The Sruti itself says:~ This Atma is not to be attained by a study of the Vedas.+

Everyone likes religion because it belongs to the world of sentiments and emotions. Religion changes as it appeals to different emotions. One will find at one pole the nude Sadhu is admired; at the other, the gorgeous life-styled Godman is revered. Belief in religious prohibitions arises out of fear of God's punishment.

The people themselves suggest that there must be a God. It is an auto-suggestion.  To say that one knows God exists always implies he must also exist always. It would be correct to say at this point, he does not know about the existence of God because God’s existence depends on individualized belief. The individualized belief is ignorance because the universe itself is a product of ignorance. 

People magnify every minor coincidence or every petty fact where yogis or Good men were concerned, and they see the miraculous or the esoteric significance therein.

Religious truth  is “believers Truth”; the Spiritual truth is "universal truth.” This means a believer takes his feeling and sentiments as truth,  whereas a Gnani takes his reasoned judgment, which will be the same under test everywhere in the universe.

A Gnani says he has not seen God and he does not know his capacities, what God can do, and what God cannot do. Therefore, he thinks any statement he might make about God would only be a lie. A Gnani does not wish to tell a lie. Therefore, he does not accept the religious belief of  God because he is very firm in his conviction the religious God does not exist in reality.  

Remember:~

Each sect concocts a God to suit its own purposes. Belief in such concocted Gods is a great hindrance in the pursuit of truth.  The man himself suggests that there must be a God. It is an auto-suggestion. Prayers and sacrifices belong to a premature stage of development. When no answers come to prayers to their belief in God, then doubt arises about the existence of such God. Belief in religion weakens as the man pays more attention to the facts of his practical life within the practical world.

People who argue that truth is only in their religion are vain logicians based on mere ideas, and imaginations.  Religions that say "If one follows the religion they will go to heaven, while others “go to hell," are stories invented on the base of the false self within the false experience.

Religious truth is the individual truth, not the ultimate truth because it always shows the contradiction. A contradiction arises because a different person's interpretations may disagree with others.

Religions place God as the unknown reality”.  Every religious believer has a different idea of God. Every man has a different idea of the real. Hence the need of definition before the study.

Dualists’ sages have written big volumes about the soul. Yet they are quite ignorant of the fact that the ‘I’ about which they write itself comes and goes and has no permanent existence, is only an idea after all. 

Remember:~

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

Yajur Veda also says, “Nathasya prathima asityasya nammahastha( 32.3)”, God has no image and His name is Holy.

Mythreyi Upanishad 2:26 says:~ “Pashanalogamani moonmayavigrahashi pooja punarjanana bohahari mumusho tasmatati: swahdayarja nameva kuyarta hayacharam parihareta ”,punarbhavaya ~  all those who desire to have salvation without taking several births, should worship God in spirit and truth.  

In religious literature, we find the OM as sound arising from Hiranyagrabha or Atman.   Thus, Hiranyagrabha or Ataman is the source of the OM sound, thus, it is the second thing.   The Atman is in the form of consciousness prior to the sound OM.  The sages in the past prescribed OM for those people who are not receptive to the higher truth.  Those who are seeking ultimate truth or Brahman have to go beyond divine sound, divine light, and divine vibration,   to realize that form, time and space are merely an illusion created out of the consciousness(Atman), which is the Self.   

Holding the symbol means holding on to religion. Religion belongs to physicality.  The soul has no religion,  it is ever formless. 

Remember:~

In the past, spirituality was treated not as a separate subject,  but as a part of religion, but it is not so. Religion is based on form and spirituality is based on formless. Therefore, spirituality is nothing to with religion.  

Spirituality is a rational inquiry regarding all that is known to exist. Everyone, each to the extent to which one's reasoning power admits, is by nature free to exercise this faculty, at whatever stage one may be. One can devote himself exclusively to a pursuit of the highest Truth, by means of reason.

In ancient times, religious, Yogic, or mystic disciplines, which were not an end in themselves, were considered to be a means for self-realization. But such discipline is almost an impossible task for the modern man to adopt. Day by day modern man is becoming aware of the fact that religion and yoga are nothing to do with the pursuit of truth.

As one goes deeper into the annals of history, it indicates the fact that somewhere someone has added the Puranas in the name of Veda Vyasa the grandmaster of the  Vedas. It is impossible to accept and believe that Veda Vyasa authored and introduced the Puranas which have all conceptual gods because:-

In Vedas, God has been described as:~

v         Sakshi (Witness)

v          Chetan (conscious)

v          Nirguna (Without form and properties)

v          Nitya (eternal)

v          Shuddha (pure)

v          Buddha (omniscient)

v          Mukta (unattached).

This clearly indicates the nature of the innermost self, which is the Soul. 

Sage Sankara says: - Ataman is Brahman. Thus, the soul the innermost self is God. Therefore,    all the gods with form and attributes are merely imaginations based on the false self.  Thus, there is adulteration and add-ons in the past, which have to be bifurcated if one wants pure Vedic essence.  

Remember:~

Yajurved says:~ 

Translation 1.

They enter darkness, those who worship natural things (for example air, water, sun, moon, animals, fire, stone, etc).

They sink deeper into darkness those who worship sambhuti. (Sambhuti means created things, for example, table, chair, idol, etc.) (Yajurveda 40:9)

Translation 2.

"Deep into the shade of blinding gloom fall asambhuti's worshippers. They sink to darkness deeper yet who on sambhuti is intent." (Yajurveda Samhita by Ralph T. H. Giffith pg 538)

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.)

So, Yajur Veda indicates that:~

They sink deeper into darkness those who worship sambhuti. (Sambhuti means created things, for example, table, chair, idol etc (Yajurved 40:9)

Those who worship visible things born of the prakrti, such as the earth, trees, and 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.)

When the religion of the Veda knows no idols, then why so many Gods and Goddesses with different forms and names are being propagated as Vedic gods. Why these conceptual gods are introduced when the Vedic concept of God is free from form and attributes.

Who introduced the concept of God with attributes and attributeless Gods, when Yajur Veda says: -   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. Therefore, all these add-ons prove that the form and attribute-based concepts are introduced by some sages of the past with a new belief system and code of conduct in the name of Vedas. 

Sruti is made the final or exclusive authority in apara Vidya and for supporting the tenet of the CAUSAL relation or creatorship of Brahman, Nirguna Brahman = the "Absolute beyond qualities," which can be defined only in a negative way. For the Shankarian school = the Ultimate Reality, higher than the Lord. i.e. of Saguna or apara Brahman ... The support of Scriptural Revelation is, therefore, absolutely necessary for this hypothesis of cosmology, this Saguna or apara (= inferior) Brahman, but not for the absolute truth of Nirguna Brahman.  The Sruti itself says: "This Atma is NOT to be attained by a study of the Vedas.  (Katha Upanishad I, 2, 23.)   

        

Therefore, all the add-ons and attribute-based knowledge, which are inferior, have to be bifurcated and excluded to know the ultimate truth.  The seeker of truth has to drop all the inferior knowledge based on the attributes and go beyond the Vedas to understand assimilate and realize the ultimate truth or Brahman. 

One has to go beyond Vedas means to go beyond religion. Going beyond religion means, going beyond the concept of a personal God.  Thus, going beyond Veda, religion and conceptual god means going beyond illusion.   That is the end of the Vedas (Veda –antha).:~Santthosh Kumaar  

Rig Veda :~May ye never accept another God in place of the Atman nor worship other than the Atman.+

Kabir says: ~   instead of finding fault and maligning others dive deep in your own self. Amazingly an honest introspection will reveal that all fault lies with  " Me " and " My "own perceptions and attitudes. If there is any evil or crookedness it is in  " Me".Correcting this and changing to a loving and compassionate attitude will change one's perception and then the world will appear wonderful all over again.

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

The famous peace invocation of Isa Upanishad says: ~  Om Purna- madah, purna-midam purnat-purnam-udacyate  Purnaysa purna-madaya purna-meva-vasisyate

Means: ~ All this is full /from fullness, fullness comes when fullness is taken from fullness/ fullness still remains.

 This belief is all-comprehensive and all-absorbing. There is nothing that is not God.

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)

Yajur Veda also says:~  God has no image and His name is Holy.  (32.3)”

Mythreyi Upanishad 2:26 says:~  All those who desire to have salvation without taking several births, should worship God in spirit and truth.  

Bhagavad Gita says: ~ “Don't unsettle the minds of the ignorant by revealing the esoteric truth."

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(Gita 14.27)

The Upanishads say in effect that: ~ 'If you believe that you are one and God  (Brahman) is another you cannot understand Truth.

Brihad Upanishad: ~ “If you think there is another entity, whether man or God there is no truth."

Lord Krishna Says Ch. V:~  “Those who know me 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 Bhagavad Gita says:~  Among thousands of men, scarcely one strives for perfection, and of those who strive and succeed, scarcely one knows the 'Self'  in truth.

Meher Baba said:~  God is your innermost self. Do not search for God outside of you.  Let these words be inscribed in your heart. Nothing is real but God. Nothing Matters but love for God. God is everywhere and does everything. God is beyond us and is everything. God alone is and all else is an illusion.

Santthosh Kumaar: ~ To know what is God we must know what the  Self is. In deeper self-search, we become aware of the fact that our body, ego, and our experience of the universe are created out of single stuff, which is consciousness or the Soul.  Due to ignorance, we identify the Soul with the body and we become egocentric.  When we become aware of the fact that, the Self is not the form but the Self is formless then we become Soul-centric and realize the fact that all the three states are merely an illusion created out of consciousness.  Thus, consciousness is the ultimate truth. The consciousness is our innermost self.    The ultimate truth is God or Brahman in truth.    

Thus, we have to share and interact with fellow seekers and move ahead and reach the nondual destination through this mental (inner) journey.

Lord Krishna himself says that he can do nothing to make a man intelligent straight away. The adepts give Prasad, blessing, initiations, mantras, etc. only to confer temporary peace of mind, to help one to get rid of worries, but not to confer Gnana. The capacity to receive it must first be inborn in man by evolutionary degree.

God is not a Christian; God is not a Jew, a Muslim, a Hindu, or a Buddhist. All of the belief systems are mere beliefs based on the false self (ego) within the false experience. 

Self-knowledge or Brahma Gnana or Atma Gnana is required to unfold the mystery of God no belief system defines God, Spirituality only points one to God.”

Swami Vivekananda: ~ Creeds and sects have their parts to play, but they are for children, they last but temporarily. Books never make religions, but religions make books. We must never forget that. No book ever created God, but God inspired all the great books. And no book ever created a Soul. We must never forget that. The talk was given at Unity Hall, Hartford (Connecticut), USA, on March 8, 1895, as reported in "Hartford Times" (March 11, 1895). Complete Works, 1.324.

Swami Vivekananda:~ If religion and life depend upon books or upon the existence of any prophet whatsoever, then perish all religion and books! Religion is in us. No books or teachers can do more than help us to find it, and even without them, we can get all truth within. You have the gratitude for books and teachers without bondage to them, and worship your Guru as God, but do not obey him blindly; love him all you will, but think for yourself. No blind belief can save you, work out your own salvation. Have only one idea of God - that He is an eternal help.:~Santthosh Kumaar  

Isa Upanishads indicates that:~ By worshipping Gods and Goddesses and going to the world of gods after death is of no use.+

People who worship the Guru as God in human form and there is a danger that they might establish a regular religious sect in his name.  This is an unhappy development of the religious movement.

People believe that guru or mystic or priest has got so many followers and therefore, there must be some truth in their teaching, is a common fallacy accepted by the populace due to their inherited samskara or conditioning. It proves only an ignorant can find a number of greater ignorant to follow him.

No point in time the world was at peace. History speaks the wars, violence, and terrorism in the name of the religion and God.  The universal brotherhood is an impossibility with diverse beliefs and the idea of God, lifestyles, and culture. 

Everyone thinks is their religion is superior to another religion, so there is no universality in any religion.  Until religion and its ideas of religious Gods are there the wars, violence and terrorism will continue.  Until people become more and more rational and try to realize the truth of the universe in which they exist, the belief system will dominate.

Remember:~

It is not possible to bring order in the restless world without realizing the world is an illusion.   To realize the world in which we exist is an illusion, one has to acquire Self-knowledge or Brahma Gnana or Atma Gnana.

 There is no need to follow anyone.  There is no need to follow any path.  The ultimate truth or Brahman is nothing to do with religions, in philosophies, in teachings.

The religious teachers, gurus, yogis are nothing to do with the ultimate truth or Brahman. They are merely propagators of their religious beliefs and theories.  Therefore, they cannot help in the quest of the Self.

Religion teaches one to look outside the Soul, the innermost Self and promises a heaven and a reward outside the Soul, the innermost Self, is not the means to Self-realization.

Perfect understanding and realization of ‘what is what’, leads to nondualistic or Advaitic Self-awareness.

Remember:~

 The seeker's goal is towards Self-knowledge and noting other than it. Therefore, the Guru is needed in religious and yogic paths which are meant for the ignorant populace which is searching for worldly comforts and temporary peace in this physical existence.  They fear to lose their physical identity and all that is connected to the physical identity.

When one realizes the physical identity (ego) is the false Self and the true identity is the Soul, which is in the form the consciousness, then he realizes that the fear factor is limited to the false Self within the false experience. When the Self is not the form,  but the self is formless Soul,  then all the burden and bondage of the duality is a mere mirage created out of the consciousness.

By surrendering to any Guru or Godmen is not the means to Self-knowledge.  The Self is the true Guru. The Seeker has to surrender to the Self by realizing the fact that, the Self is not the ‘I’, but the self is the ‘I-LESS~Soul. 

By realizing the Self is not the  ‘I’, he will be able to drop all the ‘I’ based accumulated knowledge and inherited conditioning in the midst of duality and he finds the freedom from experiencing the duality (waking) as a  reality.

The one who identifies himself as swami, Guru or yogi is not a Gnani. A Gnani never identifies himself as swami, guru, pundit or yogi. Swami, guru, pundit or yogi belongs to the religious and yogic path, not to the path of truth or wisdom.

Remember:~

Yoga-Vasistha: ~ (A Gnani)  He may be stealing in the company of rogues, killing in the company of butchers, but always he will be amongst them to elevate them; to lift them up gradually to a higher ethic. But by not separating himself from them, by being like them and among them for a time, he can improve them and make them better.

Sage Sankara's commentary: ~ "The knower of Brahman (self-realized or Gnani) wears no signs.  (Page 489)

Page 500 asks in effect "Tell us what you know, show it, and let us examine it under the mental microscope." It means we must bring notions and beliefs out of vagueness into clearness. It also criticizes the mystics who claim superior knowledge, but who cannot communicate it for purposes of verification. (Page 500)

On page 482: ~On Gnani:~ "The knower of Brahman wears no signs. Gives up the insignia of a monk's life…his signs are not manifest, nor his behavior."  When the knower of Brahman wears no signs -- it means he does not identify himself as guru or teacher.  (On page 482)

Manduka Upanishads:~  Even the Gods cannot find out who is a Gnani, because he bears no external mark. Neither nudity nor the yellow robe has anything to do with him.

A Gnani cannot have the idea of renouncing the world or giving up something of the practical world, because that would connote the idea of duality.  Duality is merely an illusion from the ultimate standpoint. Knowing no second thing at all there remains nothing to be given up.

When the Upanishad itself says: ~ The human goal is to acquire Self-Knowledge and they indicate the personal gods, scriptures, worship, and rituals are not the means to Self –Knowledge, then why anyone should indulge in it. 

The religion, concept of individualized God, belief in physical guru scriptures are the greatest obstacle to realizing non-dual truth because they are based on the 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.

It is better to take guidance from a Gnani and try to attain the same realization which he had, rather than spend their energies in deifying him. Let us remember that to deify a Gnani is to defy wisdom”

Hindu religious literature is full of such aphorisms as ' there is no higher deity than the Guru; the Guru is the ultimate Truth and Deity. God and  Avatars (incarnations) are secondary to the Guru in importance; there is no higher refuge, no higher target, no higher destination than the Guru; the Guru is God Himself; God and the Guru are one; he who makes a  distinction between the Guru and God is ignorant and stupid; and scores of similar others. They abound both in Sanskrit and in modern Indian languages.

People born in the different sect and they remain as its follower. Most of the sects are founded by some gurus, thus, the Indian belief system is a Guru Cult, i.e. believes in the worship of the Guru as the Supreme Deity.

 When a seeker could not get full enlightenment from his inherited belief system, then only he searches elsewhere. And tries to get enlightened himself further to clear the cobwebs of his understanding and seeks guidance to his progress.

The path of religion, the path of yoga and the path of wisdom were intended for different classes of people. The wisdom is for the advanced seekers of truth. It deals with the nature of the ultimate Truth and Reality. It is meant for superior aspirants who have an inner urge to know the truth and it is not for those who are immersed in earthly desires.

Lord Krishna himself says that he can do nothing to make a man intelligent straight away. The adepts give Prasad, blessing, initiations, mantras, etc. only to confer temporary peace of mind, to help you to get rid of worries, but not to confer Gnana. The capacity to receive it must first be inborn in man by evolutionary degree.

Sage Sankara said:~ Neither by the practice of yoga nor philosophy, nor by good works nor by learning, does liberation come, but only through the realization that Atman and Brahman are one in no other way. (1) VivekaChudamani v 56, pg 25

Isa Upanishads indicates that:~  By worshipping Gods and Goddesses and going to the world of gods after death is of no use.  The time one spends in ritualistic practices is wasted; one can spend the same time moving forward towards Self-knowledge, which is the main goal.

One cannot reach the nondual destination by glorifying gods and goddesses and by doing that, one goes deeper and deeper into the darkness. It surely indicates the fact that the seeker of truth has to drop the worshiping god and goddess in order to get Self-knowledge or Brahma Gnana or Atma Gnana.

By glorifying the guru and yogis as God the grace will not come.  The guru or yogi belongs to the domain of religion. Religions belong to the domain of the duality.  From the standpoint of the Soul, the Self, the duality is merely an illusion.  Just by hugging the saint or by his feet worship, one does not get the qualification to receive Self-knowledge or Bahama Gnana or Atma Gnana.

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. All such acts and worship and rituals are meant for the ignorant populace, not for the seekers of the truth.  :~Santthosh Kumaar