The Soul, the Self is God in truth. God in truth is Self-evident. God is not established by extraneous proofs.+

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

Religious Gods are based on blind belief. Religious God cannot be considered as the cause of the universe because the Soul the ‘Self’ is the cause of the the universe. Without the Soul, the world in which you exist ceases to exist,.

The religious God exists only when the world in which you exist is present. The religious Gods are dependent on the world for existence.

The world in which you exist is dependent on the Soul, the Self for its existence. The Soul, which is present in the form of consciousness is the ultimate truth of God in truth.

Bhagavad Gita Chapter: ~ “All those whose intelligence has been stolen by material desires, they worship many Gods. (7- Verse -20)

Humanity has to awaken to the reality of its true existence by realizing the world in which humanity exists is merely an illusion created out of consciousness through Self-knowledge or Brahma Gnana or Atma Gnana.

Self-knowledge or Brahma Gnana or Atma Gnana frees the Soul, the innermost Self from the cage of the dualistic illusion.

Sage Sankara says: ~ VC-162- There is no liberation for a person of mere book knowledge, howsoever well-read in the philosophy of Vedanta, so long as one does not give up the false identification with the body, sense organs, etc., which are unreal.

People dwelling in ignorance, but thinking themselves wise and erudite hold various religious blind beliefs, dogmas, and superstitions as a reality and follow them blindly like the blind led by the blind.

The belief system 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 religion-based beliefs are falsehoods.

Santana Dharma or Vedic religion is pure spirituality because it is based on the Soul, the Spirit whereas all other religions are based on matter-based belief.

Yajurveda – chapter- 32: - God is the Supreme Spirit and has no ‘Pratima’ (idol) or material shape. He cannot be seen directly by anyone. He pervades all beings and all directions.

Thus, Idolatry does not find any support from the Vedas.

The Vedas as a body of scripture contain many contradictions and they are fragmentary in its nature. For Hindus, scriptures like the Bhagavad Gita, Ramayana, Mahabharata, and Puranas are more attractive and appealing than the Vedas. 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

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)

It is very much necessary for people to know what God is supposed to be according to their scriptures and the Sage of Truth.

Sage Sankara says God is impersonal.

Brahman - The One without a Second:

The Atman is Brahman or God in truth. That is the Soul, which is present in the form of the consciousness is the ultimate truth or Brahman or God in truth.

The Soul, the Self is God in truth. God in truth is Self-evident. God is not established by extraneous proofs.

The Soul, the God in truth is the basis of all kinds of knowledge, presuppositions, and proofs. God in truth is hidden by the illusory universe or Maya. God is without the illusory universe or Maya.

God is not an object because God is the subject. God is beyond the reach of the eyes. Hence, the Upanishads declare: “Neti Neti—not this, not this....” This does not mean that Brahman is a negative concept, or a metaphysical abstraction, or a nonentity, or a void. It is not another. It is all-full, infinite, changeless, Self-existent, Self-delight, Self-knowledge and Self-awareness.

Sage Sankara’s Supreme Brahman 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 besides it. It is destitute of difference, either external or internal. Brahman cannot be described because description implies a distinction. Brahman cannot be distinguished from any other than It. In Brahman, there is no 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.

The Advaitic wisdom is free from all dogmas and superstitions. With orthodox people trying to impose their orthodox ideas on their children staying in the ‘Self’-imposed prison of orthodoxy, without realizing the fact that, they, themselves are on the wrong path and they think they are on the right path to Moksha. It is time to know the truth of their own inherited religion is full of adulteration with activities barred by Vedas. Why one should indulge in non-Vedic activities when they hold Vedas as the ultimate authority.

The orthodox must remember that for all periods the Vedas are the final goal and authority, and the Puranic Gods are non-~Vedic. Non-Vedic Gods and their worship barred by Vedas the Puranas differ from the Vedas; the Puranas are to be rejected without mercy.

Puranic Gods are not God in truth. God with forms and names and attributes is not God in truth.

Lord Krishna himself 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.

The dualistic worship of "God” is only for the ignorant populace. The God in truth is only Atman, the innermost Self. In reality, there is no duality, no differentiation. Only Atman exists.

Bhagavad Gita Chapter:~ All those whose intelligence has been stolen by material desires, they worship many Gods. (7- Verse -20)

Thus, it proves that Gods with form, names, and attributes are not God in truth.

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.

The Vedas confirm God is Atman (Spirit), the Self.

Even the Vedas indicate that the Self is consciousness:-

v Tat tvam asi: -Thou art That- “Self is that” (Sam Veda).

v Prajnanam Brahma: - Consciousness is the ultimate reality (Rig Veda).

v Ayam Aatma Brahma: -The Self is the ultimate truth (Atharva Veda).

v Aham Brahma Asmi: -Self is the ultimate reality (Yajur Veda)

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)

That is why 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.

Yajur Veda says:~

Translation 1

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)

Translation 2

"Deep into the shade of blinding gloom fall asambhuti's worshippers. They sink to darkness deeper yet who on sambhuti are intent." (Yajurveda Samhita by Ralph T. H. Griffith pg. 538)

Translation 3.

"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." (Yajurveda 40:9.)

So, Yajur Veda indicates that: ~

They sink deeper in darkness those who worship sambhuti. (Sambhuti means created things, for example, table, chair, idol, etc (Yajurveda 40:9)

Those who worship visible things born of the prakrti, such as the earth, trees, and 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." (Yajurveda 40:9.)

Thus, it indicates that God is without the form and attributes and ever free.

Vedic Gods, hardly have any significance in the present-day Hindu belief system. The Gods and Goddesses important to the Hindus of today are Ram, Krishna, Kali, Ganesh, Hanuman, Brahma, Vishnu, Shiva, and the respective consorts of the last three, namely, Saraswati, Lakshmi, and Shakti. None of these deities figured prominently in the Vedic pantheon and some of them are non-Vedic.

The more important religious sects among the Hindus, like Vaishnavism, Saivism, and so on, did not have a Vedic origin but had come into existence in comparatively recent times.

Originally Shiva and the cult of the Mother Goddess belonged to the religion of the Indus (Sindhu) Valley people. Vedic worshipers did not use temples and idols as Hindus of today do. For them, the sacrificial rituals were more important than the temple or idol worship.

There is hardly any evidence of a rigid caste system in the Vedas. It is argued that the purushasukta hymn of the Rig Veda (X.90) which is often referred to as giving a religious sanction to the caste system was a later interpolation.

The Vedas, however, speak of various classes of people, which appear to have been names of professions, and they were not hereditary.

The very concepts of castes by birth, upper/lower castes, superior/inferior castes, outcastes, untouchables, Dalits, etc. are prohibited by Rig-Veda”.

Avatara (‘descent’) of Gods, caste system, were absent in the Vedic religion. Only when the Vedic religion with its own as a distinct with its own sacred texts, rites, rules of social life, beliefs, and practices without inter-linking it with Hinduism the true essence of Vedas will be revealed.

Vedic people did not worship Gods and Goddesses. : ~ Santthosh Kumaar