Goddesses you will go after death to the world of Gods and Goddesses”. But will that help you? The time you spent there is wasted because if you were not there, you could have spent that time moving forward towards Self-knowledge, which is your goal. In the world of Gods and Goddesses, you cannot do that, and thus you go deeper and deeper into darkness.

It clearly indicates that:-If the human goal is to acquire Self-Knowledge or Brahma Gnana or Atma Gnana then why one has to indulge in rituals and glorifying the conceptual Gods, Goddesses, and gurus to go into deeper darkness. Instead spend that time moving forward towards Self-knowledge, which is one’s prime goal. 

All the religious and yogic-based knowledge, which is inferior, has to be discarded to know the ultimate truth or Brahman or God, which is a formless, timeless, and spaceless existence.:~ Santthosh Kumaar