Understand what cannot be understood!
Hear from the heart wordless mysteries!
~Rumi
Good and God’s morning ……
recently some one asked the audience in a conference …….
how many people are religious ?
only very few could raise their hands …..
but when asked …… how many people are in one way or other spiritual ……..
almost 90 % or every one could raise their hand in affirmation …..
Spiritual but not religious (SBNR) is a common and popular phrase in young generation all across the world …….
In April 2010, the front page of USA TODAY claimed that 72% percent of Young generation agree they are “more spiritual than religious”.
Popular phrases are like a fashion which one follow blindly ignoring own creativity and judgement because of projected styles by designers and brand Gurus through celebrity and fashion models and when we see our role models wear those ….. our mirror neurons in our brain get activated and to look beautiful and different we follow them but ultimately we all start looking alike ……. and become a part of fashion crowd who thinks themselves to be with the trend and contemporary
and exactly this also has happened with this phrase ……
Spiritual but not religious
so we will try to understand in an ordinary way ……..
what is spiritual?
and
what means to be religious ?
Two days back took my elder Grand daughter to temple …..
in the picture she is placing some flowers on the roots of a Banyan tree …… what we call in Hindi ” PIPAL ”
and
when we went to bow before the lord shrine and afterwards as we were circling the shrine from outside which is a ritual most Hindu follow when one goes to temple ………
my Grand daughter asked me …….. why we circle the shrine ?……..
like children for their scientific and natural quest for the answers ……
so told her …….
time is a linear dimension with two ends ……. like past and future ……
to bring them together we circle so both ends come together
and meeting of past and future is present that is NOW ……… a journey of time in timelessness
religion is like a classroom where we are given the methods of bringing together the duality of body and soul through some rituals which are quite scientific
but to spread that knowledge certain simple rituals are there in streams of different religions all across the world depending upon the geographical , weather and local conditions …….
it is a training of senses which include body , mind and yoga or oneness with soul …….. it is like knowing how to drive a car or how to cook a meal …..
life is a long journey where we get this training of senses which could happen through religions …… through modern science ….. through a theist or through an atheist ….. because both theist and atheist know that every thing is made of atom and within every atom is OM also like soul in every living human ……
Spirituality is science of application of that training of senses for an individual journey of self-realization ……. and knowing the language of essence for all the senses …….. that is beauty for the eyes …… harmony or music for the ears ….. fragrance or the nose ……. taste for the mouth …..sensitivity or softness for the touch and prayers for totality or oneness …… so it is like decorating the dining table and taste the meal .
so what exactly we do when we go to a temple …… we complete all these through simple rituals …… like my grand daughter touch flower for touch and smell ….. putting flower is appreciating the beauty of nature ….. burn some incense sticks for fragrance …. decorate lord for beauty …… and prayer and gratitude for oneness …. like decorating a dining table
some people may not believe in decorating a dining table and sit down and eat in gratitude but like to have quick meal just to feed the body ….. and just feeding the body ignoring all rituals of art of dining …..they will say ……. waste of time …… and for this they call themselves not religious …..and not believing in any of these decorating methods has become so-called spirituality
so a true spirituality is basically an art of dining to taste the divine energy in every thing and that is a conversation with nature …….. and every religion of this world is a local language of that conversation .
and spiritual but not religious…… is a sentence of misunderstood alphabets .
so
religious outside
and
spiritual inside
is a balanced statement
spirituality in short is like an ocean of love where all rivers of different religions merge to have same level …..
giving same level to all is true humanity ……
a true religion and true spirituality …..
love all
(c) ram H singhal
freedom to right copy and share
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