The moment we hear the term ‘Spirituality’, our mind starts conjuring up ideas that we or our society has fed into us. For some of us it comes across like a finer version of religion, for some it is breaking away from the ritualistic clutches of religion and therefore all about challenging it. Some say it is a medieval fancy with no relevance in the modern times. For a few it is quest for human perfection, an attempt to live a more meaningful and fulfilling life. For some, it helps them find peace (by clearing the mess they keep on piling in their lives, without realizing it :)) For many other it is balancing the energy, connecting to beloved, being love, surrendering to God, seeing the Truth. Few say you need to work to achieve spiritual growth, others profess you’re already there just accept the fact and you’re home etc. To me all the above views are right but only partially right.
Humans are called ‘Human Beings’ and therefore do not have a fixed nature. They can be honest, partly honest and dishonest too, in a given situation. Their action choice depends on their ‘Level of Consciousness’ and many other factors like values, beliefs, past experiences, conditioning etc. Not only that, we’re ever evolving as species, hence not a final product as yet. To sum up, the best definition for humans to me, will be to call them ‘Human Potential’, ‘Human Possibility’.
Spirituality is the game of realizing this ‘Human Potential’, first acknowledging it (seeing yourself beyond a gross body or conditioned behavior) and then working towards achieving the same. It can effectively be termed expansion of consciousness by transcending the limitations of one’s ego(‘I’ consciousness). There are thousands of modalities one can try to achieve this transformation, but one should give it a fair chance to see some substantial results. Most of the modern seekers are fickle minded. They leave the process in the middle and blame it on the modality or the mentor, absolving themselves and their impatient ego.
What do I get by being spiritual is the next question you may ask? As far as rewards of this journey are concerned, they are manifold. As put very beautifully by Rumi, ‘It is like living 100 lives, in 1 life’. You live more meaningful, fulfilled, empathetic, efficient, contributing and pragmatic life. You care more for life than lifestyle. You may go more minimalistic, and may realize that ‘less is more’ for you. You become a more considerate person and live more responsibly.
Many mistake it for some type of knowledge and embark on a reading spree. It is more like a ‘taste’, it has to be tasted and can’t be experienced by reading or learning about it. Yes, it is knowledge in stage one but after you apply this wisdom to challenge your ego (your inferior attributes) it grows into something deeper, a lived experience. As a takeaway of this post, let me share some indicators of spiritual growth. As you grow spiritually, you grow in ‘Truth-Empathy-Beauty’. You see Truth more clearly, you grow in empathy towards other, as you see them as your extension of some sort, and this ‘Humaneness’ makes you beautiful from inside.