Going beyond Veda, religion and conceptual god means going beyond illusion

NIHILISM, the 'Void' of Sunyavada Buddhism is only a stage. It cannot be ultimate. It says there is really nothing. The mistake of Hinayana Buddhism is to jump to assumptions where Buddha kept silent.

How is one to know the real self? To think of the self is an object, as something that can be known and experienced is fallacy. All that is known within the waking or dream is fallacy because the three states are an object to the formless  soul , which is the subject. The subject [soul] is within the object but it is without the object .Soul or consciousness  ,the innermost self  is always formless because it is not an entity or identity within the waking or dream but consciousness(soul) pervades in everything and everywhere in all the three states. 

People think that to withdraw from all sense-activity, from all thoughts, all life-experiences, i.e., to cease to be active, is the highest state.

All the senses, thoughts and individual experiences and the world are present only in waking or dream. Waking or dream [duality] disappears as deep sleep non-duality. Thus what becomes dual and non-dual experience is most important than inquiring ‘WHO AM I?’  or saying ‘I AM THAT’  or affirming I AM BRAHMAN. 

The self is not an individual because ‘Self’ is formless. If the self is formless than where is the body, where are the senses, where is ego, where is universe. If the self is not physical body than it proves the fact that, man is not the self, but the formless knower of the man and the world is the true self.   Thus knowledge based on man as self is false knowledge within the false experience.

One has to go beyond Vedas means go beyond religion. Go beyond religion means, go beyond concept of god.  Thus, Going beyond Veda, religion and conceptual god means going beyond illusion.   That is end of Vedas [Veda –antha] 

When one goes into the annals of the history it looks like the Gnanic Advaita expounded by Sri Sankara and his param guru, Goudpada is not orthodox Advaita, which is adulterated with add-ons time to time.  

 It is necessary for the seeker to do his homework, and verify the validity of all the claims, rather than blindly believe, what others expound as knowledge, till; the un-contradicted truth is obtained.

The seeker must have the courage of Buddha to accept the truth and reject the untruth. Since Buddha rejected religion, idea of god and scriptures, therefore, it is evident that, he has gone through every aspect and verified and found them to be inadequate and useless for the pursuit of truth.

That is why BUDDHA SAID:- Believe nothing just because a so-called wise person said it. Believe nothing just because a belief is generally held. Believe nothing just because it is said in ancient books. Believe nothing just because it is said to be of divine origin. Believe nothing just because someone else believes it. Believe only what you yourself test and judge to be true.

Even Buddhism is mixed up with regional culture and traditions of the local religion, wherever it existed. Thus to get the full essence from Buddhism is very difficult.

The PURANAS, including Vishnu Purana and Siva Purana, are based on false idea of personal God, because the writers have thought of Him as glorified man and woman.

The translations made till now of Indian philosophical works have represented religion and mythology, not philosophy. The greatest pundits do not understand it, for they do not understand science. What has this mythological teaching done for India? Look at its state today. Look at the conversions. Imagining that God has ashes on his forehead or blazing like the sun-- that is all poetry and depends only on faith.

The Saiva Siddanta sect is dualistic, unphilosophical religion like Ramanuja's sect.

Why did not Ramanuja and Madhva write commentaries on the Upanishads (as Sankara did to establish Brahman) but stop, content with writing commentary on Vysa Sutras, and culling some paras only from the Upanishads with convenient vagueness to establish their God and Theology?

Indians are more religious than other people. The six systems of Indian Philosophy are really six systems of Indian speculation. For there is only one Truth.

The ancient Hindu tenet borrowed by theosophists of universe appearing and dissolving, days and nights of Brahma, entering into pralaya etc. is intended for mediocre intellects who cannot rise to truth. It is a convenient fable representing the philosophic truth that the whole universe dissolves in your mind in deep sleep, thus entering pralaya, and rises again next morning, i.e. it is all imagination, idea. The Brahma-God has nothing to do with it. 

That is 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, that 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, 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 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

Vivekananda said :-

Creeds and sects have their parts to play, but they are for children, they last but temporarily. Books never make religions, but religions make books. We must never forget that. No book ever created God, but God inspired all the great books. And no book ever created a soul. We must never forget that.

-Talk given at Unity Hall, Hartford (Connecticut), USA, on March 8, 1895, as reported in "Hartford Times" (March 11, 1895). Complete Works, 1.324.