May 21, 2025 • 13 mins
The Upanishads offer direct communication with consciousness itself, providing a philosophical foundation for the Bhagavad Gita and practical spiritual guidance for modern seekers.
• Upanishadic study connects us with our inner consciousness rather than human interpretations
• The Upanishads provide the philosophical grounding behind the Bhagavad Gita's message
• Eknath Easwaran's translations capture the essence in accessible language for modern readers
• Finding commonalities between spiritual traditions rather than fault-finding leads to deeper understanding
• The first verse of the Isha Upanishad contains the essence of spiritual wisdom
• Recognizing the divine in all hearts naturally leads to compassion and equanimity
• True renunciation happens naturally when desires fall away like autumn leaves
• Everything belongs to the supreme reality, eliminating both pride and covetousness
• This perspective aligns with Nirankari Mission's first principle about being trustees of our possessions
Please subscribe, like, and comment with your thoughts or questions. I'd love to know if you'd like me to continue exploring the Upanishads in future episodes!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
Hello and welcome to another episode of the Bearded
Mystic Podcast, and I am yourhost, rahul N Singh.
Thank you for taking out thetime today to either watch or
listen to this podcast episode,and we will be today.
I want to talk about why, youknow, one should keep studying,
(00:23):
actually, the Upanishads and whythat should be our constant
study.
I feel that one you will notregret it, as the title of the
video says, because once youread the Upanishads, you are not
communicating with anythinghuman.
(00:43):
You are communicating withconsciousness itself, your own
inner consciousness.
And these words are there topoint you back to yourself, back
to the true self, back to theAtman and the reason why I feel
(01:04):
like we should keep studying theUpanishads.
I know a lot of people talkabout studying the Bhagavad Gita
and I do agree that should bestudied too.
But why do I say study theUpanishads?
Because that holds aphilosophical means behind the
(01:25):
message of the Bhagavad Gita.
Now, for example, there's times, numerous times, where Sri
Krishna actually kind ofdeliberately takes from the
Upanishads.
One is to show that it's acontinuum, it's nothing
(01:45):
different.
But at the same time it alsoshows the significance of the
Upanishads that in order to livea practical spiritual life.
You need to have thisphilosophy to ground you.
You need to have thisunderstanding to ground you and
there's nothing better than youknow reading the Upanishads and
(02:08):
my most.
There's two versions I reallylike, um a lot.
One is obviously Swami NikkalanDaji's um, kind of uh, his
Bhagavad Gita and his uh, hisUpanishads, the full volume one.
That's really good, but the onethat I really love the most
(02:32):
because I feel like it justspeaks to the heart, it gets the
essence correct.
So it's not sometimes you don'twant, you don't need the
literal meaning of theUpanishads, because sometimes it
then can you know things canget lost.
But when someone understands theessence of what's being said
and then is able to translatethat into English, eknath
(02:57):
Iswaran is the best translationyou can have of the Upanishads
and also of the Bhagavad Gita.
In my opinion, there'ssomething accessible with the
way he words things, with theway he kind of speaks about
(03:18):
things.
So, yes, you know, obviouslythere's going to be people who
are going to be like, well, youknow, we need things to be
accurate and and all this, and Iagree with that to some degree.
But, um, you know, like, forexample, some may argue that.
(03:39):
Oh well, you know, such andsuch person has the
bhagavad-gita as it is, but aswe know, it really isn't as it
is.
It's been manipulated with andthat's the Sanskrit that's been
manipulated too.
So it's not even a positivething.
(04:03):
But when it comes to the I don'tknow with Ignat Asran's
translations, I know with IgnatAsran's translations, even his
books I find them to be quiteaccessible for today's age.
And there's something, you see,we live in a world today where
it's very easy to say, well, myreligion is better than your
(04:23):
religion, and we're better andyou're not, and there's this
undercurrent of kind ofcompetition.
And there's this undercurrentof kind of competition.
But what Ignat G does very wellis he shows the similarities
and embraces whatever is similar.
(04:43):
That's not saying that heprobably doesn't acknowledge the
differences.
Everyone can see thedifferences, but you know when
our mindset is such andacknowledge the differences.
Everyone can see thedifferences, but you know when
our mindset is such.
That's why you know a lot ofpeople these days that are, I
find their mentality is to fault, find.
You know, they always arelooking to find faults with
something and see somethingwrong.
(05:05):
But recently what I've beentrying to do is listen as if I
am to discover something new.
And this way of thinking bringsyou to a mind that is able to
think, discern.
(05:25):
Because I'm able to slow down,because when you're fault
finding, you're being critical,but you're not really slowing
down to understand.
You know, you're quick to findthe one fault, then the next
fault, then the next fault.
So, but if you want to study theUpanishads, you have to
actually give your mind rest andyou have to kind of.
(05:46):
You know, just let theUpanishads speak to you.
So I'll give you an example.
This is in the isha upanishad,so it's the very first verse.
This is how ignatisrantranslates it.
The lord is enshrined in thehearts of all.
The lord is a supreme reality.
(06:08):
Rejoicing him throughrenunciation, covet, nothing.
All belongs to the lord.
Now, obviously, in this, likewe can say, he's talking about
sagaganabraman or he's talkingabout Ishvara, the Upanishad the
Lord is enshrined in all, inthe hearts of all.
It's manifest in everything.
But when you say the hearts ofall, your heart becomes open too
(06:30):
, because you know what.
You recognize that the Lord isthere within you too.
Do you see what I mean here?
So when you say in all, even inthe people, so when you say in
all, even in the people that youdon't like, even in the people
that do not like you, you see,the lord in them is enshrined,
enshrined like a temple that ineach heart is a temple of the
(06:51):
lord.
So how would you see a temple ofthe lord?
Would you see the temple of theLord with disgust or with
hatred, or with intolerance?
No, you would have a differentapproach.
You will be coming from, youwill feel in your heart this
sense of calmness, of joy, oftenderness, of gentleness, of
(07:16):
sensitivity, and that's what weneed more of in this world.
You know, um, and you know somepeople may argue well, you know
, but this culture of toxicmasculinity, in my opinion, the
people that have to prove theirmasculinity are the most, uh,
(07:37):
are definitely not the posterboys of masculinity at all.
In fact I would say it's theexact opposite.
And uh, but here you know, ifyou see the lord in all, there's
nothing masculine there.
The lord neither has a gender.
So it's quite clear.
Here he says the lord is asupreme reality, but the supreme
(07:58):
reality, the most importantthing, the own, the.
If it's a supreme reality,there's nothing bigger than that
, nothing beyond that.
So think about, if that's inall, how can you see difference
in others?
Forget about hating ordisliking, or loving or whatever
(08:19):
.
Just the fact that, how can yousee any difference?
It's all one, in this very line, you see, it's all one.
And then rejoicing him throughrenunciation.
So you know, once you have,once you have him, once you have
this Lord, this Ishwara, thisBrahman, this formless awareness
(08:44):
, this Nirakar, do you wantanything else?
You naturally renounce things.
For example, what desires?
If you are fully immersed inthe rejoicing of this Supreme
One, how can you think ofanything else?
(09:05):
How can you think of anotherdesire?
All desires just naturally getrenounced.
It's not even you have to say,well, I don't want this anymore.
No, it just naturally happens.
You do not have to say anything, it just drops.
And that's true renunciation.
When it just drops away, likewhen a leaf has, when it's
(09:26):
autumn or fall, as they say inAmerica, and the leaves turn
yellow, brown and they fall away, they drop from the branches,
from the twigs, just like that.
Your desires are like thoseleaves.
Once you rejoice in the Lord,then these desires will fall
(09:47):
away like the leaves fall awayfrom a tree.
That's how simple it is.
And then covet nothing.
You know, don't be proud ofanything.
Why?
Because it's not yours, it'sall the Lord's.
That's the supreme reality,that's enshrined in everything,
in the hearts of all.
So not just anything with aliving heartbeat, but anything
(10:10):
and everything, anything living,anything that is manifest in
this universe, it's enshrined inthat.
And therefore, how can you beproud of anything you have or
desire, something that otherpeople have?
You can't.
You can't have any of thosethings because it all belongs to
the Lord, as it says.
You can't have any of thosethings because it all belongs to
(10:35):
the Lord, as it says.
When I was given Brahmagyan inthe Nirankarayam mission, the
first principle that we areasked to follow is body, mind
and material possessions are alla gift from God, from Nirankar,
and they are to be treated assuch.
And you are just merely atrustee, that's all you.
And they are to be treated assuch and you're just merely a
trustee, that's all you are.
You know they're on loan to youand literally, that's the first
(10:57):
line of the Isha Upanishad, thefirst principle.
And you know, if you thought,and you know we are used to hear
growing up that if you followthat first principle, you've
mastered spirituality.
That's the key to spirituality,and it's true.
Once you truly say thateverything belongs to this
formless, to this nirvana, to togod, what are you gonna be
(11:21):
proud of?
What are you gonna try and haveownership over?
How can you have ownership overanything?
So that shows that that youknow.
We all know, like, for example,if this house is in my name or
a car is in my name or thiscomputer is in my name, it's
temporary.
Once I die, once this body goes, then it's not really going to
(11:46):
be belonging to me.
God knows what will happen toit afterwards and god will know,
because it's god's anyway.
But again, it all belongs togod.
So whoever it goes to is goingto god.
Yeah, because god is enshrinedin all.
And and this is why I thinkthis the upanishads should be
(12:07):
studied, because once youcontemplate upon it, once you
think about it, once you havesomething translatable like this
, it just makes absolute sense.
What I'm going to do in the nextcouple of videos is, obviously,
I just did the first verse ofthe Isha Upanishad here and
(12:29):
we'll probably come back to this, but I'm going to go through
the second chapter of theBhagavad Gita by Ignatis Raran
and I use a differenttranslation.
I did the commentary, but nowwe're going to go through a
different one.
We're going to do it adifferent way and we're just
going to see how it's so clearwith what he says.
(12:53):
But I hope you've enjoyed thisepisode where we've kind of gone
into the first verse of theYisra'ul Upanishad.
If you'd like me to go throughthe Upanishads, let me know.
I'm more than happy to do soand we can definitely do that.
So, and we can definitely dothat, okay, so, without taking
(13:18):
any more of your time, I justwant to say thank you for
listening.
If you like this video, do youlike it?
Comment on it.
Please let me know what youthink.
If you have any questions, letme know.
Share this with your friendsand family and, most of all,
take care, stay safe and see yousoon.
See you in the next video.
Take care, namaste.
Hello and welcome to another episode of the Bearded
Mystic Podcast, and I am yourhost, rahul N Singh.
Thank you for taking out thetime today to either watch or
listen to this podcast episode,and we will be today.
I want to talk about why, youknow, one should keep studying,
(00:23):
actually, the Upanishads and whythat should be our constant
study.
I feel that one you will notregret it, as the title of the
video says, because once youread the Upanishads, you are not
communicating with anythinghuman.
(00:43):
You are communicating withconsciousness itself, your own
inner consciousness.
And these words are there topoint you back to yourself, back
to the true self, back to theAtman and the reason why I feel
(01:04):
like we should keep studying theUpanishads.
I know a lot of people talkabout studying the Bhagavad Gita
and I do agree that should bestudied too.
But why do I say study theUpanishads?
Because that holds aphilosophical means behind the
(01:25):
message of the Bhagavad Gita.
Now, for example, there's times, numerous times, where Sri
Krishna actually kind ofdeliberately takes from the
Upanishads.
One is to show that it's acontinuum, it's nothing
(01:45):
different.
But at the same time it alsoshows the significance of the
Upanishads that in order to livea practical spiritual life.
You need to have thisphilosophy to ground you.
You need to have thisunderstanding to ground you and
there's nothing better than youknow reading the Upanishads and
(02:08):
my most.
There's two versions I reallylike, um a lot.
One is obviously Swami NikkalanDaji's um, kind of uh, his
Bhagavad Gita and his uh, hisUpanishads, the full volume one.
That's really good, but the onethat I really love the most
(02:32):
because I feel like it justspeaks to the heart, it gets the
essence correct.
So it's not sometimes you don'twant, you don't need the
literal meaning of theUpanishads, because sometimes it
then can you know things canget lost.
But when someone understands theessence of what's being said
and then is able to translatethat into English, eknath
(02:57):
Iswaran is the best translationyou can have of the Upanishads
and also of the Bhagavad Gita.
In my opinion, there'ssomething accessible with the
way he words things, with theway he kind of speaks about
(03:18):
things.
So, yes, you know, obviouslythere's going to be people who
are going to be like, well, youknow, we need things to be
accurate and and all this, and Iagree with that to some degree.
But, um, you know, like, forexample, some may argue that.
(03:39):
Oh well, you know, such andsuch person has the
bhagavad-gita as it is, but aswe know, it really isn't as it
is.
It's been manipulated with andthat's the Sanskrit that's been
manipulated too.
So it's not even a positivething.
(04:03):
But when it comes to the I don'tknow with Ignat Asran's
translations, I know with IgnatAsran's translations, even his
books I find them to be quiteaccessible for today's age.
And there's something, you see,we live in a world today where
it's very easy to say, well, myreligion is better than your
(04:23):
religion, and we're better andyou're not, and there's this
undercurrent of kind ofcompetition.
And there's this undercurrentof kind of competition.
But what Ignat G does very wellis he shows the similarities
and embraces whatever is similar.
(04:43):
That's not saying that heprobably doesn't acknowledge the
differences.
Everyone can see thedifferences, but you know when
our mindset is such andacknowledge the differences.
Everyone can see thedifferences, but you know when
our mindset is such.
That's why you know a lot ofpeople these days that are, I
find their mentality is to fault, find.
You know, they always arelooking to find faults with
something and see somethingwrong.
(05:05):
But recently what I've beentrying to do is listen as if I
am to discover something new.
And this way of thinking bringsyou to a mind that is able to
think, discern.
(05:25):
Because I'm able to slow down,because when you're fault
finding, you're being critical,but you're not really slowing
down to understand.
You know, you're quick to findthe one fault, then the next
fault, then the next fault.
So, but if you want to study theUpanishads, you have to
actually give your mind rest andyou have to kind of.
(05:46):
You know, just let theUpanishads speak to you.
So I'll give you an example.
This is in the isha upanishad,so it's the very first verse.
This is how ignatisrantranslates it.
The lord is enshrined in thehearts of all.
The lord is a supreme reality.
(06:08):
Rejoicing him throughrenunciation, covet, nothing.
All belongs to the lord.
Now, obviously, in this, likewe can say, he's talking about
sagaganabraman or he's talkingabout Ishvara, the Upanishad the
Lord is enshrined in all, inthe hearts of all.
It's manifest in everything.
But when you say the hearts ofall, your heart becomes open too
(06:30):
, because you know what.
You recognize that the Lord isthere within you too.
Do you see what I mean here?
So when you say in all, even inthe people, so when you say in
all, even in the people that youdon't like, even in the people
that do not like you, you see,the lord in them is enshrined,
enshrined like a temple that ineach heart is a temple of the
(06:51):
lord.
So how would you see a temple ofthe lord?
Would you see the temple of theLord with disgust or with
hatred, or with intolerance?
No, you would have a differentapproach.
You will be coming from, youwill feel in your heart this
sense of calmness, of joy, oftenderness, of gentleness, of
(07:16):
sensitivity, and that's what weneed more of in this world.
You know, um, and you know somepeople may argue well, you know
, but this culture of toxicmasculinity, in my opinion, the
people that have to prove theirmasculinity are the most, uh,
(07:37):
are definitely not the posterboys of masculinity at all.
In fact I would say it's theexact opposite.
And uh, but here you know, ifyou see the lord in all, there's
nothing masculine there.
The lord neither has a gender.
So it's quite clear.
Here he says the lord is asupreme reality, but the supreme
(07:58):
reality, the most importantthing, the own, the.
If it's a supreme reality,there's nothing bigger than that
, nothing beyond that.
So think about, if that's inall, how can you see difference
in others?
Forget about hating ordisliking, or loving or whatever
(08:19):
.
Just the fact that, how can yousee any difference?
It's all one, in this very line, you see, it's all one.
And then rejoicing him throughrenunciation.
So you know, once you have,once you have him, once you have
this Lord, this Ishwara, thisBrahman, this formless awareness
(08:44):
, this Nirakar, do you wantanything else?
You naturally renounce things.
For example, what desires?
If you are fully immersed inthe rejoicing of this Supreme
One, how can you think ofanything else?
(09:05):
How can you think of anotherdesire?
All desires just naturally getrenounced.
It's not even you have to say,well, I don't want this anymore.
No, it just naturally happens.
You do not have to say anything, it just drops.
And that's true renunciation.
When it just drops away, likewhen a leaf has, when it's
(09:26):
autumn or fall, as they say inAmerica, and the leaves turn
yellow, brown and they fall away, they drop from the branches,
from the twigs, just like that.
Your desires are like thoseleaves.
Once you rejoice in the Lord,then these desires will fall
(09:47):
away like the leaves fall awayfrom a tree.
That's how simple it is.
And then covet nothing.
You know, don't be proud ofanything.
Why?
Because it's not yours, it'sall the Lord's.
That's the supreme reality,that's enshrined in everything,
in the hearts of all.
So not just anything with aliving heartbeat, but anything
(10:10):
and everything, anything living,anything that is manifest in
this universe, it's enshrined inthat.
And therefore, how can you beproud of anything you have or
desire, something that otherpeople have?
You can't.
You can't have any of thosethings because it all belongs to
the Lord, as it says.
You can't have any of thosethings because it all belongs to
(10:35):
the Lord, as it says.
When I was given Brahmagyan inthe Nirankarayam mission, the
first principle that we areasked to follow is body, mind
and material possessions are alla gift from God, from Nirankar,
and they are to be treated assuch.
And you are just merely atrustee, that's all you.
And they are to be treated assuch and you're just merely a
trustee, that's all you are.
You know they're on loan to youand literally, that's the first
(10:57):
line of the Isha Upanishad, thefirst principle.
And you know, if you thought,and you know we are used to hear
growing up that if you followthat first principle, you've
mastered spirituality.
That's the key to spirituality,and it's true.
Once you truly say thateverything belongs to this
formless, to this nirvana, to togod, what are you gonna be
(11:21):
proud of?
What are you gonna try and haveownership over?
How can you have ownership overanything?
So that shows that that youknow.
We all know, like, for example,if this house is in my name or
a car is in my name or thiscomputer is in my name, it's
temporary.
Once I die, once this body goes, then it's not really going to
(11:46):
be belonging to me.
God knows what will happen toit afterwards and god will know,
because it's god's anyway.
But again, it all belongs togod.
So whoever it goes to is goingto god.
Yeah, because god is enshrinedin all.
And and this is why I thinkthis the upanishads should be
(12:07):
studied, because once youcontemplate upon it, once you
think about it, once you havesomething translatable like this
, it just makes absolute sense.
What I'm going to do in the nextcouple of videos is, obviously,
I just did the first verse ofthe Isha Upanishad here and
(12:29):
we'll probably come back to this, but I'm going to go through
the second chapter of theBhagavad Gita by Ignatis Raran
and I use a differenttranslation.
I did the commentary, but nowwe're going to go through a
different one.
We're going to do it adifferent way and we're just
going to see how it's so clearwith what he says.
(12:53):
But I hope you've enjoyed thisepisode where we've kind of gone
into the first verse of theYisra'ul Upanishad.
If you'd like me to go throughthe Upanishads, let me know.
I'm more than happy to do soand we can definitely do that.
So, and we can definitely dothat, okay, so, without taking
(13:18):
any more of your time, I justwant to say thank you for
listening.
If you like this video, do youlike it?
Comment on it.
Please let me know what youthink.
If you have any questions, letme know.
Share this with your friendsand family and, most of all,
take care, stay safe and see yousoon.
See you in the next video.
Take care, namaste.
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