Religion and Spirituality – Some Clarity


Religion and Spirituality – Some Clarity
April 24, 2013

Am capturing some thoughts that have mainly emerged from discussions with Shantanu, my yoga teacher and some readings in the recent past.

Religion, or rather the impact of region on cultures (and its peoples) has fascinated me for many years. As I increasingly dived into holistic yoga, I found myself referring to myself as being ‘spiritually inclined’ but not religious. Bottom line – I did not believe/appreciate the ‘mumbo/jumbo’ that is often related with religion and the unfortunate blind and often rabid faith that goes with being identified with one religion. But, the following new thoughts have made me question this belief…

Every living thing has its own nature. Water always flows from the top to bottom and fire always rises (try holding a match any way you want, but when you light it, the flame always goes upwards). So too for humans. Our innate nature is to be  good and do good. Be unselfish and genuinely care for others around us. In general, all the good stuff that we know about.

However, often this ‘true’ nature gets misplaced and greed, envy, etc start colouring our lives. The role of religion is to help us re-connect with our original good self. At different times, different religions have emerged from wise souls who not just reminded us about our original selves but also laid out certain practices that would help us get to our core. Take for instance, Buddha. Clearly, in his time, bloody wars were all too prevalent. So, non-violence was his central tenet. Other messiahs over time have in turn just done exact this – help us realign with our core/original selves. Evidently, the word religion means just that – realignment.

Unfortunately, these wise souls have now been identified with different religions. Further, what the preached (to be relevant to a particular time) have been entrenched in stone by their not-so-evolved followers as practices that MUST be followed. Clearly, these wise souls prescribed certain practices relevant at a particular time. But, by not adapting these practices over time, the core message of these wise souls have been lost and replaced by out-dated rules. This obviously is anachronistic and hence does not resonate with most open minded people.

Therefore religion, as it is widely practiced, has failed us in many ways. It has become blindly ritualistic and often divides us rather than making us better. But, for those who practice their religion without harm to others, do indeed benefit. 

So, it seems like there is no real difference between being ‘spiritual’ and being ‘religious’ if we truly understand the purpose of religion – to remind us and gives us tools enabling us to re-connect to our true nature (goodness). As one wise person said, religion and spirituality are two eyes beholding the same object.

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