Episode 3: Direct and Unfiltered with The Bearded Mystic

This is the 3rd episode of Direct and Unfiltered with The Bearded Mystic! The question is: How can I quantify my value when people use their credentials to justify their self-worth?

Rahul (The Bearded Mystic) covers how it is important to know your true self and then ground yourself in spiritual virtues.

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Transcript

0:03

Hello and welcome to Direct and Unfiltered with the Bearded Mystic. And I'm your host, Rahul N. Singh. Thank you for taking out the time today to either watch or listen to this podcast episode. If you would like to submit a question for direct and unfiltered with the Bearded Mystic, there is a survey that you can complete, which is in the video description and show notes below. Or you can send an email to beardedmysticpodcast@gmail.com. Today I've received a question from Dillon Ji, who is a regular attendee of our meditation sessions, and it's based on one of the questions he asked on the Saturday meditation session, and he asked a follow up, which he would like me to discuss on this episode. He's given more questions. This is one of them that I'm going to go through. so thank you Dillon Ji for your question. In the meditation session, you said that you should know your value and worth. When I thought about it, I genuinely don't know my value and I'm unsure how to quantify it. I know most people would automatically use their credentials to justify and quantify some sense of worth, but I feel as though this isn't right. Please correct me if I'm wrong. Dillon Ji, this is a very good question and one that we all go through. You know, what is my value? What is my worth? I go through the same thing when I have to, you know, upload a podcast episode, whether I put it on YouTube or on Buzzsprout, I feel the same dread and I feel like an imposter. Every time I when I do my little clips on social media, even then I feel like an imposter. So knowing one's value is very subjective and one that we have to, you know, inquire within ourselves. But what gets me over that imposter syndrome, what makes me know my value and how am I able to quantify it, and most of all, without becoming egoic about it. Now, first of all, knowing your value and worth is very important because nobody else can dictate that for you. Now, people will look at credentials, but are the credentials you? No. You are that Formless Awareness, and if you are that Formless Awareness, if you are that One, automatically, the question of value and worth goes out the window because that does not need a value. Neither does that need to be worthy of anything because it is a, it is awareness itself. It is complete in itself. It is fullness. Now obviously that's on a really high level and not all of us are there. Not all of us are ready to accept that we are the Atman. You know, we are not ready to accept that we are Formless Awareness itself. We are Brahman but how can we, in the transactional reality, understand our value and worth? Now, one way to discover it is to see how you feel about yourself? Well how do you feel about yourself? Go into that feeling and see does that feeling allow you to progress in your day-to-day activities, or does it bring you back? So for example, If I feel that I am not providing any worth or value in my household, in my day job, in my education, by evaluating myself, I have to ask whether that is the case, am I or am I not? If I'm not, is this part of my ego's way of trying to bring me down? What we have to do is be objective and see what we actually bring to the table. Most of us bring a lot more than we think. There is a lot of people that hype themselves up and you see them from a mile away. But most of us, especially me, being an introvert, I feel uncomfortable to speak, unless I am going to say something that is of substance. Uh, I'm well known to be quiet in work meetings. I don't think I need to discuss anything when everyone has said their piece, and sometimes it's the same case in discussions with family and friends. Or sometimes I talk a lot wherever I know that I can bring value in, where I feel that my experience and my thoughts, my philosophy can help. I bring that in. So don't try to quantify it in the sense of is it gonna bring a lot of value? Not like that. Even if it's some value, it's better than when I say some, even 1% or 0.01% of value, still say something or do something that is of substance. Now the other thing is you also know your skills. You know what you've built yourself up to do. I know now that I've built my skillset on how to edit for the podcast. I'm still learning and I am still developing. I'm not at the peak of where I want to be. I'm not at the place I want to be yet, but that doesn't mean that what I'm doing is a bad job or I'm a bad podcaster, or I'm bad at what I do. No, I, I know that I'm providing some value, just that I know I can do better. That doesn't mean that I'm valuing myself less. And the same thing can be with yourself. Look at what you provide in life to your friends and family, to your work, to your, in your education, whatever you're doing, and just see what value you're bringing. Most of all in our relationships are we, you know, the only value that you need in relationships is love If you have love, everything else works. And when you have love, then there is no anger, there is no jealousy, there's no pride, there's no, you know, one-upmanship. There's no showmanship either. You know, we are, we are very humble in that sense and have that love. And in your relationships you'll find that value. Now you did mention credentials. Now a lot of people may get a PhD and they add doctor. That's nice. They've done a lot of work. Respect. Some may have done a lot of, may have done a lot of certifications. Some may talk about their resume or their CV about how many years they've worked at a particular company or, or in a particular field, what papers they've peer reviewed and or whatever. That's all well and good, but again, do those credentials mean anything to the Atman? I bring it back to the Atman because you know your True Self. Now, this true self does not need any credentials to feel worthy or to feel valued. Yeah, it doesn't because that is beyond those things. It's beyond quantity. It's even beyond quality. So Dillon Ji, they may try to justify their value and worth by credentials, but. In the end, we only have a short span of life and we're all either going to turn to dust either in the ground or enter into the river. We are not going to last long on this earth, so we need to know what we really are. That's the main key, and you are absolutely right that that isn't the right way. You see when you are, when you know you are complete as you are and that all these other things that you have are your attributes. So let's think of it this way. You as the Atman are Nirguna. You have zero attributes, but you as Dillon or me as Rahul in the transactional reality, we have certain attributes and we have to utilize those attributes to make this transactional reality, this Maya, this mithya a better place to live in. So look at your value and worth as what, what beauty you're bringing. You know, are you helping society at large? Not in the sense of you have to be like Mother Teresa or something like that, or open an NGO. I don't mean any of that. I mean, simply just you know, if you are being honest with a friend that is better service than working at a charity and yet backstabbing your friends or not being there for your loved ones, you know, that's what you have to look at. So for me, what I think is more important is knowing that you are Nirguna Brahman, knowing that you are Formless Awareness and then functioning in the world in a way that helps others. You are known by literally how you make other people feel, and if you are making other people feel uncomfortable, if people don't like being around you, then you know your value and worth. But if you know that when you enter a room, the whole room bright, you know, lightens up, everyone's smiling when you enter the room, people wanna speak to you. When you enter a room, people love being around you. They want to listen to what you gotta say. They want to know your opinion. That's when you know your real value and worth. A lot of people may end up being CEOs of a company. They may end up having so much success. They may become big social media influencers, but their value is according to their numbers. And as we know nothing in this world stays the same. Everything goes up and down. It fluctuates like anything. So go to that One within that does not fluctuate at all, and I can promise you that if you can do this, you will never ask this question of what's your value or worth. Nobody can question that to you because your answer's never gonna satisfy them anyway. People who look at things like that, they don't feel any value for themselves either. If I actually have real value for myself, I am not going to ask you what, what you bringing to the table? I don't care. All I care about is, am I making you feel happy? Am I making you feel peaceful? And I'm not saying this as Rahul, I'm saying this, or the Bearded Mystic. I'm saying this as a general human being, like that's the way we should make people feel. So all I can say, you know, you've been part of the Bearded Mystic community for a while, and if you want know your value and worth, I will tell you, you mean everything to our community and everyone that's in our community means the world to me anyway. And you all have made me grow. So if anything, if I'm growing, you are definitely growing and I pray that I'm always growing and I always learn more and I always, you know, get closer and closer to spiritual enlightenment and in turn, all of us are going on that same trajectory. So your value and worth Dillon Ji is a lot more than possibly you know, and that's how I would like to end this episode because, and this is for everybody who's listened to this because you obviously have taken time to listen and take in what I've said. Anyone that enters the spiritual path, anybody, it doesn't matter who you follow., I, I don't care. Even if you think I'm not a spiritual person, even if you think I don't have any spiritual qualities, that's fine. Whatever path you are on, whatever makes you happy spiritually, let me say that you are bringing value and worth to this planet. Sri Krishna in the Bhagavad Gita talks about those four humans, that four categories of humans that benefit mankind, that benefit humanity and they are the ones that serve Him. You know, some do charitable acts, some are seekers of the truth, some are knowers of the truth. Wherever you are, some do things selfishly, but in the end, you want to distribute what you have, what whatever it is. All I know is if you've entered this path of spirituality, you are making this world a better place only on one condition though and that is that you practice exactly what you are being taught. And for people like me who have a YouTube channel, then whatever we, we are preaching here, we are practicing too. So, That's all I've got to say really. Thank you for this beautiful question, Dillon Ji. There's two more, that I know I have to answer from your email, so do look forward to them in the next couple of episodes. And if you would like to submit a question, and if any of you who have been listening to this, would like to submit a question, you can either complete the survey, which is in the video description and show notes below. Or you can send me an email on beardedmysticpodcast@gmail.com. Also, do support this podcast by signing up to our Patreon page. There, you can get bonus episodes, like my thoughts on the Upanishads and guided meditations, and conversations with the Bearded Mystic, along with blog posts, and which I do regularly on there. So please do sign up to that and it helps the podcast run, and I am thankful to each and every one of you who have been supporting me on Patreon. So, without you, this podcast wouldn't have been going on for as long as it is. So thank you for your support. We need more support. If you have the ability to contribute a little, please do. Thank you very much, and I'll see you at the next episode. Take care. Bye.