Conversation with my Grandson - Religion and Spirituality (Contd…)
Tanay, in your absence, it is your grandma who takes up your role and asks me questions on your behalf. Yesterday, after reading my post about conversations with you on religion and spirituality, she said she still didn’t understand what spirituality is. So here is my attempt to explain it for you …!
Previous post on the same topic:
To summarize what we discussed earlier, religion is about worshipping a personal God, following the holy scriptures, and carrying out daily rituals in fulfillment of these functions.
Spirituality is the recognition that ...
there is an underlying order to everything in nature; that there is a place in creation for all creatures; that the forest, river, and mountain all have their dharma (natural duty).
Spirituality is the awareness that ...
there is an inseparable bond between man and nature; that, for man, there cannot be an existence removed from nature; that nature has provided sustenance for all created beings.You have often experienced spirituality when you are touched ...
- by the mystical colors of a magnificent sunrise,
- by the mesmerizing beauty of a misty waterfall,
- by the soulful strands of a stirring music,
- by the innocent acts of small children,
- by the thoughtful kindness of a total stranger,
- by the warm hospitality of an unfamiliar person,
- by the enchanting splendor of a scenic landscape,
- by the subtle cycles and rhythms of nature …
These facets of nature make us ponder whether there really is a divine power behind them all.
In any case, I am positive that, that the divine power does not want us to worship him (or her), does not want us to waste our precious time on senseless rituals to please him. Instead, I strongly believe that he is exhorting us, through his myriad displays and manifestations through nature, to be responsible, to be grateful, to be compassionate, to be humble, and to be in harmony with nature.
There are many other occasions when you come face to face with spirituality:
- When you turn your gaze inwards and contemplate on the non-physical aspects of human existence; when you listen to your mind, the inner consciousness.
- When you ask yourself what is the purpose of our life and who we are responsible for.
- When you realize that people are not immortal, that we are not here forever, and that we should make some contribution to the next generation.
- When you figure out that, in spite of all the comforts and conveniences that advances in science and technology offer us, we are unsure whether we are happier than our forefathers!
- When you turn your gaze outwards and realize that you are just a tiny speck in the vast universe - just one of the 7 billion people on this planet, a planet that is in perpetual motion surrounded by several other planets, and billions of stars and galaxies.
- When you comprehend the immense scale of the universe; the sunlight we experience everyday is originating from a star 150 million km away; that the light from the sun takes 8 minutes to reach us; that the light that leaves our second nearest star, Proxima Centauri, takes just over four years to reach Earth!
- When you become aware that the whole universe is littered with galaxies like the Milky Way, and light from galaxies takes more than 13 billion years to reach us!
- When you realize that despite our brains telling us that things we see happen at the instant we see them, the further out we look, the further past we see.
It is the capacity to self-reflect - the capacity to be conscious and be aware that we are alive, that our heart is beating, that we will die someday, that we possess the ability to learn, to reason, and solve problems, that we can make creative changes to our environment, and that our life has purpose and meaning.
Spirituality is the awareness that ...
the process of evolution that has taken us so far does not stop with the mankind, that we have an inherent responsibility to keep the process of evolution going, that it is our paramount duty to progress and evolve to a species of infinitely higher intelligence, that all our actions should be geared toward achieving this remarkable objective.
Spirituality is when you look at the external world, then looks at the inner self, and then sees the direct relation between the world and the self, and hence sees the two as one. It leads us to the Vedic observation “Aham Brahmasmi”, an age old aphorism that we can discuss endlessly on some other occasion!.
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