Spirituality and Personal Growth - One and the same thing?

Spirituality is probably one of the most explored, but still miscomprehended term, that is in vogue, particularly in these trying pandemic times, when misery and helplessness apparently are ruling the roost. The objective of penning some thoughts on spirituality is to share some insight into our inner selves and how spiritually can augment the powers within.

Many of us have explored Spirituality in our own ways. Although this journey is very individual (i.e., we all have our own personal definition of Spirituality), it is collective in spirit. This is because Spirituality in people’s minds is synonymous with a search for meaning, for purpose and direction in life.

As quirky as it may sound, spirituality is explored by us for various reasons, the topmost of them being seeking some divine help in getting rid of the pain that confronts us. Let us look at the usual reasons for people attempting to embrace spirituality.

1. Problems staring at you: Perceived problems are the biggest instigators in getting people to take refuge in spirituality while searching for solutions to the seemingly insurmountable problems. This search often leads to areas outside the purview of known science, where Astrologers, Spiritual Gurus, or Psychics get to play a big role(s).

2. Curiosity: Curiosity is a basic need for all human beings. The growth of mankind can be attributed to curiosity. When one gets curious about some of the more profound questions like, “what is the purpose of life”, or, “where did I come from”, or “where do I go”, Spiritually is pregnant with possibilities. Most of the greatest human beings to ever grace this earth were driven by such curiosities and got enlightened by the eternal flames of Spirituality.

3. Healing: Spiritual healing has been practiced for ages. While this is quite similar to the first reason, i.e., “Problems staring at you”, the approach is a bit more structured, where healing is attempted by channelizing subtle energies. It is an art, which has many forms or shapes. That is a big topic in teasel, and the objective of this write-up does not deal with that.

4. Being a better self: Striving to be a better version of self is another great motivator in pursuing spirituality. This is quite different from type 1 or type 3, as there are no problems acting as catalysts to urge one on to the path of spirituality. The idea is that a better self can serve mankind even better! Hence, while this may sound like a selfish endeavor, in reality, the “self” here is all-inclusive, and not just the person undertaking the journey of spirituality

All this while, I have been beating around the bush without getting to the moot point of “what is spirituality”? Let me explore that to the best of my understanding. While spirituality is universal, it finds mention in the ancient Indian texts, which were written in Sanskrit. In the mother of all languages, spirituality is known as “Adhyātma”. It is derived from two words Adhi and Ātman (Ātmanahā). Adhi means “pertaining to the topic” and Ātmā means the Soul. So, in a nutshell, it means “pertaining to the topic of Atma/Atman”, better known and understood as the soul. As per the literature, the soul’s characteristics are Absolute Truth (Sat), Absolute Consciousness (Chit), and Bliss (Ānand). The Soul is unaffected by the ups and downs (and the happiness and unhappiness) one experiences in life as it is perpetually in a blissful state.

Our natural state is to be blissful (which is the nature of the Soul within us) and we all inherently yearn to be in this state. This is also the reason why we all search for happiness in life and run after various things we think will make us happy. However, as we all know, with the stresses and strains of modern-day living, ‘happiness’ is elusive and fleeting. In other words, our souls, more often than not, are not allowed to be in their natural state.

Spirituality, thus, deals with understanding the nature of the Soul and one’s journey back to identifying with the Soul and experiencing it as one’s true nature. Spirituality is an expansive science about how to be blissful.

As per our ancient texts, spirituality is called Paravidya (Supreme science), while all other sciences are called Aparāvidyā meaning inferior science. By ‘science’, we mean modern science. Rationalists and most people think that science and Spirituality are two separate disciplines. However, Spirituality is the knowledge of infinity, that is, knowledge of all subjects. It covers the whole physical world and the subtle unseen world, all the physical and spiritual regions, all physical and subtle frequencies, energies and vibrations, all positive and negative entities, and all living beings and non-living beings in the whole Universe. Spirituality contains all the knowledge and memory of the past, present, and future, from the beginning to the end of the Universe.

Was that too cryptic a definition? It probably is, given the state, we usually are in. Our mind always seeks clarity, and whenever things are left to individual interpretations, clarity becomes a victim and transforms into confusion. In the upcoming episodes, I would try to break it into a simpler form. I would hope to see you in subsequent posts. Stay tuned.