More often than not, we encounter problem of understanding Spirituality in a truer sense. For many of us, religion and spirituality are same. Here when I am referring to religion, it is basically the one which we as a person adopted from our parents and continue with it for the rest of our lives. If we look at the so called religion, it constitutes a set of beliefs, practices, traditions etc. The most crucial and fundamental belief system that we adopted from our parents is the concept of God and Holyness. Along with the belief in God accompanies the belief in what is Good and Bad and even what is Sacred and not Sacred according to the prescribed standards. This prescription plays a vital role in impacting the Conscience. Conscience is the sense of correctly knowing what is right. This sense takes lot of time to develop on its own. From infant to adolescence and from adolescence to adult, an individual passes through various phases of learning and imbibing. However, the prescribed percepts of early ages stand as a pillar during the course of examination of ascertaining what is right and wrong. If a belief system is impacted at a very early stage in life (perhaps during the infantile years of 1-5), the impact so generated is long lasting. Many facts and opinions so adopted remain un-examined throughout life. The basic reason for this is when the process of adopting takes place during infancy period, the individual does not possess the power of Reason. This equipping develops later in life but by that time much of his belief system is already hijacked by the prescribed beliefs. These beliefs become deeply embedded and rooted in the one's personality and keep influencing him.
The religion so adopted influences the formation of Conscience. It is normally believed that faith and belief is the basis of Conscience which is actually not true. The basis of Conscience is purely Reason. Since the Reason takes time to grow and mature, consequently, the Conscience take time to emerge and establish, however the prescribed belief system, as a straight jacket, already starts shaping the belief and faith. The prescribed belief is just like an administered dose of medicine which is given when a person falls ill. However, in this context, there is no state of illness at all and still the prescription takes place. The necessity to prescribe is hard felt and is based on false presumption that the person is born with no capacity to understand right and wrong and might go astray or deviate if not told. This enthusiasm and concern leads to prescription by parents. Since these parents have also undergone the compulsive prescription of religious beliefs and practices they too are actually trapped in the same dungeon. They too find it difficult to look from outside. In this way the religion and its practices as a tradition pass from one generation to another. But is this spirituality at all? Is there some spiritual ingredient in so called religious beliefs? What would happen if in a true sense the spirituality as religion is passed through a system of belief from one generation to another. Here the challenge lies in truly knowing what spirituality is so that actually the right thing, practice is induced as a belief in an individual at infancy. Another question is do we really need to infuse true spirituality or the person can discover it on it's own in due course of time?
Man is endowed with two basic virtues namely i. Quest to know and ii. To Self improve. With help of these he can arrive at truth behind everything. He can always look forward, pierce future and even make unknown things known to himself. History of humanity is the proof of this. Discoveries and inventions are the evidence of Man's urge to know and self-improve. The freedom is so immense that it's totally up to him to decide. Religion serves as a dogma. It is human in origin but has been served to mankind as a divine Revelation through messenger, messiah or guru. It is a well conspired path invented thousands of years ago for so called salvation. It induces false belief that it's religious following takes one to heaven or else may land person in hell. However, there is no proof of this but since it forms the part of belief system it is believed to be true. No question is raised by the individual today against this belief the same way as he did not raise when he was young and this belief was being administered. At that that time he did not have the capacity to raise question and today he is helpless before the firmly deep rooted belief itself. Such a compelling force this belief has.
Spirituality, on the other hand, is the a continuous search of a Spirit to realize the ultimate truth. The basis of Spirituality is Reason and not belief. It's the ability to question each dogma and practice and constantly asking question why? and how?. It is of the Spirit by the Spirit and for the Spirit. It is all about knowing the true purpose and discovering the path to reach that purpose. It is the process where a fully aware Spirit actively seeks to learn about himself and his purpose, his relations with people, environment, universe and meaningfully relates with them. It is a level where the Spirit itself actively tries to satisfy it's quest to know, know the purpose and achieve it. This reasonable Spirit is available to Man only and no one on earth. This is the greatest virtue which he possesses yet he is unaware of it. Being an individual of such a Spirit yet unaware of this stems from the belief that Man is born with shortcoming and the only hope of salvation lies in religion and belief in God as per that religion. If the Man allows his Reason to work freely it will automatically lead him to his purpose without support of belief. Through spirituality he can reach his ultimate Goal.
Also refer a very good article at http://www.antireligion.com/wordpress/?p=660
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