Spirituality...
What does this word mean to you?
Is it just a fashionable word used by those men and women in saffron or white robes...
Is it a money minting word for the so-called spiritual gurus...
Is it the thing you practice by chanting for and going to idols, places of worship and other material identities...
Is it something that goes out of the window when seemingly stronger words like hunger, anger, love, lust, jealousy, success, money, comfort, luxury call you?
What is Spirituality to you?
While you ponder on this 'more-important-to-you-than-you-know' aspect...let us go for a verbal walk together...
The journey starts young! There have been many moments in my life when I have questioned the claim of others on this word; and then wanting to transfer that claim on to my belief system. They succeeded sometimes, they simply did not otherwise and then there were times that the mission was half-done (Dangerous!). So when this kind of an Operation Spirituality was being done on me...while I was too young to know it was...it left me confused, lost and indecisive. The stronger the cause of the Operation (not just spirituality), the more is the seriousness of the casualty :-) !
There was a tiny voice that kept telling me, why should I listen to what is being told, who told or taught the very first person who taught us. My guess being as good as yours...the answer is NO ONE! The person who started the spiritual belief system we want to follow because someone around us is saying so...that first person came to that situation of being able to prescribe Spirituality...by embarking on a journey of his own. Gathering the know-hows along the way and making 'his own' Spirituality manual step-by-step.
The intention here is not to mock at the whole grand scenario...the idea is to show that Spirituality manuals were not made out of thin air. They were made out of at least one person's journey within to begin with. And I strongly believe that when that first person must have spoken of his or her journey, it must have been merely to guide the path and point the arrow to some who went to him or her seeking answers...and not tell them when to step forward, how to do it, and how much of a big step was a good step.
The journey will always be our own and ours only; which will never begin until we understand that clearly. This subtle journey of self-exploration being truly termed as spirituality has now become in its extreme a fanatic pursuit of false-pride, anger, hatred, discrimination and much more..and I guess the reason is a lot of people along the path of passing on to generations and in passing time have added their layers of motive, ego, need for superiority, abuse of seniority and more. No offenses to whoever I may be referring to...including myself maybe.
The idea is not to judge and make a mock of this set-up, but simply to realize where we are and then where we want to be followed by wanting to be there and then taking steps to get there.
Now many people may get all charged with this; which may soon fizzle out in some cases by having to stop at a point of thought, wondering how will I go about this, what if I don't succeed, what if I don't find what I am looking for and when I am looking for?
Don't be scared. It is not about what you could not do at a point in time; it is all about taking your time to discover your true self once and for all...slowly but surely...so that in its future you are not staying busy going in and out of such discoveries...that are superficial, temporarily comforting and gratifying.
Just close your mind's eye to the chaos and understand what is it that you are feeling. Are you comfortable when you are going through this journey. If you experience discomfort, your mind, if you are truly listening, will gently slip you into the thought zone where you will know where to go to feel lighter and happier. Try to shield this zone from the then angry and eagerly attacking demons of boredom, excuses, ego, anger, jealousy. Don't trust any thoughts that are decreasing your comfort or taking you away from your happy zone.
And the trick is that simple. Keep doing this over and over again. And while at it, keep giving yourself a higher and higher certificate of achievement. Pat your back and reward yourself with a mission of a being in a better place in your mind.
Don't think about how fast, how soon, how much and compared to how many. Keep going...and the left and right wont matter. Start looking withing and make your own Spiritual rainbow!
So now...back to where we started...at both the end and beginning of a full-circle...What really is this word..Spirituality? Wanna answer ;-) !?
