Cultish: Leaving Hinduism | Ex Brahmin Tells All, Pt 1

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Happy nerdy candle shopping. All right welcome back ladies and gentlemen to cultish entering the kingdom of the cults.

01:16

My name is Jeremiah Roberts one of the co -hosts here very super excited. Andrew it's good to have you back man coming from Utah.

01:24

Yeah man I'm glad to be back and soon you're going to be out here hanging out with me for a little bit so that's going to be fun.

01:30

Yeah it's very super excited we're going to be doing some stuff collaborating with a podcast up there talking about exorcisms and all that sort of stuff we're looking forward to that but for now

01:38

I'm very excited. I've got my good friend Sandeep in the studio. How you doing man? Doing good.

01:44

Good. Glad to be here. Yeah it's crazy man so we're gonna be talking about Hinduism and it's very interesting because I don't know how

01:51

I ended up following you. I've been following you for a couple years. Tell everyone about your Facebook. You're kind of on Facebook.

01:57

You've got a page there. What's it called? So currently I'm mostly on Facebook.

02:03

My page name is I am an ex -Hindu Brahmin. Brahmin because a lot of people have asked why did you put

02:11

Brahmin at the end. Brahmin means I come from the highest caste. There are four castes.

02:17

So basically I'm on Facebook and I recently joined on YouTube. Yeah yeah so you're just getting started so I'm glad to have you here and I really want to get into your story.

02:28

We're going to be doing a couple episodes with you. So you grew up in India for the majority of your life.

02:35

What part of India were you born in? From the northern east part from the state

02:41

West Bengal. I come from Durgapur. It's close to Calcutta.

02:48

So Calcutta used to be the capital of India before I believe 1912.

02:54

So you know the Britishers they had the main hub was in Calcutta. Okay yeah so.

03:01

No it's interesting man. So just take us back into like the world of India. So we did a series about a year or so ago with our good friend brother

03:09

Daniel Stephen Kearney who's an active missionary kind of over in the Nepal area. He's had a lot of experience in that part of the world and that documentary

03:17

Gods of the New Age you know we watched a little bit of last night. I think there's a similar story to that where a lot of the

03:24

New Age practices that we will talk about in later episodes whether it's yoga chakra alignment like transcendental meditation all these things have their origins in India specifically

03:37

Hinduism. Then you talk about the gods the New Age like like Kali like Krishna Vishnu.

03:43

I feel we've always heard about these things in passing but we I don't think too many people have actually seen that how they're truly interconnected with the

03:51

Hindu scriptures. So you've got a couple of things there. What would you say first first of all we've just defined terms what are kind of like the sacred books or the sacred text.

03:59

So we have the Bible as Christians. What's what are the sacred texts that you saw to like growing up in India.

04:07

So when it comes to Hinduism like you said when it comes to yoga meditation

04:12

Kundalini specifically these three things India is the capital world's yoga capital.

04:19

Everyone knows that when it comes to scriptures Hinduism is vast.

04:25

It's really complicated for like in Christianity. We have the Bible. We have the

04:31

Old Testament the New Testament very easy. You know when it comes to Hinduism there is

04:37

Vedas that's the most sacred which any

04:42

Hindu if you ask they always say Vedas go to the Vedas. What does the Vedas say. Then we have the

04:49

Mahabharata. Mahabharata is a story basically a fight a war between cousins actually

04:57

Kauravas and the Pandavas and then Krishna is having a dialogue with with a person called

05:06

Arjuna. And then from Mahabharata the book six is the Bhagavad Gita which is you know if you go to Hare Krishna they have two main scriptures.

05:17

In their website if you search is the Bhagavad Gita which is a part of Mahabharata and then we have the

05:23

Bhagavata Purana. So these two are the most important for Hare Krishna and then we have many others.

05:30

We have 18 major Purans and then 18 minor Purans. We have the

05:36

Ramayana which is a story of the god Rama. You know when you chant the mantra Hare Krishna Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare you know all these mantra.

05:46

So Rama comes from Ramayana and then we have Dharmasutras.

05:53

So there are a lot of scriptures yeah. Andrew off the get -go what would be questions that you have like I know for me

06:00

I'm wondering at least for myself I would think okay well and maybe this is for you and also for you Andrew is that like I would think okay what would be the contrast if thing like Old and New Testament you have parts of the

06:10

Bible that talks about you know our doctrine like salvation like a Pauline epistle where he writes that with a lot of different theological issues.

06:19

Then you have parts that are just stories like King Solomon, King David, you have

06:24

God's interaction with Israel like his covenant relationship with him. But I'm just wondering like how is it contrast what are the actual contents in relation to like the

06:33

Hindu scriptures. Andrew I know what would be your thoughts do you have any thoughts just or questions you would have for Sandeep regarding the different Hindu scriptures that he mentioned.

06:41

Yeah let me just add on to it too is there different sects that focus on different scriptures right or like maybe different castes focus on different scriptures just to add on to what

06:51

Jerry was asking. Yeah so like there are four castes in Hinduism there are

06:57

Brahmins, there are Kshatriyas, there are Vaishyas, there are Shudras and there is another the lowest caste the fifth caste that's

07:06

Chandalas in Sanskrit term it's called Chandalas. So anyone who calls themselves

07:13

Hindus the Vedas are the most important always the Vedas and then there is the second if you would ask me

07:20

I would say the Bhagavad Gita which is seen as kind of a national book in India.

07:26

So Vedas and the Bhagavad Gita and also the Puranas lot of mantras when the gurus they chant it also comes from like Shiv Puran, Brahma Puran, the

07:41

Puranas also but first always the Vedas. So the Vedas then have a lot of I would say maybe like liturgy as far as different outlines of how to do certain chants and mantras yeah to get to like a higher state of consciousness because we were at the

07:55

Hindu temple a couple days ago right and you know we heard them in the background as we were talking with a couple like Hare Krishnas there yeah they're doing their mantras and rants is that that's what the really the

08:04

Vedas would consist of? Yeah yeah so the Vedas are basically it like Hindus they believe that the

08:13

Vedas are a talk between the Hindu gods and which was told to the

08:21

Hindu sages the gurus and they later on it was written so it's basically talks about rituals a lot of rituals how ancient

08:32

India the rituals is to be practiced. The Rig Veda is the most important among the four

08:38

Vedas there are Rig Veda, the Sama Veda, Yajur Veda, Atharva Veda but the

08:43

Rig Veda is seen as the oldest of all and it is believed that it is millions of years old but we will get to that point.

08:53

Yeah and go ahead Andrew. So what was it like growing up in India within the caste that you're in like when did it start for your education about the

09:05

Vedas and things of that nature like you know growing up here in America I was going to church every

09:13

Sunday with my parents at a very young age you know learning about the Bible from the pastor preaching so how does that work within Hinduism?

09:21

Yeah that's a very interesting question. So when it comes to Hindus and Christians here is one major difference if you go to any temple in India any temple you won't find

09:33

Hindu script people are reading the Vedas when they are inside the temple you know or even like inside the temple you know you'll understand that they are really like they call themselves

09:44

Hindus that's why they are inside the temple like Christians who are inside the church at least they open the scripture we open the scripture we read the scriptures you know.

09:56

So I come from the Brahmin caste from the very childhood from the very younger age

10:03

I started doing remember when I was in school third grade fourth grade

10:09

I started doing yoga. Yoga is like the first thing you do when you are like if the first thing you get to know about Hinduism is yoga and so I started doing yoga with my dad we have a big temple in our own house so the whole street where I live they used to come to our house for every single year once a time for worship so our house is to lead the worship for the entire street so there used to be hundreds of people inside our house and to this very day we have the temple and my dad still worships in the temple and I have seen since childhood you know my dad waking up early morning six o 'clock taking a shower and then starting to worship you know so I've grown up in a very religious

11:03

I would say family from my mother's family side there are many priests and they are not like some like small like no one knows them everyone knows they are very prominent priest in the city so and my mom comes from also brahmin caste so in Hinduism like you have to marry someone who is from the same caste a brahmin cannot marry someone who is from the lower caste the shudras it will be a disaster you can't just do that so my dad comes from a brahmin caste from his father's from his father's side my mother comes from a same caste brahmin caste yeah well so your very first memory then is practicing yoga like doing the yoga poses but specifically like worship poses so a lot of what we see here in the west whether it's the padmasana or the the different like yoga poses like these are that this is what you're doing like on a regular basis like what what other aspects is it like in like day in day out life of like your experience like growing up outside of yoga was there like different aspects of like meditation where there's just certain sacred holy sites where there's certain temples that you visit on a regular basis like take us more into that if you could yeah so in India you would find temples everywhere like every street has a temple yeah so growing up in India I remember my uncle we used to do meditation together we used to wake up early morning we used to do the pranayama pranayama is as you know it's the breathing exercise you you you know it's seen as something which the gods did so we do it and it makes you more healthy so so from very childhood

12:52

I do yoga I did meditation we used to go to our nearby temple I remember it was a

12:58

Kali temple there there is also a Shiva temple so from very childhood

13:03

I used to go with my parents inside the temple we used to have rituals we used to worship bow our heads to the

13:12

Hindu gods and then when our family used to gather together inside the house we used to always do it in a very conservative

13:25

Hindu way we used to take pride a lot in our caste specifically because caste straight comes out from the

13:32

Rig Veda which is the oldest of all Hindu scriptures so it was very religious my upbringing

13:38

I took a huge huge pride on my caste because you're the highest caste highest caste is the

13:46

Brahmin caste and I took huge pride I remember when I used to be with my friends or my families outside house

13:54

I used to so I had the highest ritual before anyone becomes a priest in Hinduism is called

14:01

Upanayana. Upanayana is like you have a bald head like we saw in the temple most of the gurus you will find in India is like having a bald head and a little hair at the back so I did all of those when

14:15

I was around age 14 so I had a white thread around my body so I used to brag about it

14:24

I used to you know boast on my caste that I'm from the Brahmin caste and once I remember I would

14:29

I would like to share this sure my neighbor is from the lower caste so they are from the

14:37

Shudra the lowest so once like in India you know like here you know when we meet someone we greet as you know we hug the person we shake hand back in India like if you greet someone you either you bow down or you like you touch their feet you know so I remember my neighbor you know she's an old lady so I touched her feet and my mom saw that and so you know when

15:04

I got inside house she asked me what did you do I said what

15:10

I said you touch the feet of that lady I said yeah she's old lady and and you know we know each other for decades so what's wrong like so she she was really angry on me like we are the

15:21

Brahmins do you know if someone sees from our relatives or from the society what would they think we are

15:28

Brahmins we don't touch their feet they touch our feet yeah we don't touch their feet and and now people many

15:36

Hindus would say okay these are like these were invented by men but again it straight comes out from the

15:45

Hindu scriptures the Gautama Dharma Sutra it's one of the very important scripture and over there it's mentioned that the gurus can be worshipped also like God equal to God so it's all connected yeah

15:57

Andrew what do you what do you think of so far what's on your mind it just reminds me of Jesus washing the feet of the disciples like we have

16:03

God in the flesh washing the feet serving coming to serve which is an awesome thing about Christianity but question for you

16:11

Sandeep when you're doing these rituals and meditations or breathing exercises when you were younger did you have if you look back at it now did you have any paranormal experiences like experiences of altered consciousness or maybe some type of spirit or entity trying to influence you in any way yeah so when

16:34

I used to I remember when I used to do meditation and yoga in school and also in home

16:41

I remember you know I used to wake up early morning like I said with my uncle we used to do a meditation together

16:47

I felt nothing actually it didn't like I like it works different to with other person like there are many different experiences everyone has different experiences when

17:03

I used to do I remember like you know we do meditation like any Hindu if you ask why do you do meditation how does it benefit you the answer which he will say is that I do meditation because of to feel a different kind of peace you know or different like for health purpose you know specifically it makes me more healthy and it gives you a peace which you can get from nowhere actually it's a it's a peace which is equivalent to like you know gods the realm of gods you know so but when

17:43

I used to do meditation I actually felt nothing I felt like it's I remember I mean I should do it because you know as Brahmins as Hindu you do these things you should do it

17:54

I mean if you don't do yoga if you're against you I mean you can't you can't call yourself as Hindu yeah so I felt nothing actually

18:04

I felt like it's like useless thing but I still did it because you know we are

18:10

Hindus we are Brahmins we take pride on these things yeah yeah well let me ask you this too like in con in conjunction with that there's a hierarchy of sort of gods in within Hinduism you hear a lot of names like Krishna Vishnu Kali it's a plethora and so I mean for even for me and for the person who's on the outside looking in like how do you distinguish one from the other like who would be who's like the head honcho when it comes to the top god in Hinduism it's always

18:39

Shiva Shiva it's always Shiva and then if you ask me who is the second one it's

18:45

Krishna Krishna and then we have a Vishnu and then also

18:51

Brahma there is a trinity in Hinduism also it comes out from straight from Hindu scripture again it's called

18:58

Brahma the creator the Vishnu is the preserver who is running this whole you know world and then we have

19:07

Shiva the destroyer and it again comes out from straight from the

19:12

Shiv Puran which literally says that Shiva is the destroyer he will destroy this world you know when he comes but in in female goddesses we have

19:23

Kali on the top now she has many forms there is

19:29

Durga there is Ganga Saraswati these are also rivers by the way in India Ganga is you know the most holiest river in India it comes out from the

19:42

Bhagavata Puran all of these names so right now isn't that river one that we were talking with Will the other night at dinner that's the one that's the most famous one where everyone goes there to wash have you been there have you partaken in that yep

19:56

I have been like yeah so Ganga is when you read

20:02

Bhagavata Puran Srimad Bhagavata Puran in one of the chapter it says that Ganga Saraswati uh these these uh goddesses they they are like really kind of a person and they they fought with each other and they cursed each other and so Saraswati one of the goddess she cursed

20:24

Ganga to become a river why so that everyone's sin can be washed away in the in that river when they take a you know bath that's why in India there are festivals like Kumbh Mela which you seen the gods of the new age in that video people taking a bath in that river having in mind that it will wash away my sins and here is the most funny part

20:52

Ganga is the most polluted river one of the most I think it's the most if I'm wrong maybe a second or third is the most polluted river in the on earth it's the most polluted you know so I remember when

21:05

I went with my dad to the most to the most uh prominent temple for Shiva it's called the

21:13

Baitina Dham it's in the northern part of India yeah we took a bath in that Ganga river so it flows all over India it's connected so I I remember taking a deep in in the river what's the what's the smell like there it's horrible because you see the river is like yellowish at the same time in the river people throw dirt people throw ashes like in Hinduism when you die you burn the body and you throw so they throw the ashes that that that's not right right

21:48

I mean you throw a human body parts uh in on the river and that pollutes the river we know and so it's

22:00

I was just I was actually just gonna ask is that the same river where I believe it's the lowest the lowest caste is the one that deals and burns the dead bodies and then they throw that's the river you're speaking of so later the river upstream we have people then washing in the same river where ashes are disposed of um question so do all castes get burned and thrown into the river do all bodies end up in the river or do are there different ways to dispose bodies um so all caste in Hinduism the body should be burnt for every caste when my grandfather died uh so we burned the body and then the ashes were thrown by the lower caste like you said the higher caste never does that job it's always the lower caste who does all the hard work all the like uh lower jobs and all for the in the city it's all done by the shudras the lower caste so the ashes were my grandfather's ashes it was thrown in in in the yeah yeah so you kind of like given that you're the top caste system you kind of like sort of like a vip get a bottle service champagne bottle experience you know absolutely absolutely yeah what about um because you're so you're talking to also an indie said there's lots and lots of temples and you're on the highest caste part of the caste system but there's different temples dedicated to different gods we mentioned just a few of them in terms of what takes place um and i'll just jump in here a second to kind of get your thoughts too but in terms of the different types of temples with the ones that are dedicated to for example like brahman like versus shiva for example is there something specific that would take place in the temple dedicated to one hindu god like over the other and what what specifically like takes place in those temples regarding rituals depending on like the different type of temple and the different type of god right uh so in india the the most of the temples in india you'd see are dedicated to the god shiva mostly all of the temples and when it comes to goddesses it's kali these are the number ones and then also we have krishna temples uh everywhere but shiva is the is the most prominent but here is the interesting part uh the gods which we find in uh like i was telling you before the hinduism has developed over the time the god's names which you find in the vedas the the the earliest uh veda which everyone all hindus believe is the rig veda we don't find the name shiva over there we find other names we find varuna which is a god and it has no temple in india we find indra indra is a is a cosmic god uh all over the vedas there is indra name mentioned everywhere literally everywhere but you don't find indra temple like so much in india i i then there is brahma but then we don't find any temple dedicated to brahma so inside this temple like shiva temple we we find shiva name mostly coming out from the puranas which were later written and so hinduism developed over time uh inside the temples obviously you read the mantras uh these are the kind of mantras a little bit which comes from the vedas uh so you do shiva rituals which are dedicated only for shiva but many hindus would say all are one and and brahma is vishnu vishnu is shiva shiva is vishnu but here here is the question if that's the case then why in uh when someone goes to a shiva temple why no one says krishna bless me you know why don't they chant krishna mantras hare krishna hare krishna krishna krishna you don't chant that you chant a mantra which is dedicated to shiva right so these are all different gods uh there are 33 million gods did um different castes focus on different gods like did your family have a particular favorite god that you guys worshipped yeah we did have and my favorite god uh was uh shiva um my dad's also shiva and uh in my entire family we uh my uh we mostly worship shiva and kali and krishna these three uh we worship the man yeah yeah what what's um i'm kind of wondering like what what is drug light like use over there like hallucinogenics people taking uh substances like let's say marijuana or alcohol uh mushrooms what is there anything like that going on in india is it related in terms of trying to have like psychedelic experiences and connections to gods a very nice question again a lot of a lot of that goes on in india if you go to ashrams in india in many places like rishikesh varanasi mayapuri you would see people are taking like weed to have a different experience and again many hindus will say that that doesn't come from the scriptures it's the people who are doing it and gods didn't say this to do but again if you open the vedas here is what everyone should do if you open the vedas you'd see soma soma was a hallucinating uh plant uh so india is connected to the indus valley civilization which stretched from what we know as modern pakistan uh a little toward iran and that side and obviously the indian region uh so there was a soma was a plant and the gods took soma sombras also and they made it as alcohol also to to before going to a war so they used to drink some rush it's called uh to before going to the war to win the war so it's a lot of these are connected to hinduism and in any shiva temple like my father my dad still goes to uh this temple by dinath dham which is mentioned in shiva puran uh it's so important uh so in shiv temples if you go you'll find people uh giving weed in front of the shiva idol uh under the feet of shiva like like an offering you know because it is believed that shiva roamed around forest uh smoking weed you know so it's it's very much connected all the shiva devotees you'll find in india like in big ashrams like real shiva devotees they they they do all those uh stuffs yeah what's um i'm pulling up like a picture right here um i just looked up uh shiva statue india yeah so do you recognize in the southern part of india it's a very uh prominent famous place where a lot of westerners here so right and so if anyone pulls up you know any google image of the statue shiva what specifically when you see the symbolism right that the symbol and there's meaning behind that and there's also you know spiritual component behind that as well too which we'll talk about but like what's being depicted like if someone sees it as a hindu like i just say oh that's just a religious you know statue people are going to but as far as you when you were a hindu brahman where you're growing up in this caste system you see that or any other statues of shiva like what's being depicted within those statues right uh so when it comes to shiva like uh i was telling you before the shiva is the number one when it comes to yoga yeah like um the scripture even says that is the is the number one god when he's known as the god of yoga the lord of yoga so when it comes to uh shiva idol you would mostly find the lingam uh it's like a cylindrical shape uh also you'll find the shiva the the idol which shows and shiva is having a snake around his neck um so so it's it's very demonic and and it shows basically shiva's life we get that in shiv puran which is the the most important scripture when it comes to uh learn about shiva yeah it's one of the major puran there are minor and major purans uh so shiv puran is is the most important scripture for shiva and we get to see shiva roaming in forest uh just uh you know just alone by himself naked ashes uh all over his body and then we we get this story like if you type on google shiva idol you'll first see a cylindrical shape of uh like a statue kind of you know so that's actually believed to be a private organ of shiva and and people literally worship that every single day in india in any shiva temple you go you'll see that like a cylindrical shape a statue yeah and that statue a lot of people will say uh that's that's not connected to shiva's you know private body part but but let's again open the scripture if we open shiva puran it literally says over there there's a story where shiva is in the forest alone and there are some uh women uh the wives of the uh hindu gurus the priests and then shiva shiva is alone and so the wives they go and they hug shiva and uh the uh the the gurus they were angry because their wives are running after shiva and this is the story how the lingam worship came actually this is the real story uh so um so the gurus they curse shiva that uh the private organ would be cut off and and it fell on the ground and it caused destruction and uh so so it's it's like really weird story uh so the hindu scriptures describe it as like there's a sacred nature behind the phallus of shiva but when i look at the when we were like we were at the hindu temple the other day the uh the the gods within hinduism they seem to have a very uh female and feminine aesthetic to that like what's what's the difference between when you look at like the gender of like the god of the hindu gods like how does that how does that work because i just noticed there's they all have sort of feminine character like appearances and traits um like how does that work in conjunction to what you said about uh shiva yeah uh so um the hindu god vishnu he once uh wanted to win over the demons so he changed his form he became mohini uh so when he became mohini uh so that's that's how you get to see a lot of uh hindu idols like we saw krishna looking like a feminine a little bit because uh hindus believe that every male has a feminine character within themselves and they have to discover that and and shiva also has that uh we can see many shiva pictures where one side is parvati shiva's wife and the other side of the body shiva yeah uh and that's connected because we get to see in hinduism often people change their genders the the male gods like vishnu is a male god but he changed his gender he became mohini and shiva ran after mohini and trying to hug mohini in front of shiva's wife parvati parvati was standing and she was shocked what is my husband doing because vishnu changed uh you know became a female and the appearance was very attractive so shiva could not control his his uh you know uh his feelings so he went after mohini who was actually vishnu and vishnu was trying to say what are you doing i mean so so parvati shiva's wife was angry so these are the stories and these are the the why it all comes out from the hindu scriptures you know the oldest shiva temple if you type on google the oldest shiva temple is uh is found in the northern part of india the guddi malam temple in that temple the shiva idol is a shape of a phallus you get to see people literally like when i went with my dad to the by dina dham the name is found in that temple there are 12 most important temples in india in that temple when i went with my dad we walked for three days i can share the journey that was horrible well yeah i want i don't want to get into that let me uh just real quickly andrew so uh when it comes to to as we uh sort of go also talk about you're giving a lot of context so just the cultural and spiritual climate in india and all the different locations and all the different worship adherences to god you took a lot of pride in the caste system but you also had a belief in reincarnation so growing up would you did you have just a lot of beliefs that you had done a lot of good you had knocked off a lot of karma and that's why you ended up in the highest caste system like how did your belief in that sort of play into day -to -day life just in your thinking regarding growing up in india and as a hindu yeah yeah um so we every hindu must believe in reincarnation that's the first thing you have to believe so we really believed like i remember me and my mom we used to often talk that we are born as uh in many occasions we used to talk when our families together that we are brahmins because we did something really good in our previous births and we get to see these lower castes the shudras or the vaishyas they are born in the lower castes because in chandogya upanishad it's one of the part of the vedas in that chandogya upanishad in the book five it literally says that based on your karma you'll be born in caste system and if you're worst of all you can be born as as a snake as a worm as as a lower caste the chandalas the fifth caste yeah andrew what were you gonna say yeah help me understand this actually goes into the question i was gonna ask like uh a karmic cycle uh samsara uh birth and rebirth uh why how does that work within the hindu gods like uh shiva for example because it sounds like in the stories that they're living lives that would give them bad karma right so what's the disconnect between the human and these uh these gods in terms of like a karmic cycle how come uh shiva or maybe shiva does does shiva suffer for doing actions that shiva should not have done how does that work with regards to morality yeah so samsara samsara is basically the cycle of rebirth uh yeah and karma karma is basically what you have done in the past your past deeds and it is so much so much connected to hinduism even the gods are under that judgment basically if anyone opens uh bhagavata puran in the book six uh in the in the book says chapter 10 it literally says that even gods are cannot escape that you know so who are we you know it's so hopeless um so uh like i was telling the ganga the story of ganga how ganga became the holiest river in india it comes out from the bhagavata puran over there ganga was cursed by another female deity to become a river so that she can um take everyone's sin the the the sin of the entire earth you know so that's why people take a deep in the river ganga you know and thinks that you know they're getting purified from their sin but but here is uh here is one most uh important thing no matter how much yoga you do you know yoga is seen as is something like so much uh the the center of hinduism actually what we know yoga today it straight comes out from the hinduism uh no matter how much yoga you do no much how much meditation you do uh you can never get rid of the karmic cycle karmic cycle is basically you take rebirth again and again and again and again till the point you're all past deeds the the scene of your past you know gets exhausted like gets burnt you know and and i just like to uh read a verse this is bhagavata bhagavad gita is the most important uh the second most important book when it comes to hinduism in in book 4 there are 18 books there 18 chapters uh so in in book 2 it uh book 2 so is book 2 verse 22 it literally says as a person puts on new garments giving up old ones the soul the soul similarly accepts new material bodies giving up the old and useless ones so it's like how you change clothes uh every single day that that's how uh the hindu life is basically you die you again take a birth uh based on your karma and even the gods are under the judgment like bhagavata puran book six uh tell me go ahead real quick uh what is the thought process like living living in india and knowing that not everyone lives in india and there's people that live in america that aren't living in a caste system at all and what would be the thought process on their rebirth like how come they're in america right uh is it looked upon like they're in the low lower of the lowest classes because they're not even within a class system to understand simsara like how does that work um so uh now people in the west who practices yoga you know uh they might not call themselves like from any particular caste but uh like the followers of krishna always represents themselves from the kshatriya caste and that's why as you remember when we went to inside the temple the guy said i changed my name my name is a different name because when you become a devotee of krishna you change your name and you accept a different name which the temple gives you mostly in india people places like rishikesh uh varanasi these are the mayapur specifically uh you know the headquarter of iskcon the krishna consciousness is in mayapur from where that's the state from where i belong from actually uh over there they all get new names like dasa dasa is like the servant of the god krishna so they believe that they are from the kshatriya caste and kshatriya caste does the work of the kshatriya actually in srimad bhagavatam in book 6 10 it says that that the best way to die if you're a hindu if you're a believer in hindu the best way to die either you read the vedas uh like before your death and you chant and you die or else you die in a battlefield it literally says in the scripture yeah did you ever did you have a special name uh i didn't have a special name i i always took pride in my you know my name itself is a it's a good name i like it sandeep it's awesome sandeep and my last name is agasti we are kanyakubj brahmins we belong from the most conservative uh hindu state in india called uttar pradesh so uh like andrew was saying one thing that what about the americans who practices yoga are they are they related to any reincarnation something like that you said yeah like anyone in america in general say someone who doesn't even practice hinduism right how are they viewed from india like how did what did they do to deserve not even knowing about hinduism right uh yeah so uh hindus who are looking at um these americans who are doing yoga they really uh they really laugh when when a lot of uh americans they say or the people from the west they say you know i do yoga but i don't follow hinduism you know i just do this for my health uh you are doing something which is so much uh like in the center of hinduism hinduism is nothing without yoga and yoga is nothing without hinduism what we know as yoga today i'm talking about this yoga which we know of today yoga is nothing without hinduism so uh people who just do yoga um i would say like you are not really doing yoga because when you do yoga you have to read these scriptures you have to accept that shiva is the gifter of all these asanas yeah so we are so we're going to get into that like in depth in another episode we do with you so people will see that it's not just stretches it's not just poses but it's it's incontrovertibly interconnected with the hindu scriptures and the adherence to the gods uh within hinduism i can't wait to get into that uh just real quickly as we're kind of working towards the end of our first part uh we're going to get into a little bit more of your testimony in part two but um the ritual like doing rituals was a big part of that including journeys uh you did talk about for example you did this uh sort of pilgrimage you know in islam they do the trips to the pilgrimage to mecca you did a pilgrimage uh with your dad uh in your younger years take us into it tell them tell everyone share everyone that story that you're sharing yeah so like the muslims they go to mecca that's the most holiest uh place for the muslims for hindus you know i didn't go to just a regular temple you know there are so many thousands of shiva temple but i went to by dina dham and by dina dham is one of the 12 jyoti lingas jyoti lingas means uh the most important places for the hindu god shiva and the name by dina dham is even found in one of the hindu scripture in the puranas uh so in this uh so it was the whole journey from our home to that temple uh is around i would say like 60 miles um so we me and my dad we walked down outside like we started our journey barefoot having like a uh i would say like um 10 10 pounds of jars like a container on our on our shoulder and like if you if you if you type uh images or like if you try to search uh the devotees of shiva they they they wear like orange uh color clothing so we had all those you know clothings on us me and my dad and we started our journey to by dina dham it was around four days journey barefoot i remember walking till 50 miles and there are thousands and thousands of people walking in that crowd you know hoping that shiva would answer their prayers and deliver from their you sufferings and after walking 50 miles i couldn't do it anymore because you cross mountains uh you know where you have rocks uh you know it's not a smooth surface you cross rivers so after 50 miles i told my dad i can't walk anymore you know it's too much for me how old are you at this time i was around uh 14 14 i was around 14 yeah when you get to the breaking point how many miles have you gotten um uh 50 miles 50 miles 14 years old barefoot barefoot all barefoot having two containers we took a dip in the in the river ganga you know uh after we reached the place called sultan ganj um and then from there we we take two containers on our shoulder and each has the water and the ganga water from the river ganga and we carry on our shoulder and we are walking shouting uh haribol you know uh she was uh name you know uh har har mahadev and all of these things and we are shouting me and my dad and thousands of other people walking day and night we so i literally walked like two and two and a half day like day and night you know we slept a little bit for four hours then we again got up at night and we started walking and i told my dad i can't do it anymore you know and my dad and my dad told me i remember he was like don't you see thousands of these people are walking and we are doing this to please shiva i mean he you know literally he you know that's why people are walking yeah and my feet was bleeding even so we we you know i i put uh like a cloth around my feet but uh my dad was just not listening you and he even to this very day from past almost i would say like 10 years he's um he's doing that you know he goes alone now because i don't go with him anymore so he goes alone uh he walks like 60 70 miles barefoot just to reach the temple and touch the shiva lingam which you talked that it's nothing more than the phallus of shiva and he put milk over that uh phallus uh thinking you know she would bless you and yeah yeah man what happens after you do that that walk right you you do that 60 70 mile journey barefoot and then you do the ritual then you put shoes on or something uh yeah yes i remember after reaching home uh i mean it's frustrating you know when you reach home when my dad even reach home he takes a break for like one two days you know uh he feels the pain and he is frustrating at the same time you know uh so so i like it almost feels like you know like why did we do it you know deep inside but we we we can never question that you know because we are we are doing this for shiva you know but in deep inside i was not happy i mean i mean we are suffering to just please our god and if you see kumbh mela which you see in the gods of a new age in that video you see thousands of people near the near a river which is uh ganga actually these people are all barefoot if you notice in the video they are all barefoot right because uh shoes are saying as you can't enter with shoes inside the temple yeah and ultimately just as we wrap up here the main goal within hinduism it's similar to a lot of new age ideology is a view of one ism there's no distinction all is one all is self everything is connected to the inner divine like you me krishna shiva but you're also trying to detach from karma like in order in order to ascend so ascensions like the one of the main final finality that's the ultimate goal in hinduism to ascend right yes yes right so my question would be that as i think there is a challenge with like how do you actually get out of that cycle how do you actually ascend out how do you actually ascend within a worldview where all is one what what exactly do you ascend to so wherever you go there you are does that make sense yes there's no end in sight so eventually i think with anyone who goes into this type of uh spirituality like it takes a toll because like there's no way you always start where you end up whatever you wherever you end up at that's where you start all over again right yeah um so like uh i was telling before that most of the hindus would say there's no difference between shiva or krishna but but here is the question if there is no difference then why in a krishna temple we chant hare krishna hare krishna krishna krishna hare hare hare rama hare rama rama rama hare hare so we you are taking just the name of two gods yeah you're not taking the names of shiva there hare shiva you don't say that uh so there is obviously a distinction there is always obviously a difference um but again if you read the puranas which are like i was talking there are 18 major 18 minor puranas shiva puran brahma puran padma puran in these puranas you will see all the gods are saying that i am the creator in shiva puran you know shiva is really uh shiva is shown as the the most superior of all but if you read again the bhagavad gita you will see krishna is saying that i am the creator of all and everything came from me i am the seed of everything and then if you open brahma puran uh you'll see brahma is claiming that he is the uh creator you know uh so um it's really hinduism like i was saying is a very complicated and a confused uh ideology uh it's written by men uh it's a myth yeah yeah so when in a long story towards wrap up here they're really kind of where you were in spite of the rituals in spite of the trips you're going along with your dad these like 60 mile trips and the yoga and the meditation and the participation all these uh hindu temples and even taking pride in being the highest caste system when it comes down like that took a toll like it was exhausting you were trying to figure out like there's no end in sight like where's the end game that was kind of mindset that that's the mindset you do that uh till the end of your life and my dad like i was telling even to this day from from past 10 years or more uh i believe he he just goes to that place you know it's a it's a place with millions of devotees every single year yeah uh and you just do that till the end of your life but but here is the most hopeless thing that like i was saying uh bhagavata puran in book 6 in chapter 10 it says that even the gods are under the judgment of karma so you don't get get freedom from the reincarnation from the samsara cycle you don't get freedom actually krishna literally in that book bhagavata puran if anyone opens bhagavata puran book 4 chapter 10 it literally says at the end that that even krishna uh vishnu they were all under the um the the the cycle of karma karmic cycle you take birth again again krishna was killed so even the gods uh that are under this said that you're trying to look to to be freed from the bondage of karma they're they're under the same bondage too they are yeah all right uh sandy this has been amazing uh this is i thank you so much for taking the time to come out here from new jersey um what we're going to do is we're going to wrap up here obviously you're here with you're not somewhere over there trying to find uh the end of the karmic circle you're here talking with us about this a lot of people might be not wanting i'm sure a lot of people are curious like well how did you end up uh coming to know uh freedom in christ out of hinduism so what we're going to do is we're going to wrap up here we're actually going to bring you and bring everyone into that conversation uh in the next episode so if you all have enjoyed this program uh this episode definitely comment let us know uh what you thought and we will talk to you all in the next episode talk to you guys soon hey everyone we hope you've enjoyed this episode from our latest extended series on hinduism if you want to listen to the entire series right now commercial free go to cultishallaccess .com