In this episode, The Bearded Mystic Podcast discusses the impact that misinformation on COVID-19 has affected the spiritual, yoga and wellness circle. In this brief episode, the discussion dwells into why it is important to be connected to the truth, to stick to the facts and to stick to the data.
The Bearded Mystic Podcast feels honored to mention the following social media accounts that have been tackling the COVID-19 misinformation. They are experts in their field and have stood with the reality of the situation:
On Instagram, the following accounts have been speaking about the issues in the yoga, spiritual and wellness industry:
Please read the following articles to understand COVID-19 and the COVID-19 vaccine.
I hope you enjoyed listening to this 17th episode. If you would like to learn more with my Thoughts on The Bhagavad Gita and if you are interested in listening to more episodes like this on further chapters and verses, or on Non-Duality, or you want to learn more about the wisdom of the Mystics please follow/subscribe to this Podcast.
Please rate and write a review for this Podcast, it will be greatly appreciated.
New episodes will be available every Sunday.
If you would like to attend a free weekly meditation with me, join my Whatsapp group:
https://chat.whatsapp.com/DcdnuDMeRnW53E0seVp28b
Subscribe to the free monthly The Bearded Mystic Newsletter: http://thebeardedmysticpodcast.substack.com
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In this episode, The Bearded Mystic Podcast discusses the impact that misinformation on COVID-19 has affected the spiritual, yoga and wellness circle. In this brief episode, the discussion dwells into why it is important to be connected to the truth, to stick to the facts and to stick to the data.
The Bearded Mystic Podcast feels honored to mention the following social media accounts that have been tackling the COVID-19 misinformation. They are experts in their field and have stood with the reality of the situation:
On Instagram, the following accounts have been speaking about the issues in the yoga, spiritual and wellness industry:
Please read the following articles to understand COVID-19 and the COVID-19 vaccine.
I hope you enjoyed listening to this 17th episode. If you would like to learn more with my Thoughts on The Bhagavad Gita and if you are interested in listening to more episodes like this on further chapters and verses, or on Non-Duality, or you want to learn more about the wisdom of the Mystics please follow/subscribe to this Podcast.
Please rate and write a review for this Podcast, it will be greatly appreciated.
New episodes will be available every Sunday.
If you would like to attend a free weekly meditation with me, join my Whatsapp group:
https://chat.whatsapp.com/DcdnuDMeRnW53E0seVp28b
Subscribe to the free monthly The Bearded Mystic Newsletter: http://thebeardedmysticpodcast.substack.com
You can find links to Live Streams, Podcast, Videos etc: https://linktr.ee/thebeardedmysticpodcast
You can follow me and contact me on social media:
TikTok: https://vm.tiktok.com/ZMdk3HPJh/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thebeardedmysticpodcast/
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/TheBeardedMysticPodcast/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/bearded_mystic
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/The-Bearded-Mystic-Podcast
Hello and welcome to The Bearded Mystic Podcast and I'm your host Rahul N Singh. Thank you for joining today and for taking out the time to listen or watch this podcast episode. In this 17th episode, I'm going to be talking about really what's on my mind. Today we're going to be talking about COVID-19 and common sense spirituality. I did record another episode of this but with a script, some thing that I had in front of me with all the facts about the COVID-19 vaccine and COVID-19 being a completely real thing and not a hoax or a plan made by so many powers that be. But I decided to not release that. I decided to record again and really just speak from my heart, really speak from a place of compassion and knowing that this is not easy for anybody. Whatever you may think about it, however you may view it. All I know that this is a difficult time for a lot of people. Before we start this episode, I do want to establish one thing and that is that whatever your view may be, even if it opposes what I think, I still have compassion for you. I still have love for you. I still want to talk to you. When you're feeling that your views have changed and you want to now talk, I am there for you because being indoctrinated in any sense is very difficult. It's very challenging. Nobody likes to feel that they were wrong. It's hard to admit that, but through this podcast, I want you to understand that we're all on a journey. Maybe the misinformation that we shared in the past, we know it was wrong, but now we can do something about it. Let's talk about this, as you know, I believe in the philosophy, I fully follow the philosophy of non-duality. This pandemic has shown me one thing that non-duality is completely real, and I'll tell you how. This article by Wolf Terry that was published on the yoga journal. A lot of you may know about this because it created shockwaves recently when it was released and it's called 'Getting Vaxxed was my act of Ahimsa'. So ahimsa as we know it, is the path of less harm or non harm. I would like to say less harm because whether you know it or do not know it, but you may cause harm to somebody to some extent, regardless of whether you're telling the truth, sometimes they say the truth is a bitter pill to swallow. Now, if the truth can be bitter, that means it will cause some harm, even if it's mentally. What I would say, ahimsa means the path of less harm. People do say nonviolence. I don't really like that translation in my opinion. I know this was popularized by certain people but ahimsa really means less harm. Anything that I'm going to say now I will post the podcast, the TikTok accounts, Instagram accounts, or Facebook accounts, any articles, CDC information. I'm going to be putting those in the show notes. So although I may not be talking about them, referencing them right now, but I encourage you, that if you are vaccine hesitant, please take a look at the show notes, at the video description and look at those accounts that I'm talking about. These people are experts, either they're experts in the yoga community, or they are experts in terms of epidemiologists or they're working in the medical field right now. Let me make one thing very clear. I am not a medical doctor. I'm not a wellness practitioner. I'm none of those things. So, I'm not going to tell you that if you drink turmeric milk every day, even though I do means that you gonna not have cancer. I can't guarantee those things. And I don't think anybody else can. What we can say is I can make you feel healthier. That's fine. But to say that you won't get cancer. I can't say that. All I will say is that you got to listen to the scientists. You gotta listen to the data and only listen to people that actually are in the thick of it. Literally those that are dealing with COVID-19 patients, those that are studying COVID-19 or study infectious diseases. Those are the people we need to be listening to. The biggest thing that we have in spirituality is that we do make a very big commitment to - the truth. Yes, having an open mind is important, but eventually the biggest principle that we have, the biggest commitment we have, is to the truth. According to what is true, we adhere to that. The reason why I follow non-duality is because I find it to be the truth. My experience tells me it's the truth and the facts of other people, of the scriptures has told me that this is the Truth too. So I've gone with that data. There are people alive today that are adhering to non-duality and they have experienced so much. They've expressed it through books. I follow that. That's my data and that's how I tell you that's how I got my data. But if tomorrow something comes across with evidence that what is said is not true. I will go with that. I have to go with that because my commitment is to the truth. That's the beauty of Hinduism. I would say Sanatana Dharma is emperically about what is true today. What is true right now? It's not about what is true tomorrow or what was true yesterday? Yes. It's important to have eternal truths. I agree. But if any truth has to change or if there is something that is now different, we have to go accordingly and this is the true path of religion. Religion does exactly this. Religion doesn't live in the dark ages and says, we just going to stay there. Religion looks at today. What is now? What is the truth today? Do certain beliefs hold true today? Do certain traditions hold true today? If they do good, if they don't, we let go of them. So with Wolf Terry's article about 'Getting Vaxxed is my Act of Ahimsa', it's a very beautiful article and there's something that she said in podcasts, on IGTV, on Instagram live, whatever I've watched, she's mentioned this one point, which is really, really true. She said, this pandemic, this Corona virus, the way it has spread across the community. It has showed that we all share health in one aspect. We all have a oneness and interconnectedness of health. Now, if you look at the original Corona that came out 18 months ago or longer, that was something that is transmissible, but it wasn't as rapid. Now with the Delta variant, it is more transmissible. It's got to a point where even if you have the vaccine, you can transmit it. It's really important that one, if we get the vaccine, it's one way to curb the growth of this delta variant. Now, what happens is and we're looking at data here, whatever I'm saying is it's all based on data. I'm not saying anything based on my opinion. I am not a medical professional. I am not an epidemiologist. I do not study live viruses. I will point you to the more important people to follow and listen to and those are the people I listened to because I believe they have more knowledge than me. They have more wisdom than me. So I'm going to learn from them. I'm going to listen to what they say. Now we know that this whole thing is interconnected. Guess what? To get rid of this Coronavirus and to get back to some level of normality, the vaccine is that one way. If we all get the vaccine, we all can get rid of the hold that this coronavirus has upon us. That is a choice that we have to make today. When somebody tells you that you do not need to say the vaccine but you have strong immunity, you don't need to do anything. They may be right on some level. But the fact is that you don't know when your immunity can be low. You may get into a very stressful environment tomorrow and suddenly your immunity's down. This vaccine not only builds up your antibodies, but also T cells. We know that still after six months of taking the vaccine, people still have strong efficacy against the virus. This is why it's really important to get the vaccine. Now I know that there are people out there that are hesitant because of big pharma and I'm not going to turn around to you and say that pharmaceutical companies have not exploited its consumers. It has, and it has a lot to own up to, and it is owning up to a lot of things. We are seeing that people are speaking up about it. But right now, this is not about big pharma. There's a bigger issue than big pharma and that is this Coronavirus. If we do not stop this, we do not know how it's going to grow and evolve, where it can become even deadlier than it is right now. This is not your flu that's going to die out with the season. This is something that's going to continue and is only going to grow if we are not going to do something about it. So my call of action really is that if you are hesitant about taking the vaccine, take a look at the sources that I am posting on my show notes and video description. I've taken the vaccine. I had some side effects, but I'm fine. My DNA hasn't changed. I do not have any magnetic things attaching itself to me. I'm perfectly fine. The vaccine is pretty safe. My wife says I'm a very sensitive human being, that I catch colds really easily. I haven't caught COVID at all and all I can say is I've taken the precautions very carefully and also I've taken the vaccine. So if I haven't got COVID-19 and I'm a 'sensitive person', I think I'm proof enough that the vaccine works and taking the precautions work. Now, going back to the precautions, wearing a mask. The very people that tell me that they can't wear a mask because they don't want to be breathing in carbon dioxide yet they're driving like 4 wheeler trucks and those that are emitting so much carbon monoxide into the air. We have climate change, which is a bigger concern. A much bigger concern right now. The fact that you're breathing in your own air for a bit, it's not going to kill you. Climate change is going to kill you. If we don't do something about it, it's going to kill you, it's going to kill me because we're not doing enough about it. But wearing a mask is for other people. You wear the mask so if you do have the virus, it doesn't spread to the people. Isn't that compassion? Isn't that basic level of humanity? It's not about rights. It's about you caring about other people and if your religion claims to care for other people more than your own personal freedom, which prove me wrong, but most religions teach this. Why can't you do it? Why can't you wear a mask? If that is about caring about other people, why wouldn't you? If you talk about serving other people and caring about other people, caring about the poor, caring about the sick, guess what wear a mask. That is your one act of kindness. That's your one act of generosity. That's your one act of being loving and caring. So please do wear a mask. I really ask you. There's science that shows that. There's videos about how a mask reduces transmissibility. The other thing that I really want to mention is misinformation and this is a big concern for me because a lot of people who claim to be spiritual, who claim to be truth bearers, who claim to know the reality of life are spreading misinformation. This is very sad for me. The fact that people can spread misinformation without checking the sources, without checking who has said things, for me it's very sad. It's really concerning that we can pretend to say that we have the truth. And we are people who are religious or spiritual. We're not checking our sources of information. I have seen people who claim to be open-minded, but being open-minded doesn't mean that you hide away from facts. It doesn't mean that you can ignore facts. Being open-minded means that you will assess every information. What's funny is that these very people that came to be open-minded never look at what epidemiologists are saying. They're not looking at what medical professionals are saying. They're only looking at what these wellness and fitness people are talking about. I'm not going to call them gurus because guru is a very special and sacred word and there is no reason why we should call these wellness people, these wellness leaders, 'gurus', they are not gurus at all. The ones that are spreading misinformation. I'm sorry. You're not a guru. And yoga teachers, I don't even think I can call yoga teachers because yoga is about living a life of truthfulness and more so living a life that chooses to go with the truth. It's about uniting with the truth. So if you're spreading misinformation or you're not fact checking yourself, you do not deserve to be called a yoga teacher. This is not my opinion. Now this is a fact that I'm telling you. What's really interesting. I always think about this, that if Patanjali was alive today, if Jesus was alive today, if any of the big religious or spiritual giants, gurus were alive today, and they saw the stuff that you were telling your followers based on their name, they will not be happy. That's for sure. When you misguide one person, you should see it as you're misguiding the whole of humanity. If we all thought like this, that if we misinform one person and then we're not willing to correct ourselves, then we're misinforming humanity and can we take that on as our karma, as our action? I don't think we can. I know there's this person called Mickey Willis that has made this documentary plandemic. For a lot of people to plan this whole thing, this whole operation of COVID-19 and make it look real. It's too much to ask for. You got to get people to agree on all the spectrums of life. You go get the left and the right, liberals and conservatives to agree to this whole thing. Do you know how we can't even agree on an infrastructure bill or we can't even agree about abortion Yet, you're telling me that all these people, all these government officials, big Pharma, they're all in on this pandemic? They planned all this? And say, for example, someone did plan this just basic logic here. One person would have slipped up by now. One person would have, there's no way that someone can commit to a lie for that long. No way. So just the basic logic, totally eradicates this whole thing that it's a plandemic, planned by people. I don't know why we even think that or even entertain such ideas. Again, the very people that claim that they have a right to tell, you know, for example, abortion, I'm going to talk about this right now, and I don't care what you think about it, but if you think you have a right to tell a woman what to do with their body, and create legislation, tell people on your media channels, what you think about abortion, that what women should do with their bodies. If you think that's fine yet you're telling people not to take the vaccine. There's something horribly wrong with you. Who are you to decide? How can you then decide whether people should have abortions, if you're telling people not to take the vaccine? I hope you'd seen the craziness of this argument. So it's really concerning for me. We can have an open discussion about this. I am open to having you direct message me, private message me. We can talk about this. But most of the time I'm going to lead you to the information that I have, the facts that I have, to the people that know about this, because those are the people who are experts. For example, say you have to go to an accountant, you're not going to tell them about tax laws. They're the experts in tax laws. You're going to listen to them. They're the experts. If someone is an expert in spirituality, you go to the expert. You're not going to go to someone who doesn't know anything about spirituality. It's the same thing with this. You're going to go to people who have knowledge about COVID-19, who are studying COVID-19 and following that. I want to go back to the point about masks because right now some of us have taken the vaccine, the CDC in America, they made this guideline that if you are vaccinated, you do not need to wear the mask anymore. And I think that was in hope for that people who are hesitant but were anti mask would take the vaccine. Obviously, I don't think that happened. Maybe the data back then was showing in reality that masks weren't needed because the delta variant wasn't so widespread then. Now it is, now we have to wear masks. The science is changing day by day, the data is showing us new things day by day. The basic logic is that we just go according to what the science says. So if it changes tomorrow, if the guidelines change, we change along with it because we see the facts in front of us. I know this podcast episode is more from my heart, I've not really planned a lot of things that I'm going to say and so I'm going back to points. But I just really want you to understand that it's really important that you take the vaccine if you can. It's really important that you go to your doctor, ask them can you take the vaccine? Is it safe for you? Listen to them. They're the experts. Don't listen to other people who have no background in this. Okay. So I'm talking about your Swami Ramdevs, if you're in India. I'm talking about your JP Sears that is here in the US. Or any of the wellness people, Christine Northrup and all that. All those people, don't listen to them. There's more that I can't think of. Yes, this is your body and I understand that you may feel that this is your body. You care about your body and you care about what goes in your body, but then again, you're willing to add to climate change. Do you have an electric car because what's going in your body is air pollution? That's not bothering you right now. I don't see you going around with a gas mask. This is what I mean, the whole fallacy of the argument that this is my body. I do what I want to do with it. That's not true. If you really did think that way you would not be going out of your house. If we are living in this world, and I know that a lot of you that are hessitant have gone through a lot. You're going through a lot. I know that there's income inequality. I know there are issues. Media has not been trustworthy. Social media has played a massive part in the misinformation and they need to be held accountable. They need to do more to get rid of the misinformation. And I think they do need to de-platform people that are continuously spreading misinformation. Unfortunately, there's actual fact that I think only 12 people are giving the disinformation or misinformation about COVID-19. Even though, I mainly follow people that are debunking those that are giving out the misinformation. What's funny is I still get videos of people spreading the misinformation. Now, I don't know if is an algorithm thing. I don't know, but all I do know is that social media companies need to step up. And I do want to request the spiritual gurus, the spiritual teachers, the genuine wellness and yoga teachers too please educate your people. Try and speak to people openly about the vaccine hesitancy. This is a conversation we need to have with people. We need to be courageous enough to have that conversation with others who don't agree with us. I have to be honest and open enough to chat to somebody who believes in the misinformation. I can't close myself to them because then I am causing more harm. I am concerned immensely about the future right now, I am concerned about where we going as a society and that COVID-19 has only exacerbated this problem. I am taking this vow today. If you're following me on social media, I'm apologizing to you that from today, from the moment this podcast is uploaded, I will be at least every day once. Giving some facts about the vaccine about COVID-19 data. I will be giving at least one piece of information every day. This is my promise. This is my act of service to people. The future is very bleak, but the future can be turned around and I tell you why, because when we start educating people more, it means that the people that were always fake, they can be shown for being fake. I can't wait for that day to appear and I hope that day does come about. I've got to say again, if you're hesitant, let's have a conversation and we're all on the journey together, whatever your views are, it doesn't matter, but we're all in this together and all I know is that I still have an open heart and I'm never going to shut you out regardless of your views. We have to co-exist regardless, but we have to go with the facts. We have to go with what the evidence is suggesting to us and is telling us, and we have to listen to the experts and that's the most important thing. One thing that I came across on TikTok that I learned that really hit home for me and that was for example, people who say that the government has no right to mandate things, to make things permanent, to make sure that we do things that, they're inflicting on our freedom, but there's one thing, do you not wear a seatbelt? Do you not stop when it's a red light? Do you not stop at a stop sign? We do all those things. As far as I know, to enter a public school here in the US, you have to be vaccinated. In my opinion. I don't know why there's such a big deal with this COVID-19 vaccine. The interesting thing is that for people that do not understand the timeline. The vaccine was made with several processes done simultaneously, all at the same time. Hence it was so quick to get the vaccine out. This is what we wanted. We wanted a year for it to be done and it happened. And just think about it, if we didn't have the vaccine and you're also anti-lockdown, anti-mask, just imagine what would have happened with the coronavirus, had the vaccine not come out? As we've seen with the delta variant. Can you imagine what would have happened? So it's really important that we understand that the vaccine was our way out and it's helping us, but let's not limit that help right now. With any vaccine that we take, we don't know the long-term effect, but there's one thing. The ingredients of the COVID-19 vaccines from Pfizer, Moderna and Johnson&Johnson, which are authorized by FDA for emergency use, those vaccines you can see the ingredients and you can have a look at what side effects are there. For me, I put my trust into the experts and to doctors. But you can know what the long term effects by looking at the ingredients. The fact that no anti-vaxxer or vaccine hesitant person has come out with something about the ingredients tells me there's nothing wrong, but I'm open for the conversation. I would like to end the podcast on a particular note, which is an interesting one. I came across the thought the other night and that was how I could connect the Mahabharata to the situation, we're dealing with today. Stay with me on this. The Pandavas are like the experts, the doctors, the people on this right side of giving information about vaccines, giving information about why it's important to be in the lockdown, why it's important to wear masks, understanding the science behind it. Those people are basically like the Pandavas today. The Pandavas were not that many, while the Kauravas they had a larger army. If you look at the Disinformation Dozen their voices have been emanating throughout social media and has created so much misinformation. It is unbelievable and they're like the Kauravas, they're filled by fear, hatred, greed. What the Pandavas stood for righteousness as much as possible. And yes, this is basically what's happening today. I find that I am on the voice of the minority that are willing to even speak up against people who are vaccine hesitant. If you anti-vax, there's nothing I can do really. But if you're vaccine hesitant or if you don't wear a mask, if you're not agreeing with the science, then I will speak up. People who are on TikTok, on Instagram, on social media of any kind who have been writing articles, blogs, doing podcasts, whoever has been on the side of taking the vaccine, wearing a mask, understanding the science, understanding the data, respecting the data. It may look like you're losing right now, but truth always wins is always on your side. So never give up and I end with that note. It's a sombre note in a way, but I know that with our voices together, as a collective, we will work harder. And like I said, I'm going to be putting down all the people that I follow on TikTok, on Instagram, whose articles I've read, whose podcasts I've listened to. I'm going to put them all down in the show notes and description. So you can follow them. Listen to them. I'm not an expert, but there are people there who are experts and who need to be listened to. Whether you're part of the yoga industry and you feel like you're a lost soul in there because everyone is anti-vax right now. And everyone has gone and taken a Q pill and they support Trump or you're vaccine hesitant. And you don't understand the science. You don't understand how it's happened. You just want clarity. Those people are there. There is a long list for me to mention, so I'm not going to mention each name, but by being on the show knows, I'm showing my appreciation to you and my love towards you. Thank you so much for everything you're doing. But this is just a tiny voice that I'm putting out. I just want to say thank you for educating me. Thank you for helping me understand and go through this Coronavirus pandemic with a sane mind, being someone that understands the science because of the people that I follow like you. Thank you for listening to this episode of The Bearded Mystic Podcast, please do remember to follow or subscribe to this channel and do leave a review for this podcast. I'd really appreciate knowing what you think. You can follow me on social media and I will leave the links below to each of those accounts. I do share small clips on there that you can share with friends and family. And if you feel that anyone in your friends and family circle would love this podcast do share it with them. A new episode is uploaded every Sunday and Thursday until next time, take care. See you again soon.