Table of Contents
- What Brings To Mind If We Say Spiritual and Religion?
- What does Spirituality Bring To You?
- How Should You Decide, What to Follow?
- Conclusion
We mostly believe that spirituality and religion are the same. Is that?
How can they be different? if we look at them they both involve some kind of God, who is all-knowing and complete.
People follow ideas on performing such duties to find themselves in the other world after death. If they perform their duties with sin, they will end up in hell.
We also celebrate the existence of saints who gave us dictates and teaching to reach God. Governments around the world grant a public holiday to observe the service the saint gave to humanity. People come out on street in crowds and celebrate which becomes part of the culture.
Our religion teaches us to cherish the existence of a person who spread the message of god.
If you ask a person from the crowd, belonging to any religion, and ask them two simple questions:
Are you a religious person?
They will answer “Yes”Are you a spiritual person?
They will give you an obvious look, and scream a big “Yes”.
Well, they are correct. There is nothing wrong with self-appointment. The question are we really spiritual?
Does being ‘spiritual’ who must belong to a certain religion?
Does all religious person are spiritual?
Are they on the path to God, seeking the path towards the supreme or just performing actions according to the wind of culture that takes them?
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But there is a catch, they might be committing some criminal and inhuman activity in the name of religion. They believe they are on the noble path to spirituality and God will merciful for their act.
There are corrupt ideas, so who takes the blame of corruption? Is it religion or spirituality?
So in this article, I have been raising some questions as to the difference between spirituality and religion and whether are they the same to different.
What Brings To Mind If We Say Spiritual and Religion?
Let’s understand the terms word by word.
When we say ‘religion’, we find ideas which are backing the religion. Such as the name of the founder, the place where he was born and found God, a central text or commandments which he left behind for his people and the people following the religion.
A religion is a corporate brand. It has all the features of a corporate entity. A founder, a central text and people working under those principles.
The religion promises to its people, that by reading their text and believing their founder they will receive happiness on this earth or the other world. However, the other religions are their competitors and choosing them will be a sin.
Every religion on this planet has a logo. The religion also, targets the people telling them, that their god is the one, that will give them peace and true freedom because it has been revealed first to the founder of that religion. Also, their religion is true, and if you go follow another religion, you will burn in hell.
So, in conclusion, religion acts like bringing more people to perform action towards a supreme entity. They believe just worshipping the Gods will grant you everything and nothing is needed anymore. This is religion.
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On the other hand, what clicks when we hear spirituality?
For some people, it might be the same, a person who is submitted to a religion. A person following certain directions as per the religion directs and wears, eats and greats accordingly.
A spiritual person may or may not follow a religion. There can be either case. What a spiritual person sees, is to question the very fact that he is seeing through his eyes.
A spiritual and religious person will seek answers in the central text of the religion with his questions.
On the other hand, a spiritual and a non-religious person will seek answers from different religious texts. Here the seeker sees his questions as greater than the mundane problem of the superiority of religion.
It is pretty sure, that the spiritual person can assign himself to religion, he can also say that he believes god or does not believe to God. But his urge to seek answers is far greater than any mundane concept of believing and being identified with a religion.
So, why a spiritual person act like this?
What does Spirituality Bring To You?
Spirituality is way different from what religion teaches us. For a spiritual person, the teaching may come from organized religion or it can be a result of self-enquiry.
Spirituality is all about looking at yourself, and asking questions that are not easy to answer but we know it keeps us awake day and night.
Human beings, engulfed with eternal Maya tend to submit themselves and are attracted towards the material riches of the world. We get blinded ourselves and make ourselves slaves to the impermanent nature of the gratification material objects provide to us.
The eternal Maya has the power to submit the will of any person. It will attract you towards material riches. That will blind us towards the mundane world and seeking gratification from material objects. The endless cycle of samsara.
We become slaves to our sense pleasure and become attached to them. Spirituality brings challenge, where we start looking at ourselves and what we are and what we want in our life.
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Therefore, spirituality is a fight against Maya which is a deception to reality. It tries to conquer you from within. It targets you into believing in false gratification of sense pleasure.
Spirituality is the study of the reality in which we live. It is a path seeking truth. The truth where we live in. The things we attach with, knowing that they are subject to change.
Thus, spirituality brings many truths in relation to you and your surroundings. If you believe that, having good education and a good source of income can bring you the ultimate happiness then you need to think about it in depth about the nature of it.
Spirituality gives you the right perspective to the world we live in. The social dogmas and beliefs are only meant to give you false hope but no peace.
If a person becomes truly spiritual he questions every aspect of life. It can also lead to questioning beliefs about religion that dictates being the only true path of salvation.
Your scope of knowledge becomes limitless and you only see the true nature of anything that comes before you.
So that is what spirituality brings to you.
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How Should You Decide, What to Follow?
I agree that this article is one-sided but still, my dear reader you have received the points this article wants to make.
However, this article is not at all against any organized religion. It only questions the methods people start to follow and misrepresents the teachings of their founders.
Even a person with the bible in one hand can commit a crime. Scriptures are the true sources of spirituality and this source is provided to us by the religions.
It is the goal of both religion and spirituality to reach the supreme and find peace and nirvana. A wise person advancing in religion or spirituality gains knowledge surrounding him. However, a religious person will only restrict their thought to the dictates of the religion.
A wise choice is a spirituality which gives to oneself the idea of non-attachment. Ideas about impermanence and the reason for our dukkha (suffering) in our lives.
It does not matter whether to follow a religion or call yourself spiritual right away. It is the hunger for seeking that brings more towards God and truth.
Therefore, the choice is very simple to decide.
Conclusion
Religion and spirituality are therefore same yet different in approach for a person who is practising truly or just following the dictates blindly.
The roots of both spirituality and religion are the same, they bring so much insight into the true nature of being sentient in this world where no other being has developed this level of intelligence. We seek god and religion provides us very simply with some dictates but if you are a spiritual person you seek more than just the dictates.
You seek God and the truth within you.