March 10, 2025
The True Wealth of Spirituality: Beyond Rituals to Awakening
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Spirituality becomes meaningful when we move beyond routines and rituals to understand the true value of our practices and connect with formless awareness.
• Questioning what we're truly receiving from spiritual organizations, teachers, and practices
• Reflecting on Sri Ramakrishna's response to Vivekananda: "I see God as clear as I see you"
• Understanding the progression from knowledge to connection to abiding in truth
• Recognizing how spiritual practices become obligations and open doors to superstition
• Exploring how unconditional love, bliss, and peace are natural byproducts of abiding in awareness
• Learning to surrender to the flow of existence rather than forcing narratives
• Using the analogy of searching for a necklace already around your neck
Where are you on your spiritual journey? Do you feel stagnant or ready to move forward? Let me know in the comments, and let's discuss what might be blocking us.
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Transcript
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Hello and welcome to the Bearded Mystic podcast, and I'm 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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Tomorrow we will continue on with our Vedanta Sorrow series and I'm back with you on this Monday afternoon and to talk about spirituality.
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So I actually did so.
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This is my second take.
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I was recording it before and apparently it didn't pick up the sound, so I'm having to record it again.
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But this is the fun of just being in the moment.
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So I don't know if I'm going to remember everything I said before, but what I wanted to talk about is you know, when you go to a spiritual organization or you go to a religious organization, you go to the temple, you go to the church and you follow a certain religion.
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Now, following that religion is not a bad thing in itself, it's pretty fine.
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But what does it truly mean?
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To understand what you have received from that place that you go to?
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So you know what is the true kind of well, the true value that you get from spirituality.
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So you know, we all watch youtube videos, we may listen to podcasts, and the question would be here is that what value are you getting?
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Are you truly being shown the ultimate, the, the one, god, oneness, formless awareness, brahman?
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Is that what's being revealed to you, or is it something else, something that you told is separate to you but it's higher than you, you know.
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So there's something that you're getting right now.
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That's all good, you know, and I, and I just want to remind myself of that one conversation that Swami Vivekananda ji had with Sri Ramakrishna ji, and that was that he asked Sri Ramakrishna ji that have you seen God?
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And the response from Sri Ramakrishna Ji was I see God as clear as I see you.
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And I think to myself that is such a profound answer, because if a seeker is coming to you, they on that very realization, even if it's just a glimpse, even if it's just a crumb you know, a bread crumb, the size of it may be insignificant, but even to get something like that would be so powerful, would be meaningful.
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And that's the question.
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You, you know, if you've been given this knowledge, you know, or you've been given the bhakti practice, or you've been given the karma yog practice or a meditation practice.
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If you've been given something like that, do you truly understand the value that is trying to bring into your life.
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Do you truly understand how, if you reach the end of that realization, or reach the end of that practice, do you understand how bland the world would be?
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Now the world again only has its value Because one we are living in, the Vihavadika level, the relative reality.
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So we see its value and we see also that everything around us Is none other than Brahman.
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So if it's all none other than Brahman, then we are free, we are, we truly are abiding in that formless awareness, in the highest realization.
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And there's one thing, when you are told, okay, this is God, this is the highest truth, there's one thing being told it truth.
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There's one thing being told it.
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Then there's one thing connecting with it, but abiding in it is the highest.
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And to abide in it you have to be in full awareness of it.
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Now, to be in full awareness of it, you have to drown yourself into that awareness that is aware of it.
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It seems paradoxical that why would you do that?
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It seems dualistic, but actually it's not dualistic and there is only this one self that is.
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There's only this awareness, this consciousness, that is.
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It's very apparent, it's very obvious, it's very here, very now and again when we relate to the world, as I was trying to say, I went on.
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Another thought is that the world may seem bland, but the only thing that lightens it up is because you have this unconditional love and this love for humanity that, just you know, kind of oozes out of you and you want the whole of humanity to benefit.
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And that doesn't mean that they have to benefit from, you know, following what you're following, meaning whether they follow what you follow or don't, whether they're ignorant of what you say or not.
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You want them to prosper, you want them to get better, but what I find is that sometimes we go to a spiritual place.
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You want them to prosper, you want them to get better, but what I find is that sometimes we go to a spiritual place and we're going like zombies.
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We're going like we're just doing what's expected from us to make us feel a part of society.
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And whenever we do that, then it becomes an obligation, it becomes routine, it becomes a ritual, it becomes it can even open the door to superstition that oh, if I don't go, then this will happen, if I don't do this, then that will happen.
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That's, that's not.
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Then.
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That's bringing you back into bondage, that's bringing you back into ignorance.
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That's binding you again, it's creating limitations around you, and that's not what spirituality is.
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For the true value that we get, the true wealth of spirituality, is actually understanding what this formless awareness is and understanding that you connect with it.
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So then you connect with it and then, after that you've connected, you've had a taste.
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Now you can abide in it, you can immerse in it, and so that only this remains, this formless awareness remains, nothing else, then unconditional love is just a natural byproduct.
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Blissfulness is a natural byproduct.
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Peacefulness is a natural byproduct.
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Slowing down thoughts, clearing the mind is a natural byproduct.
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Slowing down thoughts, clearing the mind, is a natural byproduct.
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You know, my guru rightfully said that if you want to be pure, immerse yourself in the pure one, and that's true, because only the purity can clean you.
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If, for example, we say that the highest is Brahman, then that's what we have to aim for.
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But when we start saying, oh, you know, to reach the state of Aham Brahmasmi or to understand the Mahavakākyas experientially, so difficult, then all we're doing is playing with words, we're not playing with abiding.
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So the true wealth of spirituality is when we are abiding, when we understand that there is nothing greater than this realization, there's nothing greater than this realization, there's nothing greater than this Brahman, this formless awareness.
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There's nothing more that can make me happy.
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This is the ultimate happiness.
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My natural state is happiness because I am in this formless awareness.
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Mental disturbance cannot come to me.
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Because I'm in this formless awareness that is happy, that is content, that is at ease with everything that's going, with the natural flow of life.
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What, what need is there of free will?
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One just surrenders in that moment to whatever the will of existence is.
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One just lets karma, the karma, the karmas that we have, play out.
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There's no need to, there's no need to force a narrative, just let it be, just flow.
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And that's, I think, the greatest teaching my guru ever gave me was you just have to remain in this awareness 24-7, and there's nothing more that you can do.
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And so you get that knowledge.
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Yes, but there's something more than just getting the knowledge.
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It's about getting the knowledge, connecting to the pointing that was there, so looking at what was being pointed to and connecting with it and then focusing on abiding in it and then dissolving every aspect of what is of the name and form of other identification, every aspect of what is of the name and form of other identification and entering the true self, which is the Atman that was once thinking it was an individual.
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But now the ignorance is removed, the avidya is removed, and you can then fully be and fully remain in the awareness of formless awareness.
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That is abiding, that does not disappear, and ultimately that's where we have to be, nowhere else.
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There's nothing else better than this.
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And so if somebody asks you, do you you know God, do you see God?
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And you know that their definition of God may differ to yours, but you know what.
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At least you can say yes.
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And if somebody asks you well, tell me what is God?
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You will be able to give an answer straight away, because you know, the whole point of being spiritual, being religious, is at least to understand who we are, and therein lies the answer to God, because once you know who you are, god automatically appears.
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So I leave you with that thought, thought, and tomorrow we'll continue on with vidanta sarah, and I hope that you will enjoy that episode and let me know what you think about today.
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Um, you know how do you feel spiritually?
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Do you feel like things are stagnant for you?
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Do you feel spiritually, do you feel like things are stagnant for you.
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Do you want to improve?
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Let me know.
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Write in the comments.
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Let's discuss this, let's see what's blocking us and let's move forward, because we don't need to know more things, sometimes, we just need to understand what we have.
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Example it's like, say, you're wearing a necklace and you are Looking everywhere in the house for the necklace, but it's around your neck, but you're looking everywhere and that's what we have.
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We have the highest truth within us.
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It's there, waiting for us to discover it, waiting for it to be unveiled, and yet we still keep looking everywhere else in the world, thinking that maybe it's out there somewhere, but really it's in here.
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So with that, I'll see you next time.
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Take care, namaste bye.
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