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Feb. 19, 2025
Transcending Language in Spiritual Realization
This episode centers around the often-debated criteria for finding the right guru within Advaita Vedanta, questioning the necessity of a guru's knowledge of Sanskrit versus their ability to facilitate direct experiences of spiritual enlightenment. The discussion highlights the significance of moving from intellectual understanding to experiential realization in the spiritual journey.
• The debate over the need for Sanskrit knowledge among gurus
• Emphasis on experience over intellectualization in spirituality
• The teachings of the Upanishads as more than linguistic understandings
• Key examples from figures like Swami Vivekananda and Sri Ramakrishna
• Importance of moving from Shravana to Nididhyasana practices
• Insights from Sri Ramana Maharshi's non-verbal teachings
• Need for teachers who embody teachings rather than just explain them
• Overall focus on the pursuit of direct experience over academic mastery
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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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Do like this video, do share it, do comment on it, and it will be great if you do, because engagement matters when you're on YouTube.
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But today I wanted to talk about and it's something that was shared on my Discord server about guidelines of how to find the right guru, and I really somewhat disagreed with one of the points, and that was that the guru should have knowledge of Sanskrit in order to teach Advaita Vedanta.
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Now, in my opinion, that's gatekeeping.
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Um, I understand the necessity of having someone who understands Sanskrit, but do translations matter as much as we think?
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Know and I made people may disagree with me, people may actually actually really will not like what I say, but I think personally, to teach Advaita Vedanta if I, if there's any teacher, I'm not looking to know if they know Sanskrit.
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In fact, for me, the most important thing is that can they get me to experience Brahman right here, right now?
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Now, when Swami Vivekananda went to Sri Ramakrishna ji, he didn't say do you know Sanskrit?
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He didn't, and he asked that one question Can you show me God Right now?
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And Sri Ramakrishna Ji Obviously said yes.
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He asked Do you see God?
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And he says yes, I see God as clearly as I see you.
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He kept asking have you seen God?
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He used to go around Kolkata and ask have you seen God?
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Have you seen God?
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For me, what I think is more important is can somebody get you to be in the awareness at all time of Brahman, of the ultimate of formless awareness that can one always go back into resting in their formless nature, into their true nature?
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If, if there's a guru who only knows Sanskrit but then is heavy on the details, is heavy on the grammar, heavy on the rules of the language, yes, you'll have good intellectual people, but what about the experiential aspect?
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The Upanishads was written by rishis, who were qavis, who were poets.
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So the Upanishads are poetry.
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Their poetry is both important in terms of language, yes, but what is said without the language is even more important, whether Sanskrit or English.
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So this must be understood, that the whole point is to get to the essence.
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If the essence isn't there, even if you have knowledge of Sanskrit, even if you have a teacher who only teaches in Sanskrit, you're not going to be able to understand the.
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Even then, if they can't give you the experience of being in Brahman, being in oneness, being in awareness, it's not going to move us forward.
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We will just be playing mental gymnastics.
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And remember the whole point is to go from Shravana to Nididhyasana.
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Main goal is Nididhyasanaana to remain in the absorption of Brahman.
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Now, once you know the knowledge, the meaning of Aham, brahmasmi or Dattavamasi or any of the Mahavakyas, then you can go into Nididhyasana.
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The whole point is the teacher is meant to get you there.
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Yes, we explore the text, but we explore the text in order to understand the true nature better, to give us language to the experiences that we're having, the mystical experiences that we may have.
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The language will be there in the scriptures, the ultimate understanding will be there in the scriptures, but also we understand that it's beyond the scriptures too.
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The whole point is that we need to go into our own awareness.
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That's the main important thing.
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If a teacher is not taking us to that realization, if it's all in the head and not in the heart, then it's not going to go anywhere.
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I give a classic example Shri Ramana Maharishi.
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He can have dissertations, he can have thesis, he can have papers written on him, books written on him.
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But the whole point of understanding Sri Ramana Maharishi is by understanding what he's talking about from the heart.
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Whether he knew Sanskrit or not is secondary.
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What's more important was could he take me into the experience of my true nature?
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And if he could, then that's all that matters and that is all that should matter.
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And that is all that should matter.
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And, to be honest, we do need to make sure that we give values to our scriptures.
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Yes, but what happens there also is say, you have one teacher who teaches in Sanskrit and you have another teacher that teaches in Sanskrit.
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Both of their understanding of Sanskrit is going to be different and both of them will claim that they know better than the other.
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Because it becomes over intellectualization, that becomes more important than the actual pointing that the Upanishads is giving to us.
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The Upanishads is not about knowing Sanskrit.
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Does it anyway in the Upanishads say that you need to know Sanskrit.
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No, in fact, it always talks about it being beyond language, being beyond even sound itself.
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Yes, we need to have an intellectual understanding of what the text means, the basic meaning, but the essence that can only be felt with in the heart, and that's why I think sometimes Advaita Vedanta can somewhat come across dry.
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It's what brings birth to Neo-Advaita, actually in a weird way, because what we ignore is the actual heart.
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See, when you put things into the heart perspective, then you understand that what Maya truly means.
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You know, if someone says Maya means illusion, you ain't going to get bothered by that.
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You're going to be like, okay, that's your interpretation.
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But you know what?
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I use the word appearance, I use the word projection.
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You know it's an appearance.
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When we are on the ultimate level, on the paramatika level, when we go to the vihavadika level, the practical, transactional reality of this body and mind and everybody else and all things, then the way I deal with all things is real.
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But ultimately it's an appearance.
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When I'm in my true nature, when I understand I am my own true nature, this formless awareness.
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So we don't need to have a teacher that is, you know, heavily involved in knowing Sanskrit.
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If we're going to be playing that game, then that tells me that it's less about what the transmission can be and more about well, which guru is smarter?
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You know, my guru didn't know Sanskrit.
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From what I know, maybe a basic knowledge of it.
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But the experience, the knowledge, the pointing the realization.
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The board that my teacher has given gave doesn't require any language, didn't even require English actually, nor Hindi or Punjabi or any language.
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It didn't even require English actually, nor Hindi or Punjabi or any language.
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It didn't need any of them.
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So the important thing to understand here is how we can get to the experience, and the experience that Advaita Vedanta brings is very direct, very quickly.
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There's no delay in understanding that.
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You just have to be aware of being in awareness and then just dissolving whatever remains, and so only awareness remains.
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You can even go kind of beyond the words that conceptually we understand as awareness.
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So the whole point is to practice the self-inquiry.
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The whole point is to rest in awareness.
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That's the fundamental point of being an Advaita Vedanta.
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So I believe that's what a teacher ought to do, ought to know Again, you know, when we over interpret scripture, you know we, if we um, you know, sometimes we can keep reading and reading and reading.
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But if we do not put time to the side to understand the simplicity of that direct realization of aham brahm as of I am Brahman, I am formless awareness, then it's useless.
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But see as someone who's not trained in Sanskrit can get you to that experience and get you to understand the scripture very easily, without over-intellectualizing, without making it over complicated, and so whenever something is simply done, it's a lot better.
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I think my view has changed a lot.
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Like I, I really felt like there should be a right understanding of certain words.
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And yes, like, for example, brahman is a word that cannot be translated, same with Atma, same with Jee.
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They are very difficult to translate.
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But and some words should not be translated, I get that, but the understanding of those words can be said in English and you don't need to have a deep understanding of Sanskrit to understand those words.
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We have translations, utilize them.
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Main thing is don't get stuck on Shravanah, move to Mananar, move to Nididhyasana.
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That's the whole point.
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If we're not going to Nididhyasana and we're just doing Shravanah, we are literally going nowhere and we're not moving forward on the path.
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So there's that.
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But there are limitations to this because you know misinterpretation can happen, because whenever somebody translates something, they do it from their own mindset and what their sampradaya is.
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So there's possibility of that and you know that teacher also may not be able to guide someone through the precise scriptural analysis.
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That's possible, but I understand that if you understand what Brahman is.
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The scriptures are very easy to understand, so you kind of work backwards somewhat.
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Um, and then also it is going to be not aligned to the traditional parampara of advaita vedanta, so that is going to be a limitation.
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But in today's day and age, with the access to knowledge that we have and what should be the focus, I think we need more people who can embody the teachings of Advaita Vedanta over those people that just teach Advaita Vedanta but don't look to embrace the embodying aspect, where it all becomes just words and not necessarily the direct experience.
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So I think the the main point is that if you have a teacher and you must find a teacher who at least understands the essence of the scriptures and understands If you find that they understand the essence and they're able to bring you to the direct realization through you know you have to interact with them.
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You have to have those one-on-one meetings with them, you have to be in their company and when you're in their company, if they're able to address all your doubts, if they're able to bring you to ease and peace and they're able to bring you to the direct realization, that's highly effective.
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That's what the whole point of being spiritual is.
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The spiritual path is not about getting to have more knowledge.
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It's actually about being the knowledge, being the realization, and you know.
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So for me, I believe in both.
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I believe, if you feel like it's important for you to have a teacher that understands Sanskrit, that knows Sanskrit really, really well, and you want to just follow someone who's traditionally like that, please do.
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I think that's very good.
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And at the same time, do not feel like the path is closed for you if somebody doesn't know that, as long as they're teaching you the methods, as long as they're teaching you the methods, as long as they're getting you to that realization, that's all that matters.
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More importantly is if they're there for you when on the point of how to remain in it and then how to live in it in that realization.
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That's super important, because we do not want to go to someone who is not prepared to take us down that path.
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So if the guru is not offering anything is if the guru is offering jivan mukti, shall I say if.
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If they're offering that, then you know that person will want you to achieve the best.
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But if they're not taking you there, if they say, who knows, you may have a next life, just consider that they may not want you to reach.
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Before I end, I go back to my initial example.
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I don't know if Sri Ramakrishna ji knew Sanskrit, but look at the movement that he inspires.
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And today you know, we have people like Swami Sarvabriyananda ji, who is a remarkable teacher, who knows Sanskrit but is able to even transcend that knowledge and get us to the direct realization of Aham Brahmasmi.
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I've experienced that directly from him.
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I attended a retreat which he did on the Ashtavaka Gita, and it was there was Shravana, there was Manana and then there was just Nididhyasana.
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And taking us to that direct experience of Brahman is more important, because that's what lingers on, that's what stays on, that's what inspires you to keep getting up and keep practicing, because once you have a taste of this, of your true nature, you will not be looking back, trust me.
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So let me know your thoughts.
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If you agree with me, if you disagree with me, if you're in the middle, let me know, regardless whether you agree or disagree.
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Like the video?
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Okay, like it.
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But if you want to put a thumbs down, fair enough.
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But do subscribe and I'll see you next time, okay.
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Thank you, namaste.
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