Bhagavad Gita: A man who has attained true knowledge worships God as~ Atman.+

Bhagavad Gita:~ All those whose intelligence has been stolen by material desires, they worship many Gods. (7- Verse -20)

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 apart.

Religious rites and rigid ceremonies were passed down from one generation to the next as a practice or set customs and tradition and performed automatically with blind faith. Such worship based on the belief in 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 God without knowing God in actuality holds the worshiper more firmly in the grip of ignorance.

All worship and the ceremonial rituals performed based on non-~Vedic Gods will not yield any fruits. Deeper self-search reveals the fact that the worshiper, the worship and the worshiper, and the world are mere illusions 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 all religious baggage to realize the Soul, the real God.

Sage Sankara says: ~ The scriptures dealing with rituals and rewards are therefore addressed to an ignorant person.

The Upanishads say in effect that: ~ If you believe that the ‘the Soul, the Self’ is one and God (Brahman) is another, you cannot understand Truth.

The religion preaches that God is one and the ways to God are many. It simply tries to lead them to darkness with its dogma and idea of many Gods, which is apart from the Self.

People all over the world in the past and present accepted the idea of the existence of God. The fear of God injected by the religion was the root cause of worship, superstitions, and dogmas. The religious belief is passed on to the populace from one generation to the next generation.

Realizing the single stuff of which this universe in which you exist is made, is Truth realization, or Self-realization, or God-realization. When the expression itself is illusory, then the evolution within the illusory expression is bound to be an illusion.

Thus, the evolution theory holds no water from the standpoint of the Soul, the Self. The belief system preaches that God is one and the ways to God are many. It simply tries to lead them to darkness with its dogma and idea of many Gods, which is apart from the Self.

When the Upanishad 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 should anyone indulge in it?

The religion, concept of individualized God, and scriptures are a great obstacle to Self-realization because they are based on a false self.

The seeker of truth has to search for the ultimate truth without losing himself in the labyrinths of philosophy, through deeper self-search, assimilate, and realize it.

Whatever is real in the world in which we exist is God. All that is real in the world in which we exist is the invisible Soul, the Self.

Thus, by realizing the Self, which is the Soul, we discover that the invisible Soul, which is present in the form of consciousness itself, is God, which is hidden by the ‘I’, which is the dualistic illusion.

Even the 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 the 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.

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

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)

The world in which you exist is a dualistic illusion created out of the ‘Self’, which is not you but the Soul, which is present in the form of consciousness. Whatever you have seen, known, believed, and experienced is within the dualistic illusion.

Thus, your existence is bound to an illusion created out of the consciousness, which is real and eternal. Like an ornament made from gold is Gold, that which is born out of consciousness is consciousness. Just as gold is a permanent thing, in ornaments made of gold, similarly, the mind, which is in the form of the universe, is born out of consciousness, is consciousness in its essence.

Many people follow both Bhakti and Jnana. Orthodox saints and poets in the past composed numerous hymns of various Gods and Goddesses by mixing both dual and nondualistic ideas.

Many sages used to illustrate that the formless (Nirakara God) ocean water under the cold currents of bhakti freezes take a shape as ice (Saakar God). The same ice (Saakar God) under the heat of Gnana dissolves and again becomes the formless ocean (Nirakara God).

All the orthodox Advaitins believe in God and Goddesses (vidya) and performing rituals and other sacrifices(Avidya), both are hindrances to ‘Self’-knowledge according to the Ish Upanishads, then why does the seeker of truth need worshipping of God and Goddesses, when the essence of Advaita is that Atman is Brahman (Soul is the ultimate truth or God).

Bhagavad Gita: 7: 19:~ "Such a man who has attained true knowledge, the knowledge of Self, the knowledge of Atman, worships Me as~ Atman alone exists~ everything is Atman, there exists nothing except Atman. Such a man is extremely rare."

Isa Upanishad~ 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 same time moving forward towards ‘Self’-knowledge, which is the main goal. One cannot reach the nondual destination by glorifying God and Goddesses, and by doing that, one goes deeper and deeper into darkness. It surely indicates the fact that the seeker of truth has to drop the worshiping of God and Goddess to get ‘Self’-knowledge or Brahma Gnana or Atma Gnana.

It also indicates that the religious rituals (Avidya) are Karma (action) and, therefore, a hindrance. Performing Agnihotra and other sacrifices (Avidya) is a roundabout way of purifying the mind, and it is also groping in the dark.

In addition, it indicates that karma is limited only to the religious rituals, not to the whole human life. This karma theory, based on human conduct, must have been adopted from Buddhism and other theories based on human conduct.

When it says: Perform the obligatory karmas without any attachment to the fruits and at the same time worship Gods and Goddesses, again without any desire to go to heaven, then you can get the benefit of both, liberation and bliss. For those who are not yet ready to renounce, this path is recommended; it means that the religion and its idea of God and Goddesses, its code of conduct, and its rituals are meant for the masses who are incapable of thinking of the beyond.

In addition, it also speaks of heaven, the abode of the gods, where one goes after death, and it speaks of rebirth. This contradiction, the seeker has to conclude that religion, rituals, God and its code of conduct are meant for the masses that are not receptive to ‘Self’-knowledge.

Sage Goudpada says: ~ The merciful Veda teaches karma and Upasana to people of lower and middling intellect, while jnana is taught to those of higher intellect.

So they clearly indicate that rituals and theories are not meant for those who are searching for higher knowledge or wisdom. The path of wisdom is the only means. : ~ Santthosh Kumaar