section_path: Philosophy and practice/The Mahāvākyas - the identity of Ātman and Brahman/Renouncement of ritualism
section_name: Renouncement of ritualism
paragraph_text: Renouncement of ritualism
  
  Shankara, in his text Upadesasahasri, discourages ritual worship such as oblations to Deva (God), because that assumes the Self within is different from the Brahman. The "doctrine of difference" is wrong, asserts Shankara, because, "he who knows the Brahman is one and he is another, does not know Brahman". The false notion that Atman is different from Brahman is connected with the novice's conviction that (Upadeshasahasri II.1.25)
  
  ...I am one He is another; I am ignorant, experience pleasure and pain, am bound and a transmigrator he is essentially different from me, the god not subject to transmigration. By worshipping Him with oblation, offerings, homage and the like through the the actions prescribed for class and stage of life, I wish to get out of the ocean of transmigratory existence. How am I he?
  
  Recognizing oneself as "the Existent- Brahman," which is mediated by scriptural teachings, is contrasted with the notion of "I act," which is mediated by relying on sense-perception and the like. According to Shankara, the statement "Thou art That" "remove the delusion of a hearer," "so through sentences as "Thou art That" one knows one's own Atman, the witness of all internal organs," and not from any actions. With this realization, the performance of rituals is prohibited, "since rituals and their requisites is contradictory to the realization of the identity with the highest Atman."
  
  However, Shankara also asserts that Self-knowledge is realized when one's mind is purified by an ethical life that observes Yamas such as Ahimsa (non-injury, non-violence to others in body, mind and thoughts) and Niyamas. Rituals and rites such as yajna (a fire ritual), asserts Shankara, can help draw and prepare the mind for the journey to Self-knowledge. He emphasizes the need for ethics such as Akrodha and Yamas during Brahmacharya, stating the lack of ethics as causes that prevent students from attaining knowledge.