The Bearded Mystic Podcast
Rahul N Singh host of The Bearded Mystic Podcast explores the Hindu philosophy of Advaita Vedanta or Nonduality in a very simple, direct and practical way.
Episodes include discussions into eastern scriptures like The Bhagavad Gita, The Upanishads etc and discussions about everyday spirituality.
Rahul has been on the spiritual path for over 20 years and has an open-minded approach to spirituality and finds that there is no one size fits all approach.
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The Bearded Mystic Podcast
Direct Experience: The True Practicality of Spiritual Teachings
The misconception that spiritual teachings need to be "more practical" reveals either a misunderstanding of what spiritual practice truly is or exposure to teachings that aren't genuinely spiritual. Non-dual traditions offer direct pointers to immediate experience of consciousness that are inherently practical when actually implemented.
• Non-dual teachings provide direct access to formless awareness without delay
• Basic moral and ethical teachings aren't spiritual—they're common sense
• The Upanishads and teachings like "Aham Brahmasmi" (I am Brahman) are deeply practical
• Spiritual knowledge must be experienced to be understood
• Only a human guru can embody teachings in a way AI cannot
• Those who claim teachings aren't practical enough often haven't put them into practice
• True connection with consciousness naturally guides all aspects of life
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Hello and welcome to another episode of the Bearded Mystic podcast, and I'm your host, rahul N Singh. Today we are just gonna go with the flow of the conversation and see where it goes, but do like, comment and subscribe. Obviously, do follow me on discord, where we can continue on the discussion, and, as you know, I'm gearing up to launch my resting in formless awareness course very soon, so do keep an eye out for new announcements that will be coming out shortly. I'm working really hard on getting that done. I was together with some friends, you know, a couple of weeks ago and I mentioned one thing and, you know, whenever I speak to people, especially young people in spirituality, who are interested in spirituality, who you know go to a mandir or gudwara or to any spiritual place of worship, the number one thing that I kind of hear is, apart from language being an issue, is that they need to make the teachings more practical. Make the teachings more practical, and whenever I hear this, it actually doesn't it. It alarms me in two ways. One you can't have. Spirituality is practical. There's nothing impractical about it. To make it more practical is impossible.
Speaker 1:The reason being is that, for example, if I just look at the tradition of non-duality in the East, there are thousands and thousands of books, thousands and thousands of hundreds of thousands of verses that can show you the directness of this formless awareness, brahman, consciousness. It can get you to that experience straight away. There's no delay to it, there's no delay. There's no delay to it. There's no um, no delay, there's no buffer period. It is just directly seen, shown, experienced, known. And when I use these words, remember, language is going to fail me, but it's beyond those things too, like the, the. The immediacy and directness of consciousness cannot be um, obviously, put together in language. It goes beyond silence. But for practical reasons, so to speak, we have to use these words to point towards it. But yes, the pointings can never show the fullness of the experience or the fullness of what it's like to be resting in formless awareness. That can only be done by yourself. And so, when you look at the teaching, when you look at the Brahman Gyan, the knowledge that shows you Brahman, that shows you pure consciousness, that can only be directly experienced. To be understood and it's interesting to understand it, you have to experience it. You cannot understand it and not experience it. Or if you think that you can just think you understand it without experiencing it. Even then there'll be something missing, and so so, just so, when? So that's one part.
Speaker 1:The other part is this if, wherever you're going, if you don't think it's practical enough, that means that the teachings that are being shared aren't deep, frankly speaking, or remotely spiritual, and herein lies a problem. A lot of people think that just moral, ethical teachings are enough. You can live a life as a good human being. No doubt you don't need spirituality in that. I think that is something that can be taught with just common sense. Just being a decent human being, knowing what to do, how to be, is something that you know, you can teach yourself. You don't need a spiritual guru to tell you this. If you need a spiritual guru to tell you this, um, that guru is basically saying you don't need a spiritual guru to tell you this. If you need a spiritual guru to tell you this, that guru is basically saying you don't even know how to be spiritual yet. So it's more, not an indication of the spiritual teacher, it's more on the devotee and the disciple.
Speaker 1:So when we say the teachings aren't practical, it means we're not giving deep, practical teachings, meaning the teachings that are being shared just aren't deep enough. And so, for example, the Upanishads is full of practical teachings. It's nothing but practical teachings. You have to immerse yourself into the text to understand it. If there's that is practical, you get to experience this consciousness directly by just the four Mahavakyas. But let's look at one of them Aham Brahmasmi I am Brahman. That becomes your realization. That becomes your. That becomes the very. You become the very embodiment of that teaching. That becomes the very. You become the very embodiment of that teaching. And that only happens if we have the knowledge that can take us there. You know so. For that and that practice is deep, you don't need to make it more practical to say that you are consciousness. There's nothing more practical than that.
Speaker 1:And yes, we are always aware of the things we do. We may bypass that awareness by sinking into thoughts and emotions and feelings, sensations and so on, and memories, and we can go on and on. But even then, for you to go through the incessant chat of thoughts or the flooding of emotions, or the rushing in of memories and the influx of and the changing nature of sensations, you can go through all of that and remind yourself that you are aware of those things. You are the witnessing consciousness. That is not changing despite all of these activities happening. But for that to happen, yes, we need a teacher, we need a guru that can guide us.
Speaker 1:And that's been true in my own life where, you know, my guru has took me to that journey, has taken me on that path, and I've never questioned the practicality of my Guru's teachings. I think, yes, I can question maybe the thoughts of fellow disciples, of my Gurus, or fellow devotees, but I can't question my Guru's teachings because they are practical. And when I say can't question it, I'm not saying in the deep inquiry type of way, I'm just saying like I don't have any doubt About the practicality of my Guru's teachings. Like today, if I listen to my Guru's teachings, I find them nothing but practical. But when it comes to, yes, the devotees, but when it comes to, yes, other devotees, depending where they are on the journey, they're going to share that right. So, again, if I have the wisdom to understand, or the discernment, the intellect to understand that, then I can understand at what level someone's speaking at and what that's going to bring for me.
Speaker 1:But one thing I will say is that when it comes to things like satsang being in the company of holy people, being in the company of your teacher, of your guru, of your satguru, of your master, that you have to be um you. You have to remember that those teachings are only going to teach you about the supreme consciousness, about this niraka, about this formless consciousness. Nothing more, nothing less. That's what the main message is now. If the guru teaches you about how to live after that realization, which is going to be, you know, just be a decent human being, don't be a prat and don't lose your critical thinking skills, because one thing that I've found, also in spiritual circles, is how, in the name of thinking, they think they're thinking critically, but actually, when they start questioning facts, you know whether that's about medicine or health or science, then you know, like I'm not gonna, I'm not gonna get in a debate with someone about whether the earth is round or flat, like you see what I mean.
Speaker 1:Like I know the earth is round, I know the earth spins on its axis, I'm not going to believe a flat earth there and I'm not going to even engage that what they're saying is even remotely true. You know. Um same thing when it comes to the efficacy of vaccines. I'm not going to, I'm going to follow whatever the experts say, because they've done the study, not me. I can look on Google, but Google is not going to give me the fullness of the study that those people have put in. And same thing with when it comes to religion I'm going to follow whatever the experts say. I'm not going to go by what someone says on a reddit forum, like they may say some nasty things about a guru, but that doesn't mean that the teachings of the guru is wrong, or that the teachings of, or if someone questions the teachings of the guru, even then have they fully understood it or are they going from their discernment and not seeing the bigger picture, which is sometimes the case?
Speaker 1:So and now, like, even if we go a bit deeper than this, do we think that Chak Chibitik can give practical spiritual teachings? It may point to it, but at the end of the day, you gotta do the work. Like chat gpt can guide you, same way like a guru can guide you, but the guru can show you as an embodiment, which is different to what chat gpt can do. Or artificial intelligence artificial intelligence can show you, describe it, yes, but when it comes to embodying, when it comes to practically showing you how to be the teaching. Only a guru can do that, only a human guru can do that. That transmission can only happen between two human beings, between the disciple and the teacher.
Speaker 1:So so that's the main thing I wanted to kind of talk about today, because I feel like a lot of people want practical teachings, but if they just studied the scriptures a bit more, studied what the Guru said, a bit more Thought about what the Guru said, they wouldn't be saying this. And so I think what I'm trying to say is it's time to introspect, you know, are you truly taking in the knowledge as it should be, or are we just, you know, taking the knowledge, doing nothing with it and then claiming, oh, it's not practical enough and we haven't put it into practice? See, if you have a teaching and you don't put it into practice, you're going to say it's not practical. But those that do put it into practice, you can see it from a mile away how that teaching has transformed them. And I can say for a fact that not one thing that my guru has said is impractical. All of it has been practical.
Speaker 1:And I say that with great authority, like I never say things with 100 guarantee, but this I can and uh, another thing that I wanted to kind of share is that you know, once you have experienced this divine, once you have experienced this divine, once you've truly touched it, truly felt it, truly connected to it, truly become one with it, then that wisdom will speak for itself and you will find that wisdom will be guiding everything. But that can only come from truly connecting in the first place. So for that, we have to actually practice the teachings in order to get there. So that's my thoughts. So I'm going to do probably more of these type of podcasts and thoughts, and very quick uh ones in the more in the run-up to my course being published.
Speaker 1:Uh, there may be a time when I won't do any podcasts for a week or two, because I'll probably be recording and I have to save my voice, um, but who knows? I'm just going with the flow and I think that's the best way, because whatever I share, I pray that it only comes from the divine and not from my ego or my limited understanding or my limited practical application of the teachings. Anyway, yes, so let me know what you think. Share your thoughts for me. What do you think about people that say you know, are you one of those people that do say, like, spiritual teachings aren't practical enough. Why do you say that? Um, maybe we can have a nice little discussion, or you can do it on discord. Okay, thank you very much. Take care. Bye, namaste.
