How Spirituality Helps You Know the Truths of Life
How Spirituality Helps You Know the Truths of Life
Spirituality is nothing but knowing the meaning of your own existence in this world. You can practice spirituality only by talking to yourself – by repeatedly querying yourself till your own self gets satisfied.
By Rakesh Raman
Spirituality has different meanings for different people. If you want to practice spirituality, don’t get confused by the prevailing definitions of spirituality.
Most people believe that if they follow a certain religion, they are spiritual. But that may not be true, I say. Any religion, in which an organized group of people follow certain predefined beliefs, restricts your independent thinking.
Spirituality, however, allows you to be free so you could enjoy the freedom of thought. Spirituality gives you the power to talk to your own self, your inner self. It allows you to question your self on every right and wrong around you, though the right for you may be a wrong for others and vice versa.
Spirituality is nothing but knowing the meaning of your own existence in this world. You can practice spirituality only by talking to yourself – by repeatedly querying yourself till your own self gets satisfied.
But why do we need spirituality? The practice of spirituality gives you the power to talk to your mind, which is extremely important to control everything in your life. Everything means everything – your desires, your hunger, your greed, your health, your happiness, your sadness, your relationships… you name it.
If you can’t talk to your mind, you can’t control it. If you can’t control it, you can’t conquer your desires. If you can’t conquer your desires, you can’t control your life. As the life goes in a free-wheeling cycle in an uncontrolled state of mind, it results in pain and misery for yourself as well as others around you.
Since most people in the world don’t practice spirituality, the sufferings in the world have always been increasing. Today, in the world population of 8 billion, almost everybody is suffering. Obviously, religion is not the answer to mitigate the human agony while almost everybody follows a religion.
But the right understanding and practice of spirituality can reduce human sufferings, because spirituality brings you to a state of mind where you can even enjoy your sufferings. Your perspective of pleasure and pain can change for the good by practicing spirituality.
Moreover, when you constantly talk to your own self to seek truth, it gives you the inner strength and knowledge to conveniently handle difficult moments in life. Knowledge gained through spirituality is the only knowledge that empowers you to take the right decisions to lead a peaceful life.
To practice spirituality, you need to begin with a clean slate. You have to first unlearn what you have learned so far in your life. It’s not about your academic learning, but the spiritual learning that has taught you to distinguish between the right and the wrong, the good and the bad, the moral and the immoral.
Spirituality helps you understand the principles of life, as these principles keep changing with the change in situations and surroundings. And spirituality gives you the knowledge to use the right principles for your life and conduct. It gives you the ability to decide between right and wrong depending on situations.
The knowledge gained through your own thinking – or spirituality – is your biggest strength, which can help you even overcome your physical weaknesses and help you easily bear all material losses. As life never stops, you keep moving with your life and thus your thinking toward life keeps changing.
So, the concept of spirituality is dynamic whereas the religious doctrines are static. That’s why despite going by the religious preachings, the human life is experiencing extreme pain. But it does not mean that one should not follow a religion.
Rather, let the spirituality – that is, your own cognitive process – decide whether or not you should follow a religion or believe in the conventional form of God. But there is no conflict between religion (or spiritualism) and spirituality. You can practice both at the same time.
By Rakesh Raman, who is a national award-winning journalist and social activist. He is the founder of the humanitarian organization RMN Foundation which is working in diverse areas to help the disadvantaged and distressed people in the society.
