Rig Veda: ~ The Atman is the cause; Atman is the support of all that exists in this universe.+

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 (Gita 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.

It is only one in millions who realizes that consciousness is the ultimate truth or Brahman or God. A Gnani is fully aware of the fact that the consciousness alone is Real all else is merely an illusion. No amount of studying Vedanta can give Self-knowledge or Brahma Gnana or Atma Gnana.

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)

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

On the spiritual path, the seeker must have an intense urge to realize the truth. All accumulated knowledge, accumulated from here and there leads the seeker away from realizing the ultimate truth or Brahman or God. The seeker has to have a rational outlook to realize the truth, which is beyond form, time, and space.

The Soul, the Self is God in truth. The Soul is present in the form of consciousness. Thus, consciousness itself is God. God is not within you, but the universe in which you exist is within God. The universe in which you exist is created out of God, which is present in the form of consciousness.

Thus, all those Gods people believe and all those Gods you worship are man-made Gods because in reality God alone is real and the universe in which we exist is merely an illusion.  

Consciousness is within, the consciousness is without;  consciousness is before, the consciousness is behind; the consciousness is on the right,   consciousness is on the left; consciousness is above and consciousness is below.  Consciousness is not an object, as it is invisible, beyond the reach of the physical eyes.  Consciousness is the ultimate truth, and the ultimate truth is Brahman or God in truth.

The world in which we exist is merely an illusion created out of consciousness.  Therefore, hold on to the consciousness which is real and eternal, and mentally negate the world in which we exist by realizing the world in which we exist is nothing but an illusion created out of the consciousness.   

Remember: ~

Sage Sankara: ~ “VC~ All this universe which through ignorance appears as of diverse forms, is nothing else but Brahman (Consciousness) which is absolutely free from all the limitations of Maya.

The universe is the product of ignorance. The ignorance is present in the form of the ‘I’.

Sage Sankara says: - VC-47-  All the effects of ignorance, root, and branch, are burnt down by the fire of knowledge, which arises from discrimination between these two—the Self and the non-Self.

Until you think you are an individual separate from the world and the world that existed prior to you and you are born in it afterward the ignorance will prevail as a reality. Till ignorance is there the universe prevails as a reality.

Sage Sankara says ~ “The exercise in discrimination between real and unreal and renunciation of the false is real meditation, then why you are indulging in other types of meditation.

Perfect understanding and realization of ‘what is what’ leads to Self-awareness. By holding onto theories one remains in the realm of duality. You have to mentally go on dropping what is not the truth through deeper Self-search. Finally when you become aware of the fact that, your ego, your body, and the world are one in essence then there is Self-awareness in the midst of duality. : ~ Santthosh Kumaar