June 6, 2025

The Illusion of Exclusive Spiritual Paths: Finding Your Way to Truth

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The Illusion of Exclusive Spiritual Paths: Finding Your Way to Truth

Send us a text The concept of a single truth with multiple spiritual pathways is often viewed as controversial in religious circles. Many spiritual traditions make exclusive claims about being the only pathway to truth, creating a dichotomy between those who are "saved" and those who aren't. • Exclusive spiritual paths can make followers feel special but may actually create delusion and keep people bound to samsara • Many religious institutions claim to be the only place to find truth or rea...

Send us a text

The concept of a single truth with multiple spiritual pathways is often viewed as controversial in religious circles. Many spiritual traditions make exclusive claims about being the only pathway to truth, creating a dichotomy between those who are "saved" and those who aren't.

• Exclusive spiritual paths can make followers feel special but may actually create delusion and keep people bound to samsara
• Many religious institutions claim to be the only place to find truth or realization
• Vedanta accepts various pathways including Abrahamic religions because they contain elements of faith and devotion
• Consciousness is fundamental to our experience and shapes our world depending on its relationship with mind
• Multiple valid spiritual approaches exist: devotional practices (chanting, puja), intellectual understanding, karma yoga (observing our actions)
• Nobody can follow any single spiritual path 24/7 – we naturally incorporate multiple approaches
• Those claiming exclusivity often remain heavily invested in the material world they claim is temporary
• Spiritual exclusivity often leads to arrogance and ego rather than humility
• If the One became many, it's logical that many paths would lead back to the One

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00:00 - The Controversy of One Truth

01:56 - Exclusivity Creates Spiritual Delusion

04:16 - Multiple Paths Within Personal Practice

08:40 - Ego and Arrogance in Exclusivity

10:22 - From One Truth to Many Paths

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00:00:00.441 --> 00:00:19.152
If I said that there's only one truth, but there's many paths that are leading to the truth, that could be seen as rather controversial, in fact somewhat not acceptable or not acceptable my words.

00:00:19.152 --> 00:00:53.264
So I want to talk about this because it seems to be that, regardless of what religion as leading to the truth, whether they speak of the truth is one thing or another, but at least they're leading to the truth.

00:00:53.264 --> 00:00:56.911
But there are some paths which are, like, purely exclusive.

00:00:56.911 --> 00:01:21.007
It's either our path or there's a door to hell or to wherever, to the next life, and this type of path, if you follow, that's really exclusive, it can make you feel special, can make you feel like really honored.

00:01:21.007 --> 00:01:30.963
But could it set delusion, could it actually harm you in the long run?

00:01:30.963 --> 00:01:56.697
What if the exclusive path that you chose or that, or what if it chose you, ends up being not so exclusive but in fact keeps you bound, keeps you stuck in the cycle of samsara, of the world of birth and death, birth and death.

00:01:56.697 --> 00:02:07.840
And we continuously go through that cycle and I've been thinking about this a lot because, you know, often we hear that this is the only place you can get the truth.

00:02:07.840 --> 00:02:20.985
I've been to so many places that say that we are the only ones that have this Brahm Gyan or this knowledge or this.

00:02:20.985 --> 00:02:26.425
We are the only path that can make you realize God.

00:02:26.425 --> 00:02:33.840
We're the only path that Is accepted by Sri Krishna.

00:02:33.840 --> 00:02:48.334
And you know, whenever that's heard, especially today, even for me, it just comes across as a little bit culty.

00:02:48.334 --> 00:02:56.210
Let's be honest about it, because the truth couldn't be farther from that.

00:02:57.080 --> 00:03:16.807
In fact, the reason why Vedanta would even accept even Abrahamic religions as a pathway, as a as a a realistic path, is because somewhat there is some element of faith or devotion going on, so it would accept it.

00:03:16.807 --> 00:03:17.710
It will say you know what?

00:03:17.710 --> 00:03:25.979
There is a faith towards a personal god, there is worship of a personal god, so something is happening.

00:03:25.979 --> 00:03:28.688
And say that the heaven is true.

00:03:28.688 --> 00:03:30.425
Well, you're going to that heaven.

00:03:30.425 --> 00:03:35.388
You claim its eternity, that's where you want to be, but we know that heaven is never eternal.

00:03:35.388 --> 00:03:39.885
You know, you can say that for a very long time, but you will come back on earth.

00:03:39.885 --> 00:04:16.192
Now, obviously, that would be the Vedantic viewpoint, but the fact is that we'll still be able to see it as a pathway, a genuine path, now, when it comes to really understanding this reality, and not just understanding it, but understanding, but realizing that you are this absolute, you know, formless consciousness, and that this consciousness is the fundamental existence of our experience, of our lives.

00:04:16.192 --> 00:04:19.930
Without this we would not be able to function.

00:04:19.930 --> 00:04:24.992
Consciousness is inherent within everything.

00:04:24.992 --> 00:04:37.670
It just, and, depending on the mind and its relationship with consciousness, is how consciousness shapes the world that we live in.

00:04:39.012 --> 00:04:45.908
That that, for me, requires many ways to get there now.

00:04:45.908 --> 00:05:03.555
For, for example, you may be of a devotional mindset, so you doing chanting or uh puja or some sort of um worship is absolutely fine.

00:05:03.555 --> 00:05:08.845
You may sing kirtans and that will get you there, and that's brilliant.

00:05:08.845 --> 00:05:10.529
That's a pathway.

00:05:10.529 --> 00:05:16.072
Yours may be like intellectually understanding this wisdom.

00:05:16.072 --> 00:05:32.136
Therefore, it takes a lot of mind power to understand and then to transcend into the intellect and then transcend that into direct realization, and it's possible.

00:05:32.136 --> 00:05:40.233
That's a pathway when we become the observers in our actions of karma yog.

00:05:40.233 --> 00:05:43.238
That is a genuine pathway.

00:05:43.740 --> 00:05:53.427
You could have a mix of many paths within you, and and that's what I really want to point to, is that nobody has the exclusivity of the truth.

00:05:53.427 --> 00:05:55.891
Everyone follows different paths.

00:05:55.891 --> 00:06:06.651
Now someone may say well, you know, I'm a hardcore uh, such and such in such religious institution there that you belong to Now.

00:06:06.651 --> 00:06:14.588
I'm a hardcore follower of so-and-so, but guess what you'll notice with those people?

00:06:14.588 --> 00:06:28.858
They are just as invested in the world, as that they claim is a testing ground or is not real, or is not the place where we need to always be, where sin is possible.

00:06:28.858 --> 00:06:35.682
If you think about it, they are totally invested in the world.

00:06:35.682 --> 00:06:58.653
And when you have many paths and you accept that there's many paths to the truth, one, you've automatically become boundless by your just mindset, just mindset alone, which then leads a door to open up boundlessness into even experience.

00:06:58.673 --> 00:07:24.105
Trying to make is, if you think your path is exclusive and just one and that this is the only place you can get it, then you fundamentally will have to accept the world as it is the reason why I'm saying I know I'm probably jumping so many steps like to get to what I'm saying, but what I'm trying to say is that you cannot be exclusive just to one path.

00:07:24.105 --> 00:07:37.778
You may claim that the one person that you're following is the ultimate Messiah and is the only one, and that's the only one of today and there's no one else, and that may be true to you.

00:07:37.778 --> 00:07:40.557
That's what's real for you, right?

00:07:40.557 --> 00:07:42.437
So I'm not questioning that.

00:07:42.437 --> 00:07:47.300
But are you worshipping 24-7?

00:07:47.300 --> 00:07:53.440
Are you practising your devotion 24-7?

00:07:53.440 --> 00:07:56.238
Are you practising your path 24-7?

00:07:56.238 --> 00:08:02.002
And see, nobody can follow any path 24-7.

00:08:02.002 --> 00:08:04.557
We're always doing multiple paths.

00:08:04.557 --> 00:08:10.999
Now, for example, when you're sleeping, you can make that into a spiritual practice.

00:08:10.999 --> 00:08:20.901
Just remember the ultimate in that moment before you fall asleep, and you know that will be churning in the background.

00:08:20.901 --> 00:08:24.579
You see, we have to keep working on this.

00:08:24.579 --> 00:08:39.024
We have to keep working on understanding that there's many paths within our own practice and therefore, if those paths are leading us to that one truth, then that's all that matters.

00:08:40.129 --> 00:08:53.090
And anyone that then belittles other people's paths because they think they're inferior, because they have a superior path one, you've opened the door to comparison and to a super ego.

00:08:53.090 --> 00:08:57.577
So you don't necessarily become humble in that light.

00:08:57.577 --> 00:09:01.672
You actually become more arrogant and egotistical.

00:09:01.672 --> 00:09:17.692
And that's what I found, not only in my own life, through my own reflections, whenever I felt like something is the only way and what that brings, and especially when I see other people.

00:09:17.692 --> 00:09:31.541
And you know, when people say that theirs is the only path and they can guarantee, and all this stuff, I actually doubt that they have fully, you know, have that full, 100% faith.

00:09:31.541 --> 00:10:02.201
I think there's more doubt than there is faith, because those that are comfortable in knowing that they have the truth and how they got to the truth and how they are practicing the truth, they never have to make someone feel inferior or make themselves feel superior, because, in the end, it's that one same truth that's playing the whole game and it appears to be many, and that's the funny part of this.

00:10:02.201 --> 00:10:11.142
So, and and just to just since I've got the thought, if the you know, let's say that the one became the many.

00:10:11.142 --> 00:10:22.600
Well, if you think about this fundamentally, if the one can become the many, then why is it that there's only one path towards one truth?

00:10:22.600 --> 00:10:32.712
Why is it that there's only one path towards one truth when, obviously, the one created many or manifested as many, then many will be the path to that one.

00:10:32.712 --> 00:10:34.375
Anyway, let me know what you think.

00:10:35.496 --> 00:10:37.239
Welcome to the Beard of Mystic podcast.

00:10:37.239 --> 00:10:38.922
I'm your host, rahul N Singh.

00:10:38.922 --> 00:10:41.125
I always forget to mention this.

00:10:41.125 --> 00:10:45.482
Now, I'm always meant to mention it after the hook line, or my supposed hook line.

00:10:45.482 --> 00:10:45.950
It's not really a hook line, but I always forget to mention this.

00:10:45.950 --> 00:10:46.260
I'm always meant to mention it after the hook line, or my supposed hook line.

00:10:46.260 --> 00:10:47.822
It's not really a hook line, but I always forget.

00:10:47.822 --> 00:10:59.176
But anyway, do like this video or the podcast, do comment, do subscribe and you know, you can follow me on any Of the social media apps.

00:10:59.176 --> 00:11:08.331
I'm on there somehow and Buy my merch and hope to see you in the next video.

00:11:08.331 --> 00:11:10.775
Okay, take care, namaste.