Spirituality and Religion

Recently a friend of mine asked me , Can i be spiritual but not religious? Should they co-exist or can someone be spiritual without being exposed any concepts of spirituality? Here are my thoughts.....

Spirituality is the science of self realisation which helps us to attain a higher level of awareness. Awareness of your mind, body and thought process. It helps you to increase the power of discrimination and helps you to choose the dharmic path. Let us not confuse spirituality with our belief system. Hence I would define spirituality as the one which gives you a means to know your true self and if we go by this definition of spirituality, then means like yoga, meditation, prayer and even what he did [self contemplation] qualify as effective spiritual practices. Each one is effective in its own way.

The next question would be, if I have to accept means like yoga, prayer and meditation as ways to becoming spiritual, is there a common ground between them? Or in simple terms how do they really help me? The answer is also simple. It helps us to create a centre of awareness within our mind which helps us to isolate us from our affliction to material and mortal things. A spiritually conscious person is always in quest for the ultimate truth. [The cause of my birth and the purpose of my birth and reasons behind why I am born and how I can prevent a re-birth]. The moment we are attached to material things it is the very nature of human mind to think about those needs again and again which leads to desire and the cycle repeats itself. Hence any technique that helps us to attain absolute control over our mind and help us realise our true needs can be spiritual. Means like Yoga, prayer and meditation are time tested techniques which when taught properly helps us to attain mastery over our mind.

In India and particularly speaking of Hinduism spiritual experiences and religious experiences co-exist naturally. In fact yoga and meditation is offshoot of Vedas. Due to the impact of western ideas and modern thinking ideas like secular spiritualism have come into existence, which is why he asked am I religious or am I being spiritual? Now let’s try to understand these two broad concepts. Principles of any religion are based on faith in existence of God. [I am not referring to idol worship here]. Hence a religious person by default accepts the existence of God and strives to reach him. Thus by default your goal gets defined if you are a religious person and the means to attain the highest goal are these spiritual practices. Hence consciously or by choice a religious person has a spiritual personality within him but the converse may not be true.  Within a spiritual person there exists more awareness [both body and mind] and it is two dimensional where as faith in God helps you to attain self realisation. [Mind, Body and Spirit / soul]. Religion in addition provides us with more methods to reach liberation. When we talk about spirituality we talk about awareness but when talking about religion we talk about liberation / mukthi / surrender.

So when can we call ourselves as spiritual? It is when we have a greater level of awareness. Awareness does not mean knowledge about your physical surroundings. God has given us the ability to think and the incredible power to discriminate. Now using this power of discrimination you should be aware of what is right and what is wrong? It is not about are you thinking about good things rather it is about are you thinking right? Hence any technique anything that helps you attain a heightened level of awareness is Spiritual. But in any religion all the concepts are based on existence of a supreme soul. The difference between the two can only be felt through experience. I can confidently say that religious practices when practised with a clear awareness about its true meaning and purpose can lead to faster progression.

Coming to his question of, can a person who is completely normal and unaware of these concepts be spiritual? Yes, he will be but only that it will take more time for him to reach desired level of awareness / knowledge. As time passes by everyman or woman’s priorities keeps changing. But true realisation comes only when we reach the twilight of our life….that is when any body be it a theist or an atheist will ask what was the purpose of my birth? Did I achieve it? Mind will reflect on the material accomplishments but the question is what next? Spirituality and religious experiences helps you to prepare yourself for this ultimate question.

We may ask…..why I should I know the answer for this question in the first place? We should know because it creates a balanced outlook about life. When this awareness sets in we start treating both good and bad with equanimity. That is when we start to see the real beauty in creation. That is when we start pouring love out of our hearts which is true nectar. That is when we differentiate the real from surreal. And maharishis who have undergone these experiences have for the larger benefit of mankind has put this into a literary form which is what we call philosophy.

Hence Spirituality creates awareness. You need not be a religious person to be spiritual.

Religion helps you to have accelerated growth in the path of performance, which helps us to understand the very cause of your birth. This is a level higher than having just awareness. It is like knowledge when combined with love becoming bhakti.

Can an atheist be spiritual – Yes he is spiritual because he follows the path of contemplation by contradiction. Knowingly or unknowingly he attains a higher state of awareness but in most cases it is our ego which will prevent us from accepting this truth.

Hope I have made some sense with my words above.

-Ashok G