When Upanishads and Vedas say, “God is present in the form of the Athma, and God is indeed Athma itself.+

 

The seeker of truth must know the difference between the ordinary concept of God and the truth about God.  

The seeker is not concerned with the ordinary concept of God but he is only concerned with the truth of God.

Bhagavad Gita: ~ “All those whose intelligence has been stolen by material desires, they worship many Gods. (7- Verse -20)

Brihadaranyaka Upanishad: ~ “Brahman (God in truth) is the form of the Athma, and it is indeed Athma itself’.

Yajurveda – chapter- 32:~ God is Supreme Spirit has no ‘Pratima’ (idol) or material shape. God cannot be seen directly by anyone. God pervades all beings and all directions. 

Idolatry does not find any support from the Vedas.

Thus, it refers to a formless and attributeless God, which is the Atman, the  ‘Self’ within the false experience.

 Thus, it indicates clearly all the Gods with form and attributes are mere imaginations based on the false self.  Thus, the  Atman, the  ‘Self’ is God in truth.

The Vedas do not talk about idol worship. In fact, till about 2000 years ago followers of Vedism never worshipped idols. Idol worship was started by the followers of Buddhism and Jains.  

There is logic to idol worship. Vedas speak of one God that is the supreme ‘Self’ i.e. Atman or Soul but Hinduism indulges in worshiping 60 million Gods.

It indicates clearly all the Gods with form and attributes are mere imaginations based on the false self.

The Brihadaranyaka Upanishad declares: "He who worships the deities as entities entirely separate from the Self does not know the truth. For the Gods, he is like a pasu (beast)". (1. 4. 10)

The ignorant populace is not in contact with God in the Vedas and Upanishads therefore, they believe their inherited belief of God as the real God. 

Religious Gods are mythical Gods.  Mythical Gods are not God in truth.  Religion is meant for the ignorant populace to believe and worship mythical non-Vedic Gods as real Gods and indulge in non-Vedic rituals and activities. 

From the Vedic perspective, all your religious Gods are non-Vedic Gods based on the imagination. 

Religious Gods are based on blind belief. Belief is not God.  Religious God cannot be considered as a center because the Soul, the  ‘Self’ is the center of all that exists.  

Without the Soul, the world in which you exist ceases to exist, which means the religious God is dependent on the Soul for his existence. God in truth is only the Soul, which is present in the form of consciousness. 

How can you worship God? That implies two ~ the worshipper and the worshipped, whereas God is non-dual. One can worship his idea of God only or realize his unity with it when he can’t worship it as a part.

When Upanishads and Vedas declare that, “God is present in the form of the Athma, and God is indeed Athma itself” then why accept another God in place of the Atman nor worship other than the Atman.

Only the path of wisdom leads the seeker of truth on his journey to the ultimate realization of the true nature of the Universal Essence, which is the Soul. The Soul is present in the form of consciousness. 

Bhagavad Gita: 7: 19:~ "Such a man who has attained true knowledge, the knowledge of Self, the knowledge of Atman, worships ‘Self’ as~ Atman (God in truth) alone exists~ everything is Atman, there exists nothing except Atman. Such a man is extremely rare" 

The Bhagavad Gita says: ~ Brahmano hi pratisthaham ~ Brahman (God) is considered the all-pervading consciousness, which is the basis of all the animate and inanimate entities and material. (14.27). 

When Bhagavad Gita says, God is considered the all-pervading consciousness which is the basis of all the animate and inanimate entities and material then nothing has to be accepted as God other than consciousness. 

Lord Krishna says Ch ~V: ~ “Those who know the Self in truth.". The last two words (tattvataha) are usually ignored by pundits, but they make all the difference between the ordinary concept of God and the truth about God.

The dualistic worship of "God” is only for the ignorant populace. The God in truth is only Atman, the innermost Self.   In reality, there is no duality, no differentiation. Only Atman exists.

Even 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 Self. May ye never accept another God in place of the Atman nor worship other than the Atman?" (10:48, 5)

Sage Sankara’s Supreme Brahman (God in truth) is Nirguna (without the Gunas), Nirakara (formless), Nirvisesha (without attributes) and Akarta (non-agent).

Sage Sankara says: ~ Atman is Brahman (God). The Atman alone is real. He has declared this Advaitic truth, which is the ultimate truth to the whole world, many centuries back. 

Thus, the Atman which is present in the form of consciousness is real and eternal, the world in which we exist is merely an illusion.

Manduka Upanishad: ~ “All indeed is, this Brahman; This Atman is Brahman (God). (verse-2) 

While Brahman (God in truth) lies behind the sum total of the objective universe, some human minds boggle at any attempt to explain it with only the tools provided by reason. Brahman is beyond the senses, beyond the mind, beyond intelligence, beyond imagination. Indeed, the highest idea is that Brahman is beyond both existence and non-existence, transcending and including time, causation, and space, and thus can never be known in the same material sense as one traditionally 'understands' a given concept or object. 

Yoga Vasistha: ~ "Teachers, interpretations of sacred texts, the force of religious merit--none of these lead to the realization of that Ultimate Truth (God) which is revealed in the clear reflection of the heart, engendered from contact with the good." : ~ Santthosh Kumaar