Temple Gods are not Vedic Gods because the Vedic God is Atman the Spirit.+

                Temple Gods are not Vedic Gods because the Vedic God is Atman the Spirit.

God is universal because God is impersonal. God does not belong to any religion because religious Gods are personal.

How can you see God without knowing what God is in actuality?  When the ‘Self is not you how can you find God within you? God is not within you. Those who say God is within you just propagating half-baked knowledge.  

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

Vedas, Upanishad, and Bhagavad Gita Bible confirm the Soul, the  Self, which is present in the form of the Spirit or consciousness.  

It is for every seeker who is seeking truth must first know what God is supposed to be in actuality according to Vedas and Upanishads and reject all non-Vedic Gods to realize that Atman is the real God.   

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.  The 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.  Thus, 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 religion of the Vedas knows no idols.

Max Müller says:~"The religion of the Veda knows no idols; the worship of idols in India is a secondary formation, a degradation of the more primitive worship of ideal Gods."

Therefore, there was no individual God or temples and worship in the Vedic religion, which existed prior to Buddhism.  Thus the individualized Gods and temples must have been built later on when the worships of the idol were introduced.  Thus the Vedic religion which existed in the past was free from idol and nature worship and idol worshiping rituals. 

Thus, the present day’s worship of individual Gods, created things, nature, and humans is against Vedic teachings, and it looks like it has been fabricated and introduced by priestcraft. Since it, has passed on from one generation to the next it is hard for people to believe the truth of their own religion, because they are sentimentally and emotionally involved in it and they refuse to accept anything else other than their inherited beliefs.  

It is impossible to find and realize the truth via religion and scriptural study. Even Upanishads confirm this.  

Remember:~

Theism is in the traditional sense; it is the belief in at least one God. Monotheism is defined as the belief in only one God and polytheism is defined as the belief in many Gods.

Some organized religions follow monotheism where God is supreme and none except him. These God-centric faiths follow a particular code of conduct that the ‘believer’ has to follow without questioning. He cannot question those rules, the life of the Sage, or the ultimate God. God in truth replaced by the religious Gods based on blind belief.  Thus,  an element of attachment to a name and gender, obstruction to free thinking and free will can be seen in all belief systems.

History speaks that in the past those who questioned the validity of this religious authority were exiled, killed, or termed as irreligious and condemned.

Theism, in this specific sense, conceives of God as personal, present, and active in the governance and organization of the universe.

The religious sects like Dvait and Vishishta Advaita including orthodox Advaita have nothing to do with the ultimate truth or Brahman because they worship idols, human worship, and symbol worship and indulge in non-Vedic rituals barred by Vedas.  

Remember:~

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)

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. Thus, Idolatry does not find any support from the Vedas.

That is what Yajurveda says:  not to worship the things which are part of the falsehood. 

Translation 1.

They enter darkness, those who worship natural things (for example air, water, sun, moon, animals, fire, stone, etc).

They sink deeper into darkness those who worship sambhuti. (Sambhuti means created things, for example, table, chair, idol, etc.)  (Yajurved 40:9)

Translation 2.

"Deep into the shade of blinding gloom fall asambhuti's worshippers. They sink to darkness deeper yet who on sambhuti are intent."  (Yajurveda Samhita by Ralph T. H. Giffith pg 538)

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.)

So, Yajur Veda indicates that:-

They sink deeper into darkness those who worship sambhuti. (Sambhuti means created things, for example, table, chair, idol, etc (Yajurved 40:9)

Those who worship visible things born of the prakrti, such as the earth, trees, and 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.)

ISH Upanishads:~ By worshipping Gods and Goddesses you will go after death to the world of Gods and Goddesses. But will that help you? The time you spend there is wasted because if you were not there you could have spent that time moving forward towards Self-knowledge, which is your goal. In the world of Gods and Goddesses, you cannot do that, and thus you go deeper and deeper into darkness.

It clearly indicates that:- If the human goal is to acquire Self-Knowledge then why one has to indulge in rituals and Bhakti to the conceptual Gods, Goddesses, and Gurus to go into deeper darkness. Instead spend that time moving forward towards Self-knowledge, which is one’s prime goal.   

Fortunate is the man who does not lose himself in the labyrinths of paths and practices but goes straight in search of the truth. .... Bhakti is an important component of many branches of Hinduism, defined differently by various sects and schools are non-Vedic introduced several centuries back.  

Remember:~ 

The Vedas confirm God is Atman, the Self. Thus, reject the Puranas and believe in the Vedas. The Puranas are just a myth.

The Essence of Vedas:~ if you want to know God is in truth then accept Athma as God and reject all other Gods.

The Vedas do not talk about idol worship; the followers of Vedic Religion or Santana Dharma never worshipped idols. Thus, all the Puranic Gods which are of the form and attributes are not Vedic Gods.

Temple worships were not of the Vedic religion. Vedic religion or Santana Dharma is the world's oldest religion. 

All the idol worship and temple worship were introduced by different saints and different founders of the sect propagating as their final authority. Hindus do idol worship while Vedas bars idol worship.

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. All these 60 million Gods are non-Vedic Gods based on their beliefs.

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.   

Even Sage Sankara declares: ~ Supreme Brahman (God) is impersonal, Nirguna (without Gunas or attributes), Nirakara (formless), Nirvisesha (without special characteristics), immutable, eternal and Akarta (non-agent). It is above all needs and desires. It is always the Witnessing Subject. It can never become an object as it is beyond the reach of the senses. Brahman is non-dual, one without a second. It has no other besides it. It is destitute of difference, either external or internal. Brahman cannot be described because the description implies the distinction. Brahman cannot be distinguished from any other than It. In Brahman, there is not a distinction between substance and attribute. Sat-Chit-Ananda constitutes the very essence or Svarupa of Brahman and not just Its attributes. The Nirguna Brahman of Sage Sankara is impersonal.

God in truth is a formless, timeless, and spaceless existence. According to the Vedas God, neither has any image nor God resides in any particular idol or statue. God cannot be seen directly by anyone. God pervades all beings and all directions.

From the Vedic perspective, all the temple Gods are not God in truth because Rig Veda says 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. 

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, 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  ‘Self’. In reality, there is no duality, no differentiation. Only Atman exists.

Brihadaranyaka Upanishad says: "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)

One must remember that for all periods the Vedas are the final goal and authority, and if the Puranas differ in any respect from the Vedas, the Puranas are to be rejected without mercy.

If you feel the Puranas say something and the Vedas say something else, reject the Puranas and believe in the Vedas. The Puranas are just a myth.  

Advaita is the non-dual nature of the Soul, the Self. Advaita is the Soul itself. Advaita is the Soul, which is God in truth. Advaita is another word for God, which is second to none.   : ~ Santthosh Kumaar