When the Upanishad says: the human goal is to acquire Self-Knowledge and they indicate the personal gods, scriptures, worship and rituals are not the means to Self –Knowledge, then why anyone should indulge in it.
The religion, concept of individualized God and scriptures are the greatest obstacle to realize non-dualistic or Advaitic truth or self-realization, because they are based on the false self. The seeker of truth has to search the ultimate truth without losing himself in the labyrinths of philosophy, through deeper, inquiry, analysis and reasoning and assimilate and realize it.
Many people follow both Bhakti as well as Jnana. Advaitic sages in the past composed numerous hymns for various Gods and Goddesses by mixing both dual and non-dualistic ideas.
Many sages used to illustrate, the formless (Nirakar God) ocean water under the cold currents of bhakti freezes take a shape as the ice (Saakar God). The same ice (Saakar God) under the heat of Gyan dissolves and again becomes the formless ocean (Niraakar God).
All the Advaitins believe in god and goddesses (Vidya) and performing rituals and other sacrifices(Avidya) both are hindrance to self-knowledge according to Ish Upanishads, then why the seeker of truth needs to worship of god and goddesses, when essence of Advaita is Atman is Brahman (soul or self as the ultimate reality). When the self is formless there is no need pada pooja (feet worship) Advaitin gurus to get freedom. A guru who preaches conduct as the means to freedom believes in birth, life death and the world as reality, whereas the Advitic sage Sri, Sankara declares the world as unreal. Therefore, how actions performed in an unreal world can get moksha or freedom. Therefore,there is a need to know the fact that the self is not physical in order to understand and assimilate and realize the truth beyond physicality.
Isa Upanishads indicates that: By worshipping gods and goddesses and going to the world of gods after death is of no use. The time one spends in ritualistic practices is wasted; one can spend the same time moving forward towards Self-knowledge, which is the main goal. One cannot reach the non-dual destination by glorifying god and goddesses and by doing that, one goes deeper and deeper into the darkness. It surely indicates the fact that, the seeker of truth has to drop the worshiping god and goddess in order to get the self-knowledge.
It also indicates that, Religious Rituals (Avidya) is karma (action) and therefore a hindrance. By performing Agnihotra and other sacrifices (Avidya) is a roundabout way of purifying the mind, and it is also groping in the dark.
In addition, it indicates the karma is limited only to the religious rituals, not on the whole human life. This karma theory based on the human conduct must have been adopted from Buddhism and other theories based on human conducts.
When it says: Perform the obligatory karmas without any attachment to the fruits, and at the same time worship gods and goddesses, again without any desire to go to heaven - then you can get the benefit of both, liberation and bliss. For those who are not yet ready to renounce, this path is recommended, it mean that the religion and its idea of god and goddesses and code of conducts, and its rituals are meant for the mass who are incapable of thinking of the beyond.
In addition, it also speaks of heaven the abode of gods, where one goes after death, and it speaks of rebirth, this contradiction, seeker has to conclude that religion, rituals god and its code of conducts is meant for the mass that is not receptive to self-knowledge or Brahma Gnana or Atma Gnana.
When the self is not the body (‘ego’) whatever one sees, knows, believes, experiences and feels on the base of the body (ego) as self is bound to be an illusion. Thus, the karma performed in illusion is bound to be an illusion. The birth, life and death is happening within the illusion, therefore it is bound to be an illusion. Thus, rebirth and reincarnation theories based on the false self within the false experience are bound to be an illusion on the base of the true self. Only the witness of the illusion is real (Brahman). Therefore, everything has to be viewed and judged, on the base of the Formless Witness (soul)in order to overcome the illusion/duality.
Seeker of truth has to know somewhere he is going wrong, and it is for the seeker to go on his own and remove the obstacle. Mixing religion, god, scriptures, and yoga and theories are a greatest hindrance in pursuit of truth. Moreover, attachment to scriptures, personal god and religious code of conduct keeps one permanently in the grip of duality.
For the same reason Raman Maharshi said: fortunate are the one who do not lose themselves in the labyrinths of philosophy. Bhagwan says: Take Vedanta, for instance: it speaks of 15 pranas the names and functions of it which the student is asked to commit memory. Will it not be sufficient if he thought, only one prana does the whole work of maintaining the body? Again the antakaran is said to think, to desire, to will, to reason etc. Why all these details? Has anyone seen antakarana, or all these pranas? Do they really exist? They are conceptual divisions invented by teachers of philosophy by their excessive analysis. Where do all these concepts end? Why should confusion created and then explained away? Fortunate is the man who does not lose him self in the labyrinths of philosophy, but goes straight to the source from which they all arise. (GURU RAMANA .By S.S Cohen -vii Danger of philosophy-Page -58-59)
The most valuable contribution of Sage Sri, Sankara is that he gained general consciousness on the issue that the authoritative explanation of Upanishads, Gita and Brahma Sutra was the final say in the matter of religion. Anything that goes contrary to the trio is not authentic. He also made a clear distinction between Vedas and Upanishads in his commentary on Gita. He stated that the Karma Kand of the Vedas deal with the injunctions relating to the performance of duties and actions. These are for ordinary householders.
The path of religion, path of yoga and the path of wisdom were intended for different classes of people. The wisdom is for the advanced seekers of truth. It deals with the nature of the ultimate Truth and Reality. It is meant for superior aspirants who have an inner urge to know the truth and it is not for those who are immersed in earthly desires.
Sage Sri Sankara’s whole teaching can be summed up into one sentence, ‘There is nothing else but Brahma. He says that the Absolute Existence, Absolute Knowledge and Absolute Bliss is Real. The universe is not real. He says that Brahma and Atman are one. The ultimate and the Absolute Truth is the Self, which is one though appearing as many in different individuals. The individual has no reality. Only the Self is real; the rest, mental and physical are but passing appearances.
In fact,Sri, Sankar states a paradox- the world is and is not. It is neither real nor unreal. It leads us to recognize the existence of Maya. He thinks that the world is illusory from one perspective and from the second it is nothing but Brahma, Itself in manifestation. This apparent world is Maya and has its basis in Brahman, the Eternal. It looks as real. It has names and forms and actually, it is not real In the light of true knowledge, it disappears and Self-alone shines as real. However Sri, Sankar’s Mayavad has not been accepted by many preachers and philosophers.
When Sri, Sankara says clearly, the universe is not real. He says that Brahman and Atman are one. The ultimate and the Absolute Truth is the Self, which is one though appearing as many in different individuals. The individual has no reality. Only the Self is Real; the rest, mental and physical are but passing appearances, then it indicates the form (waking or duality or mind) is unreal the formless is real (soul or spirit or self or FW). Therefore, only Atman is real because there is no second thing other than Atman.
The path of religion, path of yoga and the path of wisdom were intended for different classes of people. The wisdom is for the advanced seekers of truth. It deals with the nature of the ultimate Truth and Reality. It is meant for superior aspirants who have an inner urge to know the truth and it is not for those who are immersed in earthly desires.
The scientists now concluded that you are not the brain (body). Consciousness requires the joint operation of brain, body and world. "You are not your brain. The brain, rather, is part of what you are."
The Biology of Consciousness
by Alva Noë. Hill and Wang, 2009
Alva Noe, a University of California, Berkeley, philosopher and cognitive scientist, argues that after decades of concerted effort on the part of neuroscientists, psychologists and philosophers "only one proposition about how the brain makes us conscious ... has emerged unchallenged: we don't have a clue." The reason we have been unable to explain the neural basis of consciousness, he says, is that it does not take place in the brain. Consciousness is not something that happens inside us but something we achieve it is more like dancing than it is like the digestive process. To understand consciousness the fact that we think and feel and that a world shows up for us we need to look at a larger system of which the brain is only one element. Consciousness requires the joint operation of brain, body and world. "You are not your brain. The brain, rather, is part of what you are."
Thus, science is going in the right direction in its invention, and one day it will declare that everything is consciousness, which Shankar declared 1200 years back –everything is Atman- because Atman is in the form of consciousness.
Self is not your brain. The brain body and the world are one in essence. That essence is the soul, which is present in the form of consciousness. The soul is the innermost self.
Thus we have to know the fact that Buddha, Goudpada and Sri,Sankara are not only reformers but also the greatest scientists. Since there original thesis have been lost in the labyrinths of philosophy and mutilated by pundits and priest craft, it becomes very difficult understand and assimilate the wisdom expounded by the great masters. In addition, the conservativeness of the orthodox scholars will not allow any research other than playing with the words, which suits the mass mind sets, because of their egocentric outlook.
All the add-ons have to be deleted, in order to understand and assimilate the real fragrance of the wisdom expounded by the great masters of Advaita, but it is a hurricane task. Thus, it is no use going through all the scriptures, when there is a direct path to nondual truth. The same time and effort can be used to reach the nondual destination, in lesser time and effort.
