A Conversation That Made Me Rethink Everything

I'm in a hotel room in San Diego typing this to you.

Quick warning before we dive in: This email gets pretty deep into religious and spiritual territory. If that's not your thing, no worries at all… I'll catch you in the next one.

I know some of you follow me for business, creativity, or just the general vibe, and suddenly reading about deep debate about Jesus and Yogananda might feel like I've lost my mind or something.

I promise I haven't. I'm very grounded. I can make arguments for atheism too. I just think there's something very worth exploring here, and I wanted to process it out loud.

So if you're into it, keep reading. If not, I'll see you tomorrow with something different.

Cool? Cool.

So - Last night I recorded a podcast with Sovereign Brah (Chase) and Colin Yurcisin.

Chase is a Christian influencer who blew up a lot on the Whatever podcast a couple years ago—he's also got a very cult following on Twitter. Colin is a buddy of mine and has an absolutely insane story. Very successful entrepreneur with crazy highs and lows. Now a multi millionnaire but most importantly in his eyes, a follower of Christ.

And so yeah - we had a crazy convo. And I wanted to share some reflections while they're still fresh.

Context: My Mindset Going Into the Podcast

First, some context on Chase.

He's a super warm guy, and extremely charismatic. Well-versed in scripture and can pull out verses from nowhere. He's also like 6'3", built with muscle, and just a very grounded, confident guy.

Both Chase and Colin are very big on Jesus. Very adamant that Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life. They're pretty set on that - and grounded on that as the one truth whole truth and nothing but the truth.

Chase has even told me before that he thinks following Yogananda is potentially off the path of Truth - although he did admit that the most Christ-like person he ever met was actually also a big advocate for Yogananda. He's read some of the stuff and just looked into it.

And Colin — once he goes all in on something, he typically becomes a maximalist. He’s a Bitcoin maxi, and now also a Jesus maxi. He is certainly open minded, but in his way of living he likes to steer his ship with 1 captain 1 master and 1 way. Doesn't really look at other perspectives.

I’m a bit different of course lol. My mom is Jewish, and my Dad is catholic, but my parents are both like hippies. Mom is sort of a Yogi. And so I have an appreciation and admiration of all religions and traditions. And I like to learn from them all.

So going into the podcast, I had to prepare for this angle.

I've been reading the New Testament for a while, and I know quite a lot about Jesus. I've also as you know been praying and meditating daily. I've been learning from Yogananda's teachings. And I wanted to approach this conversation with love, clarity, and scripture to back up my perspective.

I was thinking about verses like John 10:16—"I have other sheep that are not of this sheep pen. I must bring them also."

Or Acts 10:34-35—"God does not show favoritism but accepts from every nation the one who fears him and does what is right."

Or even Luke 17:21—"The kingdom of God is within you."

I wanted to show them that there's truth in other faiths, other religions. And that even Jesus would probably have admitted that… And perhaps the reason he did not was just because he was constricted to speak in a certain way due to Roman occupation and the times he lived in with the extremely strict Jewish law.

So starting the podcast - I felt grounded in the teachings I've been practicing from Yogananda, and of my knowledge of Christ and other faiths. Bringing in more of a holistic understanding and approach to religion, life, and spirituality.

Really basing my understanding of truth on that which I unite with God in the morning through meditation.

But I'll be honest—there were a few things said on the podcast that made me question my approach.

And I think that's worth exploring.

"If You Don't Have Christ, You Leave Room for Darkness"

One line that really stuck with me was this: if you don't have Christ, you leave room for dark energy. Chase said that, among many other bars like that.

And I could feel the weight of that statement. Not in a fearful way, but in a reminder to keep my attunement clear.

In Yogananda's teachings, everything is about attunement to God and Truth—who or what are you tuning your consciousness to? To God within? Or the pulls of wanting monety, status, ego and its noise?

So that line resonated. It made me pause.

The 99% Truth, 1% Deception Question

The other thing that really got me questioning was this whole idea that if the devil were trying to deceive people, he would give them almost the truth… but then a hint of deception.

Colin had brought up the whole thing of asking Chat GPT, “If you were the devil, how you would deceive the world.”

And it said it would give people this:

99% truth, but 1% a sliver off.

And the reason this makes me question my practices with Yogananda—especially as I'm about to go down the Kriya path—is that it's not necessarily stuff that Jesus directly taught, for example.

It's kind of extra.

When you're doing your prayers in zen buddhism, or practices in Yoganana’s path, or even wrapping tefillin in Judaism, you're praying techincally doing things that, Jesus didn’t mention specifically. Even though they seem to hold a lot of light and truth, and acknowledge God the father… I wondre… are these things misleading because they’re not 100% Jesus focused?

That being said, in retrospect, I came to this:

“By their fruits ye shall know them.” (Matthew 7:16). If following Yogananda and practicing Kriya Yoga is drawing you closer to love, to God, and to truth, then you are not deceived—you are awakening.

If you’re Jewish and doing shabbat and wraping tefillin, and you feel you’re becoming more loving and a better person, then it’s probably not deception.

Steve Jobs, the Apple, and Yogananda

They also mentioned Steve Jobs. His daughter's name is Eve. He created the phone with the apple on the back.

I don't know if they were trying to position Steve Jobs as demonic or something, but they did say, "Oh, who does he recommend?" And of course, we know that he recommends Yogananda. He gave out Autobiography of a Yogi at his funeral.

So that raised a question: if deception is subtle, how can I be sure I'm not being deceived?

That's worth deep contemplation.

And yet, what I know from direct experience — not theory — is that every time I meditate and commune with the Spirit through Yogananda's methods, I feel peace, light, and love.

And I become a better person to everyone i meet. More patient, more kind, more understanding. More wanting to serve.

There's no darkness there.

And again, Jesus said, "You will know them by their fruits" (Matthew 7:16).

If I were all the sudden lying / cheating / stealing… I’d maybe question myself further…

If a practice leads me to humility, peace, service, and divine love, then it's bearing good fruit. That's how I test it.

The New Testament Connection

Here's something else I noticed.

When I was really reading the New Testament in the summer, I actually got the ideas that led to the most growth in my business.

I was reading it more and more. And then it seemed like as soon as I stopped reading the New Testament, the momentum I was having kind of dwindled a bit.

So that's something interesting.

It's like aligning with the words of Jesus opened channels that also affected material life and not just the spiritual.

So I want to re-explore that… staying close to Jesus' words and seeing what happens when I live by them again, day to day.

Standing Firmer Next Time

Now here's another layer.

Something I noticed during the podcast was that I didn't really speak up about my own direct experiences as much as I wish I had… especially in regards to what it means to hear the voice of God.

I didn't really go deep on that.

In some instances, it felt like Colin and Chase were having this big Jesus love fest back and forth… which I genuinely enjoyed witnessing, by the way… but I felt a little like I wasn't quite invited to the party.

Then I'd bring up stuff from my direct experience, and it felt like maybe they were so locked into their flow that they didn't fully hear what I was trying to share.

I mean that with zero hate at all. These are my friends. It was just what I sense & felt.

And I think for future conversations, I could be stronger about speaking up in the moment.

Like, "Hey guys, I actually have something I'd love to share here that feels pretty profound to me. Can we pause for a second so I can articulate this?"

I think saying things like that directly and lovingly can be very powerful.

Because what I have to say isn't just ideas I got from some Indian guru, they're very true, real direct experiences.

And experience is the one thing no one can debate.Where This Leaves Me

Right now, I feel called to do two things:

That's what I'm contemplating right now.

I don't have all the answers. I'm just processing.

But still I think the path forward is both.

Not either/or.

I hope you found this interesting.

I'll see you tomorrow!

- Arlin