If people have believed in religious propagated myths over thousands of years, the length of time does not prove it true.
What God is like? God is the formless, timeless and spaceless existence. According to the Vedas, God neither has any image nor God resides in any particular idol or statue. God cannot be seen directly by anyone. God pervades all beings and all directions.
People, who worship religious Gods based on blind faith or blind belief, are hallucinating that they become one with such God.
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.
People, who worship Gods based on blind faith or blind belief, are hallucinating that they become one with such God
Rig Veda: ~ 'Prajnanam Brahma'- Consciousness is the ultimate reality or Brahman or God in truth.
Do not accept any other truth other than the 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: ~ 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)
Yajur Veda indicates that: ~ They sink deeper in darkness, those who worship sambhuti. (Sambhuti means created things, for example, table, chair, idol etc. - (Yajurved 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.)
Brihadaranyaka Upanishad: ~ Brahman (God in truth) is the form of the Athma, and it is indeed Athma itself.
When Upanishads and Vedas declare that, “God is the form of the Athma, and it is indeed Athma itself then why to accept another God in place of the Atman or worship other than the Atman.
People, who worship the belief of God, are hallucinating that they become one with such God.
Some scholars believe that Lord Krishna has been just a Mahan yogi and not God himself. Hinduism is not Vedic religion or Santana Dharma.
Bhagavad Gita: 7: 19:~ "Such a man who has attained Self-knowledge, realized Atman which is the Self is God in truth. Atman alone exists~ everything is Atman, there exists nothing except Atman.
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)
The Hindus believed in polytheism, believing all of their God s to be separate individuals, which were introduced much later by the founders of Hinduism which contains diverse beliefs of caste and creed.
When the religion of the Veda knows no idols, then why so many God s and Goddesses with different form and name are being propagated as Vedic God s. Why these conceptual God s are introduced when the Vedic concept of God is free from form and attributes.
Hindus do idol-worship, while Vedas bars idol worship. According to Vedas, the God pervades in everything and everywhere.
To be considered an orthodox Hindu one need only accept the authority of Shruti, however, there is no universal agreement among Hindus what constitutes Shruti. Vedantins consider the Vedanta, i.e., the Upanishads as Shruti, but also include the Bhagavad-Gita and Brahma Sutras as authoritative. For some Vaishnavas, the Bhagavata Purana is to be considered Veda. Some consider the Tantras are considered Veda. Thus, we find that there is ample scope for different philosophies and practices under the very broad umbrella of Hinduism. And all Hindus indulge in non-Vedic practices barred by the Vedas, introduced by the different founders of the different sects of Hinduism.
Avatara (‘descent’) of God s, caste system, were absent in the Vedic religion. Only when the Vedic religion with its own as a distinct with its own sacred texts, rites, rules of social life, beliefs and practices without interlinking it with Hinduism the true essence of Vedas will be revealed.
The vast ocean of the Vedic Religion or Santana Dharma was consistently steady and calm for a very long period. It appears that as a consequence of the rage of Buddhist revolution, it got suddenly disturbed and flowed down to us in disorder. Even today, Vedic Religion or Santana Dharma has not recovered from the onslaught of Buddhism and Jainism and is not able to settle in people's heart in its original form in the same old measure.
The Buddhist influence is seen in a great measure in the Vedic philosophy, which is followed by the majority of Indians. Thus, it is clear that Vedic Religion or Santana Dharma has not retained its original form, but been influenced by other religions has undergone a sea change. Thus, the influence of Buddhism on Santana Dharma is extraordinary. Even Kumarila Bhatta, who fought with great heroism for the revival of Vedic religion, was so much influenced by Buddhism that he established for the first time in the country, an atheist Vedic Religion or Santana Dharma. There is no room for any doubt to assert that the Kumarila Bhatta School was influenced by the atheist Buddhism because the school which is based on the validity of the Vedas and rituals refutes the existence of God.
Sage Sankara endeavored towards establishing Vedic religion, overthrowing Buddhism. But even he was not able to avoid the influence of Buddhism. The influence of the revolutionary atmosphere of Buddhism has reappeared in the Advaita of Sage Sankara. His inability to revive Vedic religion that flourished before the Buddhist revolution in its pure form is discernible.
Many thinkers since his time have said about Sage Sankara that he made use of many important tenets of Buddhism and presented to the people the very Buddhism in the guise of Vedic religion. Though the Vedic religion represented by Sage Sankara is, like, a conglomeration of many things, he deserves the credit of having turned the Hindu mind which was once averse to Vedas -the root of Hinduism, towards the Vedas once again. For this, the followers of the Vedic religion should be grateful to Sage Sankara.
The brilliance shown by Sage Sankara, a man of wonderful genius and an extraordinary dialectician is really a great spectacle in history. In his time, there was a severe conflict between Buddhism and the atheist Vedic religion of Kumarila Bhatta. Utilizing this opportunity, Sage Sankara intervened in the conflict and making use of some concepts and methodology of both the Kumarila Bhatta School and Buddhism presented a new coalition religion before people.
Sage Sankara gave an extraordinary charisma to this religion with the help of his methods of logic and style of exposition. Its influence was so much that both the Bhatta School and Buddhism had to flee from India without leaving a trace. The absence, even today, of a single follower of the Kumarila Bhatta School as well as of Buddhism, is a proof enough for the great achievement of Sage Sankara. This indeed is a historical miracle.
One can see in the Vedic religion expounded by Sage Sankara a different version of the Kumarila Bhatta School and Buddhism. That is why the tradition of following Kumarila Bhatta methodology in expounding the Advaita thought at the empirical level gained ground in the Advaita School.
Different types of the methodology of Buddhism were absorbed into the Advaita thought, of course, under new labels. There is a very clear similarity between the Vedic religion of Sage Sankara and Buddhism and the Advaita School have given the world a common message. The essence of both the schools is:-
The whole world which one perceives is illusionary; it is just an appearance of unreality, and there is only one indeterminate and attributeless Sat at the root of this world". The whole world which one perceives is illusionary; it is just an appearance of unreality, and there is only one indeterminate and attributeless Sat at the root of this world". :~Santthosh Kumaar
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