The religion of the Vedas knows no idols therefore the religion which indulges in idol worship is nothing to do with the Santana Dharma or Vedic religion.

Indians don't know what is Veda and what it contains. In fact, 99% Indians even have not seen Veda in their lifetime.

Veda means knowledge. In ancient times, the Veda was evolving because people were in a stage of finding truth.

Vedas says: May ye never accept another God in place of the Atman, nor worship other than the Atman. Thus, to know the real God, Self-realization is necessary. Self-realization is God realization. Self-realization itself is real worship.

Yajurveda says not to worship things that are part and parcel of the illusory universe.

Translation 1.

They enter darkness, those who worship natural things (for example, the 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 are 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."(Yajurveda 40:9.)

So, Yajur Veda indicates that if you worship non-Gods as Gods: ~

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 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.)

People who worship God based on blind belief are hallucinating that they become one with such God.

The religion of the Vedas knows no idols; therefore, the religion that indulges in idol worship has nothing to do with the Santana Dharma or Vedic religion.

Yajurveda – chapter- 32:~ God Supreme or 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.

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."

Therefore, there was no individual God or temples and worship in the Vedic religion, which existed prior to Buddhism, Jainism, and Hinduism. The individualized Gods and temples must have been built later on when the warships of the idol were introduced.

Thus, the Vedic religion, which existed in the past, was free from idol and nature worship and idol worshiping rituals. Hinduism and its non-Vedic beliefs, non-Vedic ritualistic practices, are full of superstition and dogmas, and have nothing to do with the Santana Dharma or Vedic Religion.

Thus, the present-day worship of religious Gods with form and attributes or created things, nature, and humans is against Vedic teachings, and it looks like it has been fabricated and introduced in the past by the founders of religion. Since it has passed on from one generation to the next, it is hard for the people to believe the truth of their own religion, because they have become sentimentally and emotionally involved in it, and they refuse to accept anything other than their inherited blind beliefs.

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.

The Bhagavad Gita: ~ 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)

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)

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

If you are seeking truth, then you have to discard all Gods based on blind belief to realize the Self.

The ‘Self’ is the invisible Soul, which is present in the form of consciousness.

Self-realization is Truth realization. Truth-realization is God-realization. God-realization is real worship. :~ Santthosh Kumaar