First, know what God supposed to be in actuality. Without knowing what is God what is the use of worshipping God. Religious Gods are based on the belief. Remember belief is not God.
Yajurveda – chapter- 32:~ “It has been said that God Supreme or Supreme Spirit has no ‘Pratima’ (idol) or material shape. God cannot be seen directly by anyone. God pervades all beings and all directions. Thus, Idolatry does not find any support from the Vedas.
Yajurveda says God id no idol then why to worship the idol which has the form and name. God cannot be seen directly by anyone because God pervades all beings and all directions.
No one has ever seen God. By practicing yoga or indulging in glorifying and worshipping the religious God and Goddesses it is impossible to see God. Seeing God with form and name attributes is a hallucination because God exists prior to the form, time, and space.
Vedas declares God cannot be seen directly by anyone. God pervades all beings and all directions. Thus, personal Gods do not find any support from the Vedas.
As one goes deeper in the annals of the history, it indicates the fact that somewhere someone has added the Puranas in the name of Veda Vyasa the grand master of Vedas. It is impossible to accept and believe that Veda Vyasa authored and introduced Puranas which have all conceptual gods because:-
Even The Bhagavad Gita says: ~ Brahmano hi pratisthaham ~ Brahman (God) is considered the all-pervading consciousness, which is the basis of all the animate and inanimate entities and material. (14.27).
When Bhagavad Gita says, God is considered the all-pervading consciousness which is the basis of all the animate and inanimate entities and material then nothing has to be accepted other than consciousness a God.
Lord Krishna Says Ch ~V: ~ “Those who know me in truth.". The last two words (tattvataha) are usually ignored by pundits, but they make all the difference between the ordinary concept of God and the truth about God.
The dualistic worship of "God” is only for the ignorant populace. The God in truth is only Atman, the innermost ‘Self’. In reality, there is no dualities, no differentiation. Only Atman exists.
Bhagavad Gita: ~ All those whose intelligence has been stolen by material desires, they worship many Gods. (7- Verse -20)
Thus, by sticking up to the Gods, which are not God in truth, you are sticking up to the illusion. Sticking up to illusion means sticking up to ignorance. sticking up to ignorance means you are not qualified to acquire self-knowledge or Brahma Gnana or Atma Gnana.
Unless you find it on your own, you will not be able to realize the truth, which is beyond the form, time, and space. Without a perfect understanding of ‘what is what’ it will take you nowhere.
Religious Gods are not God in truth. You must know God in truth according to your own scriptures.
The Bible says: ~ “God is a Spirit, and they that worship God must worship God in Spirit and in truth (John 4:24)”,
The Spirit is the root element of the universe. The Spirit is present in the form of the Soul, the innermost Self. The Soul is present in the form of consciousness. From the Spirit, the universe comes into existence. In the Spirit, the universe resides. And into the Spirit, the universe is dissolved. The Spirit is the parent of all that is there
Meher Baba said: ~ God is your innermost Self. Do not search for God outside of you. Let these words be inscribed in your heart. Nothing is real but God. Nothing Matters but love for God. God is everywhere and does everything. God is beyond us and is everything. God alone is and all else is an illusion.
Rig Veda: ~ The Atman is the cause; Atman is the support of all that exists in this universe. May ye never turn away from the Atman the innermost self. May ye never accept another God in place of the Atman nor worship other than the Atman?" (10:48, 5)
Rig Veda says never accept another God in place of the neither Atman nor worship other than the Atman then why to worship anything else as God other than Atman.
Yajur Veda indicates that: ~
They sink deeper in darkness those who worship sambhuti. (Sambhuti means created things, for example, table, chair, idol etc. (Yajurveda 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.)
Brihadaranyaka Upanishad: ~” Brahman (God) is the form of the Athma, and it is indeed Athma itself.
The Brihadaranyaka Upanishad declares: "He who worships the deities as entities entirely separate from him does not know the truth. For the Gods, he is like a pasu (beast)". (1. 4. 10)
That why Sage Sri, Sankara said:~Talk as much philosophy as you like, worship as many Gods as you please, observe ceremonies and sing devotional hymns, but liberation will never come, even after a hundred aeons, without realizing the Oneness.
The Upanishad 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 the greatest obstacle to realizing non-dual truth or Self-realization because they are based on 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.
That is why Sage Sri Sankara, indicated in Bhaja Govindam says: ~ “One without knowledge does not obtain liberation even in a hundred births, no matter which religious faith he follows.
Then it is no use going a roundabout way, trace the Brahman (God) which is the formless substance and the witness of the universe. The universe is present in the form of mind. By tracing the source of the mind (universe) one will be able to realize the Brahman or God. : ~ Santthosh Kumaar
