If the ‘Self ‘is not the body but the ‘Self’ is formless Soul then there is no need for Pada Pooja (feet worship) of Gurus and yogis to get freedom.+

If the ‘Self ‘is not the body but the ‘Self’ is formless Soul then there is no need for Pada Pooja (feet worship) of Gurus and yogis to get freedom.

A Guru, who preaches conduct as the means to freedom, believes in birth, life, death, and the world as a reality, whereas the Advaitic Sage Sankara declares the world as unreal.  Therefore, how actions performed in the unreal world can get moksha or freedom. Therefore, there is a need to know the fact that, the ‘Self’ does not form but the ‘Self’ in order to understand and assimilate and realize the truth beyond the form, time, and space.

Vedas bars human worship:~

Translation 3

"They are enveloped in darkness, in other words, are steeped in ignorance and sunk in the greatest depths of misery who worship the uncreated, eternal prakrti -- the material cause of the world -- in place of the All-pervading God, But those who worship visible things born of the prakrti, such as the earth, trees, bodies (human and the like) in place of God are enveloped in still greater darkness, in other words, they are extremely foolish, fall into an awful hell of pain and sorrow, and suffer terribly for a long time."- (Yajur Veda 40:9.)

Then why worship and glorify the GURUS and YOGIS (human form)   in place of God when Veda bars such activities and it also warns people who indulge in such activities are enveloped in still greater darkness, in other words, they are extremely foolish, fall into an awful hell of pain and sorrow and suffer terribly for a long time.

That is why Sage Goudpada said: ~ “The merciful Veda teaches karma and Upaasana to people of lower and middling intellect while Jnana is taught to those of higher intellect.

Thus, Sage Goudpada suggests that the religious paths and worship of Guru and conceptual god are lower and middling intellect.  But in this modern world, people are sharp enough to understand and assimilate the ultimate truth or Brahman or God in truth. Thus, for people who want the higher truth then it is high time to discard the lower knowledge and move ahead to realize the ultimate truth, which is Brahman or God.  

That is why Sage Sankara says: ~ “VC- 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.

66. Therefore the wise should, as in the case of disease and the like, personally strive by all the means in their power to be free from the bondage of repeated births and deaths.

When one realizes the fact that, the whole universe and its contents, movable and immovable, is known to be consciousness, and thus the existence of everything else is negated, where is then any room to say that the universe is the universe.  The universe and its contents are bound to be the consciousness.  

Upanishads are the only scriptures in the world that say: ~ It is impossible to find and realize the truth via religion and scriptural study.

The Soul, the 'Self' does not grow by acquiring something nor wither away by losing it. The Self-remains what it always is.

Most people will not understand what I am driving at because they are seeking something which they can enjoy.  The ambition of the true spiritual seeker is to realize the Self, which is beyond form, time, and space.  People are looking for an advantage in the practical world, to take care of their practical life~ that is the maximum they expect out of spirituality.

Sage Sankara: ~ "Though I wear these robes of a Sanyasin, it is only for the sake of bread."

Sage Sankara: ~   “The Knower of the Atman (i.e., a Gnani) "bears no outward mark of a holy man" (VC ~Stanza 539).

Sage Sankara writes: ~ “Sometimes he appears to be a Fool, sometimes a wise man. Sometimes he seems splendid as a king, sometimes feeble-minded. Sometimes he is calm and silent. Sometimes he draws men to him. Sometimes people honor him greatly, sometimes they insult him. Sometimes they ignore him.

Unless one realizes the Soul as the innermost ‘Self’  as it really is” it is impossible to realize the non-dualistic or Advaitic truth.

The so-called Gurus and yogis focus their ambition on seeing that their daily life goes on comfortably. Nobody is ready to inquire about the truth of their true existence. :~Santthosh Kumaar