The orthodoxy found Sage Sankara’s Advaitic wisdom as a hard task and therefore compromised the liberating wisdom with the performance of rituals.+

The orthodoxy found Sage Sankara’s Advaitic wisdom as a hard task and therefore compromised the liberating wisdom with the performance of rituals.

Advaitic Orthodoxy (monism) is inevitable; the people of thoughtful temperament cannot find peace and quietude until they do so. Moksha (liberation) is the realization of oneness with God. They speak of God Goddesses, devotion, and devotees, only in an inaccurate way only from the standpoint of dvaithi (dualist). After realizing oneness with God, there is no distinction between God and devotee, and the word "devotion" has no meaning.

One of Sage Sankara’s missions was to wean people away from the ritualistic approach advocated by Mimamsakas and to project the Advaitic Gnana as the means of liberation in the light of the Upanishads.

Sage Sankara 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 into 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.

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

Remember:~

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.

When Advaitic Sages themselves found rituals are unsafe rafts for crossing the sea of samsara, of birth and death, and ignored them the Mundaka Upanishad further suggested that such rituals are unsafe rafts for crossing the realm of duality those who try to cross the realm of duality on these poor rafts are  Doomed to shipwreck are. Ignorant of their own ignorance, yet wise in their own esteem, these deluded people (pundits) proud of their vain learning go round and round like the blind led by the blind.

 Therefore, if one wants to acquire Atma Jnana or Brahma Jnana or ‘Self’- Knowledge or knowledge of consciousness one has to drop all ritualistic and orthodox baggage to move forward in their pursuit of truth. 

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. 

Religious rites and rigid ceremonies were passed down from one generation to the next as a practice or set customs and traditions 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.

Blind belief in God without knowing God in actuality holds the worshiper more firmly in the grip of ignorance. 

All worship ceremonies and rituals performed on the base of non-Vedic Gods will not yield any fruits.  Deeper self-search reveals that worship, the worshiper, and the worshiper and the world are merely an illusion created out of consciousness.

Religious rites and ceremonies, yagnas and homa-havans, or any other forms of rituals or 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 form, time, and space.

Religious rites and ceremonies, yagnas and homa-havans or any other forms of rituals or formal observance have long since set in. 

Remember:~

Sage Sankara says: ~ ‘The scriptures dealing with rituals, and rewards are therefore addressed to an ignorant person.  

All the rituals based on the false belief of personal Gods will not yield any fruits and they are meant for the ignorant populace who are unable to grasp the God beyond the form, time, and space.

That is why 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. In addition, 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. Sage 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, a 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

It is high time to stop judging who is right and who is wrong in this unreal world and instead spend the same time acquiring Self-knowledge or Brahma Gnana or Atma Gnana to realize the world (Samsara) is unreal the Brahman alone is real.  

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, the Self, is present in the form of Consciousness. If there is no consciousness, then there is no physical body, no ego, no universe, no religion, and no religious  God. : ~ Santthosh Kumaar