Nowhere in the scriptures is there any reference
to Hinduism.
Bhad upanishd: - This Self is
dearer than a son, dearer than wealth, dearer than everything else, because It
is innermost. If one holding the Self dear were to say to a person who speaks
of anything other than the Self as dear, that he, the latter, will lose what he
holds dear—and the former is certainly competent to do so—it will indeed come
true. One should meditate upon the Self alone as dear. He who meditates upon
the Self alone as dear—what he holds dear will not perish. [Bhad upanishd -8-p- -211]
When the Upanishads
says: the human goal is to acquire Self-Knowledge or Brahma Gnana or Atma Gnana and they indicate
the personal gods, scriptures, worship and rituals are not the means to Self
–Knowledge or Brahma Gnana or Atma Gnana, then why anyone should indulge in it. The religion, concept of
individualized god and scriptures are greatest obstacle to realize non-dual
truth or self-realization, because they are based on ego, which is the false
self. Therefore, one has to search the ultimate truth without losing
himself in the labyrinths of philosophy, he should indulge in deeper self-search to assimilate and realize it.
The
orthodox people think that Vedas as final authority for the and they
strictly follow the Vedas, they do not know the fact that, they
themselves are indulging in non-Vedic
rituals and activities which Vedas clearly bars.
As one goes deeper in
the annals of the history, it indicates the fact that somewhere someone has
added the Purana's in the name of Veda Vyasa the grand master of Vedas. It is
impossible to accept and believe that Veda Vyasa authored and introduced the
Puranas which has all conceptual Gods because:-
In Vedas the God has been described as:-
Sakshi (Witness)
Chetan
(conscious)
Nirguna
(Without form and properties).
Nitya
(eternal)
Shuddha
(pure)
Buddha
(omniscient)
Mukta
(unattached).
This
clearly indicates
the nature of the innermost self, which is the soul. Thus soul is
ultimate truth or Brahman or God. When soul is ultimate truth or god why
indulge in worshiping the belief individualized God,which is not God.
The Hindu belief system which came to existence after 2nd century is
nothing to do with the Vedic religion.
Swami
Vivekananda:- 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
Meher Baba said: - To love God as he ought to be loved, we must love
for God and die for god, knowing that the goal of life is to know God, and find
him as our own self.
To realize God is to attain liberation from the bondage of
illusion.
Live only to find and realize your true identity with your beloved God.
The energy which is expended in mere thinking, taking or writing is like
steam which escapes through the whistle of railway engine …
That is why the sages have always insisted on practice rather than theory.
This applies particularly to those who want to know and realize
God.
----
-----It means one has to one has to know and realize his inner
most self is God and identify it has his true identity to find liberation from
the bondage of the illusion of birth, life, death and
world[duality]. The goal of our life is to find and realize our
identity with our beloved God, which is our innermost self.
Isa Upanishads indicates that: By worshiping 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 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 darkness. It surely indicates the fact that, the seeker of
truth has to drop the worshiping god and goddess in order to get self-knowledge
or Brahma Gnana or Atma Gnana.
Sage Sri, Sankara says: - Atman is Brahman. Thus the soul the innermost self is God. Therefore, all the gods with form and attributes are
mere imagination based on the false self.
Thus there is adulteration and
add-ons in the past, which has to be bifurcated if one wants pure Vedic
essence.
In Yajurveda it clearly declares what not to worship as God.
In Yajurved
says:-
Translation 1.
They enter darkness, those
who worship natural things (for example air, water, sun, moon, animals, fire,
stone, etc).
They sink deeper in darkness
those who worship sambhuti. (Sambhuti means created things, for example table,
chair, idol etc.)- (Yajurved 40:9)
Translation 2.
"Deep into shade of
blinding gloom fall asambhuti's worshippers. They sink to darkness deeper yet
who on sambhuti are intent."- (Yajurveda Samhita by Ralph
T. H. Giffith pg 538)
Translation 3.
"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." -(Yajur Veda 40:9.)
So, 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
then 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. Therefore, all these add-ons
proves that the form and attribute based concepts are introduced by some sages
of the past with new belief system and code of conducts in the name of
Vedas.
Sruti is made the final or
exclusive authority in apara Vidya and that for supporting the tenet of the
CAUSAL relation or creatorship of Brahman, Nirguna Brahman = the "Absolute
beyond qualities," which can be defined only in a negative way. For the
Shankarian school = the Ultimate Reality, higher than the Lord. i.e. of Saguna
or apara Brahman ... The support of Scriptural Revelation is, therefore,
absolutely necessary for this hypothesis of cosmology, this Saguna or apara (=
inferior) Brahman, but not for the absolute truth of Nirguna Brahman. The Sruti itself says: "This Atma is NOT
to be attained by a study of the Vedas. (Katha Upanishad I, 2, 23.)
Therefore, all the add-ons and attribute based knowledge, which
are inferior, have to be bifurcated and excluded to know the ultimate
truth. The seeker of truth has to drop
all the inferior knowledge based on the attributes and go beyond Vedas to
understand assimilate and realize the ultimate truth or Brahman.
Physical & mental discipline such like Karma, Mantra Yaga, and Yajna,
Puja Japa blind devotion to deity or guru is not the tool for liberation or
freedom from experiencing the duality as reality. It is dualistic cult
including tradition Advaitic orthodoxy propagate this discipline has no value
if one is seeking truth to get non-dual moksha.
Mysticism, scriptural knowledge, penance
based Scholasticism are great are great hindrance to self-realization.
Inherited blind belief with corresponding actions based on scriptures,
worship, ritual faith which imply certain mental and physical discipline, or
scripture supporting belief, faith, creed, ritual, theological knowledge personal
or opinion leads to hallucinated knowledge. All these become great hindrance in grasping
understanding, assimilating and realizing the Advaitic or non-dual truth.
Scriptural mastery including ancient
Sastras, Tarka, Samkhya disciplines to support Karmas & belief Bhakti
Argument & interpretation with help of logic, grammar etc.to support
beliefs, revelations, prayers etc. Also dogmas, theological or other based on
authorities.
Yoga, Silence, meditation, rituals and devotion are based on the false
self and false experience does not yield truth one seeking for, because the
truth is beyond false self [ego] and false experience [universe]. Mysticism is
based on individual experience. The self is not individual because the self,
which s in the form of consciousness, pervades in everything and everywhere in
all the three states. Blind beliefs without verification and argument and
interpretation on the base of false self are not verified knowledge therefore
it is not truth.
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) .
Sage Sri, Sankara declared: - the world
is myth and Brahman alone is real then why to worship the Guru and Gods based
on the ego, which is false self within the false world.
All the karmas performed by the orthodoxy are
non-Vedic and barred by Vedas. That is why Veda bars such worships
and people who indulge in such activities will suffer and sink into
darkness. And Upanishads says
self-realization is the human goal. Therefore, one has to strive only for
self-realization or truth realization.
When the
self is formless there is no need for pada pooja (feet worship) of 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 Advaitic
sage Sri, Sankara declares the world as unreal. Therefore, how actions
performed in unreal world can get moksha or freedom. Therefore there is need to
know the fact that, the self is not physical in order to understand and
assimilate and realize the truth beyond physicality.
That is why Sage Sri, Gaudapada said: - The
merciful Veda teaches karma and Upaasana to people of lower and middling
intellect, while Jnana is taught to those of higher intellect. Thus Goudapada
suggest that the religious paths and worship of guru and conceptual god are
lower and middling intellect. But in
this modern world people are sharp enough to understand and assimilate ultimate
truth or Brahman or god. Thus people who wants higher truth then it is high
time to discard the lower knowledge and move ahead to realize the ultimate
truth, which is Brahman or God.
That
is why Sage Sri, Sankara says :- 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.
Sage Sri, Sankara was criticized for his views
on Maya (illusion)without understanding him. He said that (1) Brahman (the Self)is real (2) the universe is unreal, and (3) Brahman is the
universe. He did not stop at the second because the third explains the other
two. It signifies that the universe is real if perceived as the ‘Self’ and
unreal if perceived as apart from the Self. Hence Maya or illusion and
reality are one and the same.
The realists criticise the concept of
illusion without understanding it. He said that:-
(1) Consciousness
[the Self] is real
(2) The universe or mind is unreal,
and
(3) Consciousness is the mind or universe, because universe or mind
is mere illusion created out of consciousness.
One need not stop at the second because the
third explains the other two. It signifies that the universe is real if
perceived as the Self (consciousness) and unreal if perceived as apart from the
Self [consciousness]. Hence illusion and
reality are one and the same because both are one in essence. Realizing the
essence, which is consciousness as the innermost Self, is Self-Realization or
Truth- Realization of GOD- Realization. Thus Sri, Sankara‘s declaration is
rational truth, scientific truth and also ultimate truth.
Mundaka Upanishad says:- The rituals
and the sacrifices described in the Vedas deal with lower knowledge. The sages
ignored these rituals and went in search of higher knowledge. ... Such rituals
are unsafe rafts for crossing The sea of samsara, of birth and death. Doomed to
shipwreck are those who try to cross The sea of samsara on these poor rafts.
Ignorant of their own ignorance, yet wise In their own esteem, these deluded
men Proud of their vain learning go round and round Like the blind led by the
blind.
When
sages themselves found rituals are unsafe rafts for crossing The sea of
samsara, of birth and death and ignored them and they the Mundaka Upanishad
further suggest that, such rituals are unsafe rafts for crossing the realm of
duality those who try to cross The realm of duality on these poor rafts
are Doomed to shipwreck are. Ignorant of
their own ignorance, yet wise in their own esteem, these deluded people (pundits)
proud of their vain learning go round and round like the blind led by the
blind.
Therefore, if one wants to acquire Atma Gnana
or Brahma Gnana or Self- Knowledge or
knowledge of consciousness, one has to drop all ritualistic and orthodox baggage
to move forward in their pursuit of truth.
We have to grow from the inside out. None can teach us, none can
make us spiritual. There is no other guru but our own soul.”
Self-knowledge or Atma Gnana or Brahma
Gnana cannot be attained by one who is without strength or earnestness or
without the receptiveness and courage to accept the truth and reject the
untruth. If a serious seeker strives sincerely by means of inquiry, analysis
and soul-centric reasoning, he will be able to realize it.
It is only seekers sincerity and
earnestness in his spiritual pursuit, the knowledge started revealing on its
own. Anyone who has humility and
patience and is sincere and ready to drop their accumulated dross and receptive
to accept the truth will enter non-dual Self-Awareness when his conviction
becomes firm.
