Sunday, February 4, 2018

Performing rituals and other sacrifices are a hindrance to acquiring Self-knowledge or Brahma Gnana or Atma Gnana.+


All the religious followers believe in personal Gods because they are unaware of the fact that their own scriptures give the clear-cut idea what God supposed to be in actuality and people will suffer if they worship what is not God.

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

The Brihadaranyaka Upanishad:~ "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)

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

Thus, it refers to formless and attributeless God, which is the Atman (Soul), the ‘Self’ within the false experience. Thus it indicates clearly all the Gods with form and attributes are mere imagination based on the false ‘Self’.  Thus Atman or Soul, the innermost ‘Self’ is God.
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’ in 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 imagination based on the false ‘Self’.
According to Ish Upanishads,  worshiping God and Goddesses (vidya) and performing rituals and other sacrifices (Avidya) both are a hindrance to acquiring Self-knowledge then why the seeker of truth needs worshipping of God and Goddesses when the essence of Advaita is Atman is Brahman. Brahman means the ultimate truth. The ultimate truth is God.

Sage Sankara said:~ Talk as much philosophy as you like, worship as many Gods as you please, observe ceremonies and sing devotional hymns, but liberation will never come, even after a hundred aeons, without realizing the Oneness.

Before worshiping God one must know what God supposed to be according to the Scriptures.  By Worshipping what is not God leads to.  

 Yajur Veda – chapter- 32: - God is the Supreme Spirit and 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.

If God is  Spirit, then how does the man know God created the world? There is no proof. If the man had seen God creating the world, he could admit it, but how could he have seen God before he came into existence? (I.e. were created).
Even the Bhagavad Gita: ~ Brahmano hi pratisthaham ~ Brahman (God in truth) is considered the all-pervading consciousness (Spirit), 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 (Spirit) 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 Self.   In reality, there is no duality, no differentiation. Only Atman exists.

The Vedas confirms God is Atman (Spirit), the  Self.

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)
Rig-Veda 1-164-46 and Y.V 32-1 clearly mention that God is “One”.
Rig Veda declares God is ‘ONE’ and God is Atman, then why believe and worship in place of real God.
Brihad Upanishad: ~ “If you think there is another entity, whether man or God there is no truth."

Chandogya Upanishad: ~   Sarvam khalvidam brahma ~ All this (universe) is verily Brahman. By following back all of the relative appearances in the world, we eventually return to that from which it is all manifest – the non-dual reality 

Sage Sankara’s Supreme Brahman (God) is impersonal, Nirguna (without Gunas or attributes), Nirakara (formless), Nirvisesha (without special characteristics), immutable, eternal and Akarta (non-agent). The Brahman permeates all, which nothing transcends and which, like the universal space around us, fills everything completely from within and without, that Supreme non-dual Brahman or God in truth. 
Thus, truth realization is Self-realization. Self-realization is God realization.  God-realization itself is real worship. 

Remember:~ 

Mundaka Upanishad condemns rituals. The Para or Higher knowledge is the knowledge of the Supreme Being while the Apara or Lower Knowledge is that of following sacrificial rites and ceremonies. (1/2/ 1 – 6) 

Physical & mental discipline such as Karma, Mantra Yoga, and Yajna, Puja Japa Blind devotion to deity or Guru is not the tool for liberation or freedom from experiencing the dualistic illusion as a reality. 

It is a dualistic cult including Advaitic orthodoxy propagates this disciplines. Such disciplines and code of conduct have no value if one is seeking ultimate truth or Brahman to get Nondualistic Self -awareness.  

Mysticism, scriptural knowledge, penance based Scholasticism are the great hindrance to ‘Self –realization’. Inherited blind belief with corresponding actions based on scriptures, worship, ritual faith that imply certain mental and physical discipline, or scripture supporting the belief, faith, creed, ritual, theological knowledge personal or opinion leads to hallucinated knowledge. All these become a great hindrance to grasping, understanding, assimilating and realizing the Advaitic or nondual truth. 

Scriptural mastery including ancient Sastras, Tarka, and Samkhya disciplines to support Karmas & belief Bhakti Argument & interpretation with the help of logic, grammar, etc. to support beliefs, revelations, prayers, etc. In addition, dogmas, theological or other based on authorities. 

That is why Sage Sankara said:~ 'Neither by the practice of yoga nor philosophy, nor by good works nor by learning, does liberation come, but only through the realization that Atman and Brahman are one in no other way(1) Vivekachoodamani v 56, pg~25
Sage Sankara says:~ The scriptures dealing with rituals, rewards are therefore addressed to an ignorant person.- Adhyasa Bhashya 

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 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, 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 

Sage  Sankara: ~ Atman, the Self is verily Brahman (God in truth), being equanimous, quiescent, and by nature absolute Existence, Knowledge, and Bliss. Atman is not the body which is non-existence itself. This is called true Knowledge by the wise.  

Remember:~ 

The rituals mentioned in Karmakanda of Vedas are sought to be negated in the Jnanakanda, which is also part of the same scripture. While Karmakand enjoins upon you the worship of various deities and lays down the rules for the same, Jnanakanda constituted by the Upanishads ridicules worshiper of deities as a dim-witted person no better than the beast.  

This seems strange, the latter part of Vedas contradicting the former part. The first part deals throughout with karma while the second or concluding part is all about Jnana. Owing to differing, people have gone so far as to divide into two sections: the Vedas (that is the first part) to the mean the Karmakanda and Upanishads (Vedanta) to mean the Jnanakanda.  

The rituals, which are practiced in Hinduism, are not Vedic rituals and the Puranic Gods are not Vedic Gods. 

Brihad Upanishad: ~ “If you think there is another entity, whether man or God there is no truth." 

God in truth is not physical. God in truth is present in the form of the Spirit. The Spirit is the cause of the world and the Spirit itself is uncaused. 

From the standpoint of the Spirit, the form, time, space and name are merely an illusion. The spirit alone is real and all else is an illusion. In reality, the spirit (God) matter (the world in which we exist) is one. 

All the attributed Gods are imagination because their existence is limited to the illusion because only in illusion, there is scope for imagination and diversity. Diversity is an illusion.  

The illusion is created out of a single substance, which is consciousness. Thus, consciousness alone is real and eternal. Thus, whatever is seen, known, believed and experienced as real within the illusion is bound to be a falsehood.  

Everyone’s inner work is on. The Soul is the Self. The Soul the inner Guru guides us all till we get the stillness of its Advaitic true nature. It is the Soul that is in ignorance it is the Soul that has to wakes from the sleep of ignorance.  : ~ Santthosh Kumaar

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