A Gnani never knows any mantra in Vedic meter or any Tantra not he indulges in religious rituals or worship of religious Gods.+

A Gnani: ~

Having realized the truth, beyond the form, time, and space Gnani sees the world in which he exists as the Soul, which is present in the form of consciousness. For a Gnani, the whole world is nothing but consciousness.

A Gnani never knows any mantra in Vedic meter or any Tantra nor does he indulge in religious rituals or worship of religious Gods. 

A Gnani sees no difference between happiness and misery, man and woman, Adversity and success. Everything is seen to be the same.

A Gnani is not conflicted by the dualistic illusion. He is fully aware the Self is the fullness of the consciousness.

Knowing for certain that all is the Soul, which is present in the form of consciousness, the Gnani has never said: “I am this” or “I am not that.”

The sage who finds stillness is neither distracted nor focused. He knows pleasure, pain, and the world are one, in essence. Ignorance is dispelled, he is free of knowing.

Select Works of Sage Sankara" also his commentary on Brihad: ~ “Though I wear these robes of a Sanyasin, it is only for the sake of bread."

Guru‘s interpretations of sacred texts, and the force of religious merit ~ none of these lead to the realization of the ultimate truth which is revealed in the clear reflection of the Soul, the  Self.

Even the best of the world’s Guru cannot transmit wisdom. Loud sermons consisting of a shower of ornamental words, the skill in expounding the egocentric knowledge, and likewise erudition ~ these merely bring on a little personal enjoyment to the Guru but are no good for Self-realization.

A Guru is useless so long as the ultimate truth is unknown, and it is equally useless when the ultimate truth has already been known. By sticking to some Guru and surrendering to him, the Advaitic wisdom will not dawn. 

Surrendering is a religious fable. Surrendering is nothing to do with the ultimate truth or Brahman. Surrender implies the duality. There is no duality in reality.

Simply saying surrender without realizing the ultimate truth is like trying to sweeten the seawater by putting in a spoonful of sugar.

Guru’s sermons consisting of ornamental words merely please the taste of the religious mindsets. Hence, the seeker of truth should earnestly set about realizing the truth beyond form, time, and space.

People are unaware of the fact that the world in which he exists is a product of ignorance. Self-knowledge or Brahma Gnana or Atma Gnana is the only remedy to get rid of ignorance. There is no use of religion, the religious Gods, Gurus, Yogis, and the Scriptures, rituals to acquire Self-knowledge or Brahma Gnana or Atma Gnana.

Ignorance does not leave off if one simply utters the name of Guru's name. Without direct realization, the Soul cannot be liberated by the mere repeating the name of the Guru or God. The seeker has to remember the name belongs to the domain of the illusory form, time, and space.

Remember:~

The easiest means to get self-awareness is knowing what God is supposed to be in actuality. All the belief-based Gods are not God in truth.

Repeating the name of God was given by the religious god by some saints in the past is for the ignorant populace who are incapable of grasping the truth of the real God.

The mantra-yoga consisting of repeating the name of God, or even the AUM; thousands of times yields nothing. It can appeal only to the ignorant, to those who cannot think deeper. It is a mere religious fable. 

The real exercise is to discriminate between real and unreal and then only do you get the truth of God which is hidden by the illusion.

Sage Sankara:~ 'Actions help to purify the mind but they do not, by themselves, contribute to the attainment of Reality. The attainment of reality is brought about only by Self-Inquiry and not in the least by even ten million acts. (11)

Sage Sankara:~ 'A firm conviction that Brahman alone is Real and the phenomenal world is unreal is known as discrimination between the Real and the unreal. (20)

Sage Sankara:~ '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)

Sage Sankara:~ 'Neither sacred baths nor any amount of charity nor even Hundreds of pranayamas* can give us the knowledge of our own Self. The firm experience of the nature of the Self is seen to proceed from inquiry along the lines of the salutary advice of the wise. (13)

Sage Sankara:~ 'They have crossed the dreadful ocean of (embodied) existence through their own efforts and without any (personal) motives; they help others to cross it. (37)

Without knowing what God is supposed to be in actuality worshiping, glorifying, and repeating the nameless God with a form and name with blind devotion to non-Vedic Gods leads to hallucination.

Sage Sankara:~ The fear and sorrow created by the delusory serpent in the rope can be ended only after fully ascertaining the truth of the rope through steady and balanced thinking. (12)

Some Saints recommended repeating God’s name as a spiritual practice but what is the use of such practice without knowing ‘what God is in actuality. Such practices are based on religious God. 

God in truth is without form, without time and space, and without name. Religious Gods are not God in truth.

If you repeat the name of nameless God you will remain in the prison of ignorance. Thus, it is necessary to realize ‘what God is supposed to be in actuality. All priestcraft prescriptions are kees one in the prison of ignorance.

The Bhagavad Gita: ~ Brahmano hi pratisthaham ~ Brahman (God in truth) 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, that 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 the 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 Vedas confirm God is Atman (Spirit), the Self.

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)

The Vedas talk about Brahman which refers to the ultimate truth or ultimate reality. Consciousness is the ultimate truth, therefore,  consciousness is Brahman  God in truth.

Vedas do not permit idol worship. All the idols are of the Puranic Gods Priests are referring to the Puranic Brahma as God they are ignorant of the God in Vedas even though they speak of Vedas.

Priests do not understand the meaning of the Brahman (God in truth), which is present in the form of consciousness.

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

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

That is why 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)

The mantra-yoga consisting of repeating the name of God, or even the AUM; thousands of times yields nothing. It can appeal only to the ignorant, to those who cannot think deeper. It is a mere religious fable. The real exercise is to think of the meaning of the name or the AUM and then only do you get something.

That is why Sage Sankara:~ VC- 63. Without causing the objective universe to vanish and without knowing the truth of the Self, how is one to achieve Liberation by the mere utterance of the word Brahman? — It would result merely in an effort of speech.

The religion preaches that Gods have forms of attributes and the ways to God are many. It simply tries to lead them to darkness with its dogma and idea of many Gods, which are apart from the Self.

People all over the world in the past and present accepted the idea of the existence of God. The fear of God injected by religion was the root cause of worship, superstitions, and dogmas. The religious belief is passed on to the populace from one generation to the next generation

God in truth we do not see is real. God in truth is hidden by the illusory world in which we exist because the world in which we exist is created out of God. From the standpoint of God, the world, in which we exist, is false.

In reality, the world in which we exist does not really exist; and what does not exist for us, really exists.

By worshipping God in human form, repeating mantras is like watering barren soil. The seeker of truth should not waste life in empty formalities. 

Without realizing the world in which he exists is merely an illusion it is impossible to acquire Self-knowledge or Brahma Gnana or Atma Gnana.

God in the human form, Yogis and Gurus are not Gods.

This idea of worshiping God in human form, Gurus as God is not a Vedic idea but adopted from Jainism and Buddhism.

Vedas bar human worship: ~

"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.)

Why worship and glorify the Gurus and Yogis (human form) in place of God when Veda bars such activities and 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.

No one has ever seen God by practicing religion or yoga or indulging in glorifying the religious God and Goddesses because God exists prior to the form, time, and space. 

Form, time, and space cease to exist as a reality when wisdom dawns. Thus, the Gods and Gurus have no place in the domain of the Advaitic reality. Advaita is the nature of the Soul, which is the real God.  Self-realization is the only way to God-realization.

By worshipping the religious Gods and Gurus one will not get Self-realization or God-realization.

The Soul, the inner Guru reveals ‘what is real’ and ‘what is unreal” when the seeker is receptive and ready.

People of small intelligence follow religion and believe that the world was created by God. But how do they know that He did so? When a pot is created, one can see both the pot and its maker, but not in the case of the world.

By believing and worshiping what is not truth (God in truth), one is in the prison of the dualistic illusion. Truth realization or Self-realization is God-realization. Self-realization itself is real worship. : ~ Santthosh Kumaar