Brihadaranyaka Upanishad: ~ Brahman (God) is present in the form of the Athma, and it is indeed Athma itself’.
Yajur Veda – chapter- 32: - God Supreme or Supreme Spirit 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.
You are being conditioned by the religious myth which has made you a non-thinker. Come out of the religious myth by realizing God in truth.
Rig Veda: ~ The Atman (Soul or Spirit) 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)
Thus, it clearly indicates the God is without the form and attributes and ever free.
Vedic Gods, hardly have any significance in present-day Hinduism. 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, Sarasvati, Lakshmi, and Shakti. None of these deities figured prominently in the Vedic pantheon and some of them are clearly non-Vedic.
The world is a reality on the dualistic perspective; similarly, the personal Gods are mere imagination on the false self (ego) within the false experience (waking).
On the non-dualistic perspective, the world in which you exist is an illusion. Religious Gods based on blind faith or belief within the illusion is bound to be an illusion.
The orthodox people believe God is the distributor of the fruits of one's Karma. In order to make the practical life successful, it is very important to believe in God and worship him. But such belief in personal God is a great hindrance to realizing the truth beyond the form, time, and space.
Religious scholars whenever they talk about the Soul; are unaware of the fact that, the Soul itself is God. They talk about the religious Gods. Religious Gods are dependent on blind faith or belief.
If there is no belief then there is no religious God that can exist. The belief is not God. Self-knowledge is knowledge of the real God. God is the highest all theoretical knowledge based on theories and beliefs are based on the ego, which is the false self within the universe, which is the dualistic illusion or Maya.
Orthodoxy believes the Bhakti (Devotion) will cancel the effects of bad Karma and will make a person closer to true knowledge by purifying his mind. Slowly, the difference between the worshiper and the worshiped will vanish. But such claims are imaginary. Without getting rid of the ignorance it is not possible to realize God because God is beyond the for, time, and space
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 enter again this world or a lower one.
The Soul the innermost Self is not Christian, Jewish, Islamic, Hindu, Buddhist”, because it is ever formless, timeless, and spaceless existence.
In religion, there is no freedom to believe other than what it preaches. Religious people consider the mythological stories as truth and not believing in mythological Gods is irreligious.
The mythological God can exist within the domain of duality. From the Advaitic perspective, the duality is merely an illusion. Thus, whatever belongs to the illusion is bound to be a falsehood.
The religions say one must believe that there is no other God but God propagated by the particular belief system.
The seeker has to deny the existence of such a God based on the belief because the first one must realize what God really is.
People find some of the religious doctrines is very illuminating. People who renounce the world and become monk or sanyasi who leaves it all behind to find the truth of their true existence.
People think the events that happened in the mythological stories really happened the way they are described and hallucinate about these stories.
Swami Vivekananda: ~ The masses in India cry to sixty million Gods and still die like dogs. Where are these gods?
Swami Vivekananda: ~ If religion and life depend upon books or upon the existence of any prophet whatsoever, then perish all religion and books! Religion is in us. No books or teachers can do more than help us to find it, and even without them, we can get all truth within. You have gratitude for books and teachers without bondage to them and worship your Guru as God, but do not obey him blindly; love him all you will, but think for yourself. No blind belief can save you, work out your own salvation. Have only one idea of God - that He is an eternal help.
Brihadaranyaka Upanishad: ~ The Self is indeed Brahman (God), but through ignorance, people identify it with intellect, mind, senses, passions, and the elements of earth, water, air, space, and fire. This is why the Self is said to consist of this and that and appears to be everything.
Yajurveda says if one worships what is not God: ~
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 is 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, 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.)
The Hindus believed in polytheism, believing all of their Gods to be separate individuals, which were introduced much later by the founders of Hinduism which contains diverse beliefs caste, and creed.
When the religion of the Veda knows no idols, then why so many Gods and Goddesses with different forms and names are being propagated as Vedic Gods. Why these conceptual Gods are introduced when the Vedic concept of God is free from form and attributes.
Someone has introduced the concept of God with attributes and attributeless Gods are non-Vedic because Yajur Veda says: ~ 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. Therefore, all these add-ons prove that the form and attribute-based concepts are introduced by some sages of the past with a new belief system and code of conducts in the name of Vedas.
It clearly indicates that: -If the human goal is to acquire the Self -Knowledge or Brahma Gnana or Atma Gnana, then why one has to indulge in rituals and glorifying the conceptual Gods and Goddesses to go into deeper darkness. Instead, spend that time moving forward towards the Self -knowledge or Brahma Gnana or Atma Gnana, which is one’s prime goal. : ~ Santthosh Kumaar
