What does 'be Spiritual' mean?
What does ‘be Spiritual’ Mean?
I have been asked this question
many times over the past 2 – 3 years. I have ruminated over this question and
tried to analyse what it means. The answers I have given to different people
may have been different depending on the context with which it was asked. I
will try and include all those points in this post based on my limited
understanding of the subject.
Primarily, being spiritual means
having a feeling or sense or belief that there is something which is greater
than ‘myself’, something more than just sensory experience and that the greater
whole of which we all are a part of is cosmic or divine in nature. A spiritual
person first begins to love himself and then that love expands to include all
beings living or otherwise. A spiritual person cares not only about people but
also animals and the planet as a whole. Such a person knows from within that we
are all One, and consciously keeps trying to honour this Oneness.
Spirituality is often confused with
religion; people think that both are the same. The basic difference is that the
different religions are a path to find the One God that lies within us.
Unfortunately, religions which are basically just methods of worship are
thought to be the destination rather than the path – the destination can only
be reached through spiritual practices which include being a good human being!
So, the religion of human beings is humanity and not Christianity, Islam, Hinduism,
Buddhism, Jainism, Sikhism, Judaism, etc!
With the arousal of your spiritual
curiosity, you become a seeker, once you become a seeker you find your
spiritual guide or Guru, who guides you onto through his teaching and through
meditation to look for your own ‘self’. This search for one’s own self is the
foundation stone of spirituality. The journey within which commences through
meditation, the experience of divine energy, the feeling of oneness by merging
one’s own identity with that of the cosmos – that is the goal – where universal
knowledge gets transferred with ease.
A true seeker will always be
humble, questioning, testing, validating all his/her own spiritual experiences.
The deeper one dives within one’s own inner world, the truth starts unravelling
slowly, the divine experiences commence – you start getting the fragrance of
rose, jasmine, havan, etc when there is no rose plant or perfume anywhere nearby;
you start feeling cool vibrations, feelings of oneness with nature – a sense contentment,
satisfaction, serenity envelop you from within. Once all this is internalised –
your being radiates your spiritual nature. You stop getting affected by things
which happen around you and remain at peace with yourself and with the world
regardless of the circumstances!
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