Sage Sankara pointed out those rituals could in no way bring about wisdom, much less Moksha.
If people have believed religious propagated myths thing over thousands of years, the length of time does not prove it true.
All the rituals based on Gods based on the blind belief will not yield any fruits. Rituals are meant for the ignorant people who are incapable of realizing God in truth.
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.
All the Puranic non-Vedic adulteration by dualist Sages has to be bifurcated from the Vedas to get the pure essence of Vedas. Dualist sages introduced non-Vedic Gods and rituals and a code of conduct in the name of Vedas. All the non-Vedic worships of Gods are barred by Vedas.
From Vedic perspective worshiping, such non-~Vedic Gods is superstition.
Swami Vivekananda: ~ “If superstition enters, the brain is gone. Superstition is our great enemy, but bigotry is worse.
Sage Sankara:~ VC 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 (verses-6)
The seeker of truth must know the difference between the ordinary concept of God and truth about God. The seeker is not concerned with the ordinary concept of God but he is only concerned with the truth of God.
Bhagavad Gita: ~ “All those whose intelligence has been stolen by material desires, they worship many gods. (7- Verse -20)
Even The Bhagavad Gita says: ~ ‘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.
Yajur Veda – 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.
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)
Rig Veda: ~ 'Prajnanam Brahma'- Consciousness is the ultimate reality or Brahman or God in truth.
Consciousness is Brahman or God in truth, Consciousness is formless, timeless, and spaceless existence.
Consciousness is nothing but Athma. Athma is unborn, endless, unchangeable, beginning-less, unequaled Athma is the cause and support of all that exists as this universe.
Sage Sankara’s supreme Brahman (God) is Nirguna (without the Gunas), Nirakara (formless), Nirvisesha (without attributes), and Akarta (non-agent).
Brihadaranyaka Upanishad: ~ Brahman (God) is present in the form of the Athma, and it is indeed Athma itself’.
Thus, it refers to formless and attributeless God, which is the Atman (Soul), the innermost ‘Self’ within the false experience. Thus, it indicates clearly all the Gods with form and attributes are mere imagination based on the false ‘Self’. Thus Atman or Soul, the ‘Self’ is God in truth.
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 Jainism. 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)
Swami Vivekananda: ~ “The masses in India cry to sixty million gods, and still die like dogs. Where are these gods?
Kabir: ~ “There is nothing but water in the holy pools. I know, I have been swimming there. All the Gods sculpted of wood or ivory can’t say a word. I know, I have been crying out to them. The Sacred Books of the East are nothing but words. I looked through their covers one day sideways. What Kabir talks of is only what he has lived through. If you have not lived through something, it is not true.
The real purpose of the scriptures, Sage Sankara said, was to describe the reality as it is. Sage Sankara rejected the Mimamsa view and argued that scripture was not mandatory in character, at least where it concerned the pursuit of wisdom. Upanishads, he remarked, dealt with Brahman and that Brahman could not be a subject matter of injunction and prohibitions.
Sage Sankara strongly advocated the study of Upanishads and at the same time cautioned that the study of Upanishads alone would not lead to moksha. In matters of such as the spiritual attainment, one’s own experience was the sole authority and it cannot be disputed.
Sage Sankara also said the study of Upanishad was neither indispensable nor a necessary prerequisite for attaining the human goal, the moksha.
Sage Sankara pointed out; even those who were outside the Upanishad fold were as eligible to moksha as those within the fold were.
Sage Sankara declared that all beings are Brahman, and therefore the question of discrimination did not arise. All that one was required to do was to get rid of Avidya (duality).
Sage Sankara pointed out those rituals could in no way bring about wisdom, much less moksha.
Sage Sankara asserted, while the rewards of the rituals were not the matter of direct realization, wisdom which is the fruit of Vedanta is based on immediate and personal realization; one need not have to wait for the reward nor one be in doubt whether the reward would or would not come.
This was in sharp contrast to the position taken by Mimamsakas who asserted that rituals alone would lead one to higher levels of attainment. Further, the deities would reward only those entitled to perform the rituals alone. The entitlement involved the caste, creed, and other parameters.
Most of the ideas that Sage Sankara rejected came back to the Advaita fold and the Mimamsa position with regard to the scriptural authority and value of rituals became a part of the Advaita posture.
The wisdom –oriented teachings of Sage Sankara became as much a face of Advaita as the rituals, worships, and other practices. There was, therefore, an obvious disparity between what Sage Sankara idealized, and what his followers, even the elite, practiced.
Sage Sankara says:~ The scriptures dealing with rituals, rewards are therefore addressed to an ignorant person. Thus, the rituals are meant for ignorant people.
Sage Sankara: ~ "Though I wear these robes of a Sanyasin, it is only for the sake of bread."
- “This shows he was wearing religious robe only for the sake of bread." Thus, it means those who are wearing religious robe for the sake of bread.
All the rituals based on the false belief of Gods will not yield any fruits and they are meant for the ignorant populace who are unable to grasp the God beyond the form, time, and space.
One of Sage Sankara’s missions was to wean people away from a ritualistic approach advocated by Mimamsakas and to project Advaitic wisdom as the means of liberation in the light of Upanishad teachings.
Sage Sankara criticized severely the ritualistic attitude and those who advocated such practices. However, the orthodox texts that combined rituals with wisdom (jnana_karma_samucchaya) more in favor of the Mimamsaka position came into vogue, projecting Sage Sankara as the rallying force of the doctrine.
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 the Self with the body is a confusing one for the other; and is, therefore, an ignorant person. The scriptures dealing with rituals, rewards, etc. are therefore addressed to an ignorant person. -Adhyasa Bhashya
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, the 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
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.
No religious God can exist, apart from consciousness. People are not aware of the fact that there is no individual God can exist, apart from Soul, which is in the form of consciousness.
Thus, the Soul is the Self. If there is no consciousness, then there is no physical body, no ego, no universe, no religion, and no persoanl Gods. : ~ Santthosh Kumaar
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