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The Bearded Mystic Podcast
Rahul N Singh host of The Bearded Mystic Podcast explores the Hindu philosophy of Advaita Vedanta or Nonduality in a very simple, direct and practical way.
Episodes include discussions into eastern scriptures like The Bhagavad Gita, The Upanishads etc and discussions about everyday spirituality.
Rahul has been on the spiritual path for over 20 years and has an open-minded approach to spirituality and finds that there is no one size fits all approach.
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The Bearded Mystic Podcast
Stop Chasing Spiritual Experiences, Start Being Spiritual
After a brief hiatus, I'm back with updates about shifting from my course development to writing a book about spiritual awakening that I wish I had when starting my journey.
• Book will marry the Brahmagyaan I received with Advaita Vedanta philosophy
• Writing with my son Krish in mind as the future reader
• Includes both theoretical knowledge and practical application through Shravanam, Mananam, Nididhyasana
• Challenge of translating personal experience into concise, effective language
• Fundamental shift from seeing ourselves as "human beings having spiritual experiences" to "spiritual beings having human experiences"
• Breaking free from the cycle of samsara which operates like a hamster wheel
• Importance of humility in true spiritual realization
• Book aims to help readers understand their true nature for lasting peace and contentment
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Hello and welcome to the Bearded Mystic Podcast and I'm your host, rahul N Singh, so I have some updates to give today. I know I haven't posted in a while it's been some time and it's just because I've been busy with a lot of things going on in life in general, so going on in life in general so, and with work and and all that stuff. So I haven't been able to record any videos or podcasts. And then I do have a question that's come from Dylan G, who is a long-time listener of the podcast, and I plan to answer that hopefully tomorrow, otherwise it will be next week for sure. Now I want to give some updates because it's been some time. We've been discussing and you've been hearing that I will be creating and publishing a course, hopefully by the end of this year, a course hopefully by the end of this year. So that has gone on hold for now because there's a lot of work that has to go into it. So it's not just writing, it's also writing the script, then it's editing the the script, then recording, then editing the recording and then recording, then editing the recording and then uploading and then and also then giving the supplementary materials. So to give my proper time and attention to it right now just seems a bit difficult. However, you know, I'm not going to be not working on anything. That's just not me.
Speaker 1:So for quite some time I've been thinking and it's been especially since Krish, my son, has been born that I would love to create a book which, if I had started out on spirituality or when I had those doubts in spirituality or when I was going through a crisis of faith, what book would I like to see? Or what book would help me to understand my true nature in a more accessible and quick way? Now, there's no end to the amount of books that are out there and you know each one, you know, is amazing for sure. I'm not going to even question that and most of those books have probably helped me. However, I feel, like with the podcast and how much I've been expressing myself and how much I've been working, even with the course, and because half the course has been kind of written at this moment. So you know the rest has to be written, and but the book is something I've already started on, it's something I've been thinking about for a while, so the kind of the planning of the book has been there for quite some time, probably because, say, 18 months, and now, you know, I kind of fleshed it out into what I want in the book and how I want it to be presented, and how I want it to be presented and how I want it to be. So that has obviously come about in more recent times, so you will see more about that.
Speaker 1:Now. What does the book entail? So, really, I wanted it to and I want it to be a book where people will reflect upon like it's like their friend, that they go to that whenever they have a question, that book should have the answer. If not, then revised editions will be created. But, jokes aside, it should be a book which is simple to understand but it doesn't take you away from the depth of the scriptures or Vedanta in general.
Speaker 1:Now, obviously, I've grown up in a spiritual household and you know I received Brahmagyaan at a young age, something I'm still trying to understand fully, fully, uh, so it's this. This book is literally me marrying the brumgian that I received to advaita vidanta and how they, they both, support each other. Uh, so I I am thinking of krish in my mind when I'm writing it. So when I write it, it it's coming from the place that I know that Chris will read this one day, or hopefully will read it one day, and he will be like, okay, this makes sense. Thank you for writing this. So the book is not only going to be you know, obviously it's there with the knowledge, but you know, how can we practically apply it? How can we? So in the book there's a whole aspect of Shravanam Mananam Nididhyasana. So even going through that process of you know, you listen to something, then how do you believe in it, how do you have faith in it? And then, okay, what's the practical application of the teaching? So it's not just going to be just theory, but also it's going to have practical steps that you can do to help you grow spiritually. So it's important for me that that has that and how.
Speaker 1:Whatever we talk about in that book is also there in the scriptures. There's nothing absent from the scriptures. So really, that's the uh, the update that I wanted to give. And while I've been writing this so far, what I've discovered within myself is that I have to translate my experience into words and I haven't done that in a while. Actually, with creating a script for the course, I haven't had to do that. It's kind of like I know what I want to write and then I just just write it. So it's definitely coming more from the mind and intellectual level, not saying there's no experiential teaching in there. There obviously will be.
Speaker 1:But with the book it's totally different because I'm trying to keep it into very concise kind of sentences. So having to convey something simply but effectively is the challenge, and making sure that my experience is pouring through rather than just my intellectual knowledge, which which would be a disservice actually, if it was that Anyone can speak about what Vedanta is and what Brahman is and what formless awareness is. Anybody can talk the talk. But how can one transmit that message where, regardless of where you are in spirituality, it speaks to you? And fundamentally that's what I'm trying to achieve with the book, because until we know our true nature, there's no way we're going to have peace in life, there's no way we're going to have bliss in life, there's no way we're going to be content in life. We will be chasing things until we can die. And when we die, then we also do not know what's going to happen after that. And you know, for example, say you achieve moksha, fine. But say, if you don't achieve moksha. Then what will you do? You're going to live the next life or you're going to live it in the same way.
Speaker 1:And I see the cycle of samsara to be literally like a hamster's wheel, when you see a hamster going on the wheel constantly. Or you're on a treadmill and you think you're going somewhere but you're not going anywhere. And and are we doing that with our own lives? You know, life after life after life, are we just doing the same run-of-the-mill stuff and not actually challenging ourselves to advance spiritually? You know, my guru often used to quote this from a French philosopher that we're not human beings having a spiritual experience, we are spiritual beings having a human experience.
Speaker 1:And I think this is really important because we have to analyze within our own self do I see myself as a human being or do I see myself as a spiritual being? The moment I understand my nature to be spiritual, that is consciousness, that is the Atma, that is the soul, whatever word we want to use. When I realize that, then I got to understand how the human experience fits into that. And it's pretty easy, right? Because I know my true nature and I know that I have a body and mind that's allowing me to experience this humanity, this humanness, and it's beautiful. That's allowing me to experience this humanity, this humanness, and it's beautiful.
Speaker 1:But on the other hand, if I'm someone who is thinking they're human beings, so this body and mind is who I am, then I would just be chasing spiritual experiences. So, for example, I may go to the mandir, I may go to the temple and I may listen to the aarti and I can feel all elated, and I may listen to the Aarti and I can feel all elated. I can go to a Jagratha or Jagran, where they sing the praises of the Divine Mother or Shivji for all night, and I can feel ecstasy from that, I can feel joy from that. But does that joy become everlasting? Or is it everlasting, or is it that at the end of it I'm not, I'm really tired and I just need to sleep, and or I go to an arati and as soon as that's done, I've had the prashad and I'm off home and I'm and I haven't changed. So so what even we refer to as spiritual experiences may just be rituals is what I'm trying to hint towards.
Speaker 1:So when we change the dynamic to understanding that, you know, I'm a spiritual being having a human experience. I live life in a different way. I live life in a different way. I live life in a different manner and ultimately, you know, this book that I'm writing is actually exploring that idea that you know we are spiritual beings having a human experience, not human beings having a spiritual experience. Because, trust me, you can keep chasing spiritual experiences and you will get nowhere. I mean, you will get somewhere. I'm not saying, I'm not trying to diminish it in any way, but what I'm saying is to reach the heights of spirituality where, you know, the Upanishadic seers spoke about that. Shri Krishna guided Arjuna Uddhava towards Krishna, guided Arjuna Uddhava towards that reality, that highest knowledge. It's available to us and we can live it.
Speaker 1:You know, a lot of people would kind of say well, the Bhagavad Gita is complex. How can you be humble in the corporate world, the corporate world, and nobody's telling you to be a doormat. Shri krishnan didn't tell ajahn to be a doormat. Humility in the sense of you know your weaknesses as a human being, as a body and mind, that you know that it will have certain weaknesses and and opportunities to grow, that that's all you know. Or even spiritually, you know that you've reached a certain level. You've got to be humble enough to say you know, there's more that I want to achieve. Or even if you achieve the highest, then you're humble about it.
Speaker 1:You know people that go around saying, well, I'm self-realized, and they say you know, I've achieved, attained self-realization. And they and they say, you know I've achieved, attained self-realization, they're the biggest losers on the planet, because and I would question whether they achieved anything at all, because I get it we live in a world where we kind of have to declare things you know, and someone may say, well, shukrishan says you know, those that come to me enter into me or merge into me, or they attain me. It's true, but we've got to understand from what aspect he's speaking from. He's not speaking from the body, he's not speaking from the body-mind complex or the intellect. He's talking from the Atma brahman, from the ultimate aspect. And so anyone today, when they say they are self-realized in my opinion I've never seen there's some swamis out there that are totally amazing. I've not seen them say they're the next best thing since I spread and if you can't be humble enough in your realisation, then I wonder whether it's your ego that has adopted a spiritual ego and therefore thinks it's reached somewhere, or it's, or you haven't achieved anything, but you're trying to bluff your way, and that's also possible. So, even if you're self-realized and you're enlightened and, yes, you may well be, yeah, but just remember to be humble and that, in that manner, if you are self-realized, and everyone is self-realized, because there's only you that exists, and sometimes that's how you catch people out, that's how you catch them out.
Speaker 1:Anyway, I'll end it there. Thank you very much for listening. Join my Discord server. You know all the stuff you need to do. Follow me on social media, do all that stuff Like this video. Follow me on social media. Do all that stuff like this video. Comment, subscribe. Keep doing that, keep sharing, do whatever you need to do to share the message. But, um, I hope you look forward to the book and more will be revealed as we go through the process. So hopefully in the next episode I will will answer Dilanji's question. I promised him it last week, but I apologize. I'm really sorry, dilanji, that there's a delay in it, but in the next few days or early next week I will get to it. Okay, and it's a very good question. It's worth understanding and dissecting, okay. Anyway, take care everyone. Namaste Bye.
