All the God s and Goddesses with form, name, and attributes belong to Hinduism, not of the Vedic religion or Santana dharma.+

God in truth cannot be seen directly by anyone because God in truth is a formless, timeless, and spaceless existence. God pervades all beings and all directions.  

God with the form and attributes does not find any support from the Vedas. God with the form and attributes cease to exist without the dualistic illusion or Maya. 

Swami Vivekananda: ~ The masses in India cry to sixty million Gods and still die like dogs. Where are these Gods?

Isa Upanishads indicates that: By worshipping 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 the same time moving forward towards Self-knowledge, which is the main goal. 

One cannot reach the nondual destination by glorifying God and Goddesses and by doing that, one goes deeper and deeper into darkness. It surely indicates that the seeker of truth has to drop the worshiping God and Goddess in order to get Self-knowledge.

People are not aware of the fact that no God can exist, apart from the Soul. The Soul is present in the form of consciousness. If there is no consciousness, then there is no you and your physical body, no world and no God of belief.

They think that there must be a creator of this universe. If one thinks body as the Self, then there is a creator, but if one thinks the Soul as the true Self, then there is nothing exists other than the Soul, which is present in the form of consciousness.

The Soul, the ‘Self itself is the Infinite God.

The Soul is the Self. God is the Soul, which is present in the form of consciousness. God is the fullness of the consciousness without the illusory division of form, time and space.  Therefore, there is nothing apart from it.  

God in truth is hidden by the illusory universe in which you exist, God is without the illusory universe in which you exist.

God is the Supreme Being the One eternal homogeneous essence, indivisible consciousness and intelligence, which is beyond the form, time, and space. To which the Sages describe in a variety of ways through diverse words. 

God is self-evident. It is not established by extraneous proofs. It is not possible to deny God because God is the very essence of the one who denies God. God is the basis of all kinds of knowledge, presuppositions, and proofs. 

The Soul, the Self is the witness-consciousness 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. 

Religion is based on a personal God whereas Sage  Sankara’s Supreme Brahman (God in truth) is impersonal, Nirguna (without Gunas or attributes), Nirakara (formless), Nirvisesha (without special characteristics), immutable, eternal and Akarta (non-agent). God in truth is above all needs and desires. God in truth is always the Witnessing Subject. God in truth can never become an object as God in truth is beyond the reach of the senses.  

God in truth is non-dual, one without a second. God in truth  has no other beside it. God in truth is destitute of difference, either external or internal.  

God in truth cannot be described because the description implies a distinction. God in truth cannot be distinguished from any other than itself. In God in truth, there is not a distinction between substance and attribute. Sat-Chit-Ananda constituted the very essence or Svarupa of God in truth, and not just God in truth attributes. The Nirguna Brahman of Sage Sankara is impersonal. 

Remember:~  

The Vedas confirms God is Atman (Spirit), the Self. 

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. 

Vedas itself declares: May ye never accept another God in place of the Atman nor worship other than the Atman? Thus, to know the real God Self-realization is necessary. Self-realization is God realization. Self-realization itself is real worship. 

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 Self. May ye never accept another God in place of the Atman nor worship other than the Atman?" (10:48, 5) 

How can you worship God? That implies two ~ the worshiper and the worshiped, whereas God is non-dual.  

One can worship his idea of the God only or realize his unity with it when he can’t worship it as apart. 

Brihadaranyaka Upanishad: ~ Brahman (God in truth) is the form of the Athma, and it is indeed Athma itself. 

When Upanishads and Vedas declare, “God is the form of the Athma and God is indeed Athma itself” then why to accept another God in place of the Atman or worship other than the Atman. 

People, who worship God based on blind belief, are hallucinating that they become one with such God.  

Remember:~  

Religious people are idol worshipers of the large numbers of Gods and Goddesses whereas Vedas declares God is ‘ONE’ and that God is Atman. 

Bhagavad Gita: ~ ‘All those whose intelligence has been stolen by material desires, they worship many God s. (7- Verse -20)

Chandogya Upanishad Chapter: ~ ekam evadvitiyam ~ God is only one without a second. (6- Section- 2- Verse- 1) 

According to the Vedas the Atman, the Self is God in truth.

Shiv is not Vedic God. All the God s and Goddesses with form, name, and attributes belong to Hinduism, not of the Vedic religion or Santana dharma 

God and Goddesses are religious concepts. Whatever seen, known, believed and experienced as a person within the dualistic illusion (world) is a falsehood. 

Thus, it refers to a formless and attributeless God, which is the Atman (Soul), the  Self within the false experience. 

Thus, it indicates clearly all Gods with form and attributes are mere imaginations based on the false self. Thus, Atman or the Soul, the  Self is God in truth.

The Vedas do not talk about idol worship. In fact, till about 2000 years ago followers of Vedism never worshiped idols. 

Idol worship was started by the followers of Buddhism and Jains. There is logic to idol worship. Vedas speak of one God that is the supreme Self i.e. Atman or Soul but Hinduism indulges in worshiping 60 million Gods.

It indicates clearly all the Gods with form and attributes are mere imaginations based on the false self.

The Vedas as a body of scripture contains many contradictions and they are fragmentary in nature. For Hindus, scriptures like the Bhagavad Gita, Ramayana, Mahabharata, and Puranas are more attractive and appealing than the Vedas. And also the Gods and Goddesses they worship differ considerably from the Vedic ones. 

The collection of hymns called Vedas is written in praise of certain deities by poets over several centuries does not seem to have much significance for the Hindus.

Yajur Veda 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.) (Yajurveda 40:9)

Translation 2

Deep into the 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. Griffith 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." (Yajurveda 40:9.)

So, Yajur Veda indicates that: ~

Those who worship visible things, such as the earth, trees, bodies (human and the like) in place of God are enveloped in still greater ignorance. 

Rig-Veda 1-164-46 and Y.V 32-1 clearly mention that God is “One”. 

Rig Veda declares God is ‘ONE’ and that God is Atman, then why to believe and worship anything else in place of real God.

Thus, Atman, the Self, is God in truth.  Self-realization is real worship.  Self-knowledge or Brahma Gnana or Atma Gnana is necessary to get realization. 

To acquire Self-knowledge or Brahma Gnana or Atma Gnana, the seeker has to realize his inherited religion is adulterated in the past and it becomes a great obstacle is realizing the ultimate truth or Brahman or God in truth. 

The seeker's aim is the search for the Ultimate Truth or Brahman. The search to find the non-dualistic or Advaitic truth that in actuality never was lost, only hidden.

Upanishad aspiration is best expressed in the following sutra: ~

OM Asato ma sad gaMaya, tamaso ma jyotir gaMaya, mrityor ma aamritaam gaMaya. Shanti, Shanti, Shanti

"OM Lead me from ignorance to truth, from darkness to light, from death to immortality. Peace, Peace, Peace" (Brihadaranyaka Upanishad. (1/3/28).

Religion was coherent because they had a transcendent individualized God as a central doctrine, whereas in the realm of truth individualized God cannot be considered as the center because the Soul and the Self is the center of all that exists. 

First, one should not hold a God as the center of the existence without verification. Both the theist and atheist are theories, nothing to do with ultimate truth or Brahman. : ~Santthosh Kumaar