One can be peaceful, happy and good without necessarily following a particular God or reading heavy scriptures, discovers REENA SINGH
To understand spirituality, perhaps it is best to begin by explaining the difference between religion and spirituality. For most, religion is a belief in a particular God that a particular sect or community believes in based around a set of rituals and beliefs that the community follows. For instance, Hindus believe in Krishna and follow the teachings outlined in the Bhagwad Gita, their holy scripture. Similarly, Christians believe in Jesus Christ and base their life on the teachings contained in the Holy Bible.
Out of curiosity, I turned to Google for a quick explanation and found this one sentence that explains the difference between religion and spirituality. Religion is described as a ‘specific set of organised beliefs and practices that are usually shared by a community or group’, while spirituality is better described as an ‘individual practice’, and the quest for a sense of peace and purpose. You may not necessarily believe in a particular God here, but be more in tune with being a good human being, thinking positively and going about your work with sincerity and a sense of honest purpose.
Kees Waaijman, educator and professor and an expert on religion and spirituality believes that the traditional meaning of spirituality “aims to recover the original shape of man, (in) the image of God”. The belief is that you are born as a pure spirit in God’s image and lose touch with this purity as you encounter life as you grow up. Being spiritual means that you touch base once again with your original self and once again recognize your true purpose in life, which is to merge with the divine.
Spiritual people often turn to meditation as a key tool to enhance their spiritual quotient. The website, headspace.com describes meditation in the following words: ‘Meditation isn’t about becoming a different person, a new person, or even a better person. It’s about training in awareness and getting a healthy sense of perspective.’ Meditation helps you to observe your thoughts and feelings without judgement. It is believed that once you practise meditation regularly, then over a period of time, your mind will become calmer and you will be able to understand your own thoughts and feelings better.
There are several ways in which you can build up your practise of spirituality apart from doing just meditation. For one, you can start maintaining a Gratitude Journal, and begin writing daily the many things in your life that you must be thankful for. Once you begin this habit of making a daily list of things that you must thank God for, you will begin to value your gifts and things that you would otherwise take for granted.
For another, you can take a pledge around that popular saying from the Bible, Luke 6:31 which translated into simple words proclaims: Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. In other words, be fair and just with everyone, always, for that is how you would like to be treated, right?
Another golden rule would be to follow the eternal saying of all who are wise and indulge in ‘simple living and high thinking’. School yourself to give up your desires and live a life based on principles, ethics and morality and never on greed, carnal desires and materialism. Ultimately, work hard and do your duty without thinking of the reward. This last profound principle is outlined in the Bhagwad Gita. But then, a spiritual person will always insist that you don’t have to read the scriptures to learn this message. This will come naturally to you if you are positive, happy, sincere and hard-working, the ultimate goal of spirituality.
One last point: Shed your baggage that you have acquired over the years. In other words, get rid of your ego and cleanse yourself of unhappy sentiments such as hate, jealousy and anger. You will sleep peacefully and rid yourself of stress. In other words, Live and Let Live.
Reena Singh has more than 38 years’ experience in senior editorial positions in The Times of India (TOI) and Genpact. She was Deputy Editor with TOI’s spiritual newspaper, The Speaking Tree, where she spent more than nine years.
Very beautiful musing on the essence of Spirituality, which is not at all a flight of fancy, as labelled by many, but is an involvement of one’s entire individuality in a state of fusion with ‘All That Is’ so that one lives life as it is offered uniquely to everyone, with minimum friction and utmost ease.
‘Why’ is not at all a problem to that end, but ‘How’ is the real key ?
Honestly speaking, life is an as yet uncharted territory for everyone, an open adventure to be explored on one’s own…books, scriptures, teachers and guides are mere helpers to that end, but the things we keep looking for mysteriously, for our fulfilment may not necessarily be readily reckoned from the map provided by them and this as such is the moot problem of Spirituality addressing which is always shrouded with a big ambiguity.
This ambiguity echoes as an open challenge to Arjuna even by Lord Krishna when He says:
उद्धरेदात्मनाऽऽत्मानं नात्मानमवसादयेत्।
आत्मैव ह्यात्मनो बन्धुरात्मैव रिपुरात्मनः ॥
Liberate yourself by yourself Oh Arjuna !
In yourself you are your enemy and in yourself, you are your own friend!!
Whatsoever a guide in the shape of a scripture or a teacher says are always secondary till it is recreated and re-enacted as “the discourse of the spirit-within” and once that happens all the dilemma and perplexities of a person gets resolved within.
I completely agree Reena ji, with your last point of “shedding the baggage acquired over years” and make a fresh start of the introspective journey within. We all are endowed with a respectable spiritual quotient to live through life. Teachers of humanities merely harp on it to energise. Harmonising it is totally our responsibility and once we succeed in it, we can not only live a highly spirited lively life, but strike a beautiful symphony too, so that the entire surrounding too comes out alive.
Religion and spirituality are two expressions having immense deep relationship.
Your honest exploration of both these expressions brings about the overall unity in understanding.
No matter from which source the river flows… nothing matters in which name people call it, the properties of river and its water remain same throughout the universe.
This morning when i read this post i could experience why our scriptures say individual consciousness and universal consciousness are one and same.
Spirituality is nothing but management of mind. Spiritual practices, no matter which religion it may be is nothing but the means to calm the mind and discover the middle space to experience the truth.
You have knowingly or unknowingly convinced your readers Reenaji about this and presented the esoteric uniformity that exists in various spiritual philosophies.
Kees Waaijman’s views on spirituality is almost the same as of Saivites in Bharat practiced before thousands of years.
“You are born as a pure spirit in God’s image & loss touch with the purity as you grow up.”
Fundamentally a Hindu, a Christian, a Muslim, a Buddhist ,a Jew or a Jain is a human being, having a body, a head and a mind. The same blood flows in their veins, the same variable thought waves rise and shed in their minds. Their love, hate, anger compassion and forgiveness qualities are also same.
How the core spirit shall differ?
How the ultimate essence of their spirituality shall differ?
The goal remains same though expressed in different idioms, imagery and examples.
Their poetry sings the same rhyme.
Meditation is the process of calming the mind to find the middle space.
Simplicity is a path to stay away from pride, anger, animosity and all those vices those sinful qualities.
Love that creates compassion, gratitude and forgiveness.
And shedding the luggage acquired over years is that they call Vairagya.
Staying in everything acquire the quality of never staying anywhere.
I have read many of your writings. Probably this is your best blog i have come across, Reena ji.
Enjoyed. Thank you.