Brahman is merely a word to indicate the ultimate truth or God in truth. The ultimate truth itself is God in truth.+

All God propagated by religion are nothing but imaginations. There is nothing so absurd which men have not worshipped in religion, every imaginable face has been given to God. If God is a creator then it is foolish to worship anything as God from his creation because the creation is apart from God.

Every Religion has its own idea of God. Thus, every religion is based on the false ‘Self’. Therefore, whatever is based on the false self has to be a falsehood. Thus, the idea of God of any religion is an imagination based on the false ‘Self (ego)’.

Yajurveda – chapter- 32:~  God is 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.

God is a formless, timeless, and spaceless existence. According to the Vedas God neither has any neither image nor God resides in any particular idol or statue. God cannot be seen directly by anyone. God pervades all beings and all directions.

Mythological gods and goddesses are based on blind faith or blind belief. The blind belief-based Gods are is not God in truth. The belief implies duality. 

From the ultimate standpoint, duality is merely an illusion. Thus, whatever one sees, knows, believes, and experiences within the dualistic illusion is bound to be an illusion.

Mythological stories are a myth. Whatever is based on myth is merely a superstition. Mythology was introduced in the past for the ignorant masses. It has to be discarded as one progresses in his spiritual advancement.

All the mythological Gods are worshipped in the form of idols. The belief system which propagated ideas of many Gods and Goddesses Bhakti is the only way to God is simply trying to lead the people to darkness with its dogma and idea of many Gods, which is apart from the ‘Self’.

Mythology breeds superstition, blind belief, and senseless rituals, and most irrational and gives them a divine outlook. Mythological stories are a myth. Whatever is based on myth is merely a superstition. Mythology was introduced in the past for the ignorant masses. It has to be discarded if one has to realize the ultimate truth or Brahman or real God.

Rig Veda: ~ 'Prajnanam Brahma'- Consciousness is the ultimate reality or Brahman or God in truth.

Do not accept any other God other than the Soul. The Soul is God in truth, Nothing is real but the Soul, which is present in the form of consciousness. Nothing Matters but realize God in truth. God in truth is everywhere and in everything. Let these words be inscribed in your subconscious.

God in truth is hidden by the illusory universe. God in truth alone is real and eternal and all else is an illusion.:

Brahman is merely a word to indicate the ultimate truth or God in truth. The ultimate truth itself is God in truth.

Remember:~

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)

Whatever is real in the world in which we exist is God. All that is real in the world in which we exist is the Soul, the Self.

Thus, by realizing the Self, which is the Soul, we discover the Soul, which is present in the form of consciousness itself is God, which is hidden by the ‘I’, which is the dualistic illusion or Maya.

Even 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 as God other than consciousness.

Remember:~

All the religions have produced great numbers of saints, prophets, and Sages. If they had been born in Hinduism, in all probability they would have been deified in the same way as the founders of several Hindu sects.

Upanishad says: ~ The human goal is to acquire Self-Knowledge and they indicate that belief in the personal Gods, yoga scriptures, worship, and rituals are not the means to Self –Knowledge, then why anyone should indulge in it. 

The religion, concept of individualized god, and scriptures are great obstacles to Self-realization because they are based on false Self. The seeker of truth has to search for the ultimate truth without losing himself in the labyrinths of philosophy, through deeper Self-search and assimilate and realize it.

That is why Sage Sankara, indicated in Bhaja Govindam says: - (Jnana Viheena Sarva Mathena Bajathi na Muktim janma Shatena) ~ One without knowledge does not obtain liberation even in a hundred births, no matter which religious faith he follows.

Thus, the path of wisdom is the only means. Then it is no use going a roundabout way, trace the Brahman which is the formless substance and the witness of the universe (mind). By tracing the source of the mind ( universe), one will be able to realize the Brahman.

Hinduism has an ever-increasing number of Avatars and Gurus installed as God himself, with the support and sanction of scriptures and teachings of saints and sages.

Those Saints and Gurus in the past introduced glorifying God and Guru and rituals for the mass who have immersed themselves in worldly life and are incapable of inquiring or not ready for the pursuit of truth.

Glorifying God and Guru and rituals might also be regarded as harmful, as it might cause doubt and confusion in the minds of some seekers who strive with simple faith and earnestness to practice the discipline for Self- realization.

If one is seeking truth then this application of the theoretical philosophy is erroneous and improper. It has been instrumental in spreading sophistry and delusion in the guise of philosophy and direct realization and must be abandoned.

Remember:~

Brihadaranyaka Upanishad:~ "He who worships the deities as entities entirely separate from the Self does not know the truth. For the gods, he is like a pasu (beast)". (1. 4. 10)

Isa Upanishad says: ~

Andharh tamah pravisanti ye Vidyam upasate,

tato bhuya iva te tamo ya u vidyayarh ratah.

Into blinding darkness enter those who cling to ignorance, but into still deeper darkness go those, who flirt with knowledge. It is the promotion of nescience with the help of scholarship to justify the worship of a mortal in lieu, of God. It makes no difference whether God is conceived as clothed with attributes (saguna} or as absolute attribute-less existence (nirguna).

Sage Sankara:~ VC Let erudite scholars quote all the scripture, let Gods be invoked through sacrifices, let elaborate rituals be performed, let personal Gods be propitiated---yet, without the realization of one‘s identity With the Self, there shall be no liberation for the individual, not even in the lifetimes of a hundred Brahmas put together (verses-6)

Sage Sankara said: ~ Neither by the practice of yoga nor philosophy, nor by good works nor by learning, does liberation come, but only through the realization that Atman and Brahman are one in no other way.(1) VivekaChudamani v 56, pg 25

Lord Krishna confesses that the oldest wisdom of India (our true Advaitic wisdom ) has been lost: people misinterpret and falsify it today as they did then. It is not yoga but the philosophic truth. But nobody knows it. The teachers of philosophy and leaders of mysticism or religion do not want to inquire into the truth and have no time for it. (Gita –Chap- IV-v.2)

In Gita Chap.IV where Lord Krishna says: ~ "This yoga has been lost for ages" the word yoga refers to Gnana yoga, not other yogas: the force of the word this is to point this out.

Lord Krishna describes some of the other yogas but devotes this chapter separately to Gnana Yoga. So one sees even in those ancient days people did not care for Advaita; they wanted religion; hence Gnana got lost. That is why Krishna calls it "the supreme secret." Krishna points out that the yoga must-see is "Brahman in action."

Gita Chap.IV: "He who achieves perfection in Yoga finds the Self in time." This means that after his yoga is finished, he begins the inquiry into ultimate truth, and in due course, this inquiry produces the realization of the universal spirit as the result.

Lord Krishna Says Ch. V:~ “Those who know the Self 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.

There is no need for any practice to realize the ultimate truth or Brahman or God in truth. Perfect understanding assimilation of ‘what is what’ is very much necessary to realize the ultimate truth or Brahman, which is God. : ~ Santthosh Kumaar