Sage Sankara’s missions was to wean people away from the orthodox approach and to project wisdom (jnana) as the means of liberation or Moksha.+

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.

An orthodox person who performs rituals throughout his life 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.

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.

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. 

Moral, ethics, love compassion, code of conduct, celibacy, karma, sin, temple worship, ancestor worship, heaven,  and hell are concerned with the one which is born, lives, and dies in the world.

Moral, ethics, love compassion, code of conduct, celibacy, karma, sin, temple worship, ancestor worship, heaven, and hell have nothing to do with the Soul, the Self because it is unborn and eternal. It is unborn eternal because it is ever formless, timeless, and spaceless existence.

Religion and yoga prevent seekers from attaining Self- knowledge.

According to Sage Sankara- Atman, the unchanging entity itself is the ultimate reality or Brahman.  Atman alone is real, while the universe is unreal.

Advaitic wisdom is not based on scriptures religious and intellectual knowledge by karmas. 

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 declares:~ 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?

Sage  Sankara says “he who knows the Brahman (God in truth) is one and the ‘Self’ is another, does not know Brahman (God in truth).”

Sage Sankara also asserts that the Self is realized when All the effects of ignorance, root, and branch, are burnt down by the fire of Self-  knowledge, which arises from discrimination between these two—the Self and the non-Self.

Sage Sankara’s Gnanic path can help the seekers draw and prepare them for the journey to the reality hidden by the dualistic illusion or Maya. 

One of Sage Sankara’s missions was to wean people away from the orthodox approach and to project wisdom (jnana) as the means of liberation or Moksha.

Sage Sankara criticized severely the ritualistic attitude and those who advocated such practices.

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)

Why Swami Vivekananda said the masses in India cry to sixty million Gods, and still die like dogs. Where are these Gods?

 Knowing this, stand up and fight! Not one step back is the idea. ... Fight it out, whatever comes. Let the stars move from the sphere! Let the whole world stand against us! Death means only a change of garment. What of it? Thus fight! You gain nothing by becoming cowards. ... Taking a step backward, you do not avoid any misfortune. You have cried to all the Gods in the world. Has misery ceased? The masses in India cry to sixty million Gods and still die like dogs. Where are these Gods? ... The Gods come to help you when you have succeeded. So what is the use? Die game. ... This bending the knee to superstitions, this selling yourself to your own mind does not befit you, my Soul. You are infinite, deathless, and birthless. Because you are the infinite spirit, it does not befit you to be a slave. ... Arise! Awake! Stand up and fight! Die if you must. There is none to help you. You are the entire world. Who can help you? - Swami Vivekananda  (Delivered In San Francisco, on May 28, 1900) -The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda/Volume 1/Lectures And Discourses/The Gita II

It is because Hindus are idol worshipers of a large number of Gods and Goddesses whereas the Vedic people in the Vedic era never worshipped idols and individualized Gods.  Therefore, the truth of the Vedas, one must know the falsity of our inherited non-Vedic religion, which blocks the realization of the Vedic truth, which is beyond form, time, and space.

Most people in the world are unaware of the grandeur of the ancient Santana Dharma or Vedic religion which existed prior to Buddhism, Jainism, and present-day Hinduism.  Present-day Hinduism is not the ancient Santana Dharma or Vedic religion.

The Hindus believed in polytheism, believing all of their Gods to be separate individuals, which were introduced much later by the founders of Hinduism which contains diverse beliefs caste, and creed to help the ignorant populace. 

Many Gods and Goddesses with different forms and names are being propagated as Vedic Gods by the saints and founders of different castes and creeds in the past. All these conceptual Gods have been introduced in place of the Vedic concept of God which is free from form and attributes.  Puranic Gods are non-Vedic Gods. Worship of such Gods is barred in Vedas.  

 The Vedas do not talk about idol worship. In fact, until 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.

In Vedas God has been described as: ~

 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

The Vedas confirm 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 the real God.

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

Thus it refers to a formless and attributeless God, which is the Atman (Soul), the innermost ‘Self’ within the false experience. Thus it indicates clearly all the Gods with form and attributes are mere imaginations based on the false self.  Thus Atman or Soul, the  ‘Self’ is God in truth.

As indicated in 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 or Brahma Gnana or Atma Gnana then why one has to indulge in rituals and glorifying 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.

Self-realization is God-realization.  Self-realization is real worship. Self-realization is the goal of Vedic religion or Santana Dharma.

Since it is eternal and infinite, it comprises the only truth. The goal of Vedic religion, through the various yogas, is to realize that the consciousness (Atman) is actually nothing but Brahman (God in truth).

Swami Vivekananda: ~ No blind belief can save you, work out your own salvation. Have only one idea of God.  

The Vedic pantheon of Gods is said, in the Vedas and Upanishads, to be only higher manifestations of Brahman. For this reason, "ekam sat" (all is one), and all is Brahman.   : ~ Santthosh Kumaar