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 rituals and sacrifices:
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.
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)
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.
Sage Sankara:~ VC 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 (verses-6)
It is clear that liberation cannot be the result of good works, for Sruti itself declares that there is no hope for immortality through wealth. (Verses -7)
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.
Religious rites and ceremonies, yagnas and homa-havans, or any other forms of rituals formal observance have long since set in.
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.
Sage Sankara pointed out that rituals could in no way bring about wisdom, much less moksha. He asserted while the rewards of the rituals were not mattered of direct realization, wisdom which is the fruit of Vedanta is based on immediate and personal realization; one need not have to wait for the reward nor one be in doubt whether the reward would or would not come.
This was in sharp contrast to the position taken by Mimamsakas who asserted 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.
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 Sankara’s mission a hard task and, therefore, compromised the liberating wisdom with the performance of rituals.
Sage Sankara says ~ “The scriptures dealing with rituals, rewards are therefore addressed to an ignorant person.
Sage Sankara: ~ (11) As regards the rituals, Sage Sri, 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 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
