March 25, 2025
God Isn't Gone: The Surprising Case for Devotion in Non-dual Spirituality
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Abandoning the concept of God in spirituality can lead to a dead end, but understanding Ishvara as the bridge between duality and non-duality creates a clear path to self-realization. This episode explores why the personal God remains essential in Advaita Vedanta, even as we progress toward recognizing Brahman as our ultimate reality.
• Ishvara serves as an intermediary reality helping us cross from apparent duality to non-duality
• Bhakti (devotion) purifies the mind, making it receptive to higher knowledge
• Surrendering to Ishvara naturally dissolves the ego and sense of doership
• The personal God provides emotional, psychological, and spiritual support during challenges
• Even realized masters maintain reverence toward Ishvara out of gratitude, not ignorance
• Devotion and self-inquiry are complementary paths, not contradictory approaches
• Ishvara is the conscious administrator of karma, bringing moral significance to our actions
• Without devotion, non-duality risks becoming dry, abstract, and misinterpreted as nihilism
• Logic alone doesn't transform the seeker – grace flowing through Ishvara does
• Seeing your guru as the embodiment of Ishvara can accelerate spiritual growth
If you're feeling stuck in your spiritual practice or facing obstacles on your path to self-realization, may Ishvara deal with those obstacles and provide you the guidance to move forward.
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Transcript
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Hello and welcome to the Bearded Mystic Podcast, and I am your host, rahul N Singh.
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Thank you for taking out the time today to either watch or listen to this podcast episode.
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If you're listening to this for the first time or you are here again, just remember to like, comment and subscribe and that this channel is all about understanding Advaita Vedanta, all about understanding non-duality as our fundamental truth and fundamental true nature as well.
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So today I wanted to talk about and it's been something that's been playing on my mind quite a bit, because it's very easy for us to, and and this has been a learning curve for me as well where we can abandon God in spirituality.
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And is there a need or a point in abandoning God in spirituality?
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Is there a reason for this?
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Does it need to happen?
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God in spirituality Is there a reason for this?
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Does it need to happen?
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So I wanted to approach it in a different way on why the personal God, why Ishvara is necessary now and why Advaita Vedanta speaks about it.
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One thing I'm going to mention is that with Ishvara, it's very different to Nirakar.
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So this is fundamental to understanding in Vedanta.
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Ishvara and Nirakar or Brahman are two different things, and I will say that, and we'll go into this, because I'm going to go into why it's necessary, and then I'm going to look at the possible questions that come about, because I think people think there is no God.
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But you know, it's not about whether there is a God or not.
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It's about understanding, when we're studying Vedanta, what actually helps us go further, and Ishvara can be beneficial as a concept to help us go further.
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Now, yes, the truth has no concept.
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I understand that, but at the end of the day, we have a mind.
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Our mind has to understand this truth in order to even entertain abandoning its incessant chatter.
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So let's understand that also.
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But anyway, why is Ishvara important?
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Why is it necessary?
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Why is it compatible?
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Actually, in Advaita Vedanta and I think if you go without God in Advaita Vedanta, I think you miss out a lot, and this is sometimes not discussed enough.
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Hence I'm discussing it, and it's an important part of my course as well.
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So whatever I'm saying today is literally a snippet of what the course is going to be dealing with when it comes to Ishvara.
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And yes, ishvara is a massive part to play in the course, and that's why it's easier to rest in formless awareness, because we deal with Ishvara and we deal with the Jiva and we deal with all those things.
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So, yes, we must look at our sadhana, our spiritual practice.
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Now a lot of people question me or ask questions that you know, how can I improve my sadhana, how can I improve my spiritual practice?
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I'm stuck.
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What can I do?
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Is there anything that can help me?
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And in my opinion, the answer always comes to bhakti.
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I don't know why, but I feel bhakti is the answer always, and that's because bhakti utilizes the mind and limits the ego, and that's good.
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Now what can happen if you just go on the jnana aspect, the knowledge aspect?
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One can get knowledge, but it can be very dry.
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One, two, it will have no output, for example, a dead end.
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But it's not really the dead end, it's the end of the, the path that after that is pathless.
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But we don't know what to do with a pathless path.
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We don't know.
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We do not know what to do in uncharted territory.
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We do not know what to do when we've been limited and bound by some way with the knowledge, how we can go boundless and limitless.
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So these fundamental things are only understood once we kind of deal a lot with the background information that's required.
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So, without further ado, that was a long introduction, um, but here we go.
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So Ishvara is the bridge between duality and non-duality.
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It's interesting, right, it's a bridge.
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Now, yes, advaita completely believes Brahman is non-dual, it alone is real, it's only present, it's the only one present here, absolutely true.
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But the mind cannot grasp this truth directly and I and I really hesitate sometimes to speak about the direct truth, because I understand that only a few people can get it, and I want my message to reach out to more and more people because when they come across the direct truth, it's not uncharted territory then it's something they recognize and that's what background work does.
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It actually addresses that uncharted territory that you're like oh, I've been here before and you didn't even know you were there, and that's the whole point.
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But if you, just, if I just say, well, there's only just this here and I just end it there, you know it's good, but it's not going to get you anywhere, you know you're going to be like swimming in a vast ocean without any equipment of survival, and we need to survive when we're in this territory.
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So, anyway, the mind cannot grasp this truth directly.
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But Ishvara, the personal God, if we utilize this, then it functions as an intermediary reality, like a reality in between.
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That can just kind of help.
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So we know it's not the ultimate, but we know it's not unreal either, because for something to be unreal means that it's non-existent and it's constantly changing.
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Ishvara does not change, so it's a necessary stepping stone for the aspirant to cross the apparent duality to non-duality.
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So Ishvara, it has attributes.
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It's also formless, which helps.
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So because it's formlessless, we know that we don't have to put an image on it, we don't have to create it as a man up in the sky, it's, it's in this reality itself.
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But we use this personal god, we utilize ishwara just to kind of get us to non-duality.
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So it's a stepping stone, not a place to stay, so it's not a destination.
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Yeah, ishvara is not a destination.
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Brahman is a destination, but, uh, you could say a service stop or or you know, in England they call it a service station.
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I don't know what they call it here in in the US, but a rest area.
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Uh, that's what Ishwara is, you know.
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It's just a way to help you get to your destination, to get recharged.
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So now, as I mentioned bhakti here, devotion helps in purifying the mind, and if you look at my previous episode not previous, but a few episodes I've discussed the pitfalls of bhakti.
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That's to help us on the non-dual path, to keep our focus on Brahman, focus on the ultimate destination.
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But here bhakti definitely purifies the mind, and a pure mind when we do citta shuddhi this again is a big part of my course.
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It's a precondition for Gyan.
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If our mind is not pure, it's not actually going to grasp the knowledge.
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Now, yes, it itself, brahman, is pure, and if you fully align to this Brahman, this Nirakar, this non-dual reality, yes, your mind will be pure as a result, by default.
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However, what ultimately happens is that we see the direct truth, but if the mind isn't pure, it will somehow utilize that pure seeing as an egoic thing, and that's what we got to avoid doing that.
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If you have that feeling that, oh, I'm enlightened and I'm better, then you know it's it's not.
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You know you haven't got a purified mind, in my opinion.
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So remember, it's a precondition for Gyan and bhakti to Ishvara, bhakti in general.
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It helps dissolve the ego massively.
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I mean, imagine that you're saying Ishvara, you're everything, I am nothing To do.
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That takes incredible guts.
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And you don't do it because of an inferiority complex, you do it because you're humbled, not because of inferiority.
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Complex.
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There's a slight difference.
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If you say I am nothing, you're not saying it because of you feel that you have attributes of nothing.
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You have no attributes.
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No, what you realize, your attributes are there because of Ishvara.
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So there's a difference.
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And therefore, if you have attachments, well you know, Ishvara helps in that too.
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If you have a problem, if you have, if you're going through grief because you lost a loved one, ishvara helps because you can ask for strength.
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Maybe you find that right now you do not have the strength to deal with that loss.
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So you ask Ishvara, you ask God, and you say come on, can you give me some help, guidance, strength to deal with this?
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And I have found this in my own practice.
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Yes, it does help, it does give you strength.
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And that strength is there because Ishvara is present within you.
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And we only realize that it is the Andriyami, we only realize that when we ask, and then we are open to that strength being unleashed.
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So before, if we just use our mind, it's limited, but when we use Ishvara, it becomes limitless, it becomes very vast, and that's why we utilize Ishvara's help in these things.
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And then we have Rajasic and Damsic tendencies.
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You know, we may feel lazy some days.
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Sometimes I feel it too like I don't want to do a video.
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But I end up doing it because I ask Ishvara for help.
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I want to do, I want to deal with, I want to actually create a video and or, you know, one can get hyper about certain things.
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That can happen.
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So to avoid those tendencies or to deal with those tendencies effectively, you can ask Ishwara to help that you.
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You know there's this hyperactivity in the mind.
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The mind's going crazy, it's feeling anxious.
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Can you calm it down and Ishwara will calm it down.
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And if you're feeling lazy and you're procrastinating, ishwara will help to motivate you to go further, especially if you're on the spiritual path.
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Yeah, we've got to be inspired To do Anything on the spiritual path.
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If we're not doing anything for spirituality, if our spirituality is just conditioned To watching YouTube videos but not Implementing it into our own life, then we are full of dhamsik energy.
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Yeah, if that's procrastination, that's laziness.
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But if we are In sattvic, yeah, if that's procrastination, that's laziness.
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But if we are in sattvic, then we are always looking for a way to see something as spiritual practice.
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So you know, and Shankaracharya and maybe his disciples most likely.
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They composed devotional hymns, whether that was to Shiva, to Vishnu, to Devi, for sadhikas.
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There's a reason why that was entertained.
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This just helps bring about a feeling of emotion and it inspires you to be more spiritual.
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So, yes, that's very important to understand.
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Then, saguna Brahman or Ishvara, you know, brahman with attributes is necessary for Upasana, for meditation and worship.
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One thing I will say you know you cannot meditate on the unmanifest, the attributeless Nirguna Brahman.
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You can't meditate upon it.
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Yeah, if you meditate upon it, it becomes a meditation.
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It can never be meditated upon as an object because it is the one meditating.
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Nirguna Brahman will always be the one meditating and it becomes meditation.
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But you cannot meditate upon it.
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You can only be it and because you are it.
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So that's essentially understood.
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So our mind will need a form, it will need a name, it will need a relationship, you'll need some attribute, and that's why you know Ishvara, as Soguna Brahman provides that focus.
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So we can utilize anyone as our Ishtiv.
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That can be Shri Ram, that can be Shri Krishna, that can be Shiva, that can be any personal deity, that can be a guru as well, because even in the Gita it's mentioned, how you know, if one had to meditate on the formless, on the absolute, on the unmanifest, it's very difficult.
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If you live, if you're fully invested in this body and mind, so to deal with the body and mind, you give it a name and a form to focus on that is higher than it.
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Once that person is able to deal with, once that person meditates upon the higher being, then the door for Nirguna Brahman opens up of that realization that that is what it is.
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Otherwise, it will remain stuck on body and mind, and that's why a guru is necessary on these steps.
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It's not because the guru just teaches you.
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The guru then guides you, helps you go from one step to another, and that's what's very important.
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A guru is not there just to give a blanket discourse and then go.
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A guru is there to help you On each step of the way, so you can become what you really are, sorry, so you can be what you really are Not become.
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You already are it.
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See, this is what language does.
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Now, ishvara is also the dispenser of karma.
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This is very important.
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You know, it's the one that gives out karma and the number one thing that we're dealing in life is our karma right.
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So when we look at karma the law of cause and effect you know we need a conscious administrator.
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We need someone that can administrate our karma, and that's what Ishvara does and that's why we ask Ishvara for guidance on how to transcend karma.
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So without belief in Ishvara, our karma becomes mechanical.
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So we just do action for the sake of doing action and it's devoid of any moral or spiritual significance.
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So when we believe in Ishvara, so what happens?
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Then we have a divine purpose.
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Once we have that divine purpose, then you know what.
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Every action we do is divine.
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Every action we want to do for ourselves and even for others is divine.
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It's a spiritual practice.
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You know you're seeing Ishvara in all and that's important.
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We need to do that.
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Then it becomes karma yog.
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Otherwise we're just doing actions for the sake of it and those actions will cause either more harm or they will accumulate some sort of gift for the future.
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But we want to go beyond that.
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So that's why Ishvara is a good helping tool for us to do good karma by understanding that it is doing everything, not us.
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So if Ishvara gives the results of action, that means it sets up the moral fabric of the universe.
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So if you see how the universe gets together and does things, it's all because of Ishvara, all because of this Brahman.
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Well, because of Ishvara.
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So then it leads to surrender to Ishvara, leads to inner freedom.
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You know this is also important Surrendering.
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So if you know the eight limbs to Patanjali's yoga, you know that one of the niyamas in yoga is Ishvara Pranidhana.
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So that means surrendering to Ishvara and this is emphasized also in Advaita.
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Surrendering to Ishvara helps us and it's through surrender this individual ego of ours weakens, it dissolves and it becomes more receptive to the ultimate truth, to jnana.
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It makes us ready for brahmjnana.
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So when we surrender to Ishvara, yes, it may seem like we're surrendering to a formless reality that has attributes.
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Whatever negativities, whatever obstacles, ishvara will deal with them.
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Ishvara will be the one that acts within us.
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So what we say is that whatever you do, ishvara, that will be done.
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And that's not duality, that's not dualistic thinking, it's a matter, actually it's a method For dissolving the doership, the karta bhav.
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You know we have the karta bhav, that I am the doer.
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But when we say you are the doer and whatever you do will be done, then not only do we dissolve the karta bhav, the doer aspect.
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That means we don't accumulate karma.
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Second positive.
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Third positive everything we do has a spiritual significance and therefore is divine action and that's what we should aim to do.
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So once we do that, then we are even the surrendering.
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We say you are the one that provides the strength to surrender.
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How can I surrender?
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This ego is too feeble to surrender.
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But you provide that strength for the ego to dissolve.
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There's a way of being, and just simply doing this can take us so far in a spiritual journey.
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And for years I used to say there's no personal God, but in the last few years I've kind of become open to it, as necessary and if it's described in the right manner, yeah.
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So, if you notice, there's not a doctrine to be made out of this, because it's about you can't stay stuck on this Ishvara aspect.
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You have to go to Nirguna Brahman.
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So anyway, let's carry on.
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So we have a guru as Ishvara.
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So we know that.
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You know, in traditional Advaita the guru is not just a teacher, but they're the living embodiment of Ishvara.
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They hold all the blessings, they provide that grace and you know, in my own life my guru has been very helpful and, yes, they are an embodiment of Ishvara.
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I see them as that and I see them as the ultimate.
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So when we see the Guru as Ishvara, it helps us dissolve our ego very easily.
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You know who am I.
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You know my Guru has given me everything.
00:21:13.373 --> 00:21:25.711
Everything I have attained is because of my Guru, and this opens one up to grace, because we are not the one doing the effort, it's our Guru that is giving us, that is doing the effort for us.
00:21:25.711 --> 00:21:34.424
It's an interesting way of seeing things, and the Guru has always been praised.
00:21:34.424 --> 00:21:38.734
There's a whole Guru Gita Adi Shankaraji did the Guru Ashtakam.
00:21:38.734 --> 00:21:41.894
We can even go through that one day.
00:21:44.153 --> 00:21:55.224
Right now I'm actually reading a book on Sri Narayana Guru, and actually I know of him only because of one of my listeners, dilanji.
00:21:55.224 --> 00:21:57.048
He is the one that told me about Sri Narayana Guru, and actually I know of him only because of one of my listeners, dylanji.
00:21:57.048 --> 00:22:02.446
He is the one that told me about Sri Narayana Guru and Guruji, and because of him.
00:22:02.446 --> 00:22:13.655
He was a master, I think in the late 1800s and early 1900s, and now people are looking into him.
00:22:13.655 --> 00:22:30.865
Not only was he a good proponent of Advaita, but he also brought it into the social fabric, so he would speak heavily against the caste system, while being a great Advaitin practitioner or teacher or guru.
00:22:31.266 --> 00:22:44.627
So right now I'm reading that and it's true, and in there, you know, uh, I just read in there about the guru, ashtakam and how he speaks on that, and we should, you know, praise the guru for everything the guru does for us.
00:22:44.627 --> 00:22:49.905
Uh, and if there's, if we're on the path of spirituality, it's all because of the guru.
00:22:49.905 --> 00:22:57.538
Yeah, we've been inspired by someone, that that inspiration, whoever it may be, is worthy of our worship.
00:22:57.538 --> 00:23:05.559
Now, even if the world says your guru is fake, even then, like, if that guru has helped you, that guru has helped you.
00:23:05.559 --> 00:23:07.042
You can't take that away.
00:23:07.042 --> 00:23:10.174
Nobody can take that away from you and nobody should take that away from you.
00:23:10.174 --> 00:23:13.594
Not even the guru can take that away from you.
00:23:13.594 --> 00:23:15.971
Yeah, that's the interesting thing.
00:23:15.971 --> 00:23:19.593
So just remember that.
00:23:19.593 --> 00:23:26.306
But yes, that's another aspect, you know.
00:23:26.465 --> 00:23:29.055
So Ishvara is not to be denied.
00:23:29.055 --> 00:23:37.086
So it's not like, oh, once you know what Nirguna Brahman is, then you deny Ishvara, and this is what I did for many years and I'm warning you against it.
00:23:37.086 --> 00:23:38.711
Don't do it, it's not worth it.
00:23:38.711 --> 00:23:50.664
There's there's one thing about understanding Nirguna Brahman and understanding how Nirguna Brahman functions in the universe and through Ishvara.
00:23:50.664 --> 00:23:57.778
Once that missing link was open for me, a lot of things made sense.
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Otherwise, what was happening was there was a conflict within me, but the Ishvara aspect has actually abolished all those conflicts that I had of knowledge.
00:24:11.146 --> 00:24:27.135
So, yes, the final teaching of Advaita is Ishvara and the Jiva are both resolved into Brahman, brahmasatyam, cakatmitya, jiva-bhamevana-apara.
00:24:27.135 --> 00:24:45.236
So this realization only comes after one has matured through a relationship with Ishvara, and hence Ishvara is discussed in my course, because it's really important for us to understand the power that Ishvara has on our Jiv.
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When the Jiv is associated to the body and mind, it links itself to the body and mind.
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How can it transcend it?
00:24:51.871 --> 00:25:01.018
That's the whole point why Ishvara is used, because once the Jiv can relate to something, ishvara is able to deal with it.
00:25:01.018 --> 00:25:21.711
And so it's kind of like, you know, when you have a splinter in your finger and you use another, you use a needle or you use another kind of small piece of wood to take that splinter out.
00:25:21.711 --> 00:25:32.796
Once you take that splinter out, or say a thorn, you throw both away the splinter or the thorn inside your finger and the thorn that was used to take that thorn out.
00:25:32.796 --> 00:25:40.318
Just like, but remember, but that's one way.
00:25:40.318 --> 00:25:52.143
That's like the full dissolution, right, but actually Ishwara should be seen as not throwing the baby out with the bathwater, that's saying.
00:25:52.502 --> 00:26:02.617
But a better example would be this that you know, say you utilize a ladder because you have to reach the roof and clean the roof, or you have to fix something on the roof.
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Maybe you want to put christmas lights on the roof.
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So you use a ladder to you know, reach the top of the rooftop.
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But in order to come you will need the ladder still.
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So you don't drop the ladder, you don't stay on the ladder, you go onto the roof, but you never remove the ladder because it may be needed in the future.
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You never know what can happen.
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So just remember that you may still need that ladder.
00:26:34.451 --> 00:26:48.351
So, same way, even though you may get to understand what Brahman is intellectually, don't throw that ladder away until you are fully resting in and as formless awareness.
00:26:48.351 --> 00:26:50.317
Yeah, only then.
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When you understand that you are fully this nirguna Brahman, then there's no need to even think of the ladder.
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You don't have to drop the ladder, you don't have to think about it.
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Then you can transcend it.
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Everything remains as it is.
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