The diverse rituals and ceremonies are based on the mythical God, keep the Soul, the Self in the cage of ignorance.+

Rituals are in the sphere of duality and are unnecessary to one who knows God in truth. 

Sage Sankara pointed out those rituals could in no way bring about wisdom, much less Moksha.  

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 ceremonies rituals performed on the base of non-~Vedic Gods will not yield any fruits.

Deeper self-search reveals the fact that worshiped, 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, rewards are therefore addressed to an ignorant person.

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, 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 Self with the body is confusing one for the other; and is, therefore, an ignorant person. — Adhyasa Bhashya

The scriptures dealing with rituals, rewards etc. are therefore addressed to an ignorant person.

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, 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 Self is verily Brahman (God in truth), 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.

From Vedic perspective, the mythical Gods are not God in truth. Mythical Gods are a myth. Blind faith in mythical God is superstition. Mythical Gods based forms and attributes.

Sage Sankara himself the Saguna Brahman or a personal God is only a part of the phenomenal (if not illusory) of the world, and the Nirguna Brahman is the only reality and has nothing to do with religion.

God in truth is universal. God in truth is independent of religion. The diverse rituals and ceremonies are based on the mythical Gods to keep the Soul in the cage of ignorance.

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 Jains. 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’.

Brihadaranyaka Upanishad:~ "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)

The mythical Gods are myth, not God in truth. All the mythical Gods are non-~Vedic Gods. Believing, worshiping non-Vedic Gods causes the suffering. Vedic God is spiritual.

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.

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 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.)

Then why worship and glorify the mythical Gods in place of God when Veda bars such activities, and it also warns people who indulge in such activities 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: ~ 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."

Rig Veda:~The Vedas exclaim from time immemorial, Ekam Sat Vipra Bahudha Vadanti. - 1-164-146.

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

Do not accept any other truth other than consciousness. Consciousness is the ultimate truth, Nothing is real but consciousness. Nothing matters but to realize the ultimate truth. Consciousness is everywhere and in everything. Let these words be inscribed in your subconscious.

Rig-Veda 1-164-46 and Y.V 32-1 clearly mention that God is “One”. And never accept another God in place of the Atman nor worship other than the Atman

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

Brihad Upanishad: ~ “If you think there is another entity, whether man or God, there is no truth.”

Attachment to the belief of mythical Gods and rituals is the attachment to ignorance. Attachment to ignorance is the attachment to the myth as truth. All mythical Gods and its rituals are not of the Vedic origin.

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

All the beliefs based Gods of all belief system have no universality in their belief of God. Thus, diverse beliefs create divisions between one religion and another. Therefore, the rituals and ceremonies keep the populace permanently in the prison of ignorance.

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 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.)

Then why worship and glorify the mythical Gods in place of God when Veda bars such activities, and it also warns people who indulge in such activities 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.

God in truth exists prior to the form, time, and space. The form, time, and space ceases to exist as a reality when wisdom dawns. Thus, the mythical Gods have no place in the domain of the Advaitic reality. Advaita is the nature of the Soul, which is God in truth. Self-realization is the only way to God -realization.

It is necessary for everyone to know what God supposed to be in truth according to their own scriptures.

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).

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.

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 dualistic worship of "God” is only for the ignorant populace. The God in truth is only Atman, the ‘Self’. In reality, there is no duality, no differentiation. Only Atman exists.

God in truth is not a part, but God is whole. God pervades in everything and everywhere in the universe because the universe is nothing but an illusion. Seeing God as the part is ignorance.

Bible says: ~ “God is a Spirit, and they that worship God must worship God in spirit and in truth. ~ (John 4:24)

The Spirit is the root element of the universe. The Spirit is present in the form of the Soul, the Self. The Soul is present in the form of consciousness. From the Spirit, the universe comes into existence. In the Spirit, the universe resides. And into the Spirit, the universe is dissolved. The Spirit is the parent of all that is there is.

The truth seeker is, therefore, keener about to realize the truth rather than blindly believe what is propagated in their belief system as truth.

God is based on the truth, not on the blind belief. The inner longing to realize the truth of our true existence annihilates all desires, keeping only one desire and longing – that of union with the ultimate truth or Brahman or God in truth. : ~ Santthosh Kumaar