To realize the ultimate truth or Brahman, no scriptures are needed. I am highlighting only the rational views of the Sages Sankara.
One of Sage Sankara’s missions was to wean people away from the ritualistic approach advocated by Mimamsakas and to project wisdom (jnana) as the means of liberation in the light of Upanishad teachings.
Sage Sankara’s criticized severely the ritualistic attitude and those who advocated such practices. However, the texts that combined rituals with wisdom (jnana_karma_samucchaya) more in favor of the Mimamsaka position came onto vogue, projecting Sage Sankara as the rallying force of the doctrine. His followers might have found Sage Sri, Sankara’s mission a hard task and, therefore, compromised the liberating wisdom with the performance of rituals.
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.
That is why 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
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.
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 the consciousness.
Religious rites and ceremonies, yagnas and homa-havans, or any other forms of rituals 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 what is not needed to realize the truth, which is beyond the form, time, and space.
Sage Sankara says: ~ The scriptures dealing with rituals, rewards are therefore addressed to an ignorant person.
All the rituals based on the false belief of God will not yield any fruits and they are meant for the ignorant populace who are unable to grasp God beyond the form, time, and space.
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. Also, 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. 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, the 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
No conceptual God can exist, apart from consciousness. People are not aware of the fact that there is no individual God can exist, apart from the Soul, which is in the form of consciousness. Thus, the Soul or Consciousness is the true ‘Self’. If there is no consciousness, then there is no physical body, no ego, no universe, no religion, and no conceptual God.
Innumerable people all over the world have been killed and being killed in the name of religion and God. This is because people are not aware of the ultimate truth of their true existence. People take their inherited belief as the ultimate truth without verifying the validity of their belief.
Does God exists or not is the question that succeeds not only in dividing people but creates a tug of war within every individual thinker. Ironically, if one believes in the concept of God then nothing else matters and if one is an atheist, too nothing else matters.
Those who have implicit faith in God bow their head in submission to what they call divine will. They believe the world is testing ground and sorrows must be borne with patience in order to prove their love to God. On the other hand, the Atheists claim the whole world is random creation arising, so to speak from chemical gravy that is accidental. Both these arguments based on the ‘false self’ (ego) within the false experience (waking).
On the base of the Soul, the innermost Self, the waking experience itself is merely an illusion. The man and his experience of the world are a reality within the waking experience. The waking experience is merely a dream witnessed by the Soul.
Thus, all the physical-based theories are mere imagination based on the false self within the false experience. The formless substance and witness of the false experience, which is the Soul, which is present in the form of the consciousness is real and eternal.
Religion, religious Gods rituals, and sacrifices deal with lower knowledge. The Sages of truth ignored religion, religious Gods, rituals, and sacrifices and went in search of the truth of their true existence. The religion, religious Gods' rituals, and the sacrifices are unsafe rafts for crossing the sea of ignorance which is the cause of experiencing birth, life, death, and the world as a reality. Doomed to shipwreck are those who try to cross the dualistic illusion (form, time, and space) on these poor rafts.
Ignorant of their own ignorance, yet wise in their own esteem, these deluded men Proud of their inherited beliefs in their religion wage war and violence against humanity in the name of protecting their God and belief system.
Those who blindly accept the religion and its God as truth are like the blind led by the blind.
Even the Upanishads confirm: ~ It is impossible to find and realize the truth, which is beyond the form, time, and space via religion, rituals, and scriptural study.
Upanishad says:~ the human goal is to acquire Self-Knowledge and they indicate the personal Gods, scriptures, worship, and rituals are not the means to Self –Knowledge, then why anyone should indulge in it.
The religion, individualized God, and scriptures are a great obstacle to Self-realization because they are based on a false self. The seeker of truth has to search for the ultimate truth without losing himself in the labyrinths of philosophy, through deeper, inquiry, analysis, and reasoning and assimilate and realize it.
That is why Sage Sankara, indicated in Bhaja Govindam says:~ (Jnana Viheena Sarva Mathena Bajathi na Muktim janma Shatena) ~ one without knowledge does not obtain liberation even in a hundred births, no matter which religious faith he follows.
Then it is no use going a roundabout way, trace the Brahman which is the formless substance and witness of the universe, which is in the form of mind. By tracing the source of the mind or universe one will be able to realize the ultimate truth or Brahman or God. ~ Santthosh Kumaar
