Sage Sankara says rituals and rites such as yajna or fire ritual meant for the ignorant populace. Sage Sankara asserts rituals and rites will not prepare the mindset for the journey to Advaiticwisdom or Self-knowledge.
Moral, ethics, love compassion, code of conduct, celibacy, karma, sin, temple worship, ancestor worship, heaven, and hell are concerned with the one which is born, lives, and dies in the world.
Moral, ethics, love compassion, code of conduct, celibacy, karma, sin, temple worship, ancestor worship, heaven and hell nothing to with the Soul, the Self because it is unborn eternal. It is unborn eternal because it is an ever formless, timeless, and spaceless existence.
Religion and yoga prevent seekers from acquiring Advaitic wisdom or Self- knowledge.
According to Sage Sankara Atman, the unchanging entity itself is the ultimate reality or Brahman. Atman alone is real, while the universe is unreal.
Advaitic wisdom is not based on scriptures religious and intellectual knowledge by karmas.
Starting from childhood, when learning has to start, the Advaitic wisdom has to be a way of life.
Remember:~
All the orthodox ideas rejected by Sage Sankara. There is no need to indulge in rituals, in order to realize the ultimate truth or Brahman. There is no need to study philosophy, in order to realize the ultimate truth or Brahman then why you indulge in studying philosophy.
Sage Sankara pokes fun at ascetics and points out that all their austerities do not cause desires to go (Altar Flowers" Page 205, v.2 P.207 v.4)
Sage Sankara pointed out those rituals could in no way bring about wisdom, much less moksha.
Sage Sankara says the rewards of the rituals were not a matter of direct realization. Advaitic wisdom is based on personal realization.
The orthodox Advaitin believes that rituals alone would lead one to higher levels of attainment. Further, the deities would reward only those entitled to perform the rituals alone. The entitlement involved the caste, creed, and other parameters.
The scriptural authority and value of rituals are part of the Advaitic orthodoxy, which is meant for ignorant people.
The Advaitic wisdom of Sage Sankara is nothing to do with religion, caste, rituals, worship, yoga, and other practices. Therefore an obvious disparity between Sage Sankara‘s path of Gnana and the path of Karma. Path of Gnana is meant for the advanced seeker of truth and path of Karma is meant for the ignorant populace.
Even Sage Sankara appears and tells the orthodox people the path of orthodoxy is the path of ignorance they will not be able to drop their inherited samskara or conditioning, which they think is the only way to reach heaven and reap happiness in life in the next life.
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 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.- (11- Adhyasa Bhashya)
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 still remain in ignorance of the Atman the real God.
As a person, one performs rituals throughout his life. The person who performs rituals and aspires for rewards will view the world in which he exists as a reality. However, the Soul, the Self unborn eternal hidden by the world in which he exists. From the standpoint of the Soul, the world in which he exists is merely an illusion.
The scriptures dealing with rituals, rewards, etc. are therefore addressed to an ignorant person.
First Mundaka - Chapter 2 (9) - Children, immersed in ignorance in various ways, flatter themselves, saying: We have accomplished life's purpose. Because these performers of karma do not know the Truth owing to their attachment, they fall from heaven, misery-stricken, when the fruit of their work is exhausted.
First Mundaka - Chapter 2 (8) - Fools, dwelling in darkness, but wise in their own conceit and puffed up with vain scholarship, wander about, being afflicted by many ills, like blind men led by the blind.
Ish Upanishad declares: - Those people who have neglected the attainment of Self-knowledge and have thus committed suicide 10/11/12
The religious orthodox people who have neglected the attainment of Self-knowledge and have thus committed suicide, as it were, are doomed to enter those worlds after death.
This is a condemnation of people who do not try to attain Self-knowledge. They are, in a real sense, committing suicide, for what can be worse than being a slave to sense enjoyment, completely oblivious of the real purpose of life is Self-realization or God-realization. :~Santthosh Kumaar
