Until you discard religion you will never be able to realize the Advaitic truth, which is hidden by dualistic illusion or Maya.+

People in India identify Advaita and Dvaita as their religious traditions inherited from their ancestors. No one questions their validity because it is considered blasphemy to question their religion, their Guru, and Godmen or the pundits.

The Advaitic wisdom of Sage Sankara is pure spirituality. Advaitic wisdom has nothing to do with religion yoga and philosophies. All Advaitic teachings of the Gurus of the east and west are not Advaitic wisdom of Sage Sankara.

Advaita is universal. Advaita is the nature of the Soul, the Self. The world in which you exist is created out of single stuff. That single stuff is consciousness. Knowledge of the single stuff is Advaitic wisdom.

Advaitic truth is very simple, but it is very difficult to realize because you have accumulated mental garbage from different sources in the name of Advaita.

Until you discard religion you will never be able to realize the Advaitic truth, which is hidden by dualistic illusion or Maya.

The Advaita is the nature of the Soul, the Self shines in its own awareness when wisdom dawns.

The Advaita is the Soul is the cause and the support of all that exists as the world in which we exist. Advaita is the nature of God, the Self.

The Advaita is present in the form of consciousness. Advaita is the root element of the universe. From the Advaita, the universe comes into existence. In the Advaita, the universe resides. And into the Advaita, the universe is dissolved. The Advaita is the parent of all that is there.

People who are attached to their religious code of conduct and trying to preach Advaita, that is mixing the individual life, and the concept of God and all mixed up hotchpotch religious doctrine and feed the seeking people are themselves not aware of the fact that the individuality and their worldly life is part of the illusion.

Religion is based on the blind belief as truth whereas Spirituality or Adyathma is based on the Athma the ultimate truth or Brahman.

Religion should be discarded to realize the real God hidden by ignorance. Religion is regarded as sacred and real by the common people, by the wise as false, and by the political class as useful.

Religion preaches that God is one and the ways to God are many. It simply tries to lead them to darkness with its dogma and idea of many Gods, which are apart from the Self.

Religion is based on the false self (ego) and false experience (world) thus; all religious beliefs are falsehoods.

Everyone likes religion because it belongs to the world of sentiments and emotions. Religion changes as it appeals to different emotions. One will find at one pole the nude Sadhu is admired; at the other, the gorgeous life-styled Godman is revered. Belief in religious prohibitions arises out of fear of God's punishment.

The man himself suggests that there must be a God. It is an auto-suggestion. To say that one knows God exists always implies he must also exist always. It would be correct to say at this point, he does not know about the existence of God because God's existence depends on the individualized belief

People magnify every minor coincidence or every petty fact where yogis or Good men were concerned, and they see the miraculous or esoteric significance therein.

Religion is “believers Truth”; spirituality is “Truth for the seeker of truth.” This means a believer takes his feeling of truth whereas the seeker of truth takes his reasoned judgment, which will be the same under test everywhere in the universe.

The position of the seeker of truth is this: he has not seen God. He does not know his capacities, what God can do, and what God cannot do. Therefore any statement he might make about God would only be a lie.

The seeker of truth does not wish to tell a lie. Therefore he does not accept God nor deny Him; he simply refuses to make any statement about God.

Each sect concocts a God to suit its own purposes. Belief in such concocted Gods is a great hindrance in the pursuit of truth. The man himself suggests that there must be a God. It is an auto-suggestion. Prayers and sacrifices belong to a premature stage of development. When no answers come to prayers to God based on blind belief, then doubt arises about the existence of such God. Belief in religion weakens as the man pays more attention to the facts of his practical life within the practical world.

People who argue that truth is only in their religion are vain logicians based on mere ideas and imaginations. Religions that say "If one follows the religion they will go to heaven, while others “go to hell," are stories invented on the base of false Self within the false experience.

Religious truth is not the ultimate truth because it always shows a contradiction. A contradiction arises because a different person's interpretation may disagree with others.

Remember:~

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 tools 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 are not God in truth. Religion becomes an obstacle to realizing 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 with 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 worshipper 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.

Sage Sankara:~ 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

Remember:~

Religious Gods are based on blind belief. Belief is not God. Religious God cannot be considered as the center because the Soul, the ‘Self’ is the center 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.

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.

Even Brihadaranyaka Upanishad: ~ Brahman (God in truth) is present in the form of the Athma, and it is indeed Athma itself.

Religious Gods are based on blind faith. Religious God cannot be considered as the center because the Soul, the innermost ‘Self’ is the center 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.

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)

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)

No mantras help to get rid of ignorance. All the mantras and rituals are meant for the ignorant populace, which strongly believes, that 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 worshipping 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 glorify 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