 As one goes deeper in self-search he will becomes aware all the material in religious annals are mere assumption and imagination based on the false self. Even if one takes them as reality one has to realize the fact that, the waking experience itself is falsehood. Therefore whatever one sees, knows, believes and experiences as person within the falsehood is bound to be falsehood. Thus all these religious fables has no value on the ultimate stand point.
As one verifies one becomes aware of the fact that:-
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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 tomorrow. 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 he 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 because they have accepted something else as truth.
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