Yes, dont believe in God mindlessly because that is the root of superstitions and hatred among today's mankind because of crammed up different teachings of different sages by local people across different regions, leading to conflicts among learned but not wise scholars of different religions. The difference between knowledge and wisdom is that knowledge is learnt from cramming experience of someone else but wisdom is gained with one's own experience. If spirituality was just a theory, God could have shown all hymns/verses of Vedas or Bible or Quran to all people in their dreams to make them spiritual. The world around us is a practical field and so is the field of spirituality which has to be pursued/seeked in real life like Buddha, Mahavir etc., did after renouncing material world.
Chandogya Upanishad Chapter 2
There was a great sage called Uddalaka, the son of Aruni. He had only
one boy, his son by name Svetaketu. The boy went to a gurukula for
study and he underwent the whole course of education. He was twelve
years old when he went from the house of the father. When he returned
after education he was twenty-four years old. So, he studied for
twelve years. He studied all the Vedas, all the Shastras, all the
scriptures, and there was practically nothing religious which he had
not learnt. Now, this learning had some other effect also, that of
swelling up the head of this boy with an immense pride. He began to
feel that nobody was equal to him in learning; that he knew all
things, was almost omniscient. So, when he came, at the age of
twenty-four, to the father at home, he would not speak because of the
learning that was in his head. He was very dignified looking and sat
without uttering a word even to the father. He started behaving very
conceitedly. He did not utter one word because of the so-called depth
of his knowledge. The father observed what had happened to his son. He
does not speak; he sits arrogantly; he is very proud; he is puffed up
with learning and he thinks he knows everything. It is very strange
indeed. So, having observed this, the father calls the boy one day and
says: "You don't speak, you seem to be very learned and you put up a
very arrogant appearance; I can't understand what it means. Have you
learnt everything from your Guru, which makes you feel that you know
everything and are now so full of pride? Do you know everything, have
you studied everything?"
"Do you know That, by knowing which, everything is known? Do you know
That, by which the unheard becomes heard, the unthought becomes
thought?" Yenasrutam srutam bhavati, amatam matam, avijnatam vijnatam
iti: "Has your Guru, or the preceptor from whom you have studied the
four Vedas, taught you these secrets by which things which are not
heard of, are heard, things which cannot be thought of, are thought
of, that which cannot be understood, is understood? There is something
by knowing which everything can be known. Have you heard of this? Have
your teachers imparted this knowledge to you?" Very strange indeed!
The boy had never heard of such things-how can an unheard thing, be
heard; an unthought thing, be thought; an understood thing, be
understood? This is not in the Vedas or the Shastras; nowhere is
anything mentioned of it. Katham nu, bhagavah, sa adeso bhavatiti: The
boy says: "What is this? I do not know. I have never been taught this
thing." He is humbled a little bit. So, there is something he does not
know. "If you have never heard of a thing, how can you hear of it? If
you can never think of a thing, how can you think of it? And if it
cannot be understood at all, how can it be understood?" "But there is
a way," says the father. "There is a way by which you can execute this
feat of knowing everything, even if it cannot be known normally.
Supersensory things can be known and everything can be known by the
knowledge of a single thing." The father puts this question to the
boy, but the boy knows nothing about this. "How is it possible?" the
boy queries the father. "What is the meaning of this question? How is
it possible for one to know, in this manner?" "Well; I give you an
example of how it is possible." Without going into the details of the
subject, the father gives only an example, an analogy of how such a
thing is possible.
"If you know what earth is made of, you also know at the same time what anything that is made of earth also is made of, because all the
articles that are manufactured out of earth are constituted of earth
essentially. So, I give you an example of how many things can be known
by the knowledge of one thing. Pot, tumbler, plate, etc., and
various articles of this kind manufactured out of clay are clay only,
in reality. So, if you know what clay is, you know what a clay tumbler
is, a clay plate is, a clay glass is, etc. Do you understand what I
say? Yes! Because they are only shapes taken by that substance called
clay. And, what you mean by an earthen pot is only a name that you
have given to a shape taken by the earth."
"So is the case with certain other things. You take a nugget of gold,
and you know a nugget of gold can be cast into various shapes of
ornaments. It can be a necklace; it can be a ring; it can be anything.
Now, if you know what gold is really, what gold is made of
essentially, you will also know what a gold necklace is made of, what
a gold ring is made of, etc., because the gold ring, gold necklace and
the like are gold only in their essence. These are only shapes, forms
taken by the essence which is the substance, gold.
What we call death is the departing of life from a particular body. So
death is not the death of the life principle itself. Na jivo
mriyata-life itself does not die. The vitality is transferred from one
location to another. It is withdrawn from a particular formation. That
is all. Life which is the manifestation of the general principle, the
pure Being, the Reality, is withdrawn from that particular
manifestation called the body. Then that particular form is said to
die. It is deprived of the essence, the life-force. So is the case
with everything including us. Know this. Evam eva khalu saumya viddhi.
"My dear boy, there was only a single Reality existing in the
beginning. The so-called variety was not there. It was one; it was
without a second. There was nothing outside it; nothing external to
it, to compete with it, to equal it or to be different from it. There
is no conceivable reality in this world of this nature. Whatever be
the stretch of your imagination, you cannot conceive of something
outside which nothing is. At least space would be there, time would be
there, something would be there. But even space and time are objects,
externals, effects that came afterwards in the process of creation.
And, therefore, they too are negated in the case of this reality. That
alone was. There was absolutely no differentiation whatsoever,
originally. There was neither external differentiation nor internal
variety. In scriptural language, there was neither sajatiya bheda, nor
was there vijatiya bheda, nor svagata bheda."
This is only an example that I have given to you, my dear boy. From
this example, this analogy, you must understand everything that
follows as an implication. We are all like trees, human bodies endowed
with the living principle, and we shall die only when the life
principle in us in withdrawn. This Essence that is the Being is the
Atman of all things. And everything in this world, everything in this
creation has this as the Self. There are not many Selves. Though the
bodies are many, forms are many, individuals are many, the Self is
only one. So, everything reverts into this Supreme Self from where it
has come and towards which it tends some way or other. "That you are,
Svetaketu-Tattvam-asi, Svetaketu,"
Just like from learning A-Z and basic rules of grammar, a person can understand any english comprehension, so is the case with a spiritual person who knows the Atman/Spirit can understand the universe. A person who knows the spirit/self alone is a spiritual person in real terms and they use the designation of Swami/Self in today's time. Eventually, no one can teach you spirituality as you are already a spirit, not the body, but does not know that because of Maya Shakti, but the desire to know spirit comes to those who get saturated with repetitive material worldly cycle and sensory pleasures.
Saunaka, having asked – कस्मिन्नु भगवो विज्ञाते सर्वमिदं विज्ञातं
भवतीति (" Revered Sir, what is that by the knowing of which all this
becomes known? "), - was told by Angiras that –
द्वे विद्ये वेदितव्ये इति ह् स्म यद्ब्रह्मविदो वदन्ति परा चैवापरा च |
तत्रापरा ऋग्वेदो यजुर्वेदः सामवेदोऽथर्ववेदः शिक्षा कल्पो व्याकरणं
निरुक्तं छन्दो ज्योतिषमिति | अथ परा यया तदक्षरमधिग्म्यते || - (Mundaka
Upanishad I.i.3-5)
there were two different kinds of knowledge to be acquired – 'the higher knowledge' or Para Vidya (Sanskrit: परा विद्या )and 'the lower knowledge' or Apara Vidya. The lower knowledge consists of all textual knowledge - the four Vedas, the science of pronunciation etc., the code of rituals, grammar, etymology, metre and astrology. The higher knowledge is by which the immutable and the imperishable Atman is realized, which knowledge brings about the direct realization of the Supreme Reality, the source of All. The knowledge of the Atman is very subtle; it cannot be obtained out of one’s own effort; the Atman cannot be intuitively apprehended by mere intellectual equipments. Thus, Angiras draws the distinction between the way of knowledge and the way of realization, as between opinion and truth. For understanding this for realizing the Reality the aspirant must seek a teacher. The teacher who has already realized his identity with the Atman alone can impart this much sought-after wisdom on the strength of his own experiences.
