DR SANJAY TEOTIA explains what the concept of spirituality means to different people
Spiritual awareness eventually unveils an extraordinary state of mind that goes far beyond the self with its limited superficial understanding. To reach spiritual awareness, we must learn to transcend our five sensory organs and understand that true spiritual awareness is a lot deeper than the thoughts, emotions or perceptions we form of things around us.
Spirituality refers to that relationship between God and man that can be summed up under the following four headings: Holiness, Gift of the spirit, Life in the spirit and Discipline of the spirit.
God, the Supreme or Ultimate Reality is a being perfect in power, wisdom and goodness worshipped across religions – whether Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Hinduism or Sikhism as creator and ruler of the universe. The concept of God evolved over the ages throughout every period in history.
Theologians in every religion taught that God created the universe. Shamans, healers, sages and wisdom keepers of all times in different ages and continents had a common concept of spirituality – that implied that human spirituality is composed of three aspects: relationships, values and life purpose.
Spirituality makes a person God-aware and sincere. Inner peace follows awareness. When one contemplates a life of spirituality, the primary point of entry into spiritual realms is through heightened awareness. Once this is in place, one begins to notice beneficial changes in one’s lives. Spiritual needs can include the need for meaning and purpose in our lives, the need to love and feel loved, and the need to feel a sense of belonging.
Sincerity and spirituality are of utmost importance in our day-to-day life. Humans can only be successful when their lives are founded on truth. For those walking a spiritual path, they automatically begin believing in a Higher Power and become sincere, hard-working and God-fearing.
Many struggle with the idea of being sincere. One can begin by being honest. For those with a sense of inherent goodness, being honest comes naturally, but others may have to consciously work towards it. When one reaches the stage of being totally honest, then our lives have meaning and significance.
Most people tend to criticise the imperfections and limitations of others, while people who have taken to spirituality are sincere. Not only will such a person not criticise the imperfection of others, but he or she will be fully aware of the shortcomings within his or her own character and constantly try to overcome them.
Broadly speaking, spiritual awareness is the consciousness of spiritual matters, but when one tries to explain the term to others, they find the explanation vague. And that is because spirituality is different to different people. For some, it is a connection to one’s own soul and to others.
A spiritual person is never comfortable speaking ill of others or spreading gossip about them. Spiritual people mind their own business and focus on their own path while accepting others just as they are. They honour other people’s life experience by neither passing judgment on them or criticizing them. They live in conscious awareness of God’s presence and not a day goes by without them expressing gratitude to the Supreme for the blessings they have in their life.
Dr. Sanjay Teotia is Joint Director, Medical & Health, Lucknow. He is a prolific spiritual writer and his articles appear regularly in Navbharat Times and in Times of India, apart from YoursPositively
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Very beautiful analysis of Spirituality as a concept which concerns every sensible person’s deeply ingrained interest for finessing as well as fine tuning individuality.
The greatest achievements of Man and Mankind has been attributed to the finest play of man’s spirit so much that, all great teachings hover around the management of human spirit to harness the farther reaches of it.
However, the essence of Spirituality cannot perhaps be better understood till we enter the realm of our own spirit and have a direct experience of its play in the cobweb of our experiences, and sincerely address, moment to moment, our own spirit which is dynamically active.
However, like the pursuit of any discipline it demands utmost self discipline to explore it…It demands complete dedication of one’s individuality in a Yogic or Taoistic fashion to delve into it.
It may be shrouded with a mystic touch, but one can not deny that the very best moments of us happens with each of us when we are one-to-one with ourselves in our life. It’s but a matter of how we are able to retain it and harness its power as a driving force for the conduct of life.
One may attribute this to be a sort of blessing or simple grace, which is potent enough to be a life-changer for us, for the conduct of a good life or a higher order of fulfilling life.
These very real, defining moments of life comprise both:
The Good-Moments and The God-Moments of our life.
And when this happens, we seem to be harnessing the greatest dividend of life which flows as a perennial stream of joy which not only fills us but spills over to be shared with everyone…for, that’s the very nature of it!
The sense of ‘some-oneness’ of our self identity just drops down then and a sense of universality permanently fills our individuality…This as such is the culmination of our Spirit and this as such is undeniably the goal, if any, of Spirituality.
Very nice post Dr. Sanjay Teotia Ji. Thanks for sharing.