Religion is regarded as sacred and real by the common people, by the wise as false, and by the politicians as useful.
Religion has nothing to do with the ultimate truth of Brahman or God. the religion is based on the God based on blind belief. God based on blind belief is not God in truth.
If one is seeking the truth, then he has to be free from all religious beliefs and dogmas. Religion is based on the ego (you), whereas, the ultimate truth is based on the Soul, the Self.
Whatever is based on the ego is an illusion and whatever is based on the Soul is the ultimate reality or Brahman.
Thus, religion has to be bifurcated from spirituality to realize the truth beyond form, time, and space.
There is no use in condemning religion. But one has to highlight how they cause hindrance and become an obstacle in the pursuit of truth.
There is no need to rebel against religion but to realize that religion is based on the false self within the false experience whereas Spirituality or Adyathma is based on the Soul, the Self.
Religion makes humanity remain in ignorance of the reality of their true existence with its beliefs, superstitions, and dogmas, the ideas of heaven, hell, sin, karma, and rebirth.
Heaven is the abode of physicalized Gods, where one goes after death, rebirth, and karma theories based on the birth entity, which is the false self within the illusory world.
When Vedas and Upanishads give clear-cut ideas of what God is supposed to be then all these Gods and Goddesses that people worship have no value from the ultimate standpoint.
Those ignorant who believe their experience of birth, life, death, and the world as a reality, think that the effect of action done in previous births, as the Prarabdha in this birth, but for the realized one the present birth, life, death and the world itself is an illusion because they have realized that, waking experience itself is an illusion created out of the Soul, which is present in the form of consciousness.
Isa Upanishads indicate that: ~ worshipping 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 toward Self-knowledge, which is the main goal. One cannot reach the nondual destination by glorifying gods and goddesses and by doing that, one goes deeper and deeper into darkness. It surely indicates that the seeker of truth has to drop worshiping god and goddess to get Self-knowledge.
Sage Sankara says: ~ “The scriptures dealing with rituals, and rewards are therefore addressed to an ignorant person.
Sage Sankara:~ (11) As regards the rituals, Sage Sankara says, that 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 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, a 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
Sage Sankara: ~ Atman, the innermost Self is verily Brahman (God in truth), being equanimous, quiescent, and by nature absolute Existence, Knowledge, and Bliss. Atman is not the body which is non-existence itself. This is called true Knowledge by the wise. -Adhyasa Bhashya
Isa Upanishads: ~ Religious Rituals (Avidya) are Karma (action) and therefore a hindrance. Performing Agnihotra and other sacrifices (Avidya) is a roundabout way of purifying the mind, and it is also groping in the dark.
The Vedic karma is limited only to religious rituals, not to the whole human life. This karma theory based on human conduct must have been adopted from Buddhism and other theories based on human conduct.
When it says: Perform the obligatory karmas without any attachment to the fruits and at the same time worship Gods and Goddesses, again without any desire to go to heaven - then you can get the benefit of both, liberation and bliss. For those who are not yet ready to renounce, this path is recommended, it means that the religion and its idea of God and Goddesses code of conduct, and its rituals are meant for the masses who are incapable of thinking of the beyond.
If the ‘Self’ is not the body, then the karma theory has no meaning. From the standpoint of the Soul, the Self no second thing exists other than the Soul, which is present in the form of consciousness because the world in which we exist is an illusion created out of consciousness. Thus, whatever karma is performed by you within the world in which you exist has no value because the world in which you exist is an illusion.
Mundaka Upanishad says ~ “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.
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.
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)
Even Brihadaranyaka Upanishad: ~ Brahman (God in truth) is the form of the Athma, and it is indeed Athma itself.
Even the 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, that 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.
The 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)
No mantras help to get rid of ignorance. All the mantras and rituals are meant for the ignorant populace, which strongly believes, in 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. : ~Santthosh Kumaar
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