The rituals and the sacrifices described in the Vedas deal with lower knowledge.

Mundaka Upanishad says: The rituals and the sacrifices described in the Vedas deal with lower knowledge. The sages ignored these rituals and went in search of higher knowledge. ... Such rituals are unsafe rafts for crossing The sea of samsara, of birth and death. Doomed to shipwreck are those who try to cross The sea of samsara on these poor rafts. Ignorant of their own ignorance, yet wise In their own esteem, these deluded men Proud of their vain learning go round and round Like the blind led by the blind.


Shruti has directly denied manifoldness in Brahman. The non-dual cause being an established fact, how could the phenomenal universe be different from It?
The Shruti has condemned (the belief in variety) in the words, “The person who”, being deceived by Maya, “sees variety in this (Brahman), goes from death to death”.
Inasmuch as all beings are born of Brahman, the supreme Atman, they must be understood to be verily Brahman.

The Shruti has clearly declared that Brahman alone is the substratum of all varieties of names, forms and actions.

The Shruti in the form of the Brihadaranyaka has declared that this Atman, which is the Self of all, is verily Brahman.
-- Aparokshanubhuti - By Sri, Sankara

-FORMLESS PATH