The worship of the Gurus and Yogis as God is not meant for the seekers of truth - Vedas bar such activities.+*****

The Guru-disciple concept is a religious and yogic idea and it is nothing to do with the Advaitic wisdom.

Yoga Vasistha says: ~ Self-knowledge or knowledge of truth is not had by resorting to a Guru (preceptor) nor by the study of scripture, nor by good works: it is attained only by means of inquiry inspired by the company of wise (Gnani). One’s inner light alone is the means, naught else. When this inner light is kept alive, it is not affected by the darkness of inertia. 

There is no need to condemn Gurus, but there is a need to highlight how they become an obstacle in realizing the ultimate truth or Brahman.

Swami Vivekananda said: ~   “You have to grow from the inside out. None can teach you, none can make you spiritual. There is no other teacher, but your own Soul.”

The Guru is useless so long as the ultimate truth is unknown, and Guru is equally useless when the ultimate truth or Brahman has already been known.

A Guru is needed in religious and the yogic path.  There is no need for a Guru to acquire Self-knowledge or Brahma Gnana or Atma Gnana. 

The worship of the Gurus and Yogis as God is not meant for the seekers of truth.   Vedas itself says: May ye never accept another God in place of the Atman nor worship other than the Atman? Thus, to know the real God Self-realization is necessary. Self-realization is God realization. Self-realization itself is real worship. Self-realization is the real aim of the seeker of the truth. 

Rig Veda: ~ The Atman is the cause; Atman is the support of all that exists in this universe. May ye never turn away from the Atman the innermost self. May ye never accept another God in place of the Atman nor worship other than the Atman?" (10:48, 5)

If the ‘Self ‘is not the body but the ‘Self’ is formless Soul then there is no need for Pada Pooja (feet worship) of Gurus and yogis to get freedom.

A Guru, who preaches conduct as the means to freedom, believes in birth, life, death, and the world as a reality, whereas the Advaitic Sage Sri, Sankara declares the world as unreal.  Therefore, how actions performed in the unreal world can get moksha or freedom. Therefore there is a need to know the fact that, the ‘Self’ is not the form but the ‘Self’ in order to understand and assimilate and realize the truth beyond the form, time and space.

Vedas bar human worship: ~

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."- (Yajur Veda 40:9.)

Then why worship and glorify the GURUS and YOGIS (human form)   in place of God when Vedas bar 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.

That is why Sage Sri, Goudpada said: ~ “The merciful Veda teaches karma and Upaasana to people of lower and middling intellect, while Jnana is taught to those of higher intellect.

Thus, Sage Sri, Goudpada suggest that the religious paths and worship of Guru and conceptual god are lower and middling intellect.  But in this modern world, people are sharp enough to understand and assimilate the ultimate truth or Brahman or God. Thus, people who want higher truth then it is high time to discard the lower knowledge and move ahead to realize the ultimate truth, which is Brahman or God.  

That is why Sage Sri, Sankara says: ~ “VC- 65. As a treasure hidden underground requires (for its extraction) competent instruction, excavation, the removal of stones and other such things lying above it and (finally) grasping, but never comes out by being (merely) called out by name, so the transparent Truth of the ‘Self’, which is hidden by Maya and its effects, is to be attained through the instructions of a knower of Brahman, followed by reflection, meditation and so forth, but not through perverted arguments.

66. Therefore the wise should, as in the case of disease and the like, personally strive by all the means in their power to be free from the bondage of repeated births and deaths.

When one realizes the fact that, the whole universe and its contents, movable and immovable, is known to be consciousness, and thus the existence of everything else is negated, where is then any room to say that the universe is the universe.  The universe and its contents bound to be the consciousness.  

The Upanishads are the only scriptures in the world that says: ~ "It is impossible to find and realize the truth via religion and scriptural study.

The 'Self' does not grow by acquiring something nor wither away by losing it. The 'Self' remains what it always is.

Most people will not understand what I am driving at because they are seeking something which they can enjoy.  The ambition of the true spiritual seeker is to realize the Self, which is hidden by the illusory form, time and space.  People are looking for an advantage in the practical world, to take care of their practical life~ that is the maximum they expect out of spirituality.

Sage Sri, Sankara: ~ "Though I wear these robes of a Sanyasin, it is only for the sake of bread."

Sage Sri Sankara: ~   “The Knower of the Atman (i.e., a Gnani) "bears no outward mark of a holy man" (VC ~Stanza 539).

 Sage Sri, Sankara writes: ~ “Sometimes he appears to be a Fool, sometimes a wise man. Sometimes he seems splendid as a king, sometimes feeble-minded. Sometimes he is calm and silent. Sometimes he draws men to him. Sometimes people honor him greatly, sometimes they insult him. Sometimes they ignore him.

"Unless one realizes the Soul as the ‘Self’ as it really is” it is impossible to realize the nondualistic or Advaitic truth.

The so-called Gurus and yogis focus their ambition on seeing that their daily life goes on comfortably. Nobody is ready to inquire about the truth of their true existence. : ~ Santthosh Kumaar