People take to the path of belief or of authoritarianism merely because they are the easiest ways.

 

God is not belief. Holding belief as God is holding illusion as reality, because the belief is possible only within the realm of duality. Duality is mere illusion from the ultimate standpoint.  Without the belief of God the belief system holds no water.  Belief is not God. Belief needs the believer. Believer needs to be born in this world. If believer is born than he is part of the illusion.   Without the believer there is no belief.  The believer and his world and his belief of GOD are part of the illusion because the self is birth-less because the self is formless. The one, which is born, lives and dies, is not the self.    The innermost self is formless substance and witness of the falsehood [universe or waking or illusion], which is soul or consciousness, consciousness is ultimate truth or Brahman or Christ.  

 

People take to the path of belief or of authoritarianism merely because they are the easiest ways. To seek for proof is hard and time-consuming. Religion and mysticism are so much preferred to Spirituality because one has only to imagine, not to inquire. The first is easy, the second is hard.

Peoples approach is more practical, and they stuck with the reality of the world, they take it as real. That is why all the confusion.

That is why  Sri, Sankara says (VC):-

63. Without causing the objective universe to vanish and without knowing the truth of the Self, how is one to achieve Liberation by the mere utterance of the word Brahman ? — It would result merely in an effort of speech.

65. As a treasure hidden underground requires (for its extraction) competent instruction, excavation, the removal of stones and other such things lying above it and (finally) grasping, but never comes out by being (merely) called out by name, so the transparent Truth of the self, which is hidden by Maya and its effects, is to be attained through the instructions of a knower of Brahman, followed by reflection, meditation and so forth, but not through perverted arguments.

Religion and mysticism is a species of mesmerism affecting weaker or impressionable minds. Thus the god man creates unconscious suggestion in weaker minds of a superior power or magical knowledge. Followers are suggested into thinking they experience great peace because they are unconsciously hypnotized into believing that will happen. But when a strong disciplined spiritually inclined mind meets a god man, he is entirely unaffected.

Scriptures are being added to from time to time with new interpretation. This process will go on. There is the final authority among them? One contradicts the other: duality reigns supreme. 

That is why Sage Sri, Sankara says in (VC) :-

58. Loud speech consisting of a shower of words, the skill in expounding the Scriptures, and likewise erudition - these merely bring on a little personal enjoyment to the scholar, but are no good for Liberation.

59. The study of the Scriptures is useless so long as the highest Truth is unknown, and it is equally useless when the highest Truth has already been known.

60. The Scriptures consisting of many words are a dense forest which merely causes the mind to ramble. Hence men of wisdom should earnestly set about knowing the true nature of the Self.

Without the scriptures one has to move ahead in his pursuit of truth.

Sri, Sankara says in (VC) :-

65. As a treasure hidden underground requires (for its extraction) competent instruction, excavation, the removal of stones and other such things lying above it and (finally) grasping, but never comes out by being (merely) called out by name, so the transparent Truth of the self, which is hidden by Maya and its effects, is to be attained through the instructions of a knower of Brahman, followed by reflection, meditation and so forth, but not through perverted arguments.

66. Therefore the wise should, as in the case of disease and the like, personally strive by all the means in their power to be free from the bondage of repeated births and deaths.

The world is both real and unreal. It is real because it is a manifestation of consciousness, but is unreal, in the sense, that it is not absolute and eternal like consciousness itself.

Peoples approach is more practical, and they stuck with the reality of the world, they take it as real. That is why all the confusion.

In self-awareness-- the witness and witnessed are one in essence. That essence is consciousness. There is no second thing exists other than consciousness.

Thus whatever seen, known, believed and experienced as a person is reality within the waking experience but waking experience itself is mere illusion.  

Soul, which is present in the form of consciousness, is the innermost self. Consciousness is the witness that experiences the action, the actor, and the world of separate things. It is like a light that illuminates everything in a theatre, revealing the master of ceremonies, the guests, and the dancers with complete impartiality. Even when they all depart, the light shines to reveal their absence.

What is not consciousness (formless) in the experience of duality (waking or universe)?  The waking and the dream cease to exist without consciousness.  The seeker, seeking and his destination   all are one in essence.

There is only need to realize the whole universe in which we exist is created out of consciousness (soul or Atman), the innermost self.  On the standpoint innermost self, the universe is mere illusion created out of consciousness.  Thus on the ultimate standpoint no second thing exists other than consciousness. Thus consciousness is ultimate truth or Brahman.

Only ultimate truth can be considered as God

Religious and Yogic truth is individual truth based on the ‘I’ as self which is the false identity therefore it is not universal. The spiritual truth is universal on which the whole human experience that is including the universe is based.

• v  How do the mystics or yogi know they have experienced the whole?
•  
• v  Where is the proof they have seen it?

 When they say “they know from experience” they merely mean “they think so.” If mystics experience joy, they cannot be egoless, for who is having the joy? And if they retain the ego they cannot know the Universal truth, the whole.

There is need of definition before study because "Religions place God as the unknown reality” intellectuals place it as the unknown reality. Every religionist has a different idea of God. Every man has a different idea of real. The fallacy of believers  appeal to scripture lies in the varying and conflicting interpretations of the same scripture which different men feel entitled to give or hold.

The yogi or mystic who sees or experiences something in his meditation which he takes as the highest truth, it is ultimate truth only on the base of ‘I’ as self which is the false self”. The yogi and mystic s experiences everything as a person therefore it is experienced within the illusory Waking experience. Simply saying there is 'God' is of no use. 

 

That is why 

Buddha Said: - Believe nothing because a wise man said it,

 
Believe nothing because it is generally held.

 
Believe nothing because it is written.

 
Believe nothing because it is said to be divine.

 
Believe nothing because someone else said it.

 
But believe only what you yourself judge to be true.

(from The Mystic Vision
Compiled by Andrew Harvey and Anne Baring)

Thus Seeker of truth should not believe blindly  his inherited  religious belief without verifying all the facts from every angle. One has to reflect through reasoning over and over again without getting tired of the process. 

  “If there is God -—prove it. If there is no God --prove it." Religionists dogmatically assume the existence of god and atheists assume there is no God. 

How one knows, that God who tells about himself in meditation  is truthful! He may tell one a lie! His statements must therefore be tested. Supposing a mystic has a vision, which experience is true, but he must prove that it is really what it purports to be, and that he is not deluded.

When one  does not know truth, he  can only guess, imagine, hence doubts and questions and discussions arise.

If one says God is in haven, others say he is within. Again the God may take different form and name. Then which form and name of God is correct? Some contend that God is sound and say one hears the divine sound inside in meditation, still others say God is fragrant smell and that beautiful scent comes in meditation as the presence of God. All these differences of opinion, they can be endless, show mutual contradiction and general error, that is lack of certain truth. Moreover if one sees form one is seeing a second thing, a seen.

 

 One should not try to judge ultimate truth holding religious or yogic doctrine as a yardstick.  Religion and yoga is not the yardstick to judge the ultimate truth   because they are practiced on the base of waking entity or physical self or ego.   The waking entity or physical self or ego is false self within the false experience (waking).    The non dualistic or  Advaitic  truth has to be viewed and judged without scriptures, and on the base of the soul, the innermost self.  This formless path is inner path is without the religion or scriptures or god or yoga. The formless path is pathless path is without guru and self – treading towards direct realization.

Ultimate truth is based on the soul therefore whatever practiced on the base waking entity will not yield any fruit,   because the waking entity is the false self within the false experience. The religion and yoga are based on the form therefore they are   based on the matter (form) whereas the spirituality is based on the spirit (formless).  Thus religion and yoga are not spirituality, hence there is need to bifurcate spirituality from matter (form) based religion and yoga.

Advaita refers to non- duality. Non -duality is not a theory or concept but  it is the nurture of the soul, the  innermost self, which Atman (soul or spirit or consciousness).  Thus whatever is based on the soul is spiritual. The soul is eternal identity which has no birth, life and death, because it is the formless.  Soul, which is in the form of consciousness, is the formless substance and witness of the illusory experience of birth, life, death and world.

The religion is based on the form. Without the form there is no question of religion. The religion accepts the concept of God, and believes the body itself as self, and injects theoretical code of conduct to live in the world, whereas in spirituality, the soul or consciousness is the true self and body, ego, world, conceptual god are part of the illusion created out of consciousness.  

From ultimate standpoint the soul,which is present in the form of consciousness is ultimate truth. Only ultimate truth can be considered as God. Thus consciousness(soul) is ultimate truth or Brahman. Brahman is GOD.  thus there is no other god other than the consciousness(soul), the innermost self. the innermost self is God.

Upanishads confirms this:- Brihadaranyaka Upanishad, which is a part of Vedas, Declares that:-Brahman is the form of the Athma, and it is indeed Athma itself.