Until and unless one bifurcate the religion from spirituality he will not be able to grasp and realize the nondual truth.

The word Hindu is derived from the Sanskrit word Sindhu which is the ancient name for the Indus River that flows through the north-western part of the Indian subcontinent. The word Hindu may also be in part derived from the Arabic term al-Hind, referring to the land of the people who live across the river Indus.

By the 13th century, the word Hindustan began to be used as a popular alternative name for India, meaning the "land of Hindus". Towards the end of the 18th century, the European merchants and colonists referred collectively to the followers of the Dharmic religions in Hindustan — which geographically referred to most parts of the northern Indian subcontinent — as Hindus. Eventually, any person of Indian origin who did not practice Abrahamic religions came to be known as a Hindu, thereby encompassing a wide range of religious beliefs and practices.

One of the accepted views is that the ism was added to Hindu in the early part of the nineteenth century by English writers to denote the culture and religion of the high-caste Brahmans. The word Hinduism was soon adopted by the Hindus themselves, as a term that encompassed their national, social and cultural identity.

[Source- From Wikibooks]

Hinduism is not a religion; but it is the oldest culture in the world. The Indus valley culture is called Hinduism. Hinduism is a way of life. Under Indus valley culture other religions have grown and flourished in Indus valley such as Islam, Buddhism, Jainism, Christianity, and Sikh. Many people from Indus valley converted to other religions when the invaders invaded in to India, by giving money, some by force.  The Hindu is mere cultural symbol and the people of India are all Hindus irrespective of any religious denomination, because Hindu means Indian. 

In India   every small place has a swami and god men, even many astrologer claims themselves to be gurus and ware saffron robes. Since, people think whoever ware saffron robs is a guru. It is for the people to realise that true identity comes from self-knowledge not by religious attire. Ignorance and desperation entrap the common man into the trap of tantrum, mantra, yantra and miracles. Seeker of truth has to be alert; no matter how traumatic or desperate a situation he is in, he has to do a quick backgrounder check on these gurus and god men.

Many god men are powerful enough to hush up their frauds. They are money hungry frauds. Many people are addicted to religions and avatars, so it's easy for these people to thrive in this world. Especially The westerners who are looking for spirituality and gurus fall for these kinds of frauds easily. There are many swami and gurus who are sincere and revered but they are religion or yoga oriented. These religious and yogic gurus are good for those who are fascinated about Indian religion and yoga. But if one is seeking truth the religion and yoga are not the means to truth/self realization.

Many of these fake god men’s wearing religious mask and founded money making organizations and they  will crumble one day, because the foundation is built fraudulently.

 There is need to bifurcate spirituality from religion and yoga in order to escape from all these fraudulent activities. The religion and yoga are nothing to do with spirituality.  Religion is based on the physicality and spirituality is based on the soul.  Religion is based on the birth, life and death, whereas the spirituality is based on the eternal entity/ultimate truth.

The seeker of truth has to understand the spirituality is mental journey and it does not require and thing other then deep thinking and sound reasoning power.  The religion and yoga are based on physical self /ego and one has to mere imagine and assume whatever the guru says.  Therefore, religion is for those who are incapable to inquire, analyze and reason. 

A Hindu thinks his religion is great and his gods are true god and the Christians and Muslims think their religion is great and their god is true god.  There is no universality in their belief.  Thus, the universal brotherhood is impossibility. Therefore, only the ultimate truth, which is responsible for physical existence has to be discovered, in order to realize the fact that, there is only one power which is common to all and responsible for everything which exists. 

As one goes deeper into annals of history of Hinduism, one will find that the present day Hinduism is not on the Vedic parlance, all the rituals and practices are against the Vedic teachings.  All the rituals beliefs and mythological stories and theories are add-ons are introduced to suit the mass mindsets by modifying them on the Vedic base.  As one goes in personal research one becomes aware the present day Hinduism is non Vedic because

Yajurved says:

Translation 1.
They enter darkness, those who worship natural things (for example air, water, sun, moon, animals, fire, stone, etc).
They sink deeper in darkness those who worship sambhuti. (Sambhuti means created things, for example table, chair, idol etc.)
[Yajurved 40:9]

Translation 2.
"Deep into 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 in 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, 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.]

The religion of the Veda 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."

     

Swami Virjanand :- Hinduism  is The world's oldest dogma. "Is it possible that any moral man can tolerate the supremely disgusting and insufferable stuff to be found, for instance, in the Linga Purana? The feats of the Linga, though heroic (!) indeed, are a record of shame and a tale of utter indecency and, obscenity. Do such books teach religion? If the reply be in the affirmative, then I say that they teach religions which can only debase the people."  Source – Wikibook

One will find lots of information about the Vedas in Maharishi Dayananda who was an authority on Vedas in his book SATYARATH PRAKASH is a yardstick to bifurcate Vedic from non Vedic add-ons.

Superstitions in the form of religion became deep rooted in Indian society. This had a prejudicial and adverse effect on Indian society. Idol worship gave rise to temples, which had the vested interests of the priests. The priests dominated the ideas of the masses and exploitation became rampant. Lord Shiva has the figure of a beautiful youth with serpents around his neck and a crescent on his head. His son Ganesha has the body of man but the head of an elephant and he rides a rat. Brahma, the creator, has four faces. Lord Vishnu is shown as relaxing on the surface of waters. Goddess Sarasvati is a charming young lady with fore hands playing the Veena, and Lord Sesa has the form of a serpent. When the people were completely brought under subjection, knowledge, intellectual power, courage, and all other good qualities were lost. They became very negligent in their duty, and immersed in sensuality thus started the many sects of Hinduism in its most sensual forms. A few of these sects still exist, such as Jainism, where the priests practice their doctrine in complete nudity, and Shivling, worship of the Penis and Vagina of Lord Shiva and his wife Parvati respectively. The concept of non-violence started and practiced by Jains became the foundation on which Hinduism was built also. In reality this brand of ideology reduced them to that of cowardice resulting in India's constant subjugation by foreign forces. "Many Hindus believe that all their sins are washed away by having a dip in the holy water of the Ganges. Thus it is seen that the great philosophical religion which conceived Unity of God in the beginning, brought up corruption and degradation of high ideas, when His attributes as the Creator, the Preserver and the Destroyer were divided and allotted to different deities possessing separate entities in different forms. Indians have, through ignorance, fallen into the abyss of superstitions and idol worship; the source of all other religious dogmas. There are many forms of deity worship, practiced by many denominations and which consists of their numerous gods which took many forms; human (male and female) and animal (Elephants, monkeys, snakes, rats, etc.). Each form is said to represent the different attributes, characteristics and nature of One God. The largest denominations consist of the Jains, Charvaka, Vama Marga, Puranics, Krishna Consciousness and Vedanta. Hindus perceived that heaven as very simple to achieve through devotion; e.g. taking a dip in the Ganges (in this way many animals can go too), renouncing all material wealth at old age, and going on Holy pilgrimage. Many believe salvation can be gained from a priest through formulas and rituals and not necessarily through austerity. The heaven of the different sects of Hinduism differs in many respects. The Jains believe their heaven consists of going to Shivpuri and sitting there quietly on a platform called the stone of salvation. The religion of the Vama Margis flourished in the eighteen century and their heaven is going to Shripur. Amazingly, what would be deemed sudden hell for us now, was the criteria for their heavenly abode. Their salvation consisted of consuming meat and alcohol, listening and singing romantic songs and enjoying promiscuous sex with women who could even be their mothers or sisters. They look upon all men as Mahadeva or Vishnu (Gods), and all women as Parvati or Lakshmi (Goddesses) and enjoy themselves with one another. They maintain that there is no disease in heaven and that you will always remain young. When the ignorant are guided by such sensual enjoyment to salvation is it any wonder why so many are attracted to it? The Shivites, Vaishnavites, and the Gosaaeens are promised enjoyable life by means of beautiful wives with pretty dresses. The dwelling consisted of luxurious houses and dining in delicious food and drinks. The Puranics believe in many kinds of salvation. They find residence in the same world with God, living with Him as His younger brother and becoming Godlike in nature. The closeness to God is like a servant living near his master brings an intimate union with God. This particular sect of Hinduism is surrounded with mythologies. But it does not bother the faithful in any conceivable way as they stress devotion and not reasoning. To a Hindu, the chanting or listening to chants of mantras of the Puranas, Ramayan and Gita, accompanied by music is devotion enough. For him, there is no need to enter into an intellectual debate with logic. The mythologies of the Puranas (one of Hindu's sacred scripture) is mystically intriguing and to dispute such myth is considered "blasphemy." Many of their incarnations and saints were not born but created one after the other out of thin air. Anjani was impregnated by seminal fluid poured into her ears. She gave birth to Hanoman, their monkey-God who swallowed the sun at one time; and a bull, standing on a turtle supports the earth. There are many such myths present in the Hindu theology. The sacred book, the Bhagvat, gives the story of creation as a lotus sprung from the navel of Vishnu (God of sustenance) and Brahma (Creator) out of the lotus. Swayambhava (One who is self-existent) came out of the right big toe of Brahma's right foot. The queen Satyrupa came out of his left great toe. From his forehead were born ten sons such as Rudra and Marichi who begot ten Prajapatis whose thirteen daughters were married to Kashyapa. Out of these thirteen wives of Dashyapa, Diti gave birth to fiends, Danu to demons, Aditi to the sun, Vinata to Birds and Dadru to snakes. Sharma gave birth to dogs and jackals, and others to elephants, horses, donkeys, buffaloes, grass, straw and trees, etc. In this modern age is there anyone who really believe such nonsense from the idiotic authors of the Bhagvat. This was the backwardness of the masses, when true knowledge died. The cunning imbeciles took advantage of this scenario to enhance their own greedy life styles. This pattern of greed and ignorance became the stigma of future dogmas to come. In the Markandeya Purana, the section devoted to the goddess Durga, it is stated that out of the bodies of the gods came forth light. This light formed a goddess who killed a demon called Mahishasura or Raktabija. A drop of blood fell from his body and many demons were produced to fill the whole world. In the second chapter of the Shrimad Bhagavat, Narayana blesses Brahma saying,"Thou shalt never be a victim to infatuation, either during Creation or Dissolution." In the tenth chapter, it says Brahma stole calves through infatuation. When this book teaches that there is no love, hate, anger, jealousy or pain in heaven (Baikuntha), why did Sanaka and others become angry at the gate of heaven? It is simple logic that if anger was there it was certainly no heaven. In the Bhagavat, Hiranyaksha folded the earth and made a pillow of it which he placed under his head and went to sleep. Vishnu incarnated himself as a boar, and caught hold of the earth from under his head. This woke him. A battle began and Hiranyaksha was killed. When Hiranyaksha rolled up the earth into a pillow, and placed it under his head, what did he sleep on and what did the boar walk on to engage him in battle? There was no end to irrationalities, as the Puranas and other such books, were put together by these misguided infidels. Prahlada, the son of Hiranyaksha was a great devotee of Narayana. When his father sent him to school he would ask his teachers to write the word Ram (another Hindu God), his father's enemy, on his slate and it would infuriate his father. He simply would not obey his father who had him tied up and pushed from the top of a mountain into a well. He remained unhurt. The father's second attempt to punish him faired no better, by embracing a red-hot iron pillar, daring his God, Rama to save him. Prahlada had doubts, but Narayana (a God) made rows of ants to crawl on the pillar as a protector from the heat. The pillar then burst and a lion came out of it and ripped open his father's abdomen. It then began to lick Prahlada lovingly and ask him to make a wish. He then requested his father to be saved and the lion blessed him saying that twenty-one of his forefathers have been saved. How on earth can these things be true? It is beyond comprehension that people in this day and age believe and accept such ridiculous stories. Another story of the Bhagvat was about Ajamil who named his son Narayana at the sage Narada's advice. When he was dying, he shouted for his son (by name) and in came Narayan (the God) instead of his son. Since Narayana was supposed to be God he should have known that Ajamil was calling for his son. If calling the name of the Lord is such a meritorious act as evidenced by the above story, why does Narayana not come now and relieve those who call his name of pain and misery? The dimension of the Sumeru mountain given in the Bhagvat Puran differs a great deal with the teaching of the Science of Astronomy. Oceans were caused by the tracks of the wheels of King Priyabrata's carriage. The earth was 2,450,000, 000 miles in diameter. There are countless numbers of such absurdities in all the Hindu Puranas. In a land where ignorance has no bounds, even a rogue with a few of followers can be called a saint. This happened all over India in the past centuries and is still prevailing in our supposedly modern world where sciences and logic have rightly disputed these irrationalities. Many of these swindlers like Prabhupada, Rajnishi and Sai Baba were able to make their cult known in a gullible Western society where they amassed great fortunes. To do good to the world is to enlighten mankind and bring them out of pain and miseries, rather than leaving them to the grace of God. It is only through the wisdom of God, that man can understand his mistakes. It is imperative to disseminate the Vedic knowledge and assist in liberating souls and at the same time elevate your own soul. Undoubtedly, India can boast or pride herself in being the most secular nation in the whole world. Refugees of religious persecution in all religions including Charvaka Christians, Jews, Zoroastrians, Muslims and Buddhists all took refuge in India. Throughout the ages, religious tolerance has become a universal message. There are thousands or perhaps millions of temples, churches and mosques, an exploitation no other nation in the world can surpass. Almost a billion people engage in some form of spiritual worship. This takes place in temples, mosques, synagogues and churches, homes, factories, along riverbanks, in forest or mountains, streets, in trains, buses, wherever they may be. One can easily relate to such profound symbolatry as truly a divine paradise for the seekers of spirituality. But strangely and unfortunately, it was not meant to be so. The prevailing conditions of India have cleared the oppugnancies that all religious dogmas do lead ultimately to Salvation. The practices of these doctrines have definitely proved that destitution is a languishing pain for the poor, and happiness, a distant dream for the privileged. The diminished glorious ages of India, once the cradle of civilization, where only one people worshipped one God, is long gone. [Source:-SATYARATH PRAKASH] Looking at all these facts there is a need to bifurcate whatever in not Vedic to know the pure Vedic essence which is mixed in the sea of mythology, Superstitions and dogmas.  No god can exit without man. Man has to exist first for god to exist. Thus god is dependent on man’s existence.   Therefore, there is a need to unfold the mystery of man’s existence, and then only it is possible accept the god’s existence. It looks like the idea of god is adopted from Abrahamic religion and introduced with mythological base.   Vedantism vs Advitha When the report was being assiduously spread by the enemies of reform that Swami Sri,  Dayanand had refused to hold a shastrarth, some Sadhus elated by the report hastened to the Swami’s quarters, and coming into his presence, said that they had sought him out with the view of holding a discussion with him. “Vedantism,” was the reply of the leader of the band, a man of learning. Swami ~ “To begin with, please explain what do you mean by Vedantism?” Sadhu - ”Vedantism is that which teaches that the world is false and that God is the only true existence.” Swami ~ “What do you understand by the ‘world’ (jagata)? What things are included in your ‘world’ and what do you mean by the term ‘false’ (mithya)?” Sadhu - ”Whatever there is from atoms up to the sun, is called the ‘world’ and all that is in it, is false and unreal.” Swami ~ ”Are or are not your body, speech, moving about, updesh, guru, and books included in this world also? Sadhu - Yes they are.” Swami ~ “And is your religion also included in this, or is it outside of it?” Sadhu - “Verily, that too is included in this.” Swami ~ “When you yourself admit that you and your guru, your faith and your books, your speech and your updesh are false, what can I say to you? The case, according to the statement of the claimant himself, deserves to be dismissed. There is no need of witnesses here. The above dialogue of Maharashi Dayananda proves that the Advitha is nothing to do with Vedas. Sri.Sankara, introduced Advitha modified it on the base of Vedas to uplift the Sanatan Dharma, which was in ruins   in the hands of Buddhism and Jainism.   The Advaitha is extension of Buddhism. Looking at  the preaching  and books written of Sankarachryas of the four peetas , who themselves base on Vedas are indulging in rituals, worships  and glorifying individual gods  and themselves ,whereas the Yajur veda  declares one should not indulge in such things.  Because of the same reason Buddha and J.Krishnamurty rejected the religion .concept of god and scriptures.  They must have studied deeply and found them inadequate and useless in pursuit of truth before rejecting them. The Puranas Acharya Dharamkriti has enumerated five characteristics of ennui and stupefaction. One of them is to consider a scripture on authority. The tendency to consider a book on authority is widely prevalent in India, though most of the contents of these scriptures have been proven fallacious on the basis of reason and reality. When scientists have proved that the moon is 24,000 miles away from the earth and the sun is 9.30 crore miles away, what is the sense in asserting that according to the Vishnu Puran, the sun is near the earth and the moon is far off. Nothing is true The writers of the Puranas say that there are seven seas on the earth. One is full of saltish water; the other contains pure water; the third is full of milk; the fourth is full of ghee and so on. Today everybody knows that all the seas are full of brine. No sea contains milk or ghee. Inspite of this, if somebody cites the puranas as authority and advances the view that the seas are full of sugarcane juice, he will be considered as a fool. The scriptures cannot be taken as authority because man's knowledge increases and changes day by day. Truths of yesterday may not be truths of today, and todays opinion and views may be proved wrong tommorrow. Books only reflect the knowledge of contemporary people. Everybody knows that the knowledge of the Puraniks about the astronomy and science was very limited, and that of geography almost ridiculous. According to the Markandeya Puran, the area of earth is 50 crore 'yojanas'. There are seven continents on the earth - Jambu, Plaksh, Shalmal, Kush, Kronch, Shak and Pushkar. One of these continents is double the size of others. The continents are surrounded by seas of salt, sugarcane juice, wine, ghee, curd milk and pure water respectively. One sea is double the size of others. A 'yojana' is equivalent to 8 miles. According to the Puranas, the area of the earth is 50 crore'yojanas' or 4000 million miles. Scientists and geographers have proved that the diameter of the earth is 8000 miles and its circumfrence is 25,000 miles. The Puraniks say that the 'extent' of earth is 4,000 million miles, whereas it is actually only 25,000 miles. In case they meant area by the word 'extent', even then it comes out to be 62 crore square miles, after multiplying its length (25,000) and breadth (25,000) miles. Ocean of cane juice Students of geography know it too well that there are only six continents on this earth - Asia,Europe, North America, South America, Africa and Australia. According to the Puraniks, the Jambu continent or Asia extends to one lakh 'yojanas'. According to them the Plaksh continent (presumably Europe) extends to two lakh 'yojanas' or 16 lakh miles and the sea surrounding it extends eight lakh miles and is full of cane juice. It is known fact that no sea seperates Asia and Europe, and when there is no sea it is sheer imagination to say that it extends 16 lakh miles and is full of cane juice. In case the sea surrounding Europe was full of cane juice, the European would have exported sugar to Asia, America, Africa and Australia. According to the Markandeya Puran, the Shalmal continent (perhaps Africa) extends to 32 lakh miles. It is surrounded by a sea which extends to 32 lakh miles and is full of wine. Readers know that Maditerranien Sea and the Red sea seperate Africa from Europe and they extend only a few hundred miles. They are full of brine like the Indian Ocean. The Puraniks say that Africa is four times bigger than Asia, whereas it is almost equal to latter. The Puraniks say that the Kush continent (perhaps North America) extends to 64 lakh miles and is surrounded by a sea which extends to 64 lakhs miles and is full of ghee. Similarly the Kronch continent (perhaps South America) extends to 128 lakh miles and is surrounded by sea of equal area and is full of curd. In fact no sea seperates North and South America. On one side there is the Atlantic Ocean and on the other there is the Pacific Ocean and both are full of Brine. These continents are smaller than Asia. Imaginary geographical knowledge It is surprising that the Puraniks imagined only 'rivers' of ghee and milk in India and 'seas' of ghee and and milk preety far off. The Shak continent(presumably Australia) is said to be 32 times bigger than the Jambu continent(Asia).What to talk of 32 times, it is not even one fourth. The imaginary geographical knowledge of the Puraniks does not end here. Their observations about the Jambu Continent (Asia) and India are rather strange. In the middle of the Jambu continent, there is a golden Meru mountain which is 84,000 'yojanas' high. It is rooted in the deep earth and its depth is 16,000 'yojanas' the width of its top is 32,000 'yojanas' and that of base is 16,000 'yojanas'. The Himalayas are situated in the middle of Asia and are covered with snow. It is fantastic to say that its height is 84,000 'yojanas' when it is actually 29,000 feet high. According to the Puraniks, it is 256,000 miles wide, whereas the width of asia from Kanyakumari to North pole is hardly 7,000 miles. The length of himalayas is not 128,000 miles, it is about 1500 miles. According to the Puraniks, the depth of Sumeru mountain inside the earth is 128,000 miles. When the diameter of the earth is hardly 8,000 miles what about the rest of the milage, which comes to 120,000 miles ? According to the Devi Bhagwat puran, there are four mountains in the four directions of the Sumeru mountain - Mandar in the east, Merumandar in the South, Suparshv in the west and Kumund in the north. All these mountains are like the legs of the main mountain. The area of each is described as 80,000 miles. Each of them has a tree on the top - mango, rose-apple, neulea orientalis and banyan. They serve as their flags are 1,100 yojanas' high. All four trees extend like the mountain on which they are growing. These four mountains are further beutifies by their four tanks which contain milk honey, sugarcane juice and so on. All these prove the fact that, religion is based on the physical self and physical existence itself is falsehood.  Therefore, Self-knowledge is necessary to realize the fact that, the birth, life death and the world are part of the falsehood. Therefore until one bifurcate the religion from spirituality one will not be able to grasp and realize the nondual truth.   The people who are stuck with religious based nondual teachings will find it difficult to realize the nondual truth.