The Bearded Mystic's Oneness Conversations with Swami Sarvapriyananda Ji

Rahul N Singh:
0:00

Hello and welcome to The Bearded Mystic's Oneness Conversations, and I'm joined here today with Swami Sarvapriyananda Ji, , in my opinion, one of the best Advaita Vedanta teachers that we have today, and a personal favourite of mine. Swami Sarvapriyananda Ji has been a minister and spiritual leader of the Vedanta Society of New York since January 2017. He joined the Ramakrishna Mutt in 1994 and received sannyas in 2004. Swami Sarvapriyananda Ji is a well known speaker on Vedanta and his talks are extremely popular globally via the internet. Swami Ji has engaged in dialogue with many eminent thinkers such as Deepak Chopra, Rupert Spira, Bernardo Kastrup, Rick Archer, David Chalmers and the legendary Sam Harris. Uh, so Swamiji, welcome to the Bearded Mystic Podcast. Wonderful to have you.

Swami Sarvapriyananda ji:
0:53

Thank you, Rahul. Thank you for having me.

Rahul N Singh:
0:55

Thank

Swami Sarvapriyananda ji:
0:56

forward to our conversation.

Rahul N Singh:
0:57

you. Thank you. So I'm going to go for a deep question. Right., is what is Brahm Gyan? I remember hearing in one of your talks, you mentioned how, uh, you translated it or interpreted it as insights into Brahman. Could you expand over that? So what is Brahm Gyan and,

Swami Sarvapriyananda ji:
1:13

Brahma Gyan, from the Advaita Vedanta perspective, the straight answer would be Brahma Gyan is the knowledge of the form, I am Brahman. In Sanskrit, Aham Brahmasmi. And that's Brahma Gyan. Brahma means the ultimate reality, or Brahman, or Brahma. Um, and Gyan just means knowledge. Now, um, then if you dive deep into it, it's, uh, it's very deep, very profound. Basically, the idea is that there is an, actually there is an ultimate reality in this universe. And that's not so controversial because I think even most reductive materials scientists also would say, you know, sure there is this reality and that reality is matter and energy and time and space. But what Advaita Vedanta considers to be reality, um, is that you are that reality. That's the core of, uh, Advaita Vedanta. Um, now, on the face of it, I am that ultimate reality. I would prefer it, that it is right, but it doesn't seem so. See, when we look at ourselves, we see ourselves as a very small being. Here I am, this body, this personality. One among millions and millions of, um, uh, you know, living beings, maybe billions of human beings and billions and billions of other living beings. Also, so small, I'm just this one vanishingly insignificant corner of a tremendously vast universe. The more cosmology advances, the more we, it seems the boundaries are being pushed ever further back. And if you consider time, we seem to be a speck of, you know, momentary existence in an endless ocean of time. So whether it's in object, individual, um, as an individual being, or in the vastness of space, or in the eternity of time, we seem to be extremely limited. And erm our lives, we're not very clear what the point of it all is, and it seems to be vanishingly small and insignificant. So that's what, that's the starting point. That's what we naturally feel when we look around the world and look at ourselves, whoever we are, wherever we are. And Advaita Vedanta reverses that. It's very radical. It says that, no, you are actually not this, just this limited body and mind. You are something much more profound, extraordinarily deep. You are this limitless existence consciousness bliss. So, not that you are a tiny insignificant corner of the universe. Rather, all of space is actually an appearance in you, as you might have experience in a dream universe, for example. When you wake up from a dream universe, you feel, Oh, all the world that I saw in there, it's just a dream. So therefore, all of it was, in a sense, imagined in my mind. Something like that. All of what we consider to be physical space is actually in you. You are not in space. Space is in you, as you, the real you. Um, time. You are not a tiny, you know, instant in time, a body which is born and dies within a few years. No, rather time also is an appearance in you. You are, if I can say, more eternal than time itself. And all of this is you already. It's not something that has to be accomplished. It's always has been a fact. So that's the, uh, that's the real nature of, uh, the self, who we really are according to Advaita Vedanta. Now obviously we'll say that, that just sounds crazy, I don't know any bit of it. Yes, so I don't know any bit of it, that doesn't, it doesn't seem to be my experience at all. That's where Brahma Gyan comes in. There is this ultimate reality, you are this ultimate reality, but yes, you say that you don't know it, you don't feel it to be true, you don't experience it. So to know it and to finally be able to claim that, yes, it's a fact. It's the greatest of all facts. And that takes you beyond all suffering. The point also of all of this life, it takes you beyond all suffering. So that's Brahma Gyan. Brahma Gyan is the realization of my true nature. That true nature is infinite existence, consciousness, bliss. And it is to be accomplished. And then the realization of that is the purpose of life. Life, the goal of life, and it has to be accomplished through knowledge, and this knowledge is what Advaita Vedanta, uh, gives us. Yeah, I can add something here just that comes to my mind right now. You know, I was just thinking, philosophy has, broadly speaking, these three branches. One is, um, What's real? What's true? And I just spoke about ultimate reality. Is this matter energy ultimately real? Is God ultimately real? Or is it some absolute like Brahman? Is that ultimately real? So what's real? What's true here? And that's called metaphysics. A new name for that is ontology, ontos being, being itself. Then, next question that should come up logically is how do you know all this? So, the question about knowledge, epistemology, epistemology studies knowledge. How do we get knowledge of anything? I mean worldly stuff, spiritual stuff, religious stuff, scientific stuff. And then there is another branch of philosophy which is, which used to be like a whole different areas of study like aesthetics, you know, art and beauty, ethics. Um, which is morality. Now there is a new term, axiology, sort of to go along with, I guess, ontology and epistemology. Axiology goes with values. It could be aesthetic values, it could be moral, ethical values. So what's the point of it all? What's good? What's right? What's wrong? All of these three questions, um, three great questions of philosophy. What's real? How do you know? And what's the point of it all? What's right? Wrong? What's valuable? These three questions, notice how Brahman, the word which you used, is Advaita Vedanta's answer to all three questions. What's real? Ontologically, Brahman as existence is real. What's, uh, how do we know anything at all? Chit, Brahman as consciousness, makes all knowledge possible. It's not a dead existence, it's a shining existence. And, what's the point of it all? Brahman as Ananda, as bliss, fulfilment, completion, wholeness, that's the point of it all. So it just struck me, maybe just last year or something, staring at us in the face, what the deepest questions of humanity, fundamental, the deepest questions of philosophy, and here is one term, Brahman, as you said, which breaks out into Sat, Chit, Ananda, it's the same thing. They are not three aspects, they are just the same thing, but they answer the three greatest questions of philosophy. So the answer to our deepest questions is Brahman.

Rahul N Singh:
8:16

Beautiful, and how did you come up with the term insights into Brahman? I found that to be beautiful because a lot of people translate Brahm Gyan as like God knowledge or true knowledge or divine knowledge, but you said insights into Brahman. Was that something you coined or you heard somewhere?

Swami Sarvapriyananda ji:
8:34

I don't know where I said that, but that would be true. Knowledge of Brahman is technically alright. It needs to be qualified. God knowledge is also technically alright, but again it needs to be qualified a lot. What do you mean by God? What exactly do you mean by God knowledge? Insight into our real nature is insight into Brahman. You know, that would be about right. I don't know where I said it.

Rahul N Singh:
8:56

think it might have been the, um, the Jnana Yoga, um, talk that you did, Swami Vivekananda Ji's Jnana Yoga,

Swami Sarvapriyananda ji:
9:05

yes. Um, insights, well, technically from Advaita Vedanta, it would, they would be fine if you called it, The insight into Brahman and the nature of that insight would be, I am Brahman. That's the core of Brahma Gyana. You have a little bit of an understanding this way, a new revelation that way, that's not Brahma Gyana. That's alright, that's spiritual progress, that's spiritual insights, but the essence of Brahma Gyana is, I am Brahman. That realization should become as natural as it is for me to think and say and behave as I am Sarvapriyananda right now. It should be as natural as that. And as effortless, and as real, or more than that, even I am Sarvapriyananda is an assumed thing, you know, it's been, it's a name that's been given to me, uh, when I became a monk, and so how natural that has become to me, it should be more natural than that.

Rahul N Singh:
9:58

Beautiful, beautiful. Um, Swamiji, uh, one of the questions, I hear a lot, and I like to ask you is, you know, Swami Vivekananda Ji's question to Sri Ramakrishna ji, which was, you know, I want to see God and how can I make this a reality in my day to day life, in the, you know, in the mundaneness of life and also in the extraordinariness of life? How can I see God?

Swami Sarvapriyananda ji:
10:23

Yes, So can we see God? And how can we see God? Why do I need to see God also, if you ask that question? So, uh, notice how these are epistemological questions, and the last one, why do I need to see God, is, uh, an axiological or a question about value or point of it all. So, can we see God? Yes! The straight answer would be yes! And that's the answer not only of Sri Ramakrishna to Swami Vivekananda, but the answer of all mystics! of all religions throughout all of known history or even prehistory, I would say. There have been mystics who have had access, who have claimed access, and I think with very good reason, to the ultimate nature of things. The theistic religions would say seeing God or having a God experience, whereas non theistic religions like Taoism or Buddhism would say an insight into the ultimate nature of things, you know, Bodhi, yes. So it is possible. And, uh, in this day and age, I think Vivekananda stressed it, that was a very crucial question, it's an empirical question, you see. He didn't go around asking people, Vivekananda, Narendra Nath, that late 19th century, Calcutta. He didn't go around asking teachers and religious preachers, do you believe in God, why should I believe in God, or does God exist? Not like that. His answer was much more straightforward. Can I see God? Have you seen God? Seen need not literally mean that these eyes, even that will do, but a genuine God experience which you would agree that yes, it is a God experience. So yes, there have been genuine mystical experiences all throughout history in all religions, and that, I think that should be taken seriously. Now, to qualify that. In Advaita Vedanta, to relate it to a question about how to have that in mundane life and everyday life, in extraordinary life and ordinary life. Let's take a deep dive into Advaita Vedanta. Advaita Vedanta would, um, ask us to refine our answer, because seeing God in itself, what does it mean? From an Advaitic perspective, yes, it is the same ultimate, if it's a genuine mystic experience of God, It's the same ultimate reality, Brahman, but with a particular name and form, um, particular conception, particular cultural filter, then only you say, I have had a God experience or I am seeing God, for example. Um, the bare truth in itself, Brahman as it is, is not something that you see or you would even want to see. It's, it's you. It's limitless being. So, it's not an object. That's why you cannot see it, hear it, smell it, taste it. We might say, yeah, yeah, I understand that, but at least we can conceive of it or grasp it with the mind or the intellect. Well, you cannot. It's supposed to be beyond all thought, beyond all conception, beyond all ideas, so therefore beyond mind and intellect. It is supposed to be beyond language, so language cannot refer to it directly, though we may use words, Brahman, Atman, the ultimate reality, whatever we use. It does not directly refer to it. So yes, from an Advaitic perspective then, God realization or God vision would mean the realization that I am that limitless existence. I am Brahman. And that is actually much more valuable. Then any kind of God experience, mystical experience, anything that comes and goes, once you realize you are Brahman, it's done. It can never go away. In fact, you realize you always were Brahman, whereas a mystical experience can come and go. The very fact that we are seeking mystical experiences immediately means that we are not having mystical experiences right now. So it is something that's going to start. And if you look at the lives of the mystics, they were extraordinarily life transforming, powerful experiences, but they are all Um, fleeting, they came and they went and probably the human nervous system cannot withstand that kind of an upsurge for a long period of time. Sri Ramakrishna would say that the highest samadhi if you go into it and you don't come out of it, then the body will last up to 21 days and the body will die. Um, now Advaita Vedanta will say this ultimate reality Brahman and the realization that I am Brahman is continuously available to us in mundane experience. Let me back up a little and talk about another thing that I find helpful. Three paradigms of spiritual life. There is a paradigm which is a faith based paradigm. In the US, religion is always faith. Faith means you believe in something, and that's all right, that's fine, because that has been the majority of spiritual approaches. I'm distinguishing spirituality from mass conventional religion, just to narrow it down to what we are talking about here. There also, there's a faith based approach, what is called bhakti in Indian traditions, devotion, love of God. And there we are taught that God exists. And how do we know? Because our tradition tells us, the holy books tell us, the enlightened masters tell us, on basis of belief. We might say we have good reasons to believe, that's good, but still it is belief. It's quite distinct from I know. I believe is always distinct from I know. Then, the problem with that, of course, is, as you mentioned, Sam Harris, and Daniel Dennett, and Richard Dawkins, and you don't need cutting edge atheists for that. Even the masses of people, including those who believe, will always have some kind of doubt about it. I mean, they may believe for cultural reasons, but they might not be willing to stake their lives on it. So, notice there is a difference between verbal faith and actual faith. Verbal faith is, I ascent, I belong to a doctrine, a church or something, and I ascribe to the belief system. But in my life it's not reflected all that much. I just go on being the same person. So I really, it's not like I believe, for example, there's going to be lunch at noon. If I really believe that, I'll go to the dining hall at room and wait for lunch. It's an actual belief and there you see that it's different from what most people say when we say we believe in God, they don't actually do anything about it in their daily lives except maybe go turn up for a religious talk or a festival or something. So it can be doubted, that's that's my point, this faith based spiritual paradigm. There comes the God experience, what you'd asked. Can I see God? Can I experience God? This is a primarily an empirical age where the hold of authority and belief, the hold has been loosened. So there are many, many people who either casually belong to a religion or just they're openly not religious. So empirical, we ask for empirical experience and evidence and there comes in all the mystical traditions. Thanks. Of all world religions, they all have these mystical traditions, not just because the holy books said so, not just because our religion teaches us or our culture teaches us, I've actually seen, and, or, at least I would like to see and I'm on the path to seeing. That is the mystical experience paradigm of God realization. Um, there, and that's why Vivekananda asked this and that's why it's so, so catchy today. Remember, when Vivekananda came to this country in the late 19th century, he, he pushed this particular way of spirituality, this empirical God experience way. And so he says, religion is realization. It's not believing in some doctrines. And it is no coincidence that the first book he translated and published here, and commented upon, is called, was Patanjali's Yoga Sutras. The Raja Yoga, his classic book, Raja Yoga, published from, in fact, from right here from New York. There, the paradigm is, you sit in this way, asana, you control your breath, life forces in this way, pranayama, and of course on a basis of ethical practices, yama and niyama, and then you focus, withdraw your senses from the external world, turn inwards, Focus, that is dharana, and then that deepens into meditation, dhyana, and that will hopefully deepen into samadhi. And these samadhis are of various kinds, and they can give you extraordinary experiences. As Vivekananda says, if I have an immortal soul, I should be able to feel it. If God exists, I should be able to see God. And these mystical experiences, experienced through meditation, will give me proof that yes, I have seen God. Now, then there's a problem here. Um, I'm working my way back to your question. How do I experience God in my mundane life? But there's a problem here. These experiences are by definition extraordinary. They are rare, extremely rare, and by all accounts they are hard to get, and we can also be quite mistaken about it. There is a very genuine pathology of, uh, religion, um, so, always, the problem with these is they are all subject to doubt, just as, faith is subject to doubt, atheism and skepticism. Here you can have another kind of doubt. A neuroscientist might say to you, to the mystic, we don't doubt that you feel one with the universe or you have seen God as light or Krishna appear to you or whatever, but it's you. You've experienced it, but it's because you have a clot in your brain here or something which is pressing on certain areas and generating these feelings and experiences and we can demonstrate it. See, this is how it works. Um, or you're high on weed or some, uh, nowadays they're trying it. There's a new pharmacology and I hear they're getting good results for mental health, psilocybin and things like that. So you, these drugs have made you feel like that, but you are not experiencing God. You are not one with the universe, absolutely not. So that might be the objection. And you don't need a neuroscientist to do that or you don't need drugs. It could just be the general public always has been skeptical of mystics. Mystics if you look at the history of mysticism throughout the ages in every religion, often mystics were thought of as mad people, as crazy people. Sri Ramakrishna, there were any number of people around the Kali temple who thought he was crazy, he was off his mind. You know, having these visions and conversations with Kali and so on. Now, we have got two paradigms, the faith paradigm and the mystical experience paradigm. And, uh, I have shown that there are problems. There can be problems. It can. Remember, I am not saying that they are, uh, not true. They are definitely true. There is enough evidence in the history of world religions and the history, lives of saints in every religion to show that these have been a feature of spirituality throughout the ages. So, good. They are real. But now, in contrast, let me bring you to Advaita Vedanta, the, the knowledge paradigm. In contrast to the faith paradigm and the mystical experience paradigm, the knowledge paradigm is You don't have to believe in it, it's not a question of faith. You also don't need extraordinary mystical experiences to prove this. Rather, mundane experiences, as you just said. The remarkable claim of Advaita Vedanta is, all that you need for enlightenment is that the only experiences you need is, are you awake, do you dream, are you, do you sleep? Waking, dreaming, sleeping, who doesn't do that? Everybody does that, animals also do that. That's enough for Advaita to begin. Or if you just have the physical body and this apparatus, the physical body, the pranic body, the mind, the intellect, and beyond that the causal body. Everybody's got that. You don't need new experiences to, you know, detect that. It's available to everybody. That's enough to start the enquiry. It's an inquiry into ourselves, into our own experience, and we will be shown that we are Brahman. Now, the advantage of this is, it's not faith based, uh, it is not even calling on mystical experiences as evidence. It doesn't deny the importance of mystical experiences, but doesn't say that is evidence. None of the Upanishads, the Gita, um, or the, especially the Advaita Vedanta text, None of them say that, uh, this is true because such and such person, uh, you know, had a vision. No, this is true. You can understand why it is true. We'll show it to you, why it is true. Even intellectually, at least one can grasp it, it's not that difficult. That's why it is of special interest in this day and age. And to philosophers, um, uh, scientists, neuroscientists, it's of great, great interest. It's something, if we make that particular break, if we can get a grasp of Advaita Vedanta, even before Brahma Gyana, you begin to see that in extraordinary circumstances in life and in our ordinary circumstances, it's continuously present. It's always available. Our real niche is always available. It's you. Um, it's effortlessly present. It's timelessly present. It's instantaneously present. It's the most available of all things. It is what Vivekananda called The Open Secret. Mm-Hmm.

Rahul N Singh:
24:21

Beautiful. I like that. The open secret, So Swami ji, whatever you said, it makes sense to me. I, I guess from the years of study, and there's a lot of people that do come across, Advaita Vedanta, maybe through YouTube videos or maybe podcasts like my own or any type of social media app. But we find that they tend to misinterpret Advaita Vedanta. Now, not that it's bad or anything, but a lot of people end up leaving non duality or deny the non dual experience and they go, back to a dualistic path again and why does that happen? And I see it happening a lot with those who encounter, like the direct path or the neo-advaita movement, but even some genuine people who follow Advaita Vedanta but end up denying the actual reality of what Advaita Vedanta brings.

Swami Sarvapriyananda ji:
25:13

I find it all just about all those cases. They haven't grasped what ante is saying even in the direct path. The first problem is not grasping what has been said. If you really grasp it, you can't deny it anymore. It's impossible. You might as well deny your own existence. It's just impossible. I haven't found a single doubt which has not been answered, at least to my own satisfaction, with clarity. See, these doubts have been raised throughout the history of Advaita Vedanta, especially in the last 1, 200 years. In the history of Indian philosophy, so the dualistic schools have attacked and, uh, you know, um, uh, criticized, engaged in long running debates, scholarly debates with Advaita Vedanta. So these doubts have been raised again and again and answers have been, uh, given in intricate detail. So, yes, I always say bring it, bring it forth. What, what is your problem? Um, bring the questions out, ask. But usually it is something that they have not grasped. But this more serious problem is lack of preparation, lack of preparation. It's not the fault of Advaita Vedanta. Advaita Vedanta texts, the traditional texts, always make it clear that there is a high entry barrier. Um, so, it's like this, one monk put it this way, that a villager has gone in search of his, he sends somebody in search of his cow which has wandered off and apparently gone into the forest. He sends off the village simpleton after the cow. The thing is, this person who is searching for the cow, first of all, needs to know two, needs two things. One is, what is a cow? What is called in Sanskrit, Lakshana, that means the definition. What are we looking for exactly? Otherwise, even if he sees it, he will not recognize it. This is very subtle, and that's what's happening to us all the time. When we become enlightened, we'll see that we have always been seeing it, but we never really saw it. Didn't get it. We saw it, but we didn't recognize it. The second thing that this person needs is a desire to find the cow. Otherwise, an intense interest in finding the cow in the forest. Otherwise, this person is going to get lost in the forest and get distracted every now and then by something. You know, a pretty bird or a scary sound. And that's what happens to people in this path of non duality. First is, they don't grasp exactly what is being taught. I've seen that is common to all the critics. They don't get it. It's not easy to get, but if you stay with it for some time, it's not that difficult either, even to get it intellectually. And the second problem has been the lack of hunger or thirst to find it. That's because of the lack of preparation. The preparation is, The fourfold qualifications which every Vedanta teacher, traditional Vedanta teacher will tell you at the first class itself. Viveka, a discernment between the eternal and the non eternal. Between the, just call it that there is a spiritual reality. And this, where I am now and experiencing this, this is not it. This is it, but we'll come to that much later. But right now, you need to say this is not it. And I need to find that. Vairagya, a dispassion for our worldly projects, goals and entanglements. That is so important. It's important in the other traditions also. In the bhakti paradigm, in the yogic paradigm, it's, vairagya is important for all spirituality. is, we are a very worldly world today. People were always worldly, and that's why not many people have ever been genuinely spiritual in the history of humanity. Always a handful and right now we are even more so, much more worldly because there are so many distractions and so many avenues of being distracted and pulled this way and that way, lives have become busier, lives have become more competitive and so many problems. And therefore, and the disappearance of some traditions and, you know, some verities from our life. Society is in flux and fast changing. So preparation is lacking and this dispassion for worldliness. People don't know this or even if they know that to be spiritual you have to be less worldly or not worldly. This is not something people are willing to hear. We want it both. I really, really want to be a Wall Street millionaire. And a glamorous Hollywood movie star and also a great philosopher and a Vedanta master. Won't work.

Rahul N Singh:
29:52

ha, ha.

Swami Sarvapriyananda ji:
29:53

Won't work. You need to be one thing, a spiritual seeker. You could still be a Wall Street millionaire or you could be a homeless person. You could still be a, you know, a Hollywood superstar or a completely unknown person. What is the one thing which is necessary is But centrally we must be a spiritual seeker. That must be central to our concerns. All the others we must be willing to say that, that secondary doesn't really matter to me. That is vairagya. Then discipline. Again, that's something that people are not willing to cultivate. So a quietude of the mind. People are so restless today. A quietude of the mind called shama. Then a control of the senses, dhamma. Then, a spiritual toughness called Titiksha, the ability to put up with problems and not give up spiritual pursuit. How many problems we put up with when we are pursuing money, or pleasure, or, um, or raising a family. People put up with endless problems for decades and decades. So, spirituality is actually easier than that. You still have to work at it, but it's not as difficult as that, at least I think so. Um, then, there is Uparati. A withdrawal from too much worldly engagement. So, Manhattan, here you are, the city that never sleeps. And, uh, if five days a week you are working hard on Wall Street and the next two days, weekend, you're partying hard. There is no time, energy left over for spiritual pursuits. The uparati is a determined way of slowing down things and stepping back from the mad world. It is a pointless world, anyway. Then, um, samadhana., Samdhana is settling down. Focusing is an in. Now. You have cleared the deck for action with, um, discipline and quietude and toughness, spiritual toughness. Um, now you must focus on Vedanta, then shraddha, see the faith. There is truth here. It's not something I tried for some time. Oh, it doesn't work. Let me try the next thing. Nothing will work for you. Nothing will really work for you. The next thing you find, you find, oh, this is really nice, but then after some time you find it's not very fulfilling at all. Um, then, uh, there is mumukshutva, I mean intense desire for freedom. It's basically the desire to find the cow. All of this is basically desire to, and the discipline to find the cow. Vedanta can teach you what the cow is. Now, you learn to recognize it, but then there must be a desire to find it also, otherwise you keep missing it. I like that story Sri Ramakrishna used to tell of the washerman, who found a, a diamond, but he thought it was a rock, and he used it to scrub dirty laundry with. And it worked! You can scrub dirty laundry with a diamond. But he thought it was a strange kind of rock, and then he took it to his friend, the vegetable seller, who he thought was more learned than him. The vegetable seller said, yeah, this is a fancy rock, I'll give you ten rupees for it. Luckily he didn't sell it, finally he went from one person to another and finally came to a diamond merchant who said this is the most amazing diamond I've ever seen. I'll give you millions of rupees for it. And so the poor washerman, all his needs were fulfilled. Now, he always had the diamond, he didn't know what it was. And he was using it, but he was using it for scrubbing dirty laundry. It's real use is to take him beyond all suffering, all want. Similarly, we have it. We have it. We are Brahman. Right now we are engulfed in it. There's nothing but Brahman, but we don't see it. And we are using it. We are using it. We are using it to see, hear, smell, taste, touch. We are using it to think and imagine. We are using it to enjoy and suffer and be miserable. We are using it for our science, our religion, our spirituality, but we don't recognize it for what it is. Yeah, that's a good story. Hmm.

Rahul N Singh:
33:49

Wow. Wow. That was very powerful. A lot of people, nowadays, the whole saying of being aware of being aware is like kind of talked about a lot and although you, yes, you do get a certain experience from that and I can, I can vouch for that, but, but there's the everlasting aspect of it, as you mentioned, the eternal aspect, the timeless aspect, I don't think that's talked about enough on the direct path, you, if you get what I mean, it's, it's more like, oh, you know, to sit now for the guided meditation and be aware of being aware. Um but Advaita Vedanta takes a lot deeper than that. Right. It's not just that statement.

Swami Sarvapriyananda ji:
34:31

Advaita Vedanta, I would say, um, I'd put it this way, first we are guided into seeing that our real nature is awareness. Next, we are shown that this awareness is limitless. There's only one awareness, which is, uh, non dual. There's nothing else but awareness. And this awareness is not limited in time. It doesn't arise or disappear. And this awareness is not limited in space. All of space and time are in this awareness. Now when you have this limitless real nature, what problem now you are asked to see? What are the problems? Is there poverty? Is there frustration? Is there health problems? All of them are now part of, at the level of the body or the mind or society. You are something much vaster and much more real than all of that. So, you first of all see that you have a problem free nature, always available to you. Second, the personality still continues, the Rahul personality or the Sarvapriyananda still continues for the time being. So, you are now this enlightened person. You can come back, plunge back into the world. And, uh, help out with those problems in a much more calm, much more fearless, much more, uh, uh, serene and balanced way than you could earlier. One reason why, uh, I am, uh, earlier question, the dualistic paths, there is nothing wrong in going back to the dualistic paths. It could just be that people took a fancy to the non dual path because it sounded fancy. But maybe they are mentally cut out to be, you know, there is a psychological, uh, configuration each one of us has, and this has come, our real nature is pure consciousness, existence consciousness bliss for everybody, that's true all the time, and it's perfect, but the psychological nature, which each of us, it's different, just as our bodies are different, our minds and personalities are also different, and these have come over, we believe, over lifetimes of cultivation, Knowingly and unknowingly, mostly unknowingly, we have acquired many conditionings, vasanas and all, over time. And our spiritual capacities and possibilities are also part of this mental configuration or personality configuration. And it just might be that I am more cut out for a devotional path. That was the beauty of Sri Ramakrishna. Sri Ramakrishna said, actually all of them work.

Rahul N Singh:
36:57

Hmm.

Swami Sarvapriyananda ji:
36:59

You just have to look at the proof. For the proof, you have to see the history of religion. In dualistic traditions, in bhakti traditions, there have been great, great saints. And would you say that they are ignorant? Do they not have spiritual knowledge, Brahma Gyana? Yes, they have Brahma Gyana also. But their primary path of practice and expression was bhakti, love, ecstatic love of God. There have been people on yogic paths. Um, meditation, you know, whether it's patanjali yoga or tantric meditation, there are people, yogis who are meditated and meditated and come to a realization in their, inner life of the presence of the divine. And there have been people on the non-dual path Advaitic Path. And Sri Ramakrishna's is great insight was that they all work. In Bengali he said Jato Mat Tato Path as many. Faiths, as many, Mat literally means opinion, literal meaning of the Bengali, Mat, why just Bengali? Hindi, Bengali, even Sanskrit. It means opinion or philosophy or a particular way. As many philosophies, as many religions, faiths, so many ways. And these ways are different. Sri Ramakrishna doesn't lump them all together into a featureless unity. He says they are all amazingly different from each other, but they can all take you to enlightenment, to freedom. So, if somebody goes into a dualistic path, if that works for him, very good. Only one thing one should be careful about is, um, give it(Advaita Vedanta) a good try. And good try would actually mean a lifetime's commitment, but even if you cannot make a lifetime's commitment, do dive deep into it. And, discover its central teachings and try to see that it's real in your life. After that, see whether it's working or not. Um, we in our modern world are too impatient for even worldly success. So, the spiritual life, it demands commitment. Sri Ramakrishna, uh, he has this parable of the man who was digging for water. And he started digging in a particular place, and digging a well is hard, so after some time he got exhausted, and then somebody told him, why don't you dig there, it will be easier, so he went to the second place and dug there, and the third place, at the end of the day he had dug six shallow holes, by the time night came, and there was no water, but if he had kept digging at the first place, he might have found water, so just like that, we, in this internet age, we get everything. There is Advaita Vedanta, there is Dzogchen Buddhism and Mahamudra and Vipassana meditation and Krishna Bhakti and Christian and Sufi mysticism. Everything is on display and nice books have been written about it, teachers are giving talks about it and many of those teachers are genuine teachers. They are genuine members of ancient and well established lineages. What happens is the old saying of there are thousands of gurus, but a disciple is rare.

Rahul N Singh:
40:05

That's very true. I've been recently seeing this phrase a lot that, the whole, like conceiving of fast food, it's like mcspirituality, uh, like everyone wants something fast, you know, a fast experience of enlightenment or, and actually it's the, as they say, the slow and steady wins the race really, um, but everyone wants that fast way

Swami Sarvapriyananda ji:
40:28

Yes. Whatever it is, make up your mind in this way, I am now a spiritual seeker and I'm going to be a spiritual seeker. This is the highest thing that human civilization has ever found in any civilization across history. And, uh, this is the highest conception, the best kind of human life there can be. What else am I going to do? What else am I going to do? It's not like I'm going to, I'm in a hurry and let me get enlightenment and then I'll be back to, you know, I've got these other things on my to do list. Once I get the enlightenment thing done, I'll have to do all the other, no, there's nothing more you'll have to do. This is the end game. If you things to do, do them. Take your time, do them. Um, but this is something we'll have to take up and pursue till the end of this life and beyond. Aurobindo, Rishi Aurobindo said, I like, I love that saying, life itself is yoga. If you consciously practice spirituality, then you say, I'm a yogi, I'm a spiritual seeker. If you say, I don't believe in any of that stuff, um, I'm not interested in religion spiritually at all. Please leave me alone. I'm just living my life. That living your life is also yoga. It will teach you, it will take you slowly over time and a spiritual questions and a quest will arise. This lifetime or next. If you float along, you will still reach the goal, but it might take a long time and plenty of suffering. And if you do it deliberately, consciously, it's much faster.

Rahul N Singh:
41:55

Thank you. Swami ji. Nowadays, as I mentioned, you know, there's a lot of gurus and they're on YouTube and people subscribe to them. Uh, a lot of seekers subscribe to them on YouTube, , or on any social media platform. And some even want to end up changing lineages. So they may be part of a lineage, and then they want to change the lineage. What advice can be offered to them, especially if they haven't fully understood the lineage they're part of. Um, you know, should they still swap or should they still,

Swami Sarvapriyananda ji:
42:26

They can, because it's not that in ancient times people did not change lineages. People did. If you find a genuinely inspiring and great spiritual master, or a text or a teaching which is, really works for you, you know, makes you, inspires you in spiritual life, you can follow that. Um, in our tradition, starting with Sri Ramakrishna, Maa Sarada and others, if they heard that a person was following a particular path, they didn't try to change that person. The whole, our whole approach is to encourage, because that's a true path, so encourage the person, do, what is really required is you need to add more sincerity and more, make it your prime goal in life and pursue it. If those persons still insisted that no, we want to come to you, or come to Advaita Vedanta or something, then we say alright, you can come. And take it up. And here also, the prerequisite is that you really have to apply yourself to it and make that, main thing is to make this your goal, not the world. That is crucial. Vivekananda said, and this is a teaching which is crucial and ignored in today's world because it's not stylish to talk about renunciation. By renunciation I don't mean becoming a monk. I mean renouncing from the mind. So being, giving up worldly pursuits, which is worldly pursuit of pleasure and power and wealth, you will still have pleasure and power and wealth, but that is not your goal anymore.

Rahul N Singh:
43:56

mm

Swami Sarvapriyananda ji:
43:57

If you are a householder, if you hold a job and you have a family, you will be in the midst of the world. So you do once in a while get your favorite cookie or you do earn money and go to see a movie, all that's secondary and by the way, but that should not be the goal or purpose of life. The goal or purpose of life should be God realization and we should be up and pursuing it. Vivekananda said, All the yogas. This is the turning point in all the yogas. Your conventional religion becomes spirituality. When this turning point happens. What is that turning point? Renunciation. In karma yoga, um, the karma yogi renounces all selfish projects, all selfish codes and practices selflessness, unselfishness. So that's the renunciation. It's a huge, huge renunciation. The whole thing about I, me, mine, I must, I'm the one who must be rich. And these gadgets should be mine. These people should be mine. These honors and, you know, social media likes should be mine. This I, me, mine, it's the fundamental, even spiritual development. My knowledge, my ideas in spirituality, even my guru, one of our Swamis used to joke, the my becomes very big and the guru becomes very small. My guru. That whole thing has to be thrown overboard. Not I. So, for the of others, for the good of others, that's a great renunciation and then it becomes Karma Yoga. In Raja Yoga, the way of meditation, the renunciation is of all experience altogether. Eyes want to see, ears want to hear. No, I'm not interested in anything the world has to show. I'm not interested in anything the world has to say. Or smell, or taste, or touch, or think, or remember, or ponder over, or brood over, or desire, all of that I push aside for one focused meditation, then it becomes Raja Yoga. So the renunciation. Bhakti Yoga, is when we take our hundred or thousand different desires, this I want, I want, I want, I want the world. The whole range of things in the world, flows in a thousand different channels to the world. We remove the world and put God there. The same I want becomes, I want God, I love God. Then it becomes Bhakti Yoga. Again renunciation, renunciation of all our worldly desires, from the mind. As far as possible, all of these spectrums, it can't be done all of a sudden, but one must try to do it more and more. And the non dual path, that's why it's the most difficult. Because you are literally renouncing the whole world, body, mind, you're saying the whole thing is an appearance.

Rahul N Singh:
46:44

So, would one say that even lineages are an appearance in that sense? If one says it's my lineage, or you, it gets very proud about it.

Swami Sarvapriyananda ji:
46:52

That's selfishness. That's the I, the ego. So, spirituality can always feed the selfishness. I am superior to you because I'm a non dualist. You, this dualistic religions, um, I can say, these are for dumb people. These are only people who cannot get the great non duality, for them the dumb, um, uh, devotional religions, your silly belief in God and all of that. Um, but, as Vivekananda said, you know, one ounce of practice is worth more than 20 tons of tall talk.

Rahul N Singh:
47:26

mm.

Swami Sarvapriyananda ji:
47:28

As somebody said, you can talk tall about being limitless consciousness, but you're still the same dude. We all think you're same guy. It, there should be, that's why Vivekananda's definition of religion is so simple, but so much to the point. Manifestation of the divinity already within us. He didn't say knowledge of the divinity already within us, insight into the divinity already within us. I know I am Brahman. That's the classical way of putting it in Advaita Vedanta. But the direct path or the classical Advaita Vedanta would say, you know that you are Brahman, that's spirituality. He says no, it's already there, it's true. What Advaita Vedanta says, direct path says, all of it is true. But he crucially uses the word manifestation. It must be reflected in my thought, in my language and my deeds in the world. How I deal with the world and my life. If I can't do that, there's something wrong. If I can't, like the Americans say, walk the talk. So, um, if I can't do that, I'm missing some crucial aspect somewhere. It's not becoming real. All those ones we admired in the great non dual masters, look, they walked the talk. They dealt with disease and pain and, um, dishonor and difficult people. absolute evenness of mind, showing that they were centered in something transcending all these problems. They had absolutely no worldly goals or projects, except maybe in some cases, helping others, but no personal goal. Another crucial thing, going beyond complaining. That's a good way of judging how far I'm going in spiritual life. I always say, if you are enlightened, you've given up the right to grumble. can't grumble about anything.

Rahul N Singh:
49:17

That's very true, Swamiji, one thing I've read in quite a few texts, they talk about how the Guru and God is one. So the manifest and the unmanifest, shall we say, how are they the one and the same? And how do we approach that spiritually speaking, like in terms of a path, the devotional path?

Swami Sarvapriyananda ji:
49:35

Remember the ultimate reality in Advaita Vedanta - Brahman is God and Guru and the world. All of it is nothing but the manifestation of the ultimate reality. But that ultimate reality, when we, it becomes a sentient being who appears as us. It appears as us. We are that ultimate reality, but right now we are appearing and experiencing it ourselves in the world as individual sentient beings. In that case, that ultimate reality, Brahman, now becomes the God of religion for us. You see how dualism makes sense. It's the same, Advaita, you know, signs off on this, agrees to it, it's absolutely, it's fine. Dualism will say, there is God, there is the world, and you are there, and that's it, there's nothing more to be done. Whereas Advaita would say, yes, we agree completely, there is God, and there is the world, and there you are. But if we investigate more deeply, you are this limitless existence, consciousness, bliss, appearing as the world, God, and you. Now this knowledge comes to us when we are spiritual seekers through, through the Guru, it comes through the Guru. It really comes from God, that is the belief in traditional Advaita Vedanta. Sri Ramakrishna also would say, all the different Gurus, you know what it is like. Um, on the roofs of houses, this is old colonial architecture in Calcutta. The British were there at that time. So these colonial houses had water spigots up there, you know, with through the rain water would drain out from the roof and they would always be in the form of lions and gargoyles and things like that, so grotesque figures. And so you see the water coming out of the mouth of all of these figures on the, uh, roof of the house. They're all coming from the same roof. The source of the water is the same rain water, which is coming. Similarly, you see the teachings coming from multiple gurus, but it all, the source of the spiritual knowledge is the same. It comes from Satchitananda. Therefore, and also because Vedanta is a knowledge system. It's not really a faith system or, you know, authority based in that sense. I mean, there are finer points to be understood here. It's a knowledge system. So in a knowledge system, the teacher is very important. The text is important. The teacher is important. That's why the Vedas are revered so much, and the guru is revered so much. So yes, there's a verse which we chang before studying Vedanta, Isvaro guruatmeti murtibedha vibhagine vyomavad vyaptadehaya daksinamurtaye namah. So salutations to Shiva in the form Dakshinamurti the form of teaching who gives us spiritual knowledge. in the same one, the Shiva, the Dakshinamurti Shiva appears as God of the universe. So the Dakshinamurti Shiva is actually the Ultimate, the Absolute. It appears as Eshwar, God of the universe. Guru, my teacher. And Atma, me the self, the empirical self, the transactional self. All three of us. But all three of us are the non different absolute reality. What's that like? Vyoma Vad Vyapta Deha Haya. The body of that absolute reality is like sky. Which includes everything, in which it gives space to everything. It's basically limitless being or limitless consciousness. Since that same reality is God and that same reality is Guru, that's why there's so much reverence is there.

Rahul N Singh:
53:04

Swami ji one question I have had is, and I get asked this a lot as well, like from people who listen to the podcast, how can they become open to grace and how can they utilize it completely, in its totality?

Swami Sarvapriyananda ji:
53:19

I'll give you two answers or two points. One of them is from the Upanishads themselves. It gives a very interesting interpretation of grace, insight into grace. It says, who will realize the Self, who will become enlightened, who will realize the Self with a capital S? And the answer is, Whomsoever that Self chooses, to, to that one it reveals Itself. To whomsoever the Ultimate Reality chooses, to that one it reveals Itself. Now the question arises, whom will it choose? And Shankara's, the commentators, Shankaracharya's answer there is, uh, is beautiful. He says, so whom will the Ultimate Reality choose? Who will get self realization? Whom will it choose? It chooses that one who chooses It. Ah, so that's a beautiful answer. What do we need to do to open ourselves to grace? We need to choose it. We need, depending on your path, if you're a worshipper of Krishna, you need to choose Krishna, all the time, every time, in every occasion, over everything else. Over the world, over relatives, over wealth, over power, over even the self, this body, this little life. Always Krishna, nothing else. That's a devotee's approach. The non dualist approach would be you choose that Underlying Reality which is obviously present everywhere. Don't get, keep getting distracted by the name and form of this universe. You keep choosing It, It will choose you. It will become, it will reveal Itself to you. The second point I wanted to raise about grace is Sri Ramakrishna. He said the wind of grace is always blowing. Raise your sail. So remember he lived near the Ganga river and he would see these little boats floating along merrily on the river. Some of them would raise a sail, a small cloth sail, even now they do that. And then when you raise the sail you see it catches the wind and it goes much faster than the other boats. But the wind was already there, it was always blowing. You just need to raise your sail. What is raising the sail? So raising the sail is our effort. It's our effort to to be worthy of grace. Try to put forth as much effort as you can. People say all these, all that you need is to want God to choose God. But then we say honestly when, look into it, into our hearts. We are a bundle, a mixture. We have many worldly greed and lust and you know, anger, negativities of the world. Plus, it is not untrue that we really want God in some way, but at least we want God. Or, um, the way I would put it is, ask yourself the question, even if I don't genuinely want God intensely, do I want to want? Like drugs, do I want, I don't want drugs, but do I want to want drugs? No. Do I want to want, um, you know, alcohol and become an alcoholic? No. But do I want to want God? Yes, I would love that. I wish I could have more and more devotion. I wish I could have, uh, the intense seeking of that reality. So if I want to want that, that's good enough. That'll keep you on the path and open up grace for you.

Rahul N Singh:
56:32

The next question, you know, some texts really highlight that one should be a sanyasi, right? In some sense, a renunciant, but someone like me, you know, I have a kid, a wife, I have a home to look after and everything., But for someone like me as a householder, when we read texts like that, which talk about the prerequisite being a sanyasi or a monk or whatever, how can we still approach those texts with the same level of intensity as a monk and not get carried away with what the texts have said as a pre-requisite

Swami Sarvapriyananda ji:
57:04

right. Right, but just take away the inner teaching. A monk is, a genuine monk is a genuine monk internally. Externally, when you put on this dress and you give up worldly connections and you become part of a monastic order, so you are formally a monk. But what is the most important is the internal monk like attitude. That is compulsory. Every spiritual seeker in the world, whoever they are, wherever they have been, in families, in wealth, in power, they have been internally monk like. So, that is what you take away from such texts. The teachings. In my own circumstances, what can I learn from that monk's attitude, the way they lived life and saw things, apply it in my life. Common sense, always use common sense. That's why, you see, texts like the Bhagavad Gita, for example, now you see it clearly meant for people in the midst of action. It's preached, taught in a battlefield. It's taught by Krishna, who was not a monk, he was a householder. It's taught to Arjuna, who was a prince and a householder. And it was not taught in an ashram, nor in a podcast was in the middle of the battlefield, the worst possible action that human beings can engage in. So if the claim is, you can be spiritual in the middle of the battlefield then the rest of us, no matter how busy we are, how much of a family person we are, uh, we can be spiritual. Imagine people like Mahatma Gandhi is a deeply spiritual man. I, I have repeated this ad nauseum. I think, uh, that when he says, who am I? When people ask me who I am, people sometimes think I'm a politician. I'm a freedom fighter. I'm a social reformer, which all he was. But if you ask me, he says, I'll say I'm a simple man in search of God. And that's so direct, such a simple, sublime truth about himself. He sees himself as a simple man in search of God. And he sees himself as that in whatever he does. In his family, in his profession, um, and in his social activism, in his politics, everywhere, if you ask him, and as well as in his study and prayer and, um, uh, silence, and all the time if you ask him, what is he, what's he doing? He says, I'm a simple man in search of God. We all can be that, whether you're a monk or a householder. Bhagavad Gita is pre eminently a text which can be applied in the midst of the busiest of lives.

Rahul N Singh:
59:40

Beautiful, Swamiji, a lot of people, they ask you a lot of questions. You've been on numerous podcasts and, you've also, you have the famous Ask Swami, uh, series. What's the one question that you feel hasn't been asked yet, um, that you wish, you know, sometimes you wish someone will ask this one question or make one statement. Has there been anything like that? Or do you feel everything's been covered more or less?

Swami Sarvapriyananda ji:
1:00:08

That is a difficult one. People have asked many many good questions and over the years, when they listen to these non dual teachings, especially Advaita Vedanta, The audience also gets shaped. People who like this message, they listen more and more, and they begin to understand more and more, and the questions also become refined and more pertinent, sharper, more sophisticated and deeper. Yes, what is the one? I think the most general question of all. What's the way? What's the way? What can we do? Uh, that's a very beautiful question. Because the vast majority of humanity do not ask that question. So they are not genuinely interested in enlightenment, God realization or spirituality. What they are genuinely interested in is the world. As long as religion can help them in the world, they're good, fine with it, but what about enlightenment, knowledge that I am Brahman, or whatever you call it, God, the vision of God, Um, either I don't believe in any of it, or I'm not interested, or it's fascinating, but not for me, certainly not something that I want to devote time and energy to, but if you ask this question, what's the way, how do I become enlightened? You're blessed. You're already blessed. And the answer to that is all of what we have been talking about, you know, meditation and devotion and non duality. All of these and more. This one way of looking at the Vedas, one swami, one writer says that it's like a, loving mother who is eager to help her helpless children, you know. We just need to ask, what do I do? It's not working for me. Life is not working for me. And either I'm in trouble or I'm not in trouble, but I'm interested. Um, I'm an inquirer. In Sanskrit it's called Jigyasa, the desire to know. Ask that question, what do I do?

Rahul N Singh:
1:02:08

Beautiful. Swami ji I know a few friends, they, they're on the spiritual path, this will be the last question that I'll ask. you know, of time. They feel like their vasanas, you know, that construct that they have overwhelms their desire for spiritual enlightenment. And they often ask, you know, how can I get out of this? How can I get out of this mess? Um, you know, why is my mind still playing up? What message can you give to them that can help them? What methods can help them to get out of out of

Swami Sarvapriyananda ji:
1:02:41

First is, uh, Viveka, discernment. Dwell on it, that all these desires. Either I will fulfill them, or I will not. If I fulfill them, the result will be dissatisfaction. It always has been. The richest of people, the, you know, multi billionaires are spending as much money as they want, or whatever they want, they still have not been fulfilled. Nobody claims that it's, I'm done now, it's great. Uh, I like Somerset Maugham's, uh, there's a nice, there's a nice quote from him. He says, if you single mindedly chase pleasure, very soon you will find nothing pleasing anymore. So trying to fulfill desires, let's learn from it. It didn't work. It didn't work. You say, yeah, but I know that, but I can't still stop myself. All right, but take it slow. It's good to consciously bring it to the fore of our mind. It's not working. I am doing it because of habit. I am doing it because of compulsion, but not if I had my way, if my intellect had its way, I would stop doing these things. So that's a big step ahead, because there are many, many who would justify running down that path. They really, genuinely think this is what's going to make us happy. But if you have come to an understanding, I know that ultimately this will not make me happy. In a very short order, I'll be bored, or dissatisfied, I'll want more, or a variety of these desires. So dissatisfaction is the result when we satisfy our desires, and most desires of most people in the world are not satisfied, and the result of that is frustration. So this path of fulfilling desires is only these two possible goals. These two possible results, dissatisfaction or frustration. Begin to see this. And then, engage. See, even after seeing this, unless there is a positive goal towards which you will go, it will not work. You'll still be stuck here. Sri Ramakrishna used to say, the more you move towards the East, the more the West gets left behind. Now, more you move, he meant, the more you move towards God, or towards enlightenment, the more these worldly problems get left behind. So, first of all, make up the mind that, these will not give me any kind of lasting peace, happiness. These are not my goal. Even if I can't give them up right now, these are not my goal. No way. And I'll continuously struggle to limit these. But as I move positively towards God, spend some time in deep meditation, spend some time in a holy atmosphere of a temple or a church or whatever is sublime for you, you will find, you will not feel like indulging in those desires. Clearly, at least for the time being, clearly the state of mind is crucial. Those desires, their conditioning is there. It gets activated when our minds are at a low state. Connect your mind to, you know, read about the lives of saints for half an hour. Then that base desire which was pulling you towards some kind of worldliness, that will be attenuated or it will sort of fade away, go away to the background. You, at some time, you won't even feel like it. That's the best way of coming out of it. So, these two things, strong enquiry into, and a conviction, even if I can't give it up right now, it will not be of any particular use to me, it will just, it's a waste of time, money, energy, and it's a treadmill, if you call it the hedonic treadmill. There is no, nobody ever has been satisfied. So that's the one thing, a clarity. Second is positive movement towards God. Alright, I had these weaknesses, I had these desires, but now, let me listen to devotional music, let me read a text on non dual philosophy, let me sit for a short period of meditation, let me go out and be of help to people around me, without any, the slightest personal, you know, trying to take credit or get something out of it. So, Karma Yoga, Bhakti Yoga, Raja Yoga, Jnana Yoga, pursue these, and you will find the hold of those desires will weaken over time.

Rahul N Singh:
1:06:58

Beautiful. Thank you, Swamiji, that was, there's

Swami Sarvapriyananda ji:
1:07:01

so much, I really enjoyed speaking with you.

Rahul N Singh:
1:07:03

thank you, there's so much, yeah, there's so much more I would like to ask, more actually about the liberation stage, but I think that will be for another time,

Swami Sarvapriyananda ji:
1:07:12

we can sit and talk, make it a more focused discussion about non duality itself, core teachings and the liberation and the post liberation, the liberated life. Those discussions are like pure non duality discussion

Rahul N Singh:
1:07:27

Yes, yes, definitely. I really appreciate the time. Thank you for being here with us and allowing us to learn from you and to everyone, I hope to see the next time. Take everybody. Namaste.