Episode 5: Direct and Unfiltered with The Bearded Mystic

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Hello and welcome to a new episode of The Bearded Mystic Podcast and we are doing this series direct and unfiltered with The Bearded Mystic. If you're interested in submitting a question, there is a SurveyMonkey link which you can fill in, it's a form and just fill that in and submit your question. Today we've had a question and it's Rahul, can you please go into your views about Hinduphobia in the West and in India. Now, as you know, this podcast is a spiritual podcast. We don't deal with geopolitical views or we don't really entertain such things. I'm not going to deny that there isn't these things happening, that there isn't Hinduphobia. I am aware of issues that happen with Hindus in Pakistan or even in India and I know that there are certain things that have been happening in America and also in the UK that happen in Leicester. So I'm aware of these incidents but the podcast is strictly about... Spiritual understanding, and this is because when we start identifying ourselves with any label, we can slowly get stuck into sectarianism, factionalism, and we start discriminating against others. And it's interesting because when you start discriminating and in a negative way, then you lose sight of the real message. Now for me, what dharma means and what Sanatana dharma means is the teachings of the Upanishads. And if you look at it, everything is emanated from the Upanishads, from Vedanta, yeah? So when you look at that, the Bhagavad Gita has come from that and so has the Brahma Sutras and so many other texts. And you know, there's traditions outside of that as well. Whether that's Tantra, whether that's Kashmir Shaivism. I really feel that that's what we should be exploring. Now, there are enough voices that are talking about these issues. Now... Let me now talk about it very directly. I'm against anything that is hating against another group of people. It doesn't have to... they don't have to be my own. One of the things that we learn and what I've been learning from my childhood is that there is universal familyhood. We are all one family. And therefore... Yes, we may have philosophical differences, I may not agree with a lot of things from other traditions and within my own tradition too, but that doesn't mean I need to hate. One of the teachings that I've learnt growing up is to have unconditional love. Recently, my Satguru also spoke about this. And so, if there's unconditional love... Does that have any limit? Does that have any boundary? Does that have any, does that stop anywhere? No, it doesn't. And in fact, if you know the truth experientially, you know that you cannot go outside of this One. So even if someone believes in Allah, God, or any other form, or no form, or even in no God, that doesn't mean I have to hate them. I can have philosophical differences. But those differences don't have to turn into hate. It can actually be a respectful, disagreement. And whenever we hate anybody, we are not moving forward. And I also believe that if you're dharmic and you follow Hinduism, follow the path that has been put forward to you. We are a group of people that choose to respond to things. We are not reactionary and therefore what I see today on these Twitter spaces or on online on TikTok, what I see is people just reacting to negativity. When you react to negativity, what happens to your mindset? What happens to your frame of thinking? It becomes negative naturally and even though you want to avoid it. You simply can't avoid it because that's what has infiltrated into your mind and it's interesting whenever someone speaks something of the teachings or of high knowledge hardly anybody shares that. I've written poetry, I have shared my views on TikTok, nobody's duetted them. Nobody's done a reaction video to them, those are positive messages of dharma, those haven't been emphasised, but if you look at what people do duet and kind of perpetuate is negative things, people who say that yoga is demonic or people who say that murti puja is wrong or we believe in false gods, all those type of things right, they get more attention of Hindus and that for me is a scary thing. That for me shows where our mindset is and this is not just Hindus, I'm saying everywhere. This this is a problem that we have whenever there's negativity we have to react to that yet we never react to positivity. We never react to spiritual teachings and I'm not saying you have to react to my content. But anybody like anyone who spreads positivity, why aren't they being given more attention? It all goes back to attention and focus. If your attention and focus is towards spiritual teachings, that's what you will look for and that's what you will share. But if you're looking for negativity, then that is what you're going to share. Now let me go deeper into this whole Hinduphobia and I know people who were once all about the spiritual teachings. Now they've gone into that space of let me talk about Hinduphobia, let me engage in that, you know, and what happens is, especially on Twitter, it's well known for being alt-right. And what happens is no matter how much you try to avoid it, you go into that mindset and it's very hard to come out of it. So as much as I think it's okay for people to have those views, it's fine. You can be on any political spectrum, that's absolutely fine, but you need to be open enough to understand that you don't have to react to everyone or you don't have to consider someone less if they're not talking about it. I choose not to talk about it because for me, it's less important to be culturally Hindu than it is to be spiritually Hindu, spiritually dharmic. That's more important for me. So that's my perspective on things and that's where I stand. Now, like I said there's friends of mine that have reached out. They say can you speak about these things? Can you speak about these matters? And I've had to humbly decline. That's not where my attention is. I'm talking about the Bhagavad Gita. I'm talking about you utilizing the right discernment, and I'm literally practicing it. You see, this is a difference. If you've only theoretically known about Hinduism... You will bypass the spiritual teachings and you'll be like, you know what, look Shiv Ji had a trishul, look Shri Krishna fought in the Mahabharata, people go on to those things but they don't look at the whole vast teachings that says, you know what, there's oneness here, there's love here, there's compassion here, there's forgiveness here, there's acceptance here, nobody looks at that, they ignore the vast majority and they just look at that minor incident. I'm not saying do not defend your religion or do not defend your beliefs. Do so. But think about it. Another person I've heard where they say, you know, there's people in these university institutions, college institutions that are speaking against Hinduism. One second. There's many people that are speaking positively. Are you talking about them? Are you talking about those that are researching into Hinduism and its philosophy? Are you talking about them? Are you emphasizing them? Are you promoting them? No, because they're not saying anything bad, so they're not saying anything reactionary, they're not saying anything that excites your brain, even though that should be the thing that excites you. So that's my difference and I also had a personal experience, so and it's ironic actually. Recently I attended a retreat with Swami Sarvapriyananda ji in Atlanta and in that retreat... There was people from the coalition of Hindus, I think, CoHNA, something like that, and they were basically trying to recruit, and as they were going into things, the person made a comment that, oh, you're a marxist, you're a liberal. Your left wing as if it was an insult, and I was like, no, I'm just liberally minded based on the Dharmic values. And she was like, well, you know, look what happened in Leicester. Look what Muslims are doing. This is bad. And I was like, stop there for a second because you're now going into political things instead of the spiritual. And what's funny is, Swamiji is talking about oneness and this is what these people were doing. So you got to see a dichotomy there and you got to see a cognitive dissonance. And the person next to me was actually, and this person who was from CoHNA or whatever how you pronounce it, they were... They mentioned Kashmiri pandits and you know what's or the Kashmir files and you know what was interesting the person sitting next to me was from Kashmir, his heritage and he turned around and said can you stop speaking hatred here. I'm not here to speak hatred about Muslims, this is not what we're here for. We're here to spread love positivity and unity and you know that's what happens when you actually experience the spiritual teachings. Then you're not culturally there, you're much more deeper, on a deeper level you feel that spirituality and you feel that the spiritual teachings have a living reality. They do work. And so, that love is what works. That oneness is what works. That unity is what works. That familyhood is what works. Yes, I'm not turning around and saying that there's no hatred from any other place. They may have hatred. But that doesn't mean that you have to respond with hatred. You have the choice to respond with dharmic values, not with their values. Or that you claim that because if they raise their weapons, we need to raise ours. What nonsense is that? In my opinion, what's my view on Hinduphobia? I'm not saying it doesn't exist, I'm saying it does exist, but every form of phobia exists. And there's people being attacked for their religious or non religious beliefs. I condone every form of violence and every form of act that creates instability and creates disturbance. So I'm against all of those things. But that doesn't mean that one's response has to be the same. One can choose to respond differently. And just, if you want to use the examples of Shivji or Shri Krishna, but if you look into their stories, before they even get angry, they are extremely calm, composed, stable minded, even minded, peaceful minded, before they even take a step towards action. Or even before, they always look to reconcile matters before it going deeper. My response is always to do interfaith and keep an open mind. Be independently minded. Do not form into any factional thinking, any sectarian thinking. Be free minded and always go from a base of love and compassion and Oneness, because that's the ultimate teaching of Vedanta and the ultimate teaching of the Vedas and if anyone goes against that, in my opinion, has to take a deep look within to see are they, have they actually experienced the truth of dharma or are they just culturally just saying I am a hindu as a label. And that's with any religion by the way. So I condone anything that is harming others, but the resolution has to always be done with peace, with oneness, with love and familyhood in mind. And only when we experience this truth can we then understand it and, you know, be a Swami Vivekanada. Use your mind use platforms to promote the message of Hinduism. Promote the message of your philosophy and that's the best way. And nobody can fight against that and like I said we may have different beliefs, may come to it at different ways but one thing I will emphasize is do it through love, do it through compassion and you will understand that experientially truth matters more and if you're an enlightened being which is where I want to be, I have to look at the sages, they are my heroes, not some political figure, not some nationalistic figure, not someone who had political motives. I'm going to go for those that has spiritual motives, and if you want to tackle any form of phobia within yourself or that you see in others. Go towards the higher truth, and the higher truth has been established in the Upanishads, it's established in the Bhagavad Gita, it's established in all texts. And one thing I will say is, go towards those content creators who are talking about dharma only. There's one person called nish ji, NishtheFish is his YouTube and I'll put a link to his YouTube channel. He's the one person that I have found that has been consistent in spreading the message of dharma. And he's young, he's a great content creator, I call him my guru brother because even though we come from different sampradayas, I deeply respect him because despite what happens around TikTok or Twitter or any of those spaces, he remains true to spreading the philosophy truth, the truth. That for me is a true Dharmic person, and they are worth spreading, their message. And so sometimes, and I, it happens where when you are in that, you know, TikTok space or Twitter space, social media space, sometimes it's very easy to get reactionary. It's happened to me before. But when you think from a different level then you understand that you don't have to react to such things. That there's a better message that you can be giving out. And that is the philosophy. And one thing I will say is, even I haven't been consistent in this, but Nishji has been deeply consistent, and I praise him for that. Like I said, my approach on my channel is to only spread the spiritual messages and this is the only time I'm going to speak about Hinduphobia, but yes, anything that harms anyone's religion, anyone's beliefs, that causes others to be violent, I strongly am against such things and one thing I will mention, I know that there is legislation about the caste system, let me just mention this, I am for any legislation removes the caste system because it's outdated and it's wrong and we should look for the positive spin rather than perpetuating the negative spin. I'm not saying this just based on me but if you look at the teachings of Adi Shankara ji, if you look at the teachings of Guru Nanak Dev ji, if you look at the messages of Kabir ji, and any other social reformer, we've looked at Shri Narayana Guru ji, my own Guru also talks about removing any caste discrimination. Such people are our examples. Such people are worth celebrating and such people are the ones that we follow and that's what I follow. So at the end of the day that's all you're going to get from me. And the maximum you can get from me so that's my answer to this and if you have any follow up questions, if you want to know deeper into why contact me and I'm more than happy to answer those questions. Thank you very much for listening Thank you for joining and do spread this video with others and or this podcast with others so they can understand hopefully that what I share as a content creator is spirituality only. Not politics and definitely not geopolitics. I condemn anyone that does any of those things that will cause hatred against any community. So that's honestly my stance on things and I'm trying to improve myself and I'm on a journey of self improvement. I'm not perfect, I don't have a perfect past, and I wanna improve on that. So that's what I have to say. Thank you very much for listening. Thank you for joining. Keep supporting The Bearded Mystic Podcast. Support me on Patreon, please do. It helps the podcast keep running and helps me keep churning out podcasts. Thank you very much for listening. Take care, bye.