Upanishads says the religious ritual oriented worshipers are no better than a beast.+

If people have believed false gods propagated by religion over millions of years, the length of time does not prove it is God in truth.   

Sage Sankara pointed out that those rituals could in no way bring about wisdom, much less Moksha.

Sage Sankara gave religious, ritual, and dogmatic instruction to the populace, but Advaitic wisdom only to the few who could rise to it.

If you mix Advaitic orthodoxy with Advaitic wisdom creates confusion, because they mix up the two viewpoints.

Thus, they may assert that ritual is a means of realizing Brahman, which is absurd.

Sage Sankara says rituals and rites such as yajna or fire rituals are meant for the ignorant populace.    Sage Sankara asserts that will not prepare the mindset for the journey to Self-knowledge.  

Upanishads say the religious ritual-oriented worshippers are no better than a beast. Religious orthodox people think that they have accomplished life's purpose by indulging in rituals and sacrifices prescribed by the scriptures and advice of their Gurus but these performers of rituals and sacrifices do not know the Truth owing to their attachment they remain in ignorance.

There are two kinds of audiences ~ those who follow the Advaitic orthodox path are the ordinary ones who desire the transitory heaven and other pleasures obtained as a result of ritual, prayers, devotion to personal Gods, and sacrifices. And the more advanced seeker who seeks to know the ultimate truth or Brahman.

Religion and yoga are meant for the ignorant populace, to help lead its followers along the way.

The path of wisdom is meant for those who wish to realize the truth, which is beyond form, time, and space.

Those who lack the intelligence to discriminate between reality and illusion will not be able to grasp what is real and what is an illusion. Both real and unreal are consciousness, not the real alone.    

Remember:~  

Those who have chosen the Atmic path have to drop all the orthodox adulteration by bifurcation and drop what is not needed to acquire Self-knowledge or Brahma Gnana or Atma Gnana: ~  

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

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

Remember:~

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)

All the orthodox ideas were rejected by Sage  Sankara. There is no need to indulge in rituals, to realize the ultimate truth or Brahman. There is no need to study philosophy, to realize the ultimate truth or Brahman so why indulge in studying philosophy.

Sage Sankara pokes fun at ascetics and points out that all their austerities do not cause desires to go (Altar Flowers" Page 205, v.2 P.207 v.4)

Sage  Sankara pointed out that those rituals could in no way bring about wisdom, much less moksha.

Sage  Sankara says the rewards of the rituals are a not matter of direct realization. Advaitic wisdom is based on personal realization.

The orthodox Advaitin believes that rituals alone would lead one to higher levels of attainment. Further, the deities would reward only those entitled to perform the rituals alone. The entitlement involved caste, creed, and other parameters.

The scriptural authority and value of rituals are part of the Advaitic orthodoxy, which is meant for ignorant people.

The Advaitic wisdom of Sage Sankara has nothing to do with the caste, rituals, worship, and other practices. Therefore an obvious disparity between Sage  Sankara‘s path of Gnana, and the path of Karma. Path of Gnana is meant for the Advanced seeker of truth and the path of Karma is meant for the ignorant populace.

Even Sage  Sankara appears and tells the orthodox people the path of orthodoxy is the path of ignorance they will not be able to drop their inherited samskara or conditioning, which they think is the only way to reach heaven and reap a happy life in the next life.

As regards the rituals, Sage Sankara says, that 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.-  (11- Adhyasa Bhashya)

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 still remain in ignorance of the Atman the real God.

As a person, one performs rituals throughout his life.  The person who performs rituals and aspires for rewards will view the world in which he exists as a reality. However, the Soul, the Self is unborn and eternal hidden by the world in which he exists.  From the standpoint of the Soul, the world in which he exists is merely an illusion.

The scriptures dealing with rituals, rewards, etc. are therefore addressed to an ignorant person.

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.

All the scriptures indicate that Atman is Brahman, and Brahman is the ultimate truth. Therefore the Soul, which is present in the form of consciousness, is the ultimate truth.  To realize the ultimate truth is the prime goal.   A well-directed inquiry, analysis, and reasoning will lead one to his nondual destination.  

Self-realization is the direct realization of the ultimate truth or Brahman or God, in contrast with traditional paths, which are indirect. And the other paths cannot lead to the ultimate destination because they are based on the false ‘Self’, which they hold as the real ‘Self’ and false experience as a reality.

First Mundaka - Chapter 2 (9) - Children, immersed in ignorance in various ways, flatter themselves, saying: We have accomplished life's purpose. Because these performers of karma do not know the Truth owing to their attachment, they fall from heaven, misery-stricken, when the fruit of their work is exhausted.

First Mundaka - Chapter 2 (8) - Fools, dwelling in darkness, but wise in their own conceit and puffed up with vain scholarship, wander about, being afflicted by many ills, like blind men led by the blind.

Ish Upanishad: - Those people who have neglected the attainment of Self-knowledge and have thus committed suicide. -10/11/12

The religious orthodox people who have neglected the attainment of Self-knowledge and have thus committed suicide, as it were, are doomed to enter those worlds after death.

This is a condemnation of people who do not try to attain Self-knowledge. They are, in a real sense, committing suicide, for what can be worse than being a slave to sense enjoyment, completely oblivious of the real purpose of life, which is to be one ’s, own master?

Ish Upanishads:-

MANTRA 10

Vidya and Avidya both are hindrances to Self-knowledge, but Vidya is even worse than Avidya. The word Vidya is used here in a special sense; here it means worshipping Gods and Goddesses. 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.

Avidya is Karma and therefore a hindrance. You perform Avidya - i.e., you perform Agnihotra and other sacrifices. This is a roundabout way of purifying the mind, and it is also groping in the dark. But it may not have as heavy a toll on your time and energy as the other.

Ishopanishad: ~ “They are steeped in ignorance and sunk into the greatest depth of misery who worships the matter, instead of the All-Pervading God and those who worship things born of matter like trees, animals, man, etc. are sunk deeper in misery." : ~ Santthosh Kumaar