Religion makes people stick to false beliefs, dogmas, and superstition.+

Religion advocates extreme asceticism. Asceticism is a waste of time. Religion makes people stick to false beliefs, dogmas, and superstition.

Mundaka Upanishad: ~“The rituals and the sacrifices described in the Vedas deal with lower knowledge. The Sages ignored these rituals and went in search of higher knowledge. ... Such rituals are unsafe rafts for crossing the sea of samsara, of birth and death. Doomed to shipwreck are those who try to cross the sea of Samsara on these poor rafts. Ignorant of their own ignorance, yet wise in their own esteem, these deluded men Proud of their vain learning go round and round Like the blind led by the blind.

Sage Sankara says: ~ The scriptures dealing with rituals, and rewards are therefore addressed to an ignorant person. Thus, the rituals are meant for ignorant people.

Upanishad says: ~ The human goal is to acquire Self-Knowledge and they indicate the personal Gods, scriptures, worship, and rituals are not the means to Self –Knowledge or Brahma Gnana or Athma Gnana, then why anyone should indulge in it. The religion, concept of individualized God, and belief in physical Guru scriptures are a great obstacle to Self-realization because they are based on false self.

The seeker of truth has to search for the ultimate truth without losing himself in the labyrinths of philosophy, through deeper self-search, and assimilate and realize it.

That is why Sage Sankara, indicated in Bhaja Govindam says: ~ (Jnana Viheena Sarva Mathena Bajathi na Muktim janma Shatena) - one without knowledge does not obtain liberation even in a hundred births, no matter which religious faith he follows.

Then it is no use going a roundabout way, trace the Brahman which is the formless substance and witness of the universe, which is in the form of mind. By tracing the source of the mind or universe one will be able to realize the Brahman.

The religion has become merely a matter of rituals, glorifying false Gods as real God and ceremonies and individual conduct, it has become a prison for the Soul, the Self.

People are making unlimited sacrifices and enduring unlimited suffering in the name of protecting their religion and religious God. They are therefore ignorant about the truth and incapable of understanding the ultimate truth, which is the universal God. All organized religions have unequivocally claimed man for life in the truth; thus it is sheer folly to fight in the name of religion and God.

It is high time that humanity had a fresh vision of truth that the mind, which is present in the form of the universe, is a myth and the consciousness is real and eternal.

On the base of consciousness as Self, the physical life is a vain and empty pursuit of illusory values.

Parental grooming is the main cause of religious influence upon the mass mindset and it cannot be wiped out without knowing the truth of one’s true existence. Thus, teaching children to view and judge everything from the religious point of view of their parents, warps the minds and destroys the capacity to think beyond the belief system of their grooming.

People who are yearning for spiritual truth will not find what they are seeking in religion and yoga. Religious truth is individual truth and it is not universal truth because religion is based on individuality.

The Atmic path is not the religious and yogic path. The Atmic path is nothing to do with religion and yoga.

There is no need to walk in the mountains in search of the truth.

There is no need to meet any Gurus.

There is no need to renounce family life.

There is no need to study the scriptures.

There is no need to glorify the Gurus.

There is a need to spend a fortune to please the Gurus.

Going to the mountains, searching for a Guru, renouncing the family life, studying the scriptures, and glorifying the personal Gods and Gurus are the greatest obstacle for Self-realization.

One need not be a monk, a sanyasi, or a swami to acquire Self-knowledge or Brahma Gnana or Athma Gnana. Religious rituals' scriptural mastery is not a qualification to acquire Self-knowledge or Brahma Gnana or Athma Gnana. Monkhood and sannyasa are great obstacles to Self-realization.

Guru, Swami, Yogi, and Sadhu belong to religious paths. Religious paths are paths meant for the ignorant who blindly accept their experience the birth, life, death, and the world as a reality because the universe is the product of ignorance.

When the Advaitic wisdom dawns then the unreal nature of the world in which you exist is exposed. Thus, whatever experiences take place within the world in which you exist is bound to be a falsehood.

The Guru, Swami, Yogi, and Sadhu, have nothing to do with the ultimate truth or Brahman because they are based on the false self (ego), and false experience (waking). The Path of wisdom is only for those who are seriously in search of ultimate truth or Brahman. Self-knowledge or Brahma Gnana is the mother of all knowledge

Some are intoxicated with the theory of karma; some are with the theory of cause and effect, some with love alone, some with humanism, some with service, and some with the rituals, and worship, some with glorifying and surrendering to the guru, some with their logical and intellectual conclusions, some with their orthodoxy and some with their Yogic Samadhi. But all these are the biggest hindrances, not the qualification to acquire Advaitic wisdom.

It is a waste of time to convince these people because they have already accepted something else as truth.

Thus, they will not have any urge to know the ultimate truth. Therefore, it is no use discussing with such a crowd and it is better to avoid such a mindset if one seriously seeking the truth.

First Mundaka - Chapter 2 (10): ~ Ignorant fools, regarding sacrifices and humanitarian works as the highest, do not know any higher good. Having enjoyed their reward on the heights of heaven, gained by good works, they enter again this world or a lower one.

It is high time to stop judging who is right and who is wrong in this unreal world and instead spend the same time acquiring Self-knowledge or Brahma Gnana or Athma Gnana to realize the world (Samsara) is unreal the Brahman alone is real.

According to Advaita Vedanta, the Veda addresses itself to two kinds of audiences - the ordinary ones who desire the transitory heaven and other pleasures obtained as a result of ritual sacrifices, and the most advanced seeker, who seeks to know Brahman.

Thus, the purva mimam. sa, with its emphasis on the karma kanda of the Vedas, is meant for the first audience, to help lead its followers along the way. However, the Vedanta, with its emphasis on the jnana kanda, is meant for those who wish to go beyond such transient pleasures.

The orthodox people are ordinary people. Thus, the ordinary ones who desire the transitory heaven and other pleasures are obtained as a result of ritual sacrifices. The karma kanda of the Vedas is meant for the ordinary audience, to help lead its followers along the way.

A modern mindset is more advanced and capable of reasoning and discriminating. Thus, the modern mindset is the most advanced which seeks to know the ultimate truth or Brahman.

It is high time for highly educated religious people to realize their religious path was meant for the ignorant in the past, therefore, it is outdated and not suited for the modern mindset.

Sage Sankara’s Advaitic wisdom is most suited for the modern mindset. The orthodox religious Advaitic path has nothing to do with the ultimate truth or Brahman or God in truth.

Thus, getting stuck with the religious path is getting stuck with duality.

Getting stuck with duality is getting stuck with falsehood.

Getting stuck with the falsehood is accepting the experience of birth, life, death, and the world as a reality.

Thus, the people who want freedom or Moksha right here right now in this very life and in this very world must follow the path of wisdom or Soulcentric reason.

Religion is the path of ignorance because it holds the illusory experience of birth, life, death, and the world as a reality.

It is high time to stop judging who is right and who is wrong in this unreal world instead one has to spend the same time acquiring Self-knowledge or Brahma Gnana or Athma Gnana by realizing ‘what is real’ and ‘what is unreal’.: ~Santthosh Kumaar