Spiritual but not Religious

I've noticed that a lot of people seem to use the words Spirituality, Religion and God as though you can't have one without the others. With regard to Spirituality, I put it down mostly to ignorance, for the western view of Spirituality seems inextricably linked to miracles and the Indian view is inseparable from the concept of God. Both views are wrong, and apart from the select clique who are actually experienced in the area, it is the Indian youth of today who is most favourably placed to understand the real meaning of Spirituality.

But first, let me distinguish between the concepts of Religion and God. Roughly speaking, Religion refers to one of the established doctrines describing the form and attitude of God, such as Islam, Christianity, Hinduism, etc. A religious person visits the places of worship of his God(s), prays regularly, and believes in the ideas contained in the holy book of his faith. We can extend this, perhaps, to a person who does not believe rigidly in one of these doctrines, but nonetheless believes that God exists, and answers the prayers of those devoted to him.

There are, however, a lot of people who believe that God exists, but are not in the habit of praying and don't fully believe that God takes the trouble to help out humans in distress, devotees or not. Let's call these people Theistic but not Religious. That leaves the Agnosts, who are not sure whether God exists or not, and the Atheists, who believe that there is no such thing as God.

Unrelated to one's theistic beliefs are one's spiritual beliefs. Generally speaking, a spiritual person is one who has no need for material things. A spiritual person is the type who derives satisfaction from lighting a lamp; peace from watching the clouds; joy from a child's laughter; and solace from within. I guess it is not easy to define spirituality as such, but I just want to point out that it is a separate concept from religion and God.

The link between Spirituality and Miracles does exist though. Of particular interest are the "Spiritual Theorists", who believe that there is a certain energy or vibration associated with every living being, and by manipulating or channeling this energy in the correct manner, one can achieve a lot that conventional science can only call Miracles.

Obviously, there is no scientific evidence for the existence of any such energy. History is scattered with examples of how patients pronounced as beyond help managed to recover after treatment through unconventional techniques such as Reiki or Pranic Healing, but there is still no incontrovertible evidence to prove that it was such healing techniques that did perform the healing. However, it is technically impossible to prove it even if they did, since it is widely known that the application of such techniques does not actually perform healing by itself, but merely strengthens the body's natural healing abilities, allowing it to rally itself back to normalcy.

An interesting by-product of this is the existence of an Aura, or a measurable field of this life-driving energy, about every living thing. For a while there was a ruckus created by the development of a machine called the Kirlian camera, that uses electrical discharges to take an outworldish snapshot of an object. The Kirlian camera pictures showed "auras" around living things alone, and the colour and size of the aura changed depending upon various conditions. This seemed to back up the Spiritual Theorists, as the aura of a person is supposed to change with one's health and mood, but the Scientists squashed it by showing that the images formed by the Kirlian camera were dependent upon the impurities present in the air, especially and including the volatile oils and compounds that rise from the skin of every living thing on the planet, and the variation in their strength and composition as a result of bodily responses to moods, ill health etc. are bound to get recorded by the Kirlian camera.

That, of course, still did not disprove anything. And Spiritual Theorists often go further and make claims regarding the nature of the soul, the possibility of placing curses, the ability of clairvoyance, etc. What is intriguing about this is the way in which everything is developed scientifically from certain unproved "First Principles", lending them more credibility than your local Samiyar or deeply religious Grandmother. Best of all, there is no need to bring in a God into any of these things.

As for me, I was born Agnostic, and I pooh-poohed all references to anything connected to spirituality for a long time. Until some unfortunate experiences led me to doubt the very edifice of my existence, Science itself. So I linger in doubt, and for the moment am content to let life lead the way for me, for that has been the way things have always been for me: my thoughts guide my life indirectly through my actions, but nothing ever seems to govern my life, for it always finds it own way.

Well, perhaps there is a way to make a Science out of Spirituality. Or perhaps I was right in the first place, and I was only imagining the things that so terribly shook me to the core. In any case, I will leave you with a joke to lighten the mood.

A priest was having a difficult conversation with a non-believer. The man refused to believe in God at all, and said, "Show me a Miracle and perhaps then I will show Faith." The priest replied in frustration, "Why would God show you a Miracle unless you show faith?"

Cheers,
Prashanth.