Self-knowledge or Brahma Gnana or Atma Gnana is not the knowledge of religion and religious Gods. Religion its religious Gods are nothing to do with Self-knowledge or Brahma Gnana or Atma Gnana.
Self-knowledge or Brahma Gnana or Atma Gnana knowledge of the Spirit, the real God, hidden by the ‘I’, which is ignorance.
Isa Upanishads indicates that: ~“ By worshiping 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 the same time moving forward towards Self-knowledge, which is the main goal. One cannot reach the non-dual 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 God and Goddess in order to get Self-knowledge.
Ish Upanishad:~ "Those people who have neglected the attainment of Self-knowledge and have thus committed suicide.
10/11/12
Those people who have neglected the attainment of Self-knowledge and have thus committed suicide, as it were, are doomed to enter those worlds after death.
This is a condemnation of people who do not try to attain Self-knowledge. They are, in a real sense, committing suicide, for what can be worse than being a slave to sense enjoyment, completely oblivious of the real purpose of life, which is to be one’s, own master?
Ish Upanishads:-
MANTRA 10
Vidya and Avidya both are hindrances to Self-knowledge, but Vidya is even worse than Avidya. The word Vidya is used here in a special sense; here it means worshiping Gods and Goddesses. 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.
Avidya is Karma and therefore a hindrance. You perform Avidya - i.e., you perform Agnihotra and other sacrifices. This is a roundabout way of purifying the mind, and it is also groping in the dark. But it may not have as heavy a toll on your time and energy as the other.
Ishopanishad: ~ “They are steeped in ignorance and sunk into the greatest depth of misery who worships the matter, instead of the All-Pervading God and those who worship things born of matter like trees, animals, man, etc. are sunk deeper in misery.”
It is necessary for the seeker to do his homework, and verify the validity of all the claims, rather than blindly believe, what others expound as knowledge, till; the un-contradicted truth is obtained.
People are being conditioned by the religious myth which has made them a non-thinker. People need to come out of the religious myth by realizing God in truth.
Max Müller says: ~ “The religion of the Veda knows no idols; the worship of idols in India is a secondary formation, a degradation of the more primitive worship of ideal Gods.”
Rig Veda: ~ 'Prajnanam Brahma' - Consciousness is the ultimate reality or Brahman or God in truth.
God in truth is the Atman, the Self. Atman is present in the form of consciousness.
Do not accept any other God other than Atman not worship other than Atman, which is ever nondual.
Let these words be inscribed in your subconscious.
Rig Veda: ~ The Atman (Soul or Spirit) 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 Vedas as a body of scripture contain many contradictions, and they are fragmentary in nature. For Hindus, scriptures like the Bhagavad-Gita, Ramayana, Mahabharata, and Puranas are more attractive and appealing than the Vedas. And also the Gods and Goddesses they worship differ considerably from the Vedic ones. The collection of hymns called Vedas written in praise of certain deities by poets over several centuries does not seem to have much significance for the Hindus.
Prohibition of idol worship in Yajurveda: ~
They enter darkness, those who worship natural things (for example air, water, sun, moon, animals, fire, stone, etc.).
They sink deeper in darkness, those who worship sambhuti. (Sambhuti means created things, for example, table, chair, idol, etc.) (Yajurveda 40:9)
"Deep into the shade of blinding gloom fall asambhuti's worshipers. They sink to darkness deeper yet who on sambhuti are intent."(Yajurveda Samhita by Ralph T. H. Griffith, pg. 538)
"They are enveloped in darkness, in other words, are steeped in ignorance and sunk in the greatest depths of misery who worship the uncreated, eternal prakrti -- the material cause of the world -- in place of the All-pervading God, But 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." (Yajur Veda 40:9.)
So, Yajur Veda indicates that:~
Those who worship created things or visible things such as the idols earth, trees, and bodies (human and the like) in place of God are enveloped in ignorance are extremely foolish, fall into an awful hell of pain and sorrow, and suffer terribly for a long time.
Why worship and glorify the non-Vedic Gods in place of Vedic God when Veda bars such activities.
Vedic God is Atman God is the cause of the illusory universe. The illusory universe ceases to exist as a reality when Advaitic wisdom dawns.
Bhagavad Gita:~ “All those whose intelligence has been stolen by material desires, they worship many Gods. (7- Verse -20)
Brihadaranyaka Upanishad: ~ Brahman (God in truth) is the form of the Athma, and it is indeed Athma itself’. Thus, it refers to a formless and attributeless God, which is the Atman (Soul), the ‘Self’ within the false experience. Thus, it indicates clearly all the Gods with form and attributes are mere imaginations 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’ 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 imaginations based on the false ‘Self’.
Brihadaranyaka Upanishad: "He who worships the deities as entities entirely separate from the Self does not know the truth. For the Gods, he is like a pasu (beast)." (1. 4. 10)
Sage Sankara’s Supreme Brahman God in truth is impersonal, Nirguna (without Gunas or attributes), Nirakara (formless), Nirvisesha (without special characteristics), immutable, eternal and Akarta (non-agent). It is above all needs and desires. It is always the Witnessing Subject. It can never become an object, as it is beyond the reach of the senses. Brahman is non-dual, one without a second. It has no other beside it. It is destitute of difference, either external or internal. Brahman cannot be described because the description implies distinction. Brahman cannot be distinguished from any other than It. In Brahman, there is not a distinction between substance and attribute. Sat-Chit-Ananda constitutes the very essence or Svarupa of Brahman, and not just Its attributes. The Nirguna Brahman of Sage Sankara is impersonal
Thus, it refers to formless and attributeless God, which is the Atman (Soul), the ‘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. :~Santthosh Kumaar
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