It is necessary to realize ‘what is supposed to be God’ according to the Vedas and the Upanishads and the Bhagavad Gita.+

It is necessary to realize ‘what is supposed to be God’ according to the  Vedas and the Upanishads and the  Bhagavad Gita.

It is impossible to know that God is everywhere without realizing what is supposed to be God.  All the Gods with names and forms are not real Gods. All Gods with names and forms were introduced temples were built by the rulers for the ignorant populace.

As one peeps into the annals of religious history he finds that Hinduism which exists today is not a continuation of the Vedic religion, and it has no real historical foundation.  Hinduism is of a much later origin.

As per the researchers, the two faiths the Hindu belief system has drifted miles away from the Vedic faith so that the two seem to be two distinct faiths. It is not difficult to discover that there is no noticeable continuity of Hinduism from the Vedic religion or Santana Dharma

The distinctive characteristics of the Hindu belief system cannot be traced in the Vedic literature. Besides, although the Vedas are revered as sacred texts, there are many people in India who do not know what ‘belief in the Vedas’ means. In most cases, the acquaintance of the Hindus with the Vedas is limited to the few hymns that are recited in temples and household liturgies.

Max Müller says: ~ “The religion of the Veda knows no idols; the worship of idols in India is a secondary formation, a degradation of the more primitive worship of ideal Gods."

Hindus are idol worshipers of a large number of Gods and Goddesses whereas Vedas declares God is ‘ONE’ and that God is Atman.

Rig Veda: ~ 'Prajnanam Brahma'- Consciousness is the ultimate reality or Brahman or God in truth. 

Do not accept any other God other than the Soul. The Soul is God in truth,  Nothing is real but the Soul, which is present in the form of consciousness. Nothing matters but realize  God in truth. God in truth is everywhere and in everything. Let these words be inscribed in your subconscious. 

God in truth is hidden by the illusory universe. God in truth alone is real and eternal and all else is an illusion. 

Brahman is merely a word to indicate the ultimate truth or God in truth.  The ultimate truth itself is God in truth. 

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 real 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)

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).

The nature of the Atman (Soul) is:~    

         v Witness

         v Conscious

         v Without form and properties

         v Eternal

         v Pure

         v Omniscient

         v Unattached

Thus, it refers to 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 mere imagination based on the false self.  Thus, Atman or Soul, the innermost Self is God.

The Vedas do not talk about idol worship. In fact, till about 2000 years ago followers of Vedism never worshiped idols. Idol worship was started by the followers of Buddhism and Jainism.  There is logic to idol worship. Vedas speak of one God that is the supreme self in i.e. Atman or soul but Hinduism indulges in worshiping 60 million Gods.

It indicates clearly all the Gods with form and attributes are mere imagination based on the false self.

The Vedas as a body of scripture contains many contradictions and they are fragmentary in nature. For Hindus, scriptures like the Bhagavad-Gita, Ramayana, Mahabharata, and Puranas are more attractive and appealing than the Vedas. And also the Gods and Goddesses they worship differ considerably from the Vedic ones. The collection of hymns called Vedas are written in praise of certain deities by poets over several centuries does not seem to have much significance for the Hindus

Yajur Veda says:~

Translation 1

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

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

Those who worship visible things born of the Prakriti, 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.)

The religion is based on personal God. And Orthodoxy accepts the experience of birth, life, death, and the world as reality, whereas Sage Sankara declares the world is unreal Brahman alone is real.  Thus, the experience of birth, life, death happening within the unreal world is bound to be a falsehood. Thus, religion and religious belief and its ritual based on the birth entity are bound to be a falsehood.  Thus, the seeker has to realize ‘what is that is real and eternal?

Mythological stories are a myth. Whatever is based on myth is merely a superstition.  Mythology was introduced in the past for the ignorant masses. It has to be discarded as one progresses in his spiritual advancement. 

Mythology breeds superstition, blind belief, and senseless rituals and most irrational and gives them divine outlook.   

Religious Gods are not real Gods. One must know God in truth.

Common People take whatever they inherited from their forefathers as truth. The question never occurs to them “Is what I have seen or thought really the truth?"

Religion only fuels the ego because religion is based on the ego.  All the religious Gods based on the ego. The ego is the false self within the false experience (waking).  Without the ego, they cease to exist. All religious rituals, practices, theories are based on the ego.   Religious Gurus parroting the Gods name.  All these gods are imaginary. 

All Gods with name and form and attributes can be a reality only in the domain of the form, time and space. From the ultimate standpoint, the form, time, and space are merely an illusion created out of single stuff. That single stuff is consciousness.  Consciousness is the ultimate truth and the ultimate truth is God in truth.

There is a clear-cut idea in the Vedas and Upanishads, what supposed to be God. And what not to worship in place of God then why worship the belief of God, which not God.

That is why 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.

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. (14.27)

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)

Yajurveda – chapter- 32:~  God is Supreme Spirit has no ‘Pratima’ (idol) or material shape. God cannot be seen directly by anyone. God pervades all beings and all directions. Thus, Idolatry does not find any support from the Vedas.

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

When Upanishads and Vedas declare that, “God is the form of the Athma, and it is indeed Athma itself” then why accept another God in place of the Atman nor worship other than the Atman.

People, who worship the belief of God, are hallucinating that they become one with such God.

God with the form and names cannot exist only in the domain of the duality. In non-dual reality, there is no scope for the duality. :~Santthosh Kumaar 

Sage Sankara is the Jagadguru to the religious followers and he is a great Gnani to the seeking world.+

Sage Sankara taught that it was only through direct knowledge of Advaita that one could be enlightened.

Sage Sankara is the Jagadguru to the religious followers and he is a great Gnani to the seeking world.  

Sage Sankara “s Advaitic wisdom is without a Parallel.  Sage Sankara's wisdom is lofty, sublime, and unique. It is highly interesting, inspiring, and elevating. No other wisdom can stand before it in boldness, depth, and subtle thinking.  Sage Sankara’s wisdom is complete and perfect.

It is that wisdom in India was for centuries more an exposition of the ancient classics than the independent thought of individual thinkers as in ancient Greece or modern Europe and America.

Sage Sankara and Sage Goudpada are independent thinkers other schools of Indian philosophy are mere theologies. Advaitic wisdom is real wisdom. The dualistic philosophy cannot escape the charge of dogmatism.

The main hurdle in his way of thinking is the fact that Sage Sankara did not claim to be an original thinker at all, and his wisdom took the form of commentaries on the generality of the scriptures, particularly the Upanishads and the Gita. Sage Sankara was an independent thinker. His wisdom has not been taken seriously by many in India because most of the followers of Sage Sankara are religious orthodox.

Intelligence and thought, are not applicable to Advaitic wisdom, intelligence and thought are based on the false self (waking entity) within the false experience (waking).   The whole Advaitic wisdom is an attempt to transcend the limitations of intelligence and thought.

The two points of view A Gnani is not cut off from the experience of practical life within the practical world because the Advaitic truth is neither realism nor idealism; it is beyond both these.

Sage Sankara’s wisdom does not arise from studying Advaitic philosophy or mastering the scriptures or worshiping Gods or observing the ceremonies and singing devotional hymns, but the wisdom will dawn only by self-realization.

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

That is why Sage Sankara says: ~    VC-63- Without causing the objective universe to vanish and without knowing the truth of the Self,  how is one to achieve Liberation by the mere utterance of the word Brahman? ~ It would result merely in an effort of speech.

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.

 The pursuit of truth does not begin with God.  God has to be proved, not assumed. Hence, the so-called Gurus who take God for granted are not Gnanis at all.

The Advaitin scholars will teach that all is Self, but none of them can show that this is so, none has analyzed it scientifically, and none can prove it. 

Rational proof is required so that one arrives at knowing the ultimate truth or Brahman i.e. Gnana.  Theirs is mere dogma, parrotism, repetition of what they read in the scripture.  Authoritarianism merely assumes as true what another says, but what has yet to be proved.

Sage Sankara’s whole wisdom can be summed up in one sentence, ‘There is nothing else but Brahman. He says that Absolute Existence, Absolute Knowledge, and Absolute awareness are real. The universe is not real. He says that Brahma and Atman are one. The Ultimate and the Absolute Truth is the Self, which is one though appearing as many different individuals. The individual has no reality. Only the Self is real; the rest, mental and physical are but passing appearances.

The truth must be independent of religion because religion is based on the false self (ego) within the false experience (world). 

The Saguna Brahman or a personal God is only a part of the illusory world, and the Nirguna Brahman, or Real God (Soul) is the only reality and has nothing to do with religion. 

Sage Sankara pokes fun at ascetics and points out that all their austerities do not cause desires to go (Altar Flowers" Page 205, v.2 P.207 v.4)

Orthodoxy is the home of mysticism and deification that is why they are not keen on the rational truth.  The scriptures and their commentaries thereon do not contain the higher wisdom. They are intended for those who are incapable of thinking rationally.

 Most of the scriptures are not on a philosophical basis but on an Orthodox and a mystic basis. There is no final authority to show certainty.  Pundits take for granted, assuming that a world was created.  God created the world is merely an imagination.   There is neither creation nor creator from the standpoint of the Soul the Self.

The pundits mix dogmatic theology with philosophy.  Some scriptures take the position that there is another entity outside us, i.e. the world really exists separately from the mind. Those who study the scriptures are orthodox minds, intellectual children. 

People are afraid to go deeper because it means being heroic enough to refuse to accept Sruti, and God's authority, in case they mean punishment by God.

 A Gnani says the scriptures for children, but wise seekers will think rationally.  Advaitic wisdom is only for philosophical mindsets.

A number of Upanishads are equally dogmatic because they also begin by assuming Brahman, only a few Upanishads do not but prove Brahman at the end of a train of proof.

Sage Sankara gave religion and scholasticism and yoga no less than the Advaitic wisdom, to the seeking world. He was great enough to be able to do so. Many of his other books are presented from a religious standpoint to help those who are incapable of grasping the Advaitic wisdom. :~Santthosh Kumaar 

Sage Sankara criticized severely the ritualistic attitude and those who advocated such practices.+

The Vedas do not talk about idol worship. In fact, till about 2000 years ago followers of Vedism never worshiped idols.

Vedic worshippers did not use temples and idols as Hindus of today do. For them, the sacrificial rituals were more important than the temple or idol worship the major Hindu feasts of today are based on the epic feats of Rama and Krishna and the Puranic lore pertaining to Shiva and the Goddess.

The Hindus believed in polytheism, believing all of their Gods to be separate individuals, which was introduced much later by the founders of Hinduism which contains diverse beliefs caste, and creed.   The Bhakta Gods are separate individuals. Without an individualized God, there is no path for Bhakti.

The Advaitin orthodox  Gurus say:~  Instead of worshipping many deities, the seeker must reach the state in which he will recognize that he has no existence other than that of his being dissolved in the Brahman.

Sage Sankara:~  The rituals, rewards, etc. are addressed to an ignorant person. 

Then why remain ignorant by indulging in worshipping the deities and indulging the rituals which are addressed to an ignorant populace. 

The religious samskara or conditioning is so strong that people refuse to believe what they are worshipping as Gods are not real Gods according to Vedas and Upanishads.  It is very difficult for religious people to accept what they are worshipping is a false God.

Vedas and Upanishads clearly say, what God is supposed to be and what not to worship in place of God.

The Hindus believed in polytheism, believing all of their Gods to be separate individuals, which was introduced much later by the founders of Hinduism which contains diverse beliefs caste, and creed.  

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. 

Hindus indulge in idol worship, while Vedas bar idol worship.   According to Vedas, God pervades everything and everywhere.

According to Advaita Vedanta, the Veda addresses itself to two kinds of audiences - the ordinary ones who desire the transitory heaven and other pleasures obtained as a result of ritual sacrifices, and the more advanced seeker who seeks to know Brahman. Thus, the Purva mimam. sa, with its emphasis on the Karma Kanda of the Vedas, is meant for the first audience, to help lead its followers along the way. However, the Vedanta, with its emphasis on the Jnana Kanda, is meant for those who wish to go beyond such transient pleasures.

The Orthodox Advaitins Gurus say: ~  

The purpose of the Vedic rituals is to take us, by degrees, to this state. So long as we believe that the world is real we worship the deities to be vouchsafed happiness. And this world, which we think is real, also benefited from such worship.

 Thinking the deities to be real, we help them and in return, we are helped by them. Living happily on this earth we long to go to the world of the celestials and enjoy the pleasures of paradise. So far so good. But if we stopped at this stage would it not mean losing sight of our supreme objective? Is not this objective, this goal, our becoming one with the Paramatman? Would it not be foolish to ignore this great ideal of ours and still cling to mundane happiness?

In our present state of immaturity, it is not possible to think of the world is unreal. Recognizing this, the Vedas provide us the rituals to be performed for happiness in this world. Because of our inadequacies we are unable to devote ourselves to a formless Paramatman from whom we are not different.

So the Vedas have devised a system in which a number of deities are worshiped. But, in course of time, as we perform the rituals and worship the deities, we must make efforts to advance to the state of wisdom and enlightenment in which the world will be seen to be unreal and the rites will become unnecessary. Instead of worshipping many deities, we must reach the state in which we will recognize that we have no existence other than that of our being dissolved in the Paramatman. We must perform Vedic sacraments with the knowledge that they prepare us to go to this state by making our minds pure and one-pointed.

If we perform rituals with the sole idea of worldly happiness and carry on trade with the celestials by conducting sacrifices (offering them oblations and receiving benefits from them in return), we will never come face to face with the Truth. Even if we go to the world of the celestials, we will not be blessed with the ‘Self’-realization. Our residence in paradise is commensurate with the merit we earn here and is not permanent.

Sooner or later we will have to return to this world and be in the womb of a mother. The ritual worship and other sacraments of the Vedas are to some extent the result of making an adjustment to our present immature state of mind. But their real purpose is to take us forward gradually from this very immature state and illumine us within. It would be wrong to refuse to go beyond the stage of ritual worship.

If to begin with, it is not right to refuse all at once to perform Vedic rites, it would be equally not right, subsequently, to refuse to give them up. Nowadays, people are averse to ritual to start with itself’. "What?” they exclaim. "Who wants to perform sacrifices? Why should we chant the Vedas? Let us go directly to the Upanishads.

“Some of them can speak eloquently about the Upanishads from a mere intellectual understanding of them. But none has the inward conviction of the truths propounded in them and we do not see them emerging as men of detachment with a true awareness of the ‘Self’. The reason for this is that they have not prepared themselves for this higher state of perception through the performance of rituals. If this is wrong in one sense, refusal to take the path of jnana from that of karma is equally not justifiable.

Remember:~

First of all the Orthodox indulge in non-~Vedic rituals and worship.  Worship of the deities.

All Hindus indulge in non-Vedic practices barred by the Vedas introduced by the different founders of the different sects of Hinduism at different times, whereas the Vedic religion or Santana Dharma is ancient and has no founder.

All Hindu  Gods are Puranic Gods.  Puranas deals with symbols Puranas are not history; it is concerned with objective reality. Puranas are not concerned with subjective reality. These Puranic Gods do not exist outside the physical existence but they have a psychological existence and that psychological existence is a great hindrance to realizing the reality beyond the form, time, and space.

So the first thing to be understood is that Puranic Gods are not real persons in the world but they create a barricade and hide the truth, which is beyond form, time, and space.

Lord Krishna says: ~ “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. (Ch~ V.)

“Know me in truth”: ~   It means to know God without the form, time, space, and name.

From the Vedic perspective, Lord Krishna is not a Vedic God because Rig Veda says:   May ye never accept another God in place of the Atman nor worship other than the Atman?"

Vedas are not the important sacred scriptures for the Hindus. The Vedas as a body of scripture contains many contradictions and they are fragmentary in nature. For most Hindus of today, scriptures like the Bhagavad-Gita, Ramayana, Mahabharata, and Puranas are more attractive and appealing than the Vedas. In addition, the Gods and Goddesses they worship differ considerably from the Vedic ones.

Yajur Veda indicates that:~   They sink deeper in darkness those who worship sambhuti. (Sambhuti means created things, for example, table, chair, idol, etc. - (Yajurveda 40:9).  

When Upanishads and Vedas declare that, “God is in the form of the Athma, and it is indeed Athma itself” then why accept another God in place of the Atman nor worship other than the Atman.

People, who worship the belief of God, are hallucinating that they become one with such God.

One of Sage Sankara’s missions was to wean people away from a ritualistic approach advocated by Mimamsakas and to project wisdom (Gnana) as the means of liberation in the light of Upanishad teachings.

Sage Sankara criticized severely the ritualistic attitude and those who advocated such practices. However, the Orthodox texts that combined rituals with wisdom (jnana_karma_samucchaya) more in favor of the Mimamsaka position came into vogue, projecting Sage Sankara as the rallying force of the doctrine.

Sage Sankara:~ (11) As regards the rituals, Sage  Sankara says, the person who performs rituals and aspires for rewards will view himself in terms of the caste into which he is born, his age, and the stage of his life, his standing in society, etc. In addition, he is required to perform rituals all through his life. However, the 'Self' has none of those attributes or tags. Hence, the person who superimposes all those attributes on the changeless, eternal Self and identifies the Self with the body is a confusing one for the other; and is, therefore, an ignorant person. The scriptures dealing with rituals, rewards, etc. are therefore addressed to an ignorant person. -Adhyasa Bhashya

Sage Sankara:~ (11.1) This ignorance (mistaking the body for Self) brings in its wake a desire for the well-being of the body, aversion for its disease or discomfort, fear of its destruction, and thus a host of miseries(anartha). This anartha is caused by projecting karthvya(“doer” sense) and bhokthavya (object) on the Atman. Sage Sankara calls this adhyasa. The scriptures dealing with rituals, rewards, etc. are, therefore, he says, addressed to an ignorant person. Adhyasa Bhashya

Sage Sankara:~ (11.2) In short, the person who engages in rituals with the notion “I am an agent, doer, thinker”, according to Sage Sankara, is ignorant, as his behavior implies a distinct, separate doer/agent/knower; and an object that is to be done/achieved/known. That duality is Avidya, an error that can be removed by Vidya. Adhyasa Bhashya

Sage Sankara: ~ (12) Sage Sankara affirming his belief in one eternal unchanging reality (Brahman) and the illusion of plurality, drives home the point that Upanishads deal not with rituals but with the knowledge of the Absolute (Brahma Vidya) and the Upanishads give us an insight into the essential nature of the Self which is identical with the Absolute, the Brahman. -Adhyasa Bhashya

No conceptual God can exist, apart from consciousness.  People are not aware of the fact that there is no individual God that can exist, apart from the Soul, which is in the form of consciousness. Thus the Soul or the consciousness is the  Self.   If there is no consciousness, then there is no physical body, no ego, no universe, no religion, and no conceptual God. : ~ Santthosh Kumaar