Upanishads say no religious rituals or religious ceremony will bring you Self-realization or God-realization. All the religious rituals are based on the non-Vedic Gods. Non-Vedic Gods are not God in truth. God in truth is Vedic God the Atman or Brahman.
Whatever rituals based on the Non-Vedic Gods will not help to get rid of ignorance. Self-knowledge or Brahma Gnana or Atma Gnana is necessary to get self-realization of God-realization.
People’s approach was more practical, and they were stuck with the belief of their inherited belief system.
Religions are based on the belief, not the truth. Religions are more concerned with their beliefs, dogmas, and superstitions.
Religious Gods are based on imaginary beliefs. The beliefs are not truth. The belief is part of the dualistic illusion. The Atman is Brahman or God in actuality. Other than the Atman the God all else is an illusion. Whatever is based on the belief is a myth. God in truth is not God based on blind belief.
Bhagavad Gita Chapter: ~ All those whose intelligence has been stolen by material desires, they worship many Gods. (7- Verse -20)
Know God in truth:
Religious Gods are based on blind belief. God is based on blind belief, is not God. Religious God cannot be considered as the center because the Soul, the ‘Self’ is the center of all that exists.
Without the Soul, the world in which you exist ceases to exist, which means the religious God is dependent on the Soul for his existence. God in truth is only the Soul, which is present in the form of consciousness.
Yajur Veda – chapter- 32: - God is Supreme Spirit has no ‘Pratima’ (idol) or material shape. He cannot be seen directly by anyone. He pervades all beings and all directions.
Thus, Idolatry does not find any support from the Vedas.
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 the form of the Athma, and it is indeed Athma itself.
Even the Bhagavad Gita says: ~ Brahmano hi pratisthaham ~ Brahman (God in truth) 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, that 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.
Religious Gods are based on blind belief. Religious God cannot be considered as the center because the Soul the innermost ‘Self’ is the center of all that exists. Without the Soul, the world in which you exist ceases to exist, which means the religious God is dependent on the Soul for his existence.
Ish Upanishad: ~ Those people who have neglected the attainment of Self-knowledge and have thus committed suicide.
10/11/12
Those people who have neglected the attainment of Self-knowledge and have thus committed suicide, as it were, are doomed to enter those worlds after death
This is a condemnation of people who do not try to attain Self-knowledge. They are, in a real sense, committing suicide, for what can be worse than being a slave to sense enjoyment, completely oblivious of the real purpose of life, which is to be one’s own master?
Ish Upanishads: ~
MANTRA 10
Vidya and Avidya both are hindrances to Self-knowledge, but Vidya is even worse than Avidya. The word Vidya is used here in a special sense; here it means worshipping Gods and Goddesses. By worshipping Gods and Goddesses, you will go after death to the world of Gods and Goddesses. But will that help you? The time you spent there is wasted because if you were not there you could have spent that time moving forward towards Self-knowledge, which is your goal. In the world of Gods and Goddesses, you cannot do that, and thus you go deeper and deeper into darkness.
Avidya is Karma and therefore a hindrance. You perform Avidya - i.e., you perform Agnihotra and other sacrifices. This is a roundabout way of purifying the mind, and it is also groping in the dark. But it may not have as heavy a toll on your time and energy as the other.
Ishopanishad: ~ “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."
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.
Brihadaranyaka Upanishad: ~ Brahman (God in truth) is the form of the Athma, and it is indeed Athma itself.
Brihadaranyaka Upanishad says: "He who worships the deities as entities entirely separate from him does not know the truth. For the Gods, he is like a pasu (beast)". (1. 4. 10)
No rituals help to get rid of ignorance. All the mantras and rituals are meant for the ignorant populace, which strongly believes, in the world in which he exists as a reality. For one who wants to acquire Self-knowledge or Brahma Gnana or Atma Gnana, the mantas will not help to realize the truth, which is beyond the form, time, and space.
That is why Sage Sankara VC~.61. For one who has been bitten by the serpent of Ignorance, the only remedy is the knowledge of Brahman. Of what avail are the Vedas and (other) Scriptures, Mantras (sacred formulae), and medicines to such a one?
VC- v6~ Let erudite scholars quote all the scripture, let Gods be invoked through sacrifices, let elaborate rituals be performed, let personal Gods be propitiated---yet, without the realization of one ‘s identity With the Self, there shall be no liberation for the individual, not even in the lifetimes of a hundred Brahmas put together.
Sage Sankara goes on to say: ~A sickness of not cured by saying the word “medicine.” You must take the medicine.
Liberation does not come by merely saying the word “Brahman (God).” Brahman must be realized. Until you allow this apparent universe to dissolve from your consciousness until you have realized Brahman, how can you find liberation just by saying the word Brahman? The result is merely a noise. Until a man has destroyed his enemies and taken possession of the splendor and wealth of the kingdom, he cannot become a king by simply saying “I am a king.”
A buried treasure is not uncovered by merely uttering the words: “Come forth.” You must follow the right directions, dig, remove the stones and earth from above it, and then make it your own. In the same way, the pure truth of the Atman, which is buried under Maya and the effects of Maya, can be reached by meditation, contemplation, and other spiritual disciplines but never by subtle arguments.
First Mundaka - Chapter 2 (10) - Ignorant fools, regarding sacrifices and humanitarian works as the highest, do not know any higher good. Having enjoyed their reward on the heights of heaven, gained by good works, they enter again this world or a lower one.
First Mundaka - Chapter 2 (8) - Fools, dwelling in darkness, but wise in their own conceit and puffed up with vain scholarship, wander about, being afflicted by many ills, like blind men led by the blind.
First Mundaka - Chapter 2 (9) - Children, immersed in ignorance in various ways, flatter themselves, saying: We have accomplished life's purpose. Because these performers of karma do not know the Truth owing to their attachment, they fall from heaven, misery-stricken, when the fruit of their work is exhausted.
Mundaka Upanishad: ~ The rituals and the sacrifices described in the Vedas deal with lower knowledge. The sages ignored these rituals and went in search of higher knowledge. ... Such rituals are unsafe rafts for crossing The sea of samsara, of birth and death. Doomed to shipwreck are those who try to cross the sea of Samsara on these poor rafts. Ignorant of their own ignorance, yet wise in their own esteem, these deluded men proud of their vain learning go round and round Like the blind led by the blind.
How can you worship the Absolute? That implies two ~ the worshiper and the worshiped, whereas the Absolute is nondual. One can worship his idea of the Absolute only or realize his unity with it when he can’t worship it as a part.
Religious rites and rigid ceremonies were passed down from one generation to the next as a practice or set customs and traditions and performed automatically with blind faith. Such worship based on the belief of God does not reach God.
Religious rites and ceremonies, yagnas and homa-havans, or any other forms of ritual are meant for the ignorant populace.
Belief in a religious God without knowing God in actuality holds the worshiper more firmly in the grip of ignorance.
All worship ceremonies and rituals performed on the base of non-Vedic Gods will not yield any fruits. Deeper self-search reveals the fact that worship, the worship and the worshiper, and the world are mere an illusion created out of the consciousness.
Religious rites and ceremonies, yagnas and homa-havans, or any other forms of rituals formal observance has long since set in.
Religious rites and ceremonies, yagnas and homa-havans, or any other forms of ritual are meant for the ignorant populace. In the Atmic path, the seeker has to discard
Sage Sankara says ~ “The scriptures dealing with rituals, and rewards are therefore addressed to an ignorant person.
Sage Sankara: ~ (11) As regards the rituals, Sage Sankara says, that the person who performs rituals and aspires for rewards will view himself in terms of the caste into which he is born, his age, 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 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. 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, a 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
Sage Sankara: ~ Atman, the innermost Self is verily Brahman (God), being equanimous, quiescent, and by nature absolute Existence, Knowledge, and Bliss. Atman is not the body which is non-existence itself. This is called true Knowledge by the wise.
People’s approach was more practical, and they were stuck with the belief of their inherited belief system.
Religion God based on blind faith or blind belief is not God in truth. Religions are more concerned with their beliefs, dogmas, and superstitions.
Religious Gods are based on mythical Gods based on blind beliefs. Gods based on blind belief is part of the dualistic illusion. The Atman is Brahman or God in actuality. Other than the Atman. which is God in truth, all else is an illusion. Whatever is based on blind belief is a myth.
Bhagavad Gita: ~ Even if you are most sinful of all the sinners, you will cross all the sins by the raft of the knowledge (IV-36)
Self–knowledge or Brahma Gnana or Atma Gnana is the inexhaustible wealth. Other wealth disappears as one spends, but with Self-knowledge or Brahma Gnana or Atma Gnana, the more one shares more he gains.
The Self is not the ‘I’. The ‘I’ is present in the form of the mind. The origin of the mind is the Soul. The mind is present in the form of the universe. The Soul is present in the form of consciousness. The root of the universe is consciousness.
Thus, saying ‘I Am God’ keeps one in duality. The duality is not reality. The duality is a product of ignorance. The body, ego, and the world are of the ignorant.
When wisdom dawns, ignorance disappears. When ignorance disappears, the duality will never be a reality even though there is duality, it is merely an illusion created out of a single stuff. That single stuff is the Soul which is present in the form of consciousness.
The Soul is the Self. The innermost Self is God. It is not “I AM GOD, but it’s correct to say ‘the SELF IS GOD because the Self is not the ‘I’ or ’I AM”. : ~ Santthosh Kumaar
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