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
Traditional Non-Duality (Advaita Vedanta): Where Do I Start?
Emphasizing the path to understanding non-duality, we share the foundational texts essential for grasping Advaita Vedanta. We explore how each text plays a unique role in a seeker's spiritual journey and importance in building knowledge.
• Discussing the significance of approaching non-duality from a solid foundation
• Outlining essential texts: Upanishads, Brahma Sutras, and Bhagavad Gita
• Encouraging listeners to engage deeply with the teachings to enrich their spiritual journey
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Hello and welcome to another episode of the Bearded Mystic podcast, 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. So today I wanted to talk about you know where do I start if I am a follower of non-duality? Now, mind you, this is coming from the perspective of traditional non-duality. So, advaita Vedanta, and if we had to think about where do I begin, what's the best way to start? How can I truly understand Vedanta? So what we're going to be doing now and then is reading from Vedanta Sara, which is a text by Satyanandaji, and we will go over that. The whole point is that, as we're doing these daily kind of spontaneous discussions, reading from Vedanta Saro may be helpful for those that are beginning on this journey, so we'll title those as Vedanta Saro sessions. It's something that Swami Sarvabriyananda Ji recommends and obviously, whatever Swami Ji recommends, we take it very seriously. But it's one of those foundational texts which gives you a list of definitions, and so, with those definitions, you can rightfully understand what this spiritual foundation that's required for Advaita Vedanta. It's all there, basically, for you to take in. Now, what I also suggest is so, once we've read that. That means that we'll probably go into like a daily little kind of session into reading the Upanishads or something like that. So yeah, this is something spontaneously I'm thinking about. So you know, sometimes there's days when I probably don't have much to talk about and those are perfect for those occasions. But we can go into going through the process.
Speaker 1:For traditional Advaita is okay. You read a foundational text. This is something I recommend. But what we should start off with is the Upanishads. So the Upanishads will tell us exactly the knowledge of Brahman very directly. It's the core philosophy and this is required reading. Now I've been thinking about how we can do this, because I would love for us to read the Upanishads, but with the commentary of Adi Shankaraji, so we can understand it together and go through it together like a proper study. So what they do recommend is first to start with the Upanishads, obviously with the commentary of Adi Shankaracharya, because that is where the foundation of Advaita Vedanta is formulated.
Speaker 1:Then you go to the Brahma Sutras, or known as Vedanta Sutras, and they kind of they're aphorisms, they're little sutras, they're little sayings and they're very terse and it's not for everyone to understand. So that's where you kind of need the guidance of a commentary, and so that's where you can need the guidance of a commentary. So it's really important that that is also read, like the Brahma Sutra is read with the commentary. Then you have the Bhagavad Gita. Now the Bhagavad Gita is basically so if the Brahma Sutra is basically addressing, so Shravana so you're listening is the Upanishads, manana, which is the kind of the contemplation, reflecting and doubts and doing all that type of work, making sure there's logic. That's where the Brahma Sutras come in, with the commentary of Adi Shankaracharya, and then comes the practical aspect. The nididhyasana aspect, which you could say of the practical application of the teachings of the Upanishads, is in the Bhagavad Gita, and that also should be read with the commentary of Adi Shankaracharya.
Speaker 1:Now, the good thing is that all of those books with the commentaries are available on Amazon. So if you search Swami Gambiranandaji, he has eight of those Upanishads. He translates at least eight of them, and then I think also Chandogya Upanishad, which is not in there, but you can get that as a PDF, and the Bhradiyarayanika Upanishad. That is done by Swami Madhavanandaji, I think so. So so those are the Upanishads, but Brahma Sutra and the Bhagavad Gita you can get that on Kindle as well, or Amazon or any other. It's on Google Play as well, so you can get it there. Those are very important things to read, in my opinion, and they help you to understand the richness that Advaita Vedanta comes from.
Speaker 1:It's not just simply really knowing that you're it, I mean that's you know. Anyone can tell why that is and how that comes about, and describing the practical application of that. That's really important. You see, nobody can go into a psychotic breakdown if they've gone through the foundational work first. So, for example, the first sutra of the Brahman Sutra is, you know, now, therefore, an inquiry into Brahman, and what's interesting there is you don't need to be told what it says there in that very beginning is that you kind of dealt with the, uh, kind of the there's a, there's a, there's six, there's four guidelines. Uh, that you're meant to have those four characteristics.
Speaker 1:We've spoken about them before as well. Uh, so you know, do you have control of the mind? Have you? Do you have control over your desires? Do you have forbearance? Do you? Are you seeking liberation? Can you withdraw your senses within? Can you withdraw your mind within? Can you just simply observe? Uh, yeah, these little things, you know, when an emotion comes up, are you able to, like, stop an action from forming from that emotional, uh turbulence that's created? If those things aren't addressed prior to realization, they will come up after realization. And when they come up after realization, what you don't realize is that the truth hasn't entered deeply into your being. So here, and this is very important to understand, and this is why Advaita Vedanta is such an incredible philosophy. So, or Vedanta in general, you have the causal body, the Garana Shriya. We've spoken about this previously, but even more so. That is that's where avidya still functions.
Speaker 1:Ignorance, the individual ignorance, not ignorance as in you don't know facts, not that type of ignorance, the ignorance of your true nature or the not knowledge of your true nature. Now, that is known as Anadi beginningless. So what happens is when you have somebody who tells you what the direct truth is without you doing the required work to do so. So where you're not a seeker one, you're not going to appreciate the teaching as much. And even if you do, it's just the surface level, it's not going to go deep into the Ikaar and Ashuriga, it's not going to actually address the Avidya. So the Vidya, the knowledge in order to transcend the vidya, will not do much. So, because that ignorance is also beginningless, you can feel like, oh yeah, I've gained something, but actually all you've got is this kind of void of ignorance that you've not dealt with.
Speaker 1:And what the vidya does, what the Brahma vidya does, what the knowledge of brahman does, this brahma jnana that we talk about, what that does? It deals with the vidya, with the ignorance that you have, and says you know what? This is not real, this is a veil upon the truth, and my course goes into this. My course has a special section on just Avidya. It's a whole week where we go into Avidya and the whole point is to bring it out, to remove it completely. So you know that each week that I have in the course is literally a progression. You have to progress. If you don't, I would say you just stay on the current week until you've addressed those things. And the very first lesson that we talk about is suffering. Very first week is based on suffering. So the whole point is that all these things have to be addressed.
Speaker 1:And so where do you start? Like I said, said the Upanishads, then the Brahma Sutras, then the Bhagavad Gita. Now a lot of people read the Bhagavad Gita. It's all good, you can start with the Bhagavad Gita, but to truly understand the depth that Sri Krishna talks about, you need to know the Upanishads and therefore, to know the Upanishads, to understand them fully, you need the Brahma Sutra. So you need all three of them and therefore, after you've dealt with those doubts and delusions that the Brahma Sutra addresses, then you can practically apply it. It becomes a lot easier. So the Bhagavad Gita makes a lot more sense, because a lot of people can view the Bhagavad Gita as a dualistic text, all because they've not checked the other two. All because of that.
Speaker 1:And the other aspect is the reason why we would look at Vedanta Sara beforehand is because we need to know the definition. So when you go into the Upanishads it becomes a familiar, you know, kind of playing field for you. So I would say check out Swami Savabhrinandaji's Vedanta Sara lectures. They're not, they're going to be, they're much better than what I'm going to share with you. He is a great teacher of Vedanta and um, his, his explanations and his way of teaching is just beautiful. And I would always say check him out, check his work, um.
Speaker 1:But yes, I would just probably give you a more quick, concise version and less kind of formal, but make sure that you understand that the groundwork is necessary and don't don't try to jump too far. You know, someone had written, actually, a comment in my on one of my videos today. I saw it today and it was about how no foundation is necessary, because this is we are it. I mean I can't say that person is wrong from the ultimate perspective, but even from the ultimate perspective he'll be like, yeah, the foundation was necessary for you. For example, you know.
Speaker 1:So my son's going through physical therapy because he's delayed in walking right now and the biggest concern was well, even if we get him from sitting to walking, he will struggle to get up. So we need him to crawl, because that would be an easier step for him to then get up to walk, so he can get to his knees and walk. So that path cannot be that, that step cannot be. You can't, you can't forget the steps that you took to walk, basically. So everything has a process. So if you are truly understanding of Vedanta, of the truth, then you know that these, or if you know the power of the realization, then you know that one has to fully understand the groundwork. So that's my little spiel, but let me know your thoughts, let me see if you disagree, like comment and subscribe and rate and review, share this and, most of all, if you have any questions, let me know and join my Discord community and we can definitely chat more there. Okay, thank you, take care, namaste.
