Have a spiritual discussion with The Bearded Mystic
Feb. 15, 2025

Unlocking Continuous Growth in Spirituality

Unlocking Continuous Growth in Spirituality
The player is loading ...
The Bearded Mystic Podcast

Send us a text

Today’s episode dives into the essential question: How serious are you about your spiritual practice? We explore the distinction between casual spirituality and the dedication required to seek deeper truths, emphasizing the importance of applying lessons in daily life. 

• Defining casual versus serious spiritual practices 
• Addressing excuses for not committing to spirituality 
• Importance of inner work in achieving enlightenment 
• The role of latent tendencies (vasanas) post-realization 
• Understanding our true nature as Brahman 
• The importance of continual questioning and seeking 
• The need for community and guidance in spiritual journeys 

Join our discord community and help foster meaningful dialogue!

Join our Discord Server: https://discord.gg/hnRf7wESwX 

Visit my website: https://www.thebeardedmysticpodcast.com/

Buy The Bearded Mystic Podcast Merch: https://thebeardedmysticpodcast.myshopify.com/

Want a one-on-one spiritual discussion with The Bearded Mystic - book here: https://www.thebeardedmysticpodcast.com/p/spiritual-discussion/

Subscribe to The Bearded Mystic Podcast channel: https://www.youtube.com/ @TheBeardedMysticPodcast

Become a Patron: https://www.patreon.com/thebeardedmysticpodcast
Rahul on Bluesky:  https://bsky.app/profile/beardedmystic.bsky.social

Support the show

Chapters

00:00 - Seriousness in Spirituality

16:44 - Achieving Beyond Enlightenment

22:46 - Building Engagement and Support in Spirituality

Transcript
WEBVTT

00:00:00.360 --> 00:00:06.974
Hello and welcome to another episode of the Bearded Mystic Podcast, and I'm your host, rahul N Singh.

00:00:06.974 --> 00:00:52.085
So today it's a very interesting day when I think about spirituality and the way people are spiritual, how people approach spirituality and why I feel that if you are casually doing spiritual stuff like you know, you um, you may go to the temple very occasionally, you may pick up the gita now and then, you may listen to a talk on youtube now and then, or you may listen to talks regularly.

00:00:52.085 --> 00:00:59.043
But the question would be is what do you do with those thoughts that you listen to?

00:00:59.043 --> 00:01:03.451
What do we do with those lessons that we learn?

00:01:03.451 --> 00:01:05.295
Are we applying it to our life?

00:01:05.295 --> 00:01:16.873
For example, if I am learning a lesson about forgiveness, how many times have I kind of taken a step back from forgiving someone?

00:01:16.873 --> 00:01:31.853
And when I take that step back, is it because I feel that the other person isn't reciprocating my feelings, they're not understanding and they keep making the same mistake again and again?

00:01:31.853 --> 00:01:40.213
Or is it because of some other kind of something in my ego, some pride that I'm not addressing?

00:01:40.213 --> 00:01:42.563
So there's things like that.

00:01:42.563 --> 00:01:43.144
That's a quick example.

00:01:43.144 --> 00:01:49.867
Quick example, you know, we can go deep into the weeds of what is awareness and what is consciousness?

00:01:49.867 --> 00:01:50.888
What are we?

00:01:50.888 --> 00:01:52.090
What's our true nature?

00:01:52.090 --> 00:01:52.933
Is there a self?

00:01:52.933 --> 00:01:53.781
Is there not a self?

00:01:53.781 --> 00:02:02.403
All that stuff is all good, but it comes down to how serious we are when it comes to spirituality.

00:02:02.403 --> 00:02:08.104
Now I'm not talking about, you know, you go into silence and you're really serious about like, really like kind of.

00:02:08.104 --> 00:02:14.866
What I mean is that you don't lose the juice of life from being spiritual.

00:02:14.866 --> 00:02:20.229
You know, a lot of people think if you're spiritual it means like you're giving up kind of worldly pleasures.

00:02:20.229 --> 00:02:22.900
No, you don't give up worldly, worldly pleasures.

00:02:22.900 --> 00:02:25.969
You just know that they're temporary in nature.

00:02:25.969 --> 00:02:29.931
So you know the happiness they give is not going to be the complete happiness.

00:02:32.820 --> 00:02:42.574
And when it comes to spirituality, a lot of times I feel we look for excuses of why we don't want to get serious into it.

00:02:42.574 --> 00:02:43.906
Like, I have a family.

00:02:43.906 --> 00:02:47.729
How can I be detached from my family?

00:02:47.729 --> 00:02:54.908
How can I learn to discern between right and wrong when I need to go up the corporate ladder?

00:02:54.908 --> 00:03:05.500
And you see, all those things that I'm talking about now they're big things for us, right?

00:03:05.500 --> 00:03:17.760
Or we have a business we're like how can we focus on spirituality when we need to make sure our business is making money, and all that when we have a family.

00:03:17.760 --> 00:03:21.731
We think how can we focus on spirituality when our kids are young?

00:03:21.731 --> 00:03:30.927
So we constantly find reasons why not to be spiritual or why to avoid being serious about it or going deeper into it.

00:03:30.927 --> 00:03:35.723
So my fundamental question is are we true seekers?

00:03:35.723 --> 00:03:43.881
And unless you're a true seeker, only then will spirituality can show its fruits.

00:03:45.044 --> 00:03:49.590
I'm not saying that if you're, you know, a casual spiritual seeker, it's not going to affect you.

00:03:49.590 --> 00:03:54.248
Of course there'd be some positives that you will obviously will get.

00:03:54.248 --> 00:03:57.790
It'd be like the residue of something you know.

00:03:57.790 --> 00:04:07.383
Or it'd be like you know you've drank a glass of, somebody's drank a glass of juice and you just have a sip left and from that sip you're thinking you drank the whole glass.

00:04:07.383 --> 00:04:21.843
The seeker is the one that will drink the whole glass and they will attain what needs to be attained, but the one that takes a sip, and they keep on taking a sip and a sip and a sip.

00:04:21.843 --> 00:04:32.168
That's what causes lifetimes of constant seeking, until that final life, when they realize that samsara is not enough for them.

00:04:32.168 --> 00:04:35.661
They want to get mukti from this, moksha from it.

00:04:35.661 --> 00:04:48.956
That's the most important thing, and to get that freedom is important and that's why we then want awakening experiences.

00:04:48.956 --> 00:04:55.314
Maybe, or maybe we want full enlightenment.

00:04:59.701 --> 00:05:15.065
The fundamental thing is to just check where we are and our intentions in being spiritual and, like I said, if it's a casual thing where we're not applying it to our day-to-day life and we're not kind of dealing with the basics, you know, remember the prerequisites we've talked about on this podcast.

00:05:15.065 --> 00:05:20.641
You know, if you're you need to have that vivek veragya, you need to have the six.

00:05:20.641 --> 00:05:29.189
You know kind of inequalities and then being desirous for the truth.

00:05:29.189 --> 00:05:45.997
If you're not doing those things, at least as a even as a little bit, we will not be able to control our mind.

00:05:45.997 --> 00:05:51.843
We will go wherever the senses tell us to go.

00:05:51.843 --> 00:06:03.043
Our worldview is going to be external, not the internal, and until we look back at the internal, the external world is going to fascinate us and it's going to take us on its own journey.

00:06:05.666 --> 00:06:09.591
So this is what I mean by are we truly serious?

00:06:09.591 --> 00:06:13.836
Do we truly want to feel that happiness that is beyond the senses?

00:06:13.836 --> 00:06:23.779
Do we want to feel that happiness that is not attached to an object?

00:06:23.779 --> 00:06:37.076
Every other happiness we've been seeking is after an object, whether that's some car or home, or some watch or whatever smartphone, to our relationships, to the position we have.

00:06:37.076 --> 00:06:44.747
Everything is external, but what about that inner wealth that we have, that we are, but what about that inner wealth that we have, that we are?

00:06:44.747 --> 00:07:00.233
It's like we are people who are, say, billionaires, but we still look into winning the lottery and we don't know what we have, what wealth we already have.

00:07:00.233 --> 00:07:03.064
And that's what happens in spirituality.

00:07:03.064 --> 00:07:04.413
We have the highest truth.

00:07:04.413 --> 00:07:05.250
We have the highest truth, we.

00:07:05.250 --> 00:07:07.884
We have the highest truth, as our humbrum asked me.

00:07:08.084 --> 00:07:08.786
I am brahman.

00:07:08.786 --> 00:07:10.629
That for mercy.

00:07:10.629 --> 00:07:11.331
You are that.

00:07:11.331 --> 00:07:14.386
Whichever way you want to look at it, see, you can look at it in two ways.

00:07:14.386 --> 00:07:26.213
Either you can look at it as I am I am brahman or you can look at it as that forvamasi, you are that, that meaning the self.

00:07:26.213 --> 00:07:32.641
Now, is the self an object that you're getting?

00:07:32.641 --> 00:07:35.627
No, how can you?

00:07:35.627 --> 00:07:43.728
For example, if I tell you to be yourself, I'm not asking you to add anything.

00:07:43.728 --> 00:07:47.908
I'm not asking you to add anything.

00:07:47.908 --> 00:07:48.779
I'm not asking you to Become something.

00:07:48.779 --> 00:07:58.550
I'm not asking you to Do a certain thing and then you will know yourself.

00:07:59.012 --> 00:08:14.910
No, simply by, as I mentioned yesterday, being in the awareness of I am, the awareness before I am, shall I say.

00:08:14.910 --> 00:08:21.302
That's what you fundamentally are and when we?

00:08:21.302 --> 00:08:28.735
You know I wanted, I was trying to get it across, but I feel like sometimes I'm not understood.

00:08:28.735 --> 00:08:35.121
And that's fine, but let's understand.

00:08:35.121 --> 00:08:46.494
There's one thing being aware of the objects externally, even the objects internally, of thought, of emotion, sensations, feelings, all that stuff, memory.

00:08:46.494 --> 00:08:51.562
There's the internal witness of that.

00:08:51.562 --> 00:08:59.809
But in order to be aware of that witness, you have to let go of every.

00:08:59.809 --> 00:09:06.576
Every content is contentless, every quality is qualityless.

00:09:06.576 --> 00:09:18.148
Even you have to let go of the idea that there's energy there, because we say energy is formless.

00:09:18.148 --> 00:09:20.486
You have to let go of everything.

00:09:20.486 --> 00:09:25.947
You even have to let go of the notion of I am, awareness.

00:09:25.947 --> 00:09:31.886
The I am and awareness both have to disappear because, if you're remembering, I am awareness.

00:09:31.886 --> 00:09:33.552
That's going back to words.

00:09:33.552 --> 00:09:41.788
We have to go prior to the words, do what is, and that is something you cannot deny.

00:09:41.899 --> 00:09:56.966
When we go on that spiritual journey and it's possible we may get a taste of this and then we're like we see that flashy car and we're like you know what I'm going to go for that car?

00:09:56.966 --> 00:10:01.807
We see an attractive person, then we want to chase that attractive person.

00:10:01.807 --> 00:10:07.568
We see this attractive person, then we want to chase that attractive person.

00:10:07.568 --> 00:10:09.451
We see this and that and we want to achieve that.

00:10:09.451 --> 00:10:25.674
We want to get that, and it's possible that this can happen, that we get a glimpse, even the glimpse, of even being aware of objects when you even create that separation, even the glimpse of even being aware of objects, when you even create that separation.

00:10:25.674 --> 00:10:33.067
Even that has a hint of happiness, because you're getting a taste of what this nature is, you know.

00:10:33.067 --> 00:10:34.649
That's why we say Satchitananda.

00:10:35.211 --> 00:10:47.804
So the being that we're talking about, the true being, the true existence, what you are, this Brahman, this I-ness, againness, again, it's objectless.

00:10:47.804 --> 00:10:48.405
Don't make it into a person.

00:10:48.405 --> 00:10:51.130
You know, it's not a separate self, it's the only self.

00:10:51.130 --> 00:10:52.514
Yeah, it's not.

00:10:52.514 --> 00:10:57.287
You know, there's not one self here and then the self there and there's no, it's just one self.

00:10:57.287 --> 00:11:05.869
When we, I forgot my train of thought.

00:11:05.869 --> 00:11:11.947
But yeah, if we are aware, even if we are aware of an object, there's a certain happiness we get from that.

00:11:12.886 --> 00:11:27.277
But if we're being Satchitananda, if we're being the existence of and we know that Existence is consciousness, so we know it's nature, we know the beingness, and then Ananda that existence is consciousness, so we know it's nature, we know the beingness.

00:11:27.277 --> 00:11:31.504
And then ananda, it is true happiness, meaning it's complete.

00:11:31.504 --> 00:11:35.952
Nothing else can make you this happy, because it's happiness itself.

00:11:35.952 --> 00:11:42.365
So what object is going to make that happy?

00:11:42.365 --> 00:11:43.106
How can you make the?

00:11:43.106 --> 00:11:52.331
If the objectless meaning, the subject is happiness itself, how can or bliss itself, how can you bring bliss to it?

00:11:52.331 --> 00:11:56.068
You can't bring bliss to it when its nature is blissful.

00:12:00.321 --> 00:12:21.423
And this is the teachings we find when we, again, when we do a lot of uh, this, these talks that I do now with you every day, a lot of it is just neti, neti, just getting rid of what you're not and then just staying in what you are already, rediscovering that this is what you've always been.

00:12:21.423 --> 00:12:24.410
You've been on this rat race with samsara.

00:12:24.410 --> 00:12:33.649
You know, going through lifetime after lifetime, accumulating vasanas after vasanas, you get a new samskara and you build it into a vasana.

00:12:33.649 --> 00:12:41.687
You're constantly in that cycle and then you meet a teacher, you meet a realized being, an enlightened person, who says you know what?

00:12:41.687 --> 00:12:47.133
All this thing that you're accumulating is veiling who you really are.

00:12:48.288 --> 00:12:56.529
Let's start unveiling, let's start removing those covers which is hiding your true self.

00:12:56.529 --> 00:13:08.327
When we talk about this self, if I may use this word, and don't get attached to the word, just look at where it's pointing to.

00:13:08.327 --> 00:13:12.059
This being is transparent.

00:13:12.059 --> 00:13:18.802
So, even if you have the world around you, this body, even this true self, is transparent.

00:13:18.802 --> 00:13:19.001
You can't.

00:13:19.001 --> 00:13:20.125
You don't know you're in it, until you know you're in it.

00:13:20.125 --> 00:13:21.708
This body, even this true self, is transparent.

00:13:21.708 --> 00:13:24.655
You can't, you don't know you're in it.

00:13:24.655 --> 00:13:31.620
Until you know you're in it, then you can't escape it.

00:13:31.620 --> 00:13:34.039
There's no way.

00:13:34.039 --> 00:13:46.410
You just want to remain In this state At all times, and that's what you can achieve from spirituality if you're serious about it.

00:13:46.799 --> 00:13:55.888
Meaning you when I say serious, meaning that you are willing to be a competent seeker, that means inquire, question.

00:13:55.888 --> 00:14:00.350
You must ask those questions.

00:14:00.350 --> 00:14:01.966
You must find the logic in the teachings.

00:14:01.966 --> 00:14:15.528
If you don must find the logic in the teachings, if you don't find the logic in the teachings, then really all we're doing is attending something, but all we're doing is marking our attendance.

00:14:15.528 --> 00:14:21.727
It's like you can go to school, you can mark your attendance, but does it mean that you're actually learning?

00:14:21.727 --> 00:14:32.465
That's what you got to look at and that's what I have to do, you know, every day is am I willing to keep going at it?

00:14:37.910 --> 00:14:47.205
You know I have been in the company of enlightened beings who I consider enlightened, and never once have they said to me one.

00:14:47.205 --> 00:14:54.149
They've never said you know, I'm the only enlightened person, everyone else is less enlightened.

00:14:54.149 --> 00:14:59.168
Never heard them say that If they've ever recognized another enlightened being, they say it's an enlightened being.

00:14:59.168 --> 00:15:04.267
That's number one, the one thing I've seen and I've recognized and I've honored.

00:15:04.267 --> 00:15:07.753
Two there's a certain level of humility.

00:15:07.753 --> 00:15:11.005
Even if they're enlightened, they never make you feel like you're in ignorance.

00:15:11.005 --> 00:15:17.004
If you realize that when you're with them it's like you want to learn.

00:15:17.004 --> 00:15:18.105
You know there's a.

00:15:18.105 --> 00:15:25.556
It's like you just want to be getting that nectar from them.

00:15:25.556 --> 00:15:26.705
You know, you know it's sweet.

00:15:26.705 --> 00:15:32.591
You just want to keep consuming that sweetness by being in their company.

00:15:32.591 --> 00:15:51.120
And then the other aspect is that their kindness is so wonderful, how kind they are and how giving they are with their knowledge.

00:15:52.001 --> 00:16:17.808
So ultimately, what I want to say that if you are doing anything remotely spiritual and you've been going to a temple, been going to a guru, whatever it may be, you've been going to a particular place, but you feel that you're stagnant, it's time to ask for help and there's nothing wrong with that.

00:16:17.808 --> 00:16:21.551
You're not going to be losing loyalty points.

00:16:21.551 --> 00:16:23.095
Asking for help means that you're not going to be losing loyalty points.

00:16:23.095 --> 00:16:33.548
Asking for help means that you're willing to do the work to get to that place of Jivan Mukti, and if we're not working towards that, then we're not really being spiritual.

00:16:33.548 --> 00:16:42.471
Let me make this very clear Jivan Mukti is the whole reason why we want to be enlightened.

00:16:44.100 --> 00:16:59.111
If there's any other reason why we want to be enlightened, for example, you want to be enlightened so you can show you're better than somebody because you're enlightened, then egos come back in and you haven't achieved.

00:16:59.111 --> 00:17:00.325
That means you're still bound.

00:17:00.325 --> 00:17:08.920
It's all about being enlightened and not being bound by it, being free from even that idea that I'm enlightened.

00:17:08.920 --> 00:17:22.140
This is what is meant by Beyond enlightenment, meaning Even the identity of being enlightened Is shallow, very shallow.

00:17:22.140 --> 00:17:28.848
When we say, oh, I'm enlightened, it's shallow.

00:17:28.848 --> 00:17:34.628
I'm self-realized Shallow Again.

00:17:34.628 --> 00:17:53.433
We've Got stuck in a In a word, in a In a In a pointing, and instead when it's like in a in a in a pointing and instead when it's like it's like this.

00:17:53.433 --> 00:17:54.915
This is a good example.

00:17:59.359 --> 00:18:04.663
If you have a fish in a bowl and that fish has been swimming in that bowl for many years, then the owner says you know what fish.

00:18:04.663 --> 00:18:08.393
It's time for you to explore the ocean.

00:18:08.393 --> 00:18:22.983
So the owner takes the fish, pours the bowl into the ocean and then he comes back a few years later.

00:18:22.983 --> 00:18:44.499
And then he comes back a few years later and he sees that to the same spot and he finds a fish swimming in that same space, even though there's a vast ocean, a vast ocean but still swimming in that same circumference and same kind of space.

00:18:44.499 --> 00:18:46.365
It's not being able to go beyond.

00:18:46.365 --> 00:18:50.906
That's all that happens when we're enlightened, but we make an ego out of it.

00:18:50.906 --> 00:18:54.828
So you have two spectrums that I've talked about today.

00:18:54.828 --> 00:18:59.207
One, when you claim enlightenment, yet there's ego, still there.

00:18:59.207 --> 00:19:03.105
You're just that fish in the ocean, but you're swimming in the same place.

00:19:03.105 --> 00:19:08.751
You haven't explored the ocean, meaning you've not realized that the ocean is what you are.

00:19:08.751 --> 00:19:14.550
If the fish realize that, then the fish will be able to explore the ocean.

00:19:14.550 --> 00:19:21.773
Yeah, meaning it will see the vastness of the ocean, the vastness of being, the vastness of consciousness.

00:19:21.773 --> 00:19:26.183
Ocean, the vastness of being, the vastness of consciousness, and same thing.

00:19:26.203 --> 00:19:34.002
If we look at people who just occasionally, casually, do spirituality and number one thing, I never understand this.

00:19:34.002 --> 00:19:44.836
But if spirituality is just about being, if you think spirituality without self-realization is about being a good human being, you misunderstood what self-realization is about being a good human being.

00:19:44.836 --> 00:19:46.099
You misunderstood what self-realization really is.

00:19:46.099 --> 00:19:50.171
Self-realization will automatically make you a decent human being.

00:19:50.171 --> 00:19:51.685
You cannot wrong anybody.

00:19:51.685 --> 00:19:57.692
This is if you continuously be aware of your vasanas, of your latent tendencies.

00:19:57.692 --> 00:20:09.109
You know we may find that people, they become enlightened, but they have those latent tendencies that are still there, because you know that work still has to occur.

00:20:09.109 --> 00:20:12.787
Realizing I am Brahman is an instant realization.

00:20:12.787 --> 00:20:17.507
It can be instant If you look at the Bhagavad Gita.

00:20:18.880 --> 00:20:23.666
Sri Krishna gives Arjuna the knowledge and he gives the knowledge straight away.

00:20:23.666 --> 00:20:31.047
Second chapter, first words are the Atma Gyan, the knowledge of the Atman.

00:20:31.047 --> 00:20:41.048
But if you look, arjuna has to ask questions, arjuna has to seek the answers.

00:20:41.048 --> 00:20:45.646
He has to do that work Because the vasanas are still there.

00:20:45.646 --> 00:20:55.019
He's had the realization that there's only the Atman, the Atman, the self that's in all, the self that cannot be cut, the self that cannot be burnt, the self that cannot be dried.

00:20:55.019 --> 00:21:06.711
We know that verse that self which does not die, which is eternal, which has been eternal for since.

00:21:06.711 --> 00:21:15.319
You know, beyond the beginning, this this is what I mean the vastness will still be there for arjun.

00:21:15.319 --> 00:21:27.484
He has to work on those vastness and this is the way to understand why, even after enlightenment, even after self-realization, after, after knowing who you really are, there's still work to do.

00:21:28.421 --> 00:21:30.127
And don't feel any shame in that.

00:21:30.127 --> 00:21:34.865
Do not feel any shame, it's absolutely normal.

00:21:34.865 --> 00:21:37.070
Think about it.

00:21:37.070 --> 00:21:42.981
I'll give a classic example Nisargadatta Maharaj Now his teachings.

00:21:42.981 --> 00:21:44.023
I Am that that book.

00:21:44.023 --> 00:21:49.253
I am that how famous it is, how transformative that book is.

00:21:49.253 --> 00:21:52.748
Let's not shy away from those words.

00:21:52.748 --> 00:21:53.770
It's amazing.

00:21:55.161 --> 00:21:56.626
But the guy used to show anger.

00:21:56.626 --> 00:22:08.961
Now it could all be an act, it could be a vasana that he's relatively aware of, but that doesn't mean that he's not self-realized, of course.

00:22:08.961 --> 00:22:12.946
It still means he's self-realized and he just has a vasana of anger.

00:22:12.946 --> 00:22:14.723
Now, is he working on that?

00:22:14.723 --> 00:22:15.848
Most likely he is.

00:22:15.848 --> 00:22:17.744
Do we know if he's putting on an act?

00:22:17.744 --> 00:22:18.307
We don't know.

00:22:18.307 --> 00:22:24.964
Yeah, we can't say today, meaning I can't know that for sure.

00:22:24.964 --> 00:22:40.843
But yes, this is the ultimate thing I wanted to say.

00:22:40.843 --> 00:22:46.417
So I guess it was an interesting episode today, but just remember these things and if you have any questions, let me know.

00:22:46.778 --> 00:22:49.885
If you want to join my discord, make sure you do.

00:22:49.885 --> 00:22:52.750
Link is in the show notes and video description.

00:22:52.750 --> 00:22:57.587
Like this video, rate and review this podcast on the podcast streaming app.

00:22:57.587 --> 00:22:59.961
Write a comment if you feel like doing so.

00:22:59.961 --> 00:23:01.406
Subscribe to the youtube channel.

00:23:01.406 --> 00:23:07.884
You know, give me as much engagement as you can personally, even if it's just saying thank you on a comment, I'm good with that.

00:23:07.884 --> 00:23:15.327
Even it helps other people find out these videos, which is good for the channel.

00:23:15.327 --> 00:23:23.786
But anyway, I really appreciate you listening, I really appreciate your support and I'll see you on Monday.

00:23:23.786 --> 00:23:47.628
Care, have a great day, have a great day tomorrow, and may I just have this prayer and maybe I'll end this prayer that may everyone that's on this path, even casually, may they realize the highest and realize that the potential that they're looking for Is already a reality within them.

00:23:47.628 --> 00:23:50.411
Thank you, namaste.