May 9, 2025 • 22 mins
The Bearded Mystic podcast explores interfaith cooperation and spiritual transformation in turbulent times, examining how a new Pope might influence American faith communities and what this means for Hindu practitioners.
• Updates on the upcoming "Resting in Formless Awareness" course launching in August/September
• Course designed to prepare students for ultimate realization with weekly group meetings and one-on-one coaching
• Analysis of Pope Leo XIV's selection and what an American Pope means for Catholicism and interfaith relations
• Discussion of how political fear inhibits spiritual growth across all faiths
• Call for faith communities to unite around shared values rather than competing
• Emphasis on creating harmonious societies where spiritual growth flourishes
• Reflections on maintaining spiritual integrity when voting and civic participation
Join our "Resting in Formless Awareness" course - launching August/September 2024! Early subscribers will receive a special introductory rate. Let me know in the comments if you're interested.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hello and welcome to another episode of the Bearded
Mystic podcast, and I'm yourhost, rahul N Singh.
Thank you for joining today,and we've got quite a few things
to talk about.
Quite a few things havehappened in the world, it seems.
So a lot to discuss, a lot toprobably unpack, and what does
(00:21):
that mean being a Hindupodcaster?
And we'll go into that in aminute.
So first things first.
I mean I wanted to give anupdate on the resting in
formless awareness course.
So I've obviously beentraveling and the week towards
(00:45):
traveling and then traveling andthen coming back has been like
a total of five weeks and thatmeans I haven't worked on any of
the course, the work for thecourse material, for five weeks,
and that's pretty long.
So I've started that back upand the plan is to write all the
(01:10):
episodes, so or write all thecourse material.
So that will be.
I'm hoping it'll get done inJune, at least by the end of
June, hopefully before that, butthat's the target I've set.
Then it's going to be obviouslyediting, uh, the written piece
(01:30):
and then recording and thenediting, uh, the first five
weeks of content, uh, and thenposting that.
So that means I'm looking at anAugust, september date of
starting the course, and thenobviously, once five or six
(01:51):
weeks is done, that means we'lldo the next batch, and so on.
The more details about how thecourse is going to look like
will obviously come out now morefrequently, so expect more
information about that.
The main purpose of the courseis one uh, you know I'm not that
(02:13):
.
The main purpose is that youshould, at the end of the course
, feel like you are ready.
If somebody had to pointBrahman, the formless awareness,
in front of you, you would getit straight away.
So the whole point is the pointis that it makes you ready for
(02:41):
the ultimate realization, makesyou ready for the ultimate
realization.
Now, personally speaking, youknow, I would always say it's a
guru that can give you thatrealization.
And I'm not a guru, I'm merelya content creator, helping
people as I go along.
(03:02):
I can mentor you, that's forsure, and try and facilitate a
growth, but when it comes to theultimate realization, I do
believe it's a guru that givesthat.
Obviously I've been an inquiryfollower, so I believe my guru
can provide that.
There are other gurus who Ifeel also have that and they can
(03:32):
also give you that realization.
So all my course does is itgives you the language, it gives
you the purpose, it gives youthe direction in order to just
understand reality as it is,understand truth as it is,
understand that you are formlessawareness, that you are Brahman
, that you are.
That that's the whole purposeof the course.
(03:54):
And the course does do that.
Like if you were, say, if you'vehad Brahmgyan before, you've
had a pointing, you've met aguru, and just say maybe your
practice is stagnant.
Well, what can you do then?
What's next on the list?
Maybe this course can reallybenefit you in that sense that
(04:18):
it will give you the tools, theknowledge for you to understand
what you have grasped before.
So it brings what you'vegrasped before into the now,
into this very moment.
And that's the purpose.
If you say are a beginner on thejourney and you feel like you
don't know where to go, I thinkthe course provides you, in my
(04:42):
opinion, the brilliant startingplace for you to be ready for
the ultimate truth.
So when it's revealed to you,you just get it.
It's that simple and that isthe ultimate aim with the course
.
Or maybe you've got it, Maybeyou've understood it and you
(05:03):
just want to spend more timewith it.
The course has, I would say,six, seven weeks of just solid,
just being in that awareness andjust exploring that awareness,
understanding why you are notthe body and mind, essentially
in a very, you know, kind ofdelicate but also very carefully
(05:30):
curated material to help youunderstand that, so that when it
comes to just understandingthat you are awareness, it's
something that just flows veryeasily.
Now, alongside the course,obviously, you have the videos
that come out on the daily basis.
Um, for the course, uh, that'sof right now it's like 25 week
(05:53):
course, um, with with one weekwhich will probably be like a
recess where we um, halfwaythrough, evaluate, see where we
are and see where we want to go.
So that's also kind of plannedout.
Um, but the whole point is that, alongside just the course
(06:13):
material, there is going to beweekly meetings.
So when you meet with me weeklyas a group, that's where you
can ask questions as a group, sothat peer learning is important
.
Alongside that, there will bethe chance for one-to-one
(06:35):
coaching too, and and at noextra cost, by the way so
whatever you pay monthly rightnow we're there's going to be a
special month offer.
The first month will have aspecial offer and then that will
be your monthly rate goingforward.
But if after the month, afterthat special price period, the
(06:56):
normal price will be $99 permonth, or if you want to do the
annual one, it will be $990 peryear.
So obviously you get a bit of adiscount if you do the yearly
thing, the main point uh of theum.
(07:19):
So the price encompasses all ofthose things happening.
So you have that one-to-oneopportunity to ask questions.
Uh, obviously they get recorded.
They will only be posted.
The one-to-ones will only beposted, obviously with
permission to the group itself.
So it's not something that willgo outside of um, the uh, the
(07:44):
community page.
But what will happen is thegroup meetings may have
questions which we may use foryoutube going forward, or we may
have guided meditations that goout, um, that were done in the
group setting.
So a number of things are goingto be, you know, going to be
done.
(08:05):
Then, once that main course iskind of resting, formless
awareness, once that course isestablished, then obviously you
will also have access to othercourses that will be created as
a response.
So we may do a Vedanta Sarakind of beginning, so where we
(08:26):
go into the foundational bits.
Then we'll do an Ashtavakra orGita, where we explore the
Ashtavakra Gita together as acourse, and again, that would be
something.
The whole point is that thatbecomes a school of learning for
you, and it's not necessarily,um, just about me creating
(08:48):
content like I do on youtube,but it's more of like, okay,
we're working together for acause where we can explore the
divine together, explore ourtrue nature together and be
connected to the supreme andremain in that oneness.
So that's ultimately what thecourse is going to do.
(09:08):
So that's a nice littleintroduction to the course and
what's going to happen.
Let me know if you'reinterested, let me know in the
comments, and, and obviously,more information will be shared
shortly when we start gearing upfor publishing it.
And just wanted to do a massiveshout out to Sunny Sharma of the
(09:31):
Self Inquiry School, who gaveme the idea.
We talked about it and it'sbecause of him I'm going forward
with that.
So, uh, so yes, um, obviouslythe big news is we have a new
pope, and the new pope is anamerican um, interestingly from
(09:57):
chicago.
And uh, obviously is um notfriendly towards the mega crowd,
or shall we say the mega crowdis not friendly towards him?
I think he operates on adifferent wavelength.
But what does this mean foramerican spirituality?
I mean, this is the big umthing for me, is that?
(10:20):
The big thing for me is thatChristianity in America is very,
very different.
I've had conversations withfriends who are Christians and
they've talked about how some ofthem have even changed churches
because their pastor was MAGAand, you know, was Trumpian and
(10:42):
a fan of Trump, and they didn'tlike that.
Uh, they probably gave it a goand then realized how dangerous
it was, especially when it cameto um, the vaccine and and so
and so on and public healthinformation and as well as the
(11:09):
racial dynamics that play withTrumpian kind of ideology.
So this new Pope, pope Leo XIVinteresting.
He has been against the currentadministration, it seems through
his tweets.
Very interesting, even thoughhe's more you know, kind of.
I don't think he's going tomake much headway in terms of
accepting the LGBTQ community oranything like that.
(11:34):
I don't know how he's going toapproach certain marginalized
groups, but he's certainlyagainst the current
administration's migrationpolicy and I think that's a
breath of fresh air.
What that also tells us on theglobal level, america is no
longer the superpower or thecountry that people look up to,
(11:57):
the fact that before, the wholepoint of never voting for an
american pope was becauseamerica would be seen as a
superpower and it'd be highlyinfluential.
But I think now I think withwhat trump has done in his
second term, has actuallydestroyed america's kind of
power ranking in the world.
Um, you know, you havecountries now that kind of know
(12:21):
how to play with Trump's ego andget what they want and
therefore you know he may thinkhe's getting a great deal from
them.
Really, it's probably a bigloss for the American consumers.
I'm not going to lie, like evenfor me.
I've said that if there's anopportunity to move from the us,
(12:44):
I'm not going to say no to it.
I mean, obviously a lot offactors go in, because we have a
wife and a son, so those thingswill have to be considered.
But you can kind of understandthe kind of importance that this
(13:04):
moment plays.
One thing that I love about PopeLeo XIV is that he wanted gun
reform, and I think this is theone thing as a British person I
will never understand is theneed to have a gun, possess a
gun, the Second Amendment, andthe thing is like right, right
now, the government is a tyranny.
(13:24):
So, if you know.
So, it's just strange that thesecond amendment doesn't apply
in this situation.
Um, but I'm just against thepossession of guns.
I don don't know why we need it.
I don't know why peopleindividually need those things.
Whether you live in a ruraltown, I get told that you know
(13:47):
it may take an hour for policeto come.
That's not a reason for you tohave a gun and shoot someone.
So I do feel the fact that thePope is for gun reform, but most
likely for climate change andaddressing the climate crisis is
(14:11):
for migrants and certainmarginalized groups, for Gaza,
positive.
Uh, we need such, uh, greatleaders.
Um, and I hope that this resetsthe.
The church of america, uh, thecatholics that kind of, were
(14:35):
magified that they understandthat their new pope is not one
of those.
Um, he's berated, uh, jd vancea number of times, but
specifically he's mentioned himonce in the five tweets that
he's written, which tells you alot about what he thinks.
(14:56):
Uh and um, and yeah, jd, pleasestay away from our current pope
.
Uh, we don't want you anywherenear him.
But what does this mean for, uh, like even indian spirituality?
Um, as you can see, myauthority is giving away again
(15:19):
um, so what?
What does that mean for me as aHindu, or you as a Hindu or
Sikh, or?
Or maybe you don't associatewith any religion.
What does that mean for us?
I think the meaning is this,very simply, that this is a
(15:39):
moment in time where we alsohave to assess our views and
assess how we want theconversation to go forward.
When you have a Pope that'sgoing to be vocal on certain
issues against the currentadministration, we as a minority
group, what are we going to doas a response?
(16:03):
Now, it's scary to know that,especially during the election,
it was scary to see so manypeople that I know, who claim to
be spiritual, vote for someonewho is the antithesis of our
spiritual values and and, in myopinion, if you vote for the
(16:23):
economy more than your values ofspirituality, that means
spirituality is not everythingfor you.
Yeah, you can be conservativefiscally, but you've got to
remember the president isn'tjust defined by that and as we
see, one, he's made a mess ofthe economy.
(16:44):
That's one thing right now, buttwo, he's making a mess of the
social fabric of America, and Idon't think a lot of people are
seeing what that's going to leadto, and you know, when people
live in fear, that means theycannot grow.
Now, for any church or for anyspiritual place of worship,
(17:09):
growth is important.
When I say growth, I don't meannumbers, I mean the actual
growth of spiritual values.
That can only happen when fearis pushed to the side.
Is pushed to the side, butright now, fear is being
installed because there could bea fear of a recession, fear of
losing your job, fear of theeconomy tanking, fear of you
(17:35):
losing your 401k there's so manythings that can be, uh, that
will affect you, so that fearcripples us.
It stops us from growingspiritually.
We don't turn to god, we don'tturn to spirituality for help in
these situations, and we mayturn to prayer, we may turn to
(17:56):
meditation, possibly, but it'sto deal with our fear, not for
our growth towards spiritualsalvation or liberation.
So the whole point is thatwe've got to grow spiritually.
So, as a hindu, in this currentmoment when a new pope is
(18:22):
created, I think the number onething is interfaith needs to
take.
You know the the a major placein discussion we need to talk
about.
You know there is ade-churching going on and now,
if you think about it, this isnow going to be a battle between
the church and it's theseevangelicals not every
(18:46):
evangelical, obviously, butmajority of them that are
(19:08):
tearing the line for thedestruction of our education,
health care system and economicthe economic agenda, where it's
more about the rich, not thepoor, which is again against the
current new pope's um kind ofagenda.
(19:29):
So we as uh, hindus, or anyonefor that matter I think this is
a moment where we get togetherand we help the poor, we help
the people that need us.
We make sure that everyone hasa voice.
We can even push the agendathat even the where the catholic
(19:51):
church has to start acceptingthe lgbtq community, that we
push the government to accept asmany genders, because it is a
spectrum and there's no need toshy away from basic biology.
You know, and most of all, youknow how can we work together to
(20:18):
create a society wherespiritual growth is in harmony
with each other rather thanagainst each other.
It's not about the churchhaving more, the um for islam
having more, for hinduism havingmore or buddhism having more.
It's not about that.
It's about how can wecollectively get together and
(20:39):
make sure things just workbetter for the society and when
we have that bigger goal in mind.
The quality of our teachingsalso improves the quality of our
communities, the smallercommunities that we're part of,
how they prosper and grow.
So my hope is that this will,this moment, will create
(21:05):
something beautiful.
You know, I congratulate theCatholics for their new Pope and
I think it's an interestingchoice.
Obviously, as we go forward,there may be views that we
disagree on, and we can voicethose disagreements.
But most of all, when it comesto fighting against this
(21:30):
authoritarian tyrant that is inthe White House and his
government and hisadministration, I think it's
very necessary that we raise ourvoices and you know, whenever
the new pope does that, I'll bemore than happy to amplify with
that and work together to make amore um, graceful society, a
(21:53):
more harmonious and wonderfulsociety, because that's what
matters in the end.
Uh, so I'm going to leave itthere.
Uh, I was hoping to do thevedanta series, but for some
reason, um vedanta sarah series,but my, uh, my kindle didn't
want to open up today, so Iaccepted.
(22:14):
Whatever happened anyway, takecare.
Uh, hopefully I may see youtomorrow.
I may not, I'm not sure if I'mgonna record something, but if I
do, um, I'll see you tomorrow.
I may not, I'm not sure if I'mgoing to record something, but
if I do, I'll see you tomorrow.
Otherwise, have a great weekend.
Take care, namaste.
Hello and welcome to another episode of the Bearded
Mystic podcast, and I'm yourhost, rahul N Singh.
Thank you for joining today,and we've got quite a few things
to talk about.
Quite a few things havehappened in the world, it seems.
So a lot to discuss, a lot toprobably unpack, and what does
(00:21):
that mean being a Hindupodcaster?
And we'll go into that in aminute.
So first things first.
I mean I wanted to give anupdate on the resting in
formless awareness course.
So I've obviously beentraveling and the week towards
(00:45):
traveling and then traveling andthen coming back has been like
a total of five weeks and thatmeans I haven't worked on any of
the course, the work for thecourse material, for five weeks,
and that's pretty long.
So I've started that back upand the plan is to write all the
(01:10):
episodes, so or write all thecourse material.
So that will be.
I'm hoping it'll get done inJune, at least by the end of
June, hopefully before that, butthat's the target I've set.
Then it's going to be obviouslyediting, uh, the written piece
(01:30):
and then recording and thenediting, uh, the first five
weeks of content, uh, and thenposting that.
So that means I'm looking at anAugust, september date of
starting the course, and thenobviously, once five or six
(01:51):
weeks is done, that means we'lldo the next batch, and so on.
The more details about how thecourse is going to look like
will obviously come out now morefrequently, so expect more
information about that.
The main purpose of the courseis one uh, you know I'm not that
(02:13):
.
The main purpose is that youshould, at the end of the course
, feel like you are ready.
If somebody had to pointBrahman, the formless awareness,
in front of you, you would getit straight away.
So the whole point is the pointis that it makes you ready for
(02:41):
the ultimate realization, makesyou ready for the ultimate
realization.
Now, personally speaking, youknow, I would always say it's a
guru that can give you thatrealization.
And I'm not a guru, I'm merelya content creator, helping
people as I go along.
(03:02):
I can mentor you, that's forsure, and try and facilitate a
growth, but when it comes to theultimate realization, I do
believe it's a guru that givesthat.
Obviously I've been an inquiryfollower, so I believe my guru
can provide that.
There are other gurus who Ifeel also have that and they can
(03:32):
also give you that realization.
So all my course does is itgives you the language, it gives
you the purpose, it gives youthe direction in order to just
understand reality as it is,understand truth as it is,
understand that you are formlessawareness, that you are Brahman
, that you are.
That that's the whole purposeof the course.
(03:54):
And the course does do that.
Like if you were, say, if you'vehad Brahmgyan before, you've
had a pointing, you've met aguru, and just say maybe your
practice is stagnant.
Well, what can you do then?
What's next on the list?
Maybe this course can reallybenefit you in that sense that
(04:18):
it will give you the tools, theknowledge for you to understand
what you have grasped before.
So it brings what you'vegrasped before into the now,
into this very moment.
And that's the purpose.
If you say are a beginner on thejourney and you feel like you
don't know where to go, I thinkthe course provides you, in my
(04:42):
opinion, the brilliant startingplace for you to be ready for
the ultimate truth.
So when it's revealed to you,you just get it.
It's that simple and that isthe ultimate aim with the course
.
Or maybe you've got it, Maybeyou've understood it and you
(05:03):
just want to spend more timewith it.
The course has, I would say,six, seven weeks of just solid,
just being in that awareness andjust exploring that awareness,
understanding why you are notthe body and mind, essentially
in a very, you know, kind ofdelicate but also very carefully
(05:30):
curated material to help youunderstand that, so that when it
comes to just understandingthat you are awareness, it's
something that just flows veryeasily.
Now, alongside the course,obviously, you have the videos
that come out on the daily basis.
Um, for the course, uh, that'sof right now it's like 25 week
(05:53):
course, um, with with one weekwhich will probably be like a
recess where we um, halfwaythrough, evaluate, see where we
are and see where we want to go.
So that's also kind of plannedout.
Um, but the whole point is that, alongside just the course
(06:13):
material, there is going to beweekly meetings.
So when you meet with me weeklyas a group, that's where you
can ask questions as a group, sothat peer learning is important
.
Alongside that, there will bethe chance for one-to-one
(06:35):
coaching too, and and at noextra cost, by the way so
whatever you pay monthly rightnow we're there's going to be a
special month offer.
The first month will have aspecial offer and then that will
be your monthly rate goingforward.
But if after the month, afterthat special price period, the
(06:56):
normal price will be $99 permonth, or if you want to do the
annual one, it will be $990 peryear.
So obviously you get a bit of adiscount if you do the yearly
thing, the main point uh of theum.
(07:19):
So the price encompasses all ofthose things happening.
So you have that one-to-oneopportunity to ask questions.
Uh, obviously they get recorded.
They will only be posted.
The one-to-ones will only beposted, obviously with
permission to the group itself.
So it's not something that willgo outside of um, the uh, the
(07:44):
community page.
But what will happen is thegroup meetings may have
questions which we may use foryoutube going forward, or we may
have guided meditations that goout, um, that were done in the
group setting.
So a number of things are goingto be, you know, going to be
done.
(08:05):
Then, once that main course iskind of resting, formless
awareness, once that course isestablished, then obviously you
will also have access to othercourses that will be created as
a response.
So we may do a Vedanta Sarakind of beginning, so where we
(08:26):
go into the foundational bits.
Then we'll do an Ashtavakra orGita, where we explore the
Ashtavakra Gita together as acourse, and again, that would be
something.
The whole point is that thatbecomes a school of learning for
you, and it's not necessarily,um, just about me creating
(08:48):
content like I do on youtube,but it's more of like, okay,
we're working together for acause where we can explore the
divine together, explore ourtrue nature together and be
connected to the supreme andremain in that oneness.
So that's ultimately what thecourse is going to do.
(09:08):
So that's a nice littleintroduction to the course and
what's going to happen.
Let me know if you'reinterested, let me know in the
comments, and, and obviously,more information will be shared
shortly when we start gearing upfor publishing it.
And just wanted to do a massiveshout out to Sunny Sharma of the
(09:31):
Self Inquiry School, who gaveme the idea.
We talked about it and it'sbecause of him I'm going forward
with that.
So, uh, so yes, um, obviouslythe big news is we have a new
pope, and the new pope is anamerican um, interestingly from
(09:57):
chicago.
And uh, obviously is um notfriendly towards the mega crowd,
or shall we say the mega crowdis not friendly towards him?
I think he operates on adifferent wavelength.
But what does this mean foramerican spirituality?
I mean, this is the big umthing for me, is that?
(10:20):
The big thing for me is thatChristianity in America is very,
very different.
I've had conversations withfriends who are Christians and
they've talked about how some ofthem have even changed churches
because their pastor was MAGAand, you know, was Trumpian and
(10:42):
a fan of Trump, and they didn'tlike that.
Uh, they probably gave it a goand then realized how dangerous
it was, especially when it cameto um, the vaccine and and so
and so on and public healthinformation and as well as the
(11:09):
racial dynamics that play withTrumpian kind of ideology.
So this new Pope, pope Leo XIVinteresting.
He has been against the currentadministration, it seems through
his tweets.
Very interesting, even thoughhe's more you know, kind of.
I don't think he's going tomake much headway in terms of
accepting the LGBTQ community oranything like that.
(11:34):
I don't know how he's going toapproach certain marginalized
groups, but he's certainlyagainst the current
administration's migrationpolicy and I think that's a
breath of fresh air.
What that also tells us on theglobal level, america is no
longer the superpower or thecountry that people look up to,
(11:57):
the fact that before, the wholepoint of never voting for an
american pope was becauseamerica would be seen as a
superpower and it'd be highlyinfluential.
But I think now I think withwhat trump has done in his
second term, has actuallydestroyed america's kind of
power ranking in the world.
Um, you know, you havecountries now that kind of know
(12:21):
how to play with Trump's ego andget what they want and
therefore you know he may thinkhe's getting a great deal from
them.
Really, it's probably a bigloss for the American consumers.
I'm not going to lie, like evenfor me.
I've said that if there's anopportunity to move from the us,
(12:44):
I'm not going to say no to it.
I mean, obviously a lot offactors go in, because we have a
wife and a son, so those thingswill have to be considered.
But you can kind of understandthe kind of importance that this
(13:04):
moment plays.
One thing that I love about PopeLeo XIV is that he wanted gun
reform, and I think this is theone thing as a British person I
will never understand is theneed to have a gun, possess a
gun, the Second Amendment, andthe thing is like right, right
now, the government is a tyranny.
(13:24):
So, if you know.
So, it's just strange that thesecond amendment doesn't apply
in this situation.
Um, but I'm just against thepossession of guns.
I don don't know why we need it.
I don't know why peopleindividually need those things.
Whether you live in a ruraltown, I get told that you know
(13:47):
it may take an hour for policeto come.
That's not a reason for you tohave a gun and shoot someone.
So I do feel the fact that thePope is for gun reform, but most
likely for climate change andaddressing the climate crisis is
(14:11):
for migrants and certainmarginalized groups, for Gaza,
positive.
Uh, we need such, uh, greatleaders.
Um, and I hope that this resetsthe.
The church of america, uh, thecatholics that kind of, were
(14:35):
magified that they understandthat their new pope is not one
of those.
Um, he's berated, uh, jd vancea number of times, but
specifically he's mentioned himonce in the five tweets that
he's written, which tells you alot about what he thinks.
(14:56):
Uh and um, and yeah, jd, pleasestay away from our current pope
.
Uh, we don't want you anywherenear him.
But what does this mean for, uh, like even indian spirituality?
Um, as you can see, myauthority is giving away again
(15:19):
um, so what?
What does that mean for me as aHindu, or you as a Hindu or
Sikh, or?
Or maybe you don't associatewith any religion.
What does that mean for us?
I think the meaning is this,very simply, that this is a
(15:39):
moment in time where we alsohave to assess our views and
assess how we want theconversation to go forward.
When you have a Pope that'sgoing to be vocal on certain
issues against the currentadministration, we as a minority
group, what are we going to doas a response?
(16:03):
Now, it's scary to know that,especially during the election,
it was scary to see so manypeople that I know, who claim to
be spiritual, vote for someonewho is the antithesis of our
spiritual values and and, in myopinion, if you vote for the
(16:23):
economy more than your values ofspirituality, that means
spirituality is not everythingfor you.
Yeah, you can be conservativefiscally, but you've got to
remember the president isn'tjust defined by that and as we
see, one, he's made a mess ofthe economy.
(16:44):
That's one thing right now, buttwo, he's making a mess of the
social fabric of America, and Idon't think a lot of people are
seeing what that's going to leadto, and you know, when people
live in fear, that means theycannot grow.
Now, for any church or for anyspiritual place of worship,
(17:09):
growth is important.
When I say growth, I don't meannumbers, I mean the actual
growth of spiritual values.
That can only happen when fearis pushed to the side.
Is pushed to the side, butright now, fear is being
installed because there could bea fear of a recession, fear of
losing your job, fear of theeconomy tanking, fear of you
(17:35):
losing your 401k there's so manythings that can be, uh, that
will affect you, so that fearcripples us.
It stops us from growingspiritually.
We don't turn to god, we don'tturn to spirituality for help in
these situations, and we mayturn to prayer, we may turn to
(17:56):
meditation, possibly, but it'sto deal with our fear, not for
our growth towards spiritualsalvation or liberation.
So the whole point is thatwe've got to grow spiritually.
So, as a hindu, in this currentmoment when a new pope is
(18:22):
created, I think the number onething is interfaith needs to
take.
You know the the a major placein discussion we need to talk
about.
You know there is ade-churching going on and now,
if you think about it, this isnow going to be a battle between
the church and it's theseevangelicals not every
(18:46):
evangelical, obviously, butmajority of them that are
(19:08):
tearing the line for thedestruction of our education,
health care system and economicthe economic agenda, where it's
more about the rich, not thepoor, which is again against the
current new pope's um kind ofagenda.
(19:29):
So we as uh, hindus, or anyonefor that matter I think this is
a moment where we get togetherand we help the poor, we help
the people that need us.
We make sure that everyone hasa voice.
We can even push the agendathat even the where the catholic
(19:51):
church has to start acceptingthe lgbtq community, that we
push the government to accept asmany genders, because it is a
spectrum and there's no need toshy away from basic biology.
You know, and most of all, youknow how can we work together to
(20:18):
create a society wherespiritual growth is in harmony
with each other rather thanagainst each other.
It's not about the churchhaving more, the um for islam
having more, for hinduism havingmore or buddhism having more.
It's not about that.
It's about how can wecollectively get together and
(20:39):
make sure things just workbetter for the society and when
we have that bigger goal in mind.
The quality of our teachingsalso improves the quality of our
communities, the smallercommunities that we're part of,
how they prosper and grow.
So my hope is that this will,this moment, will create
(21:05):
something beautiful.
You know, I congratulate theCatholics for their new Pope and
I think it's an interestingchoice.
Obviously, as we go forward,there may be views that we
disagree on, and we can voicethose disagreements.
But most of all, when it comesto fighting against this
(21:30):
authoritarian tyrant that is inthe White House and his
government and hisadministration, I think it's
very necessary that we raise ourvoices and you know, whenever
the new pope does that, I'll bemore than happy to amplify with
that and work together to make amore um, graceful society, a
(21:53):
more harmonious and wonderfulsociety, because that's what
matters in the end.
Uh, so I'm going to leave itthere.
Uh, I was hoping to do thevedanta series, but for some
reason, um vedanta sarah series,but my, uh, my kindle didn't
want to open up today, so Iaccepted.
(22:14):
Whatever happened anyway, takecare.
Uh, hopefully I may see youtomorrow.
I may not, I'm not sure if I'mgonna record something, but if I
do, um, I'll see you tomorrow.
I may not, I'm not sure if I'mgoing to record something, but
if I do, I'll see you tomorrow.
Otherwise, have a great weekend.
Take care, namaste.
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