Swami Vivekananda said:- 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? ..

Deeper self-search reveals the fact that,  the true Advaita expounded by Sri Sankara and his param guru, Goudpada is pure   Self-knowledge or Brahma Gnana or Atman Gnana leads one to Self-awareness whereas   the orthodox Advaita  more concerned with the practical life within the practical world indulging in Non-Vedic rituals barred by Vedas. Orthodoxy believes in birth,life,death and world as reality whereas  Sri, Sankara said :- the world is myth. That means the world in which birth,life and death takes place is myth.  Thus orthodoxy is based on the false self (ego or waking entity) and false experience[form,time and space)  is falsehood. Thus the religious orthodoxy is meant for those who are incapable  of grasping and realizing the non-dualistic  or Advaitic  truth or Brahman.      

When 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.]

 When the religion of the Veda knows no idols than why so many gods and goddesses with different form and name are being propagated as Vedic gods. Why these conceptual gods are introduced when Vedic concept of god is free from form and attributes. 

Who introduced concept of god with attributes and attributeless gods, when Yajur Veda says: -   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.

When Yajur Veda  itself declares that:- "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."  -- than why believe  and worship non-Vedic  Gods and fall into an awful hell of pain and sorrow.  

Ish Upanishad declares: - Those people who have neglected the attainment of Self-knowledge and have thus committed suicide

10/11/12

Those 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? 

In order to be one’s own master he has to realize that mind is identical with soul, which is Pure Consciousness, ever free, without name and form, and unconditioned.

The soul the innermost self is not subject to any modification, without beginning and end, beyond thought and speech. Soul is Existence Absolute, Knowledge Absolute, and Bliss Absolute. When soul know this it is free from ignorance. It is no longer experiences the birth, life, death and the world as reality. 

 If one does not try to know the truth of his true existence, he indeed experiences the illusory birth, life, death and the world as reality. The soul or consciousness the innermost self, is one without a second, complete in itself.

 Soul never moves. Soul is always still, always the same. All the moments are within the illusion. Within the illusion one feels moves everything and it makes the whole world go the way it does. It gives those who mechanically perform rituals go into darkness that is like being blind. But those who worship gods and goddesses remain permanently in ignorance experiencing the illusory experience of birth, life, death and the world (waking) as reality. 

As per the Ish Upanishad: - those who worship gods and goddesses go into a deeper darkness because they seek rewards for their worship. 

As long as there is the sense of "I' and "mine' within us, there can be no Self-knowledge. When one says "me' and "mine' you automatically identify himself with his body or ego. This shows that he is ignorant of the innermost Self, which is soul or consciousness and which is also self of all.

An ignorant person uses the words "I' and "mine'. He says: "I am so and so. “I AM GOD”,' and so on.

An ignorant person has many desires in his mind, and because of these desires he remains in the realm of duality. He has to have a body; otherwise he cannot satisfy his desires. But the more he tries to satisfy them, the more they grip his ego. This goes on endlessly. But it is given to a human being to think, reason, and discriminate. Thus he soon comes to realize that the path he has been following cannot give him satisfaction. He understands that he has to choose another path the path of wisdom or path of truth. As long as he does not take the path of Gnana or wisdom, he gropes in the ignorance and experiences the illusory waking experience (universe) as reality.

Swami Vivekananda said:- 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, birthless. Because you are 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 all the 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

Orthodoxy is path of ignorance.  And ignorant worships mechanically perform the prescribed sacrifices without any thought as to why they are doing them.  

 Sri, Sankara says in Brahma Sutras: that Brahman is the cause of the world, whereas in Mandukya he denies it. This is because he says that at the lower stage of understanding, the former teaching must be given, for people will get frightened as they cannot understand how the world can be without a cause, but to those in a higher stage, the truth of non-causality can be revealed.

Sri, Sankara himself has warned us not to use ambiguous words, and to practice semantic analysis in his book "Definition of one's own Self. [" Page 199, v.24 of "Sankara's Selected Works]

Brahman is considered the all-pervading consciousness, which is the basis of all the animate and inanimate entities and material. (brahmano hi pratisthaham, Bhagavad Gita 14.27)

 Sri, Sankara’s notion of Maya, the cosmic illusion [mind or matter], which must be transcended in order to realize the truth of Brahman, which means ultimate truth.  

If Brahman is considered the all-pervading consciousness then, it is necessary to realize, the consciousness as self, which pervades all the three states, to realize the fact that, there is no second thing exists other the consciousness. Thus, consciousness [Ataman] is ultimate truth [Brahman]. 

The Sruti itself says: "This Atma is NOT to be attained by a study of the Vedas.  [Katha Upanishad I, 2, 23.] 

It means the seeker has to investigate on his own and realize the ultimate truth or Brahman.

In the ancient time, religious, Yogic or mystic disciplines, which were not an end in itself, considered to be means for self-realization. But such discipline is almost impossible task for the modern man to adopt. Day by day modern man is becoming aware of the fact that religion and yoga are nothing to do with pursuit of truth. .

 The modern mindset is pre-eminently scientific owing to the great progress that science has made. And the best method of freeing the one from his inaccurate ways of thinking is to imbue him as fully as possible with the scientific spirit. It is therefore only one who possesses a clear knowledge of its methods and results i.e., who is able to make reason the highest means of enquiry that would be fit for self-knowledge