What is the difference between religion and spirituality ? How to be spiritual ?
Religion and Spirituality is one of the most common topics, but there is lot of confusion between these two topics. Lets go in depth and find out religion vs spirituality and faith vs belief.
What is spirituality ?
Swami Ranganathan has given a beautiful quote on spirituality. He says, "when I close my eyes I find peace within and when I open my eyes I feel what can I do for you". Most of our problem is when we close our eyes we have a lot of disturbances and restlessness within and when we open eyes we are searching what we can get from others. This is not spirituality.
Spirituality is freedom from everything. You are not attached to anything. Freedom from sorrow, fear and all conditions. Most of us are in prison, of our own ideas or others concepts.We are slaves to our traditions, belief and faith. We fear to fall from that.
If there is freedom, there is love. Freedom is the end of our self. What I mean is there is no "I". You have no self-image. You don't identify yourself to anything. When my mind is free, then there is supreme intelligence.
Once you are spiritual, the world is your religion and this world is your country. Spiritual life is holy. One that doesn't belong to any religion and just be on truth, compassion is a real spiritual person.
How to know if you are spiritual ?
Spirituality refers to the ability to experience life beyond the physical realm.You are spiritual if you see the same part of the "Supreme Being" that is in you in all beings of the cosmos. You are on the spiritual road if you understand that you are the creator of your suffering, your rage, and you are suffering, not someone else.
Whatever task you undertake, if it serves the greater good, you are spiritual.You are spiritual if you have let rid of your Ego, Wrath, Resentment, Greed, Jealously, and Biases. You are spiritual if you are always happy and content inside, regardless of the exterior conditions.
Likewise, you are spiritual if you remain aware of your position in relation to the grandeur of this creation. Furthermore, you are spiritual if you feel compassion for all animals in the universe.
How to practice spirituality ?
To be spiritual, you must understand through personal experience that I am the source of my own happiness. Spirituality can only be found within you, not at a temple, mosque, or church.It's about taking a look at oneself from the inside out. This is for self-improvement.
It's for individuals who desire to get the most out of every aspect of life. There is oneness and uniformity in the universe, and each human being is unique in his or her own way. Spirituality is about recognizing and appreciating this.
What is faith ?
The majority of crimes have been committed in the name of religion and faith.We have a complete misunderstanding of faith. You have faith in something and believe it to be your faith. For a person, one set of beliefs is his faith.
It is not correct to believe anything simply because you were born and raised in that culture, or because you got information from your society or another person. There is no need of your mind if you believe this is the genuine reality. The mind is used to investigate and explore things, not to create and draw some conclusions, which most of us are attempting to do.
Death is the outcome if you have a blind faith in something. You come to a halt in your quest when you are certain of something you don't understand. If you don't know what the conclusion is about, it will be a catastrophe.
Difference between faith and belief ?
Belief is a matter of personal preference. It's a mental state induced by the acceptance of certain knowledge. It's possible that the information isn't accurate. Belief might be impermanent, unstable, or supported by facts. Tomorrow, I believe it will rain. So i am not 100% certain of it.
Faith is a combination of trust and confidence. It's belief, heightened by the fact that it's integrated with all we know to be true and proved, giving it the status of truth. Faith in anything necessitates more than just belief, since faith is something we may need to rely on at any time.
Why is it important to distinguish between religion and spirituality
Religion and spirituality are two different things. Suppose a man goes to temple or church every weekend and pray and do his rituals without break. As soon as he steps out of the place, his old personalities will trigger back. Religion was practiced because of his family or surroundings, or because he believed it would give him peace. This is an example of a religious person.
Now we come to spiritual person. A person who understand the scriptures not because of family or surrounding pressure, but because of his inner calling to know the truth is a spiritual person. He may or may not read any scriptures, but still he will be a spiritual person.Spirituality focuses on the practical side of the religion.
Religion is a collection of ideas and a way of life directed by someone with the power to do so, and adhered to by individuals who trust that person.
If we see the history we will know that Jesus was Not a Christian, Gautama was Not a Buddha or Krishna was Not a Hindu They were all spiritual teachers who had followers and formed group and finally formed the religion.
The key difference is that Religion is a belief system and Spirituality is ExperientialFor example, Christianity requires you to believe that 'Jesus is the son of GOD, and that he gave his life as a sacrifice for our sins.' He is the ONLY one who can save us when we die.'
Spirituality, on the other hand, aspires towards quest and liberation. 'Accept nothing, and then search for the truth until you experience it,' is the spiritual foundation. Spirituality emphasizes personal experience, whereas Religion is based on concepts.
Religion is based on Followers, Spirituality is a Walk-Alone