Sage Sankara wanted to establish the existence of Brahman. For this purpose, he made the Atman as the Brahman.+

When Sage Sankara says Brahman or God in truth is impersonal and attributeless then why worship God with form, names, and attributes.

When Sage Sankara says Atman is Brahman or God in truth then why believe and accept anything as God other than the Atman.

Vedas say 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?

The word Brahman means ultimate truth or reality which cannot be indicated by any word.   Brahman can be expressed through silence because it is beyond the experience of form, time, and space. Therefore, the word Brahma clearly stands for the essence of the three states, which is consciousness only.

The final use of the pursuit of the truth is to know that the 'Self' is the Soul, which is present in the form of consciousness.

Sage Sankara opposed the Buddhists only, who misunderstood Buddha and became atheists. According to Sage Sankara, meditation always means the critical analysis of the 'Self' to get salvation from worldly tensions. Due to the eccentric ego of the then atheists, Sage Sankara did not go beyond this since the atheists will not accept God beyond themselves. This limitation is not due to limited knowledge of Sage Sankara but is due to the then-existing situation of the psychology of the surrounding society.

Even Bhagavan Buddha kept silent about God because the society dealt by him consisted of Purvamimamsakas, who were strong atheists. Bhagavan Buddha told that everything, including the 'Self', is only relatively real (Sunya). This is correct because the self is a part of the universe, which is relatively real with respect to the absolute unimaginable God.  Bhagavan Buddha stopped at this point because atheists cannot realize the existence of the unimaginable God indicated through His silence.

The point of  Bhagavan Buddha is that if God is non-existent, the entire creation, including the Self is non-existent. Sage Sankara wanted to establish the existence of Brahman. For this purpose, he made the Atman as the Brahman. He brought out the identity of the Self with consciousness and made the Atman the Brahman. Since one will not negate the existence of the Self, he will accept the existence of the Brahman, which is the Atman or Soul, the Self. Both Buddha and Sage Sankara kept silent about the absolute unimaginable God. The same philosophy was dealt by them from different angles in different situations. : ~Santthosh Kumaar