These days it is very common, almost fashionable for people to say, “I am spiritual but not religious.” “I believe in a higher power, but do not subscribe to any organised religion.” There seems to be, at first glance, a point in this. At the same time this feeling has come up because many organised religions have lost touch with their core spirituality or they have become dogmatic in that their way is the only right way.
I would like to look at it this way. Spirituality is the core of the spirit and religion provides the scaffolding, a structure that one needs to really grow spiritually and actualise oneself. What do you need to do? If one follows only religion ignoring spirituality, then at best it will become a set of beliefs and practices, help you earn some good karma and at the worst, it will become dogmatic. I will want to change everyone to my way of thinking, even willing to go to war and that is a pity.
Now, if I'm only spiritual without being religious then, because there is no scaffolding, no structure available, in time the spiritual dimension will disappear. The beliefs and practices will get reduced into some airy-fairy, new-age-based set of beliefs and practices again, or completely disappear from the human consciousness. So really speaking, one needs to engage with the spiritual along with the scaffolding of religion that gives you the freedom to choose what dimension and aspect of the structure works for you. For this we need a spiritual guide otherwise known as ‘guru’ in India. With this, one can aspire for the highest spiritual growth that is possible, presented as moksha, nirvana, self-realisation, god realisation.
Seek a teacher who can help you reach moksha, the knowledge which will free you from all sense of limitations, not only of the world but also your own. With this, I wish you all the best.
The writer is the founder of Aarsha Vidya Foundation. You can write to him at aarshavidyaf@gmail.com
