Are you Spiritual or Religious?
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I believe that there is a difference between spirituality and religion. People who are very religious may be quite rigid in their approach to life, and follow religious books and rituals quite strictly. Spirituality on the other hand is not so stringent, it may mean that you follow aspects of many different religious, believe in only some aspects of your own religion, or develop your own views about various religious practices. Of course, the boundary between the two may be blurry. And, we may be a mix of both with either one being prominent to various extents.
I believe I've become more spiritual than religious in the last few years. Whatever our scriptures tell us, they should be a guideline to handle our daily lives better. I've been reading Bhagwad Gita with my facilitator, Prajakta ji, in a Satsang format. And, I'm enjoying it a lot. Its given me the tools to deal with a very nasty and dark period in my life. Its given me a new direction and meaning to my life. But by no means its given me a badge to feel superior to others. Neither should others treat us differently simply because we think a bit differently. Because your thinking does change. Mostly, they teach you:
- to believe in an outside energy (Bhagwan), a part of which resides in you. Thus, you respect and love yourself just as you love others. The only permanent love is that of God, all others are temporary and fake.
- The other big theme is around how stable you should be (not too happy nor sad) in changing circumstances of your lives, by controlling your mind. You can control your mind by thinking of God and chanting mantras.
- Another thing is the the difference and delicate balance between attachment and detachment. Let go of Moh (which is from our minds and temporary) and instead love (which is from your heart, its limitless and forever).
- Its someone else that controls our destiny. Some force in the universe determines what happens, why and how it happens. Its the concept of rebirth till we attain moksha.
- Karma. Our karma determines what will happen to us in this life what we will be in our next life. So keep yourself trouble free and on path of saint almost.
These 5 BIG principles may sound easy but their understanding and following is not easy. In the book they are explained with the help of many many examples and imagery and in a way that makes sense. Imagine writing 18 chapters and 700 shlokas just to make you understand what you should be doing with yourself, and dealing with life.
I do not believe in glorifying any one entity whether its God or Guru Energy on the other hand is believable for me. There's something in the universe that controls our being and our surroundings. There's so little in our own hands and there's so much we don't know. That doesn't mean we shouldn't try to be better and do the things we need to do to have a happy and satisfactory life. I think that is why reading such book help us widen our thinking and help us think and behave better.
Being spiritual doesn't mean you're different. You shouldn't be treated differently either. And you shouldn't think you better than the rest. Because this is just one aspect of life where people's opinions are so varied. And everyone is right in their own way. So, if you want to adopt certain aspects of spirituality or even religion that's great, don't force anyone to do what you're doing. Similarly, others shouldn't right off the bat think that people who follow spirituality are out of their mind or are crazy and that something bad must have happened which is why they started being spiritual. That is somewhat true unfortunately, but that doesn't make us crazy for sure.
