Gods with forms and names and attributes is a hallucination because God in truth is without form and without attribute because God in truth is ever nondual.+

 

Religion is the home of mysticism and deification which is why they are not keen on the rational truth. Religion and scholasticism and yoga are for those to help who are incapable of grasping the truth, which is beyond form, time, and space.

Religion is based on dogmatism, not philosophy. One finds philosophical insights here and there in religious doctrine. All the religious doctrines are dogmatic because they also begin by assuming their belief in God.

The blind belief-based Gods become a center of the religion, thus every religion has its own idea of God thus there is no universality in religious beliefs.

Religion takes the position that God as a separate entity outside us, i.e. God really exists separately from us. Orthodox people are afraid to go deeper and refuse to accept anything other than their religious authority because of punishment by God.

Religious Gods are not God. One must know God in truth. There is a difference between the ordinary concept of God and the truth about God.

Vedas say God is Supreme Spirit and has not an idol or a material shape because God is ever formless, timeless, and spaceless existence. . God cannot be seen directly by anyone. God pervades all beings and all directions.

Idolatry does not find any support from the Vedas. All idolatry Gods are based on Puranic concepts.

There is no scope for the blind belief-based God because the belief is not God. The religion and its ideas of Gods are based on the false ‘Self’ (ego), within the false experience (waking). Thus, whatever beliefs are based on the false self are bound to be a falsehood.

Ishopanishad says: ~ “They are steeped in ignorance and sunk into the greatest depth of misery who worships the matter, instead of the All-Pervading God and those who worship things born of matter like trees, animals, man, etc. are sunk deeper in misery."

No one has ever seen God. By practicing yoga or indulging in glorifying and worshiping the religious God and Goddesses it is impossible to see God.

Gods with forms and names and attributes is a hallucination because God in truth is without form and without attribute because God in truth is ever nondual.

Vedas declares God cannot be seen directly by anyone. God pervades all beings and all directions. Thus, personal Gods do not find any support from the Vedas.

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 grand master of Vedas. It is impossible to accept and believe that Veda Vyasa authored and introduced Puranas which have all conceptual gods because:-

In Vedas, God has been described as ~

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)

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.

Yajurveda: ~ There is no image of God in truth. God in truth is unborn and eternal. (Chapter 32, Verse 3)

Yajurveda: ~ God in truth is nondual and pure"

Prohibition of idol worship in Yajurveda: ~

Yajurveda: ~ "They are entering darkness, those who worship the natural things (like air, water, fire, etc.), they are sinking more in darkness who worship created things." (Chapter 40, Verse 9)

They sink deeper into the darkness than 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 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." (Yajurveda 40:9.)

Upanishads: ~

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

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)

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. (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.

Form, time, and space cease to exist as a reality when Advaitic wisdom dawns. Thus, the Gods and Gurus have no place in the domain of the Advaitic reality. Advaita is the nature of the Soul, which is God in truth. Thus, Self-realization is the only way to God-realization.

If you are stuck up with religion and yoga you are unfit to tread the Atmic path.

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 liberation will never come, even after a hundred aeons, without realizing the Oneness.

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

Religion, religious gods based on blind belief, and 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 for the ultimate truth without losing himself in the labyrinths of philosophy, through deeper, inquiry, analysis, and reasoning, and assimilate and realize it.

That is why Sage Sankara, indicated in Bhaja Govindam says: ~ “One without knowledge does not obtain liberation even in a hundred births, no matter which religious faith he follows.

Then it is no use going roundabout way, trace the Brahman (God) which is the formless substance and the witness of the universe. The universe is present in the form of the mind. By tracing the source of the mind (universe) one will be able to realize the Brahman or God in truth. : ~Santthosh Kumaar