The orthodox people only teach and preach their knowledge of ignorance but none of them wants to realize God in truth.+

The orthodox people simply say Vedas are the final authority and they strictly follow the Vedas, but they are indulging in worshipping the non-Vedic Gods, non-Vedic rituals, and activities bared by Vedas.  

Orthodoxy is the home of mysticism and deification which is why they are not keen on rational truth. Thus, Sage Sankara is the Jagadguru to the religious followers and he is a Brahma Gnani to the seeking world.   

Advaitic Orthodoxy misinterpreted Sage  Sankara and presented only the religious side of his teaching as the highest doctrine. Thus, people are misled.  The orthodoxy is based on rituals mythical Gods and Karma. Advaitic wisdom of Sage  Sankara has nothing to do with Advaitic orthodoxy.

Let Advaitic wisdom annihilate ignorance (I) and reveal the Soul, the Self God in truth.  Let your ears become deaf to the untruth propagated by the religion as a reality; enable you to realize the truth hidden by the ignorance (I).  Let your eyes become blind to the illusion of receiving the Soul as the Self as it is in the midst of the dualistic illusion.

Remember: ~

All the orthodox ideas were rejected by Sage  Sankara. There is no need to indulge in rituals, to realize the ultimate truth or Brahman. There is no need to study philosophy, to realize the ultimate truth or Brahman so why do you indulge in studying philosophy.

Sage Sankara pokes fun at ascetics and points out that all their austerities do not cause desires to go (Altar Flowers" Page 205, v.2 P.207 v.4)

Sage  Sankara pointed out that those rituals could in no way bring about wisdom, much less moksha.

Sage Sankara says the rewards of the rituals were not a matter of direct realization. The Advaitic wisdom is based on personal realization.

The orthodox Advaitin believes that rituals alone would lead one to higher levels of attainment. Further, the deities would reward only those entitled to perform the rituals alone. The entitlement involved caste, creed, and other parameters.

The scriptural authority and value of rituals are part of the Advaitic orthodoxy, which is meant for ignorant people.

The Advaitic wisdom of Sage Sankara has nothing to do with religion, caste, rituals, worship, yoga, and other practices. Therefore an obvious disparity between Sage Sankara‘s path of Gnana, and the path of Karma. 

The path of Gnana is meant for the advanced seeker of truth and the path of Karma is meant for the ignorant populace.

Even Sage Sankara appears and tells the orthodox people the path of orthodoxy is the path of ignorance they will not be able to drop their inherited samskara or conditioning, which they think is the only way to reach heaven and reap a happy life in the next life.

As regards the rituals, Sage Sankara says, that the person who performs rituals and aspires for rewards will view himself in terms of the caste into which he is born, his age, the stage of his life, his standing in society, etc. In addition, he is required to perform rituals all through his life. However, the Self has none of those attributes or tags. Hence, the person who superimposes all those attributes on the changeless, eternal Self and identifies the ‘Self’ with the body is confusing one for the other, and is, therefore, an ignorant person. The scriptures dealing with rituals, rewards, etc. are therefore addressed to an ignorant person.-  (11- Adhyasa Bhashya)

The orthodox people only teach and preach their knowledge of ignorance but none of them wants to realize God in  Truth, which is hidden by the dualistic illusion or Maya. 

Remember:~

First Mundaka - Chapter 2 (10) - Ignorant fools, regarding sacrifices and humanitarian works as the highest, do not know any higher good. Having enjoyed their reward on the heights of heaven, gained by good works, they still remain in ignorance of the Atman the real God.

As a person one performs rituals throughout his life.  The person who performs rituals and aspires for rewards will view the world in which he exists as a reality. However, the Soul, the Self unborn eternal hidden by the world in which he exists.  From the standpoint of the Soul, the world in which he exists is merely an illusion.

The scriptures dealing with rituals, rewards, etc. are therefore addressed to an ignorant person.

First Mundaka - Chapter 2 (9) ~ Children, immersed in ignorance in various ways, flatter themselves, saying: We have accomplished life's purpose. Because these performers of karma do not know the Truth owing to their attachment, they fall from heaven, misery-stricken, when the fruit of their work is exhausted.

First Mundaka - Chapter 2 (8) ~ Fools, dwelling in darkness, but wise in their own conceit and puffed up with vain scholarship, wander about, being afflicted by many ills, like blind men led by the blind.

Ish Upanishad says:~ Those people who have neglected the attainment of Self-knowledge and have thus committed suicide. 10/11/12

The religious orthodox people who have neglected the attainment of Self-knowledge and have thus committed suicide, as it were, are doomed to enter those worlds after death.

This is a condemnation of people who do not try to attain Self-knowledge. They are, in a real sense, committing suicide, for what can be worse than being a slave to sense enjoyment, completely oblivious of the real purpose of life, which is to be one’s, own master?

Sage Sankara says “he who knows the Brahman (God in truth) is one and the ‘Self’ is another does not know Brahman (God).”

Sage Sankara also asserts that the Self is realized when All the effects of ignorance, root, and branch, are burnt down by the fire of Self-knowledge, which arises from discrimination between these two—the Self and the non-self.

Sage Sankara’s Gnanic path can help the seekers draw and prepare them for the journey to the reality hidden by the dualistic illusion or Maya. 

Remember:~ 

No religious God can exist, apart from the  Soul.  People are not aware of the fact that there is no individual God can exist, apart from the Soul, which is present in the form of the Soul, the Self which is present in the form of consciousness. 

If there is no consciousness, then there is no physical body, no ego, no universe, no religion, and no conceptual God.

People think that there must be a creator of this universe. If one thinks physical entity or ego as the Self, then there is a creator, but if one thinks that the Soul as the Self, then there is nothing that exists other than consciousness.

Religion, the concept of an individualized God, and scriptures are the greatest obstacles to Self-realization because they are based on the ego, which is the false self. Therefore, one has to search for the ultimate truth without losing himself in the labyrinths of philosophy, he should indulge in deeper, inquiry, analysis, and reasoning and assimilate and realize it.

As one goes deeper into the annals of history, it indicates the fact that somewhere someone has added the Puranas in the name of Veda Vyasa the grand Sage of Vedas. It is impossible to accept and believe that Veda Vyasa authored and introduced the Puranas which have all non-Vedic  Gods because:~

In Vedas, God has been described as: ~

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

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)

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.

The religion of the Veda knows no idols, so why so many Gods and Goddesses with different forms and names are being propagated as Vedic Gods. Why these conceptual Gods are introduced when the Vedic concept of God is free from form and attributes.

In Yajurveda 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. 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, and 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.)

Sage Sankara says: ~ Ataman is Brahman. Thus, the Soul, the Self is God. Therefore, all the Gods with form and attributes are mere imaginations based on the false Self. Thus, there are adulterations and add-ons in the past, which have to be bifurcated if one wants pure Vedic essence. : ~ Santthosh Kumaar