Beyond Surface Spirituality: What Young Seekers Actually Want

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The future of spirituality depends on providing depth and relevance to younger generations who seek direct experience rather than surface-level teachings. Traditional spiritual institutions must adapt by empowering youth in leadership positions and offering timeless wisdom that addresses contemporary questions about consciousness, meaning, and inner fulfillment.

• The disconnect between temple teachings and what young spiritual seekers (ages 17-40) want is concerning
• Modern spiritual seekers want transformation, not just attendance at rituals or ceremonies
• The problem with surface-level spirituality is it temporarily distracts from suffering rather than addressing it
• Youth empowerment through genuine leadership positions is essential for spiritual institutions to remain relevant
• Timeless scriptural wisdom must replace predictable, shallow teachings to engage younger generations
• The generation gap typically comes from older people's rigidity rather than youth unwillingness to learn
• Direct experience of the divine is what matters most - without it, teachings have little impact
• AI may someday replace some spiritual functions, but can never replace the guru-disciple transmission

What do you think about the future of spiritual institutions? How can they remain relevant, and is there anything you agree or disagree with me on? Let me know your thoughts!

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
I've been thinking what is the future of
spirituality?
It's been something that hasbeen consuming my mind, shall I
say, for quite some time.
I've been thinking you knowwhat does it look like Now, when
it comes to my podcast, I havea lot of fact, the large chunk

(00:23):
of my audience that listens ismainly young people below
between the ages, I'd say, of 17and 40.
That's the chunk of my, youknow, audience.
That I've received from anumber of them is that what you

(00:49):
teach on your podcast is notnecessarily what we hear when we
go to the temple or whereverthey go for their spiritual
place of worship, wherever theygo.
And in a way this is sadbecause really, what I teach on
the podcast, it should be like asupplementary kind of
information.

(01:09):
But when the information I givebecomes what should be taught
in the temples or in thesatsangs, wherever they talk
about, that's scary.
So for me, I've been thinkingabout well, where does this

(01:29):
leave young people like willthey still go to the temples?
Will they still go to thesatsangs that are arranged,
regardless of what spiritualinstitution has them?
And what are they looking for?
Are they looking for more, morequality content where they can
reflect?
Are they actually looking forknowledge of the scriptures.

(01:54):
Now, what I teach on here, alot of it is based on the
scriptures.
We've also looked at theBhagavad Gita, and so there is
obviously a desire for people tolisten to that, especially
young people.
And I think the times of justdoing the run-of-the-mill type

(02:16):
of spirituality has kind ofdiminished.
And now if you go to a satsangor you go to the temple, it's
not about just marking yourattendance, it's actually well,
what am I going to get from here?
And especially now when ourmind is divided in so many

(02:43):
different ways?
What I mean by that is ourattention is going in many
directions.
What purpose does places thatoffer satsang have in the future
?
Like, how can you convince a 20year old, a 30 year old, a 40
year old to not look at theirphone and pay complete attention

(03:05):
to you?
How can that be possible?
And you know, funny enough, Ithought I'll ask.
You know chat GPT about this,and they literally say that
youth demands relevance.

(03:26):
So, before we go any further aswe discuss this aspect, welcome
to the Bearded Mystic Podcast.
I'm your host, rahul N Singh,and please do like, comment,
subscribe.
You know the drill and share it.

(03:49):
Share it.
So, yes, young people, but theywant relevance.
So, you know, today, when wehave in New York I often say
this if you have in New York,where people are talking about
consciousness studies, vedantahas the answers, indian
spirituality has the answers,and so the youth are looking for

(04:11):
that.
It's not just a matter ofphilosophy, it's a matter of
being relevant.
I want to feel something morethan just a body and mind,
because I can sense thatsomething about it isn't
complete, you know.
So how can I get to thatfeeling of being complete?
How can I get to that feelingof feeling full, feeling like

(04:35):
there's nothing left to do in mylife In a good way, not in a
way where we give up, but morein the sense of well, you know,
I'm satisfied with life, andwhatever I get from now is
amazing.
I'm not going to like chase it,but I'm happy.
I'm not going to like chase it,but I'm happy, I'm content.
So, if you think about it, theonly way that any satsang will

(05:00):
have any relevancy is if theycater to the youth.
And this is a big thing,because what I mean by catering
to the youth, it's not merelygetting them to be involved more
like you may hold a discussionor you may hold um retreats for,
especially for the youth, Iwould say giving them actual
leadership positions would bemore beneficial.

(05:23):
Interestingly, there's um,there is a spiritual institution
that's doing that right now.
I think it's a whole load ofyoung people who are kind of
leading departments and you'rekind of sensing that there's an
energy there and, you see, ifyour wisdom is based on

(05:48):
scripture and not based onhearsay from many different
people, you're going to havewisdom with you easily.
But if you have, if you only,kind of the fear that people
have, like, for example, peopleI know who go to the temple, to

(06:10):
the mandir, they say, well, youknow, it's the same thing that's
said again and again.
You know, we know what we haveto do, we, we know what puja we
have to do, we know what aratiwe need to do.
They tell us a particular, youknow, puja that we have to do
because of our certaincircumstances.
So we kind of know what's goingto happen, what's going to be
said, but is it really relevant?
Is it actually giving me peaceof mind?

(06:32):
Because that activity at thetime, yes, my mind is distracted
from it and so therefore, Ifeel peace because I'm not
thinking about my problem, butas soon as I leave, the problem
appears again, and so that meanswhatever our suffering is, or
our pain is, is not being dealtwith.
In fact it's being allowed togrow, and that is more dangerous

(06:55):
than anything else.
So I feel that you know, you'dreally want those answers.
You know to who am I, you knowwhat am I, why is this suffering
, and you know how can I live apurposeful life, a meaningful
life, and I don't think we haveto go far.

(07:16):
We, if we are to remainrelevant, we are to go to
teachings that are timeless,because they will, that will be
able to kind of infuse itself inevery generation.
That's the point of it beingcalled timeless wisdom.
So I would say it's time thatmaybe I feel that the future of

(07:41):
spirituality would be more basedon actually going deeper into
the scriptures and not allowingthe surface level to kind of I
think I've got bitten but notallowing the surface level to

(08:02):
kind of present itself as thedepth, if you know what I mean.
So we want something deeper.
We're not going to settle withwhat's just said as a nice
little headline type of thing.
So the future is really in thehands of the youth and when the
old guard, I would say, iswilling to give that to the

(08:24):
youth, I think there will be adifference in in spirituality.
And and that doesn't mean thatand I'm not actually talking
about age specifically, I'mactually talking about attitude,
because I I feel that whenyou're younger you're willing to
learn more.
You, you know, you're willingto kind of soak in more

(08:46):
information and you know thatthere's more to do.
I think as you get older youcan become more rigid.
I've noticed that creeping withme too and you know, thankfully
, I'm able to kind of take toget lost.
But not everyone will do that.
They will become rigid too.
So it's really important that weunderstand that the future of

(09:09):
spirituality is in providingdepth but at the most, you know,
giving youth that kind ofempowerment to drive things
forward, to drive initiativesforward.
And if you have, for example,you know you may have a temple
in the temples in the mondays,you have committee members and

(09:30):
you'll see that most of thecommittee members are old people
.
How are they going to relate tothe youth unless they have a
young mindset that they'readapting to the times?
Like, how can you guaranteethat?
And for that you need to haveyoung people on board to even to
understand those views.
You see, the generation gapisn't actually coming from the

(09:52):
younger people, it's actuallyfrom the older people, and
that's what I found too, thatthat tends to be the case where
the younger people will bewilling to learn, but it's older
people that are more like kindof again enclosed and and I
guess that comes with age andyou want more security and all
that type of stuff.

(10:12):
So it makes sense, but it's notwhat is going to allow, you
know, satsangs or any spiritualinstitution or the mand is to
grow and remain relevant.
So I think that will beimportant for sure, and I think

(10:41):
it's.
And the most important thing, ifI must say, is that direct
experience is what matters themost and if that is not offered,
then nobody really is going tocare about what you say or teach
or present.
I hope that through my podcast,that there is at least a sense
that you can experience Brahman,you can experience the divine,

(11:04):
you can experience what thisultimate reality is when we talk
about it, when we talk about itbeing formless, when we talk
about it being awareness andwhen we say that, you know, be
aware of awareness or rest informless awareness.
Be aware of formless awareness.

(11:25):
I hope that all these littlereminders that we give, they
bring you back to your true selfand so when you come back to
your true self, you want toremain in that more and more,
because you know the taste ofthat is something that, once
you've tried it, you can't letit go.
You want that moment to becomeeternal and that can happen and

(11:52):
that does happen and it ishappening and this is what I
feel if any spiritualinstitution wants to last for
the future.
Because you got ai coming up andtrust me, ai could possibly
replace gurus, and I thinkthat's scary.
In fact, that's one thing I amtotally not for.
Like I believe, yes, ai canhelp you, but no way can you

(12:14):
replace the spiritualtransmission that a guru can
give you.
I have benefits, benefited somuch from having a guru that can
personally bless me and I don'tthink that can ever be replaced
.
So, but that only is there,because I felt the direct

(12:35):
experience of the divine when Iwas with my guru and I think
when I'm with my guru and evennow, when the guru is not even
physical present in thislocation, regardless, one can
still connect to it, but thatonly happens when we have the
direct experience, and thedirect experience is the most
important thing.
So that's really what Ifundamentally wanted to say

(12:59):
today, and I hope I've presentedmy views clearly.
But tell me, what do you think?
Do you think what is the futureof spiritual institutions, how
can they remain relevant, and isthere anything you agree or
disagree with me on, or a pointthat I didn't think about maybe
I could talk about in a futureepisode?

(13:19):
Let me know.
Okay, thank you very much forlistening.
Take care, namaste.