Dogmas and beliefs, rituals, and ceremonies can never be the essence of spirituality or Adyathma. They are generally not only superficial and ineffective but positively misleading.
All the rituals are based on the non-Vedic Gods. Non-Vedic Gods are not God in truth. what is the use of the rituals and worships based on Gods which are not God in truth but merely belief?
They not only feed the ego of the priest class but also serve as an instrument for the exploitation of the credulous.
The diverse rituals and ceremonies are based on the mythical Gods that keep the Soul in the cage of ignorance.
The mythical Gods are myths not God in truth. All the mythical Gods are non-~Vedic Gods. From the Vedic perspective, worshipping non-Vedic Gods causes suffering. Vedic God is Atman, the Spirit.
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 1-164-46 and Y.V 32-1 clearly mention that God is “One”. And never accept another God in place of the Atman nor worship other than the Atman
The Upanishads say in effect that: ~ if you believe that the Soul is one and God (Brahman) is another you cannot understand Truth.
Brihad Upanishad: ~ “If you think there is another entity, whether man or God there is no truth."
Attachment to the belief of mythical Gods and rituals is the attachment to ignorance. Attachment to ignorance is the attachment to the myth as truth. All mythical Gods and their rituals are not of Vedic origin.
Bhagavad Gita:~ All those whose intelligence has been stolen by material desires, they worship many Gods. (7- Verse -20)
All the beliefs based on Gods of all the religions have no universality in their belief of God. Thus diverse beliefs create divisions between one religion and another. Therefore the rituals and ceremonies keep the populace permanently in the prison of ignorance.
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, 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.)
Then why worship and glorify the mythical Gods in place of God when Veda bars such activities and it also warns people who indulge in such activities 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.
God exists prior to form, time, and space. The form, time, and space cease to exist as a reality when wisdom dawns. Thus, the mythical Gods have no place in the domain of the Advaitic reality. Advaita is the nature of the Soul, which is real God. Thus, Self-realization is the only way to God-realization.
Brihadaranyaka Upanishad says: "He who worships the deities as entities entirely separate from God does not know the truth. For the Gods, he is like a pasu (beast)". (1. 4. 10)
Therefore, everyone must know what God is supposed to be in truth according to their own scriptures.
Bhagavad Gita: ~ 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, 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.
Lord Krishna 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.
God is not a part but God is whole. God pervades everything and everywhere in the universe because the universe is nothing but an illusion of God. Seeing God as a part is ignorance.
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.
How can you worship the Absolute? That implies two ~ the worshipper and the worshipped, whereas the Absolute is nondual. One can worship his idea of the Absolute only or realize his unity with it when he can’t worship it as apart.
Religious rites and rigid ceremonies were passed down from one generation to the next as a practice or set customs and tradition and performed automatically with blind faith. Such worship based on the belief of God does not reach God.
Religious rites and ceremonies, yagnas and homa-havans, or any other forms of ritual are meant for the ignorant populace.
Belief in God without knowing God in actuality holds the worshiper more firmly in the grip of ignorance.
All worship and the ceremonies rituals performed on the base of non-~Vedic Gods will not yield any fruits. Deeper self-search reveals the fact that worshiped, the worship, and the worshiper and the world are merely an illusion created out of consciousness.
Religious rites and ceremonies, yagnas and homa-havans, or any other forms of ritual formal observance have long since set in.
Religious rites and ceremonies, yagnas and homa-havans, or any other forms of ritual are meant for the ignorant populace. In the Atmic path, the seeker has to discard
Sage Sankara says: ~ The scriptures dealing with rituals, rewards are therefore addressed to an ignorant person.-Adhyasa Bhashya
Sage Sankara:~ (11) As regards the rituals, Sage Sankara says, 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 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. 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 Sri, 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 Self is verily Brahman (God), being equanimous, quiescent, and by nature absolute Existence, Knowledge, and Bliss. Atman is not the body that is non-existence itself. This is called true Knowledge by the wise. :~ Santthosh Kumaar
