Brihadaranyaka Upanishad: ~ Brahman (God in truth) is present in 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)
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.
Rituals prayers and ceremonies of different religions and cults are not a tool for Self-realization. They keep one in the cage of ignorance.
Attachment to the rigid devotion to the religious beliefs of God limits one to think within the framework of the illusory division of form, time, and space.
Diverse beliefs of religion and its diverse idea of God create divisions between one religion and another. The rituals and ceremonies become an obstacle in realizing the religious God one believes and worships is not God in truth. Religion becomes an obstacle to realize the real God hidden by ignorance.
The seeker of truth is keener to realize the ‘Self hidden by the dualistic illusion. The seeker of truth has only one desire and longing — that of union with the Soul or God in truth.
A seeker is never entangled in with the religion, rituals, yoga and physical Gurus and never allows himself to be overpowered by any attachment emotions and sentiment
The rituals mentioned in the karmakanda of the Vedas are sought to be negated in the jnanakanda which is also part of the same scripture. While the karmakanda enjoins upon you the worship of various deities and lays down rules for the same, the jnanakanda constituted by the Upanishads ridicules the worshiper of deities as a dim-witted person no better than a beast.
This seems strange, the latter part of the Vedas contradicting the former part. The first part deals throughout with karma, while the second or concluding part is all about jnana. Owing to this difference, people have gone so far as to divide our scripture into two sections: the Vedas (that is, the first part) to mean the karmakanda and the Upanishads (Vedanta) to mean the jnanakanda.
Bhagavad Gita: ~ ‘All those whose intelligence has been stolen by material desires, they worship many Gods. (7- Verse -20)
Only the path of wisdom leads the seeker of truth on his journey to the ultimate realization of the true nature of the Universal Essence, which is the Soul, the ultimate truth, or Brahman or God in truth.
Bhagavad Gita: 7: 19:~ "Such a man who has attained true knowledge, the knowledge of Self, the knowledge of Atman, worships ‘Self’ as~ Atman (God) alone exists~ everything is Atman, there exists nothing except Atman. Such a man is extremely rare.
Even 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 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.
Religious Gods are based on blind belief. Belief is not God. Religious God cannot be considered as the cause of the universe because the Soul, the ‘Self’ is the cause of all that exists. Without the Soul the world in which you exist ceases to exist, it 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.
Rig Veda: ~ 'Prajnanam Brahma'- Consciousness is the ultimate reality or Brahman or God in truth.
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)
No mantras help to get rid of ignorance. All the mantras and rituals are meant for the ignorant populace, which strongly believes, 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.” Brahman must be experienced. 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 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.
As indicated in ISH Upanishads: ~ “By worshiping 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.
It clearly indicates that: -If the human goal is to acquire Self-Knowledge then why one has to indulge in rituals and glorifying the conceptual Gods, Goddesses, and Gurus to go into deeper darkness. Instead, spend that time moving forward towards Self-knowledge, which is one’s prime goal. :~Santthosh Kumaar
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