Episode 6: Direct and Unfiltered with The Bearded Mystic

Rahul N Singh: 0:02

Hello and welcome to another episode of Direct and Unfiltered with The Bearded Mystic, and I hope you're doing well. So today we have another question that's come from Survey Monkey, and if you want to submit questions for the Direct and Unfiltered episodes, please do check out the Survey Monkey link in the video description, or show notes below. Today I was asked about what is my Sampradaya, what is my spiritual background? Who is my guru? An interesting question, one that I have kind of avoided answering because I've been on the journey of discovery myself and I've wanted to be able to be confident. I mean, this question was one of the first ones we received many months ago. So it's one that I'm now ready to answer, one that I am looking forward to answering. First of all... My spiritual background since I was a young boy I am part of the Sant Nirankari Mission, and as you know, in one of the episodes of Wisdom of the Mystics, I spoke about my Satguru at that time was Satguru Baba Hardev Singh ji Maharaj and I looked into some of his quotes and shared with you what I learned from him and. Today I still go to the Nirankari Satsang and I go there every Sunday. Now obviously it's under a new guru Satguru Mata Sudiksha Ji and I'm her disciple. And this is why, you know, so many times people ask me, are you a guru? Are you enlightened? And and I always say, I'm not a guru, I'm just a content creator. And most of all I'm a disciple so I don't consider myself enlightened and even if I was I wouldn't share that with anybody because that's between me and my guru nobody else. So my Satguru needs to know that nobody else. So yeah recently I met Mataji after a good number of years maybe four years and it was really nice meeting her and it was what I needed I think and I'll go into the background a lot more in a minute but yes, it's under her teachings and guidance that I have developed so much in my spirituality. And She gives an amazing message, very direct, very clear. So let me go into the sampradaya a bit more. First of all... My grandfather was one of the early disciples in the Sant Nirankari Mission. So he was working in the same bakery as the second guru, Shahenshah Baba Avtar Singh ji, and this was before the partition, so my grandfather received the Brahm Gyan. So this is the most beautiful and amazing part of the Sant Nirankari Mission that I really admire and really respect. They believe in that if you have a strong desire to know your true self or to know God, they will give that to you. They will give that knowledge to you. There's no prior rituals. There's nothing like that. It's just if you have that desire, they are willing to give you that knowledge. And the knowledge is really simple. It's a very direct and simple path. That's the other unique part about it. And I think that's what's made me understand the scriptures a lot easier is because I look at that knowledge that they give and I go accordingly and the knowledge is rather simple, it's really it's a very direct non-dual message that there is only this formless and, and we've all emanated from that One. So the many appearances you see is just an appearance. It's mithya and but you see this Formless in all forms. So this philosophy's brilliant. What's also really intriguing is that from the get go, you are told that none of this is yours. none of the things you have or possess is yours because again, if this world is just an appearance, why would it be mine? The only thing that's real is this formless, which is your true self, your true origin. And the other few great things that you see in the Sant Nirankari Mission that I really admire is there's a continuous spiritual practice. So you go to satsang every week and you also commit to doing seva which is helping humanity. So wherever you go in life if you help others selflessly that's seva and then Sumiran which is the practice of mindful remembrance and actually the current Satguru Mata Sudiksha ji coined this term mindful remembrance which I think is amazing because it's all about becoming aware of the awareness of this Formless. So it's real deep insight, in my opinion and the great thing is when you receive this Brahm Gyan, they ask you to compare it to the scriptures that you follow and I have compared it to the Gita, the Bhagavad Gita, to the Upanishads, to the Ashtavakra Gita, to so many texts and actually I read it from that perspective and what's interesting is I find that I take leaps, what would normally be small little steps, I'm able to take giant leaps into understanding what they really say. So then what I have to do is go back and try to understand it. Now, the tough thing about being a Nirankari is the sense of, because they give you the truth so freely, you know, just because you have that desire to know, you do need to have a strong foundation of philosophy, of understanding non duality, in my opinion, so it's really important that you read the Gita beforehand, or you read any scripture beforehand, and you have a strong basic understanding before you have this knowledge. And this knowledge is an open secret, I mean, although I can't share it with you because I don't have the permission, and I want to respect that principle, and once you understand it, once you see it, you're like, oh, it's everywhere, I can't deny it, I can't step out of this knowledge, ever. So that's the sampradaya that I belong to and I will share the details so you get to know more about it in the video description below, and I implore everyone that if you've listened to my podcast, if you've been inspired by me somewhat, this Brahm Gyana, is a great direct literally a great direct, non-dual way of knowing the truth of who you are. The truth of the self and the beauty that I also find is that, yes, okay on one level, you get this deep, spiritual, philosophical insight. But the other beautiful aspect is there is work to do when once you receive it, so you know you have to work on any factionalism that you may have within. So whether that's caste, color or creed, you have to get rid of those parts of you, which discriminate others negatively. And you then also do not criticize anyone based on their diet or their dress or their way of life, living, you know, their lifestyle. You don't criticize anybody. You refrain from judging anybody and I think that's such an important thing because it's very easy to get spiritual wisdom and then not know what to do with it and I think the Sant Nirankari Mission gives a great way of actually systemizing those beliefs, that philosophical insight of the Brahm Gyan into your day to day life. And it does it so nonchalantly, it's really quite impressive. And yeah, so... Once you're told, and in fact, once you're told, and the first principle, the first promise you make is this body, mind and material possessions is not yours, automatically, where can ego even arise? Ego cannot grow in such a circumstance, when you know this is not your body, so you're not going to be constantly taking selfies thinking you're only beautiful and the rest of the world isn't. this mind so you know oh i'm i can intellectually understand deeper things. So what? This mind is temporary, this body is temporary. Material possessions, one day you're rich, the next day you could be poor, or you're poor one day, you're rich the next day. But none of this is going to last, we all go empty handed. And I think that's a great teaching in itself. And if you follow this, if you really, really put your effort into it... It can take you leaps and bounds in spiritual living. The other aspect I really like is they say that spirituality is not just a part-time thing. It's not something you just do on a Sunday, you just attend satsang for those two hours and that's it. No, you have to do it in your day to day life, like I mentioned earlier, that you have to do seva, you have to do sumiran, remembering this Lord, 24x7, literally, we are guided that when you're eating, drinking, sleeping, dreaming, driving, everything, you're meant to remember the Lord, that in itself, to practice it is difficult, but it's very simple and I guess that's where the complexity is because we look for excuses to avoid it and this mission tells us do it, practice this spirituality, practice this awareness at all times. That's my sampradaya, that's where I come from and it's literally through those insights that I share my content with you all so my thoughts on the Bhagavad Gita is heavily influenced by that, and that's why I think I understand Adi Shankara Ji's advaita vedanta a lot easier because of this Brahm Gyana that I received from my spiritual guru, my from my Satguru. And it's really enhanced my life. I see the importance of having a living guru and why I think having a teacher is important. And the other great thing is and you don't find this in any other place, this is one thing I will mention and for example you always have the stage where the spiritual teacher or the spiritual guru would sit and normally only that person can go there. So if you look at other gurus only they can sit at the front facing the audience, nobody else. But in the Nirankari Satsang the great thing is that even like the spiritual guru can't be everywhere at all times, right? What they do is they select someone to sit there on the very seat that the Guru sits on, the very stage the Guru sits on. That to me is remarkable. And so anyone, so whoever sits on that seat represents the Satguru, represents the Guru themselves and I think that's amazing. You sense from there that the guru cannot have an ego because they share the dias with others, they share the stage with others. The other beautiful thing about the mission's teachings that I find is, beautiful is they truly see the formless in everyone. So for example, you touch the feet with your hand and you place it on your head. And you do that not just to your elders, but even to people younger than you. And that can be a culture shock for a lot of people. But I find that to be amazing. Because yes, if we are all formless, if you're all this Brahman, then why should I discriminate between someone younger or older than me just because of age? And this mission teaches you, wisdom can be in anyone, it doesn't matter what age they are. That's another beautiful practice we have, and again another reminder that the Formless is in everyone and everything. And, it's a very integrated spirituality, and even though in the past few years I've been on the journey of trying to discover what I, whether I truly still believe in the mission or not, I can say confidently that I do, and it's because when I look back and I see where I am today, the credit goes to this Mission because whatever good things people get from my content is because of that. And it gives me the freedom to do that. And you don't get that from every other spiritual tradition either. There's a lot of freedom that you get from being in it. Find a local center and if you are really seeking the truth, then you're really wanting to know this open secret. Do take this Brahm Gyana and if you really want to understand non-duality, take this Brahm Gyana and if you find that you still engage with the transactional reality or the relative reality. Having a spiritual teacher is a great way of having an ishta devta that can help you start integrating the transactional to the Ultimate. So that's a great way the guru bhakti yoga that you get in this mission as well. That's a positive that you can apply as well. But the beautiful thing is our Satguru Mata Sudiksha ji really emphasizes on doing Nirankar bhakti Nirankar devotion, so Formless Devotion, and you know that in this podcast, we emphasize this and again, it's all the teachings that I've received from my spiritual gurus that I emphasize on this podcast and if there's any good things you hear, it's because of them. Anything bad is probably my own philosophy, so yes, so thank you. Thank you. That's the answer to my question of what sampradaya belong to and who's my spiritual teacher. And if you have any questions, please do share them. You can fill in the form on the Survey Monkey or even email me at beardedmysticpodcast@gmail.Com. Thank you very much for listening. See you in the next episode. Namaste.