Spirituality

Prologue:

1) This article is dedicated to my dear maternal grandmother, who developed in us a vision to look beyond the obvious and seek scientific answers to religious beliefs rather than accepting them on their face value.

2) Disclaimer: This article contains exclusively my views. It is in no way intended to challenge or hurt anyone's religious sentiments. I do not claim to be an expert on religion or science. I am a firm believer of Hinduism, our deities and our code of conduct. That being said, I always like to keep an open mind.

Spirituality:

Spirituality means different things to different people. Is it a myth to be dismissed or a fact to be sworn by? Amidst these extremes is yet another definition - it is not 100% accurate science and yet it is based so much on science itself. It is unrestricted like the ocean and yet it is something that you believe in. It is intangible and yet it is something that you experience.

Almost every ritual has a scientific foundation. Why do women pray for their husband's long life by tying thread around the Banyan Tree on Vat Pournima? Apart from the legend of Satyavan and Savitri, the banyan tree symbolizes eternal life in Bhagvad Gita apparently due to its ostensible and ever-intensifying branches. Since the tree needs a constant water source to thrive upon, historically it became a central point for the civilizations. Our ancestors were worshipers of nature. They knew that their very existence depended on the grace of nature. Therefore, they thought it befitting to pray to the emblem of long life to express their gratitude to nature. Today woodcutters chop off branches of the banyan tree on Vat Pournima in order to offer convenience to those who cannot make it to the tree. How justified is it to hurt the banyan tree and then pray to it asking for long and healthy life? Would it not make more sense if women plant a banyan tree on Vat Pournima instead of uprooting it?

Traditions/rituals, a.k.a. a body of unwritten religious precepts, are an important part of your life. A person does need set of guidelines to live their life by. However, the guidelines have to be flexible and have to change with times. If a person gets hung up on pursuing age old traditions that have lost significance over the course of time, they become more like restraints. Some people spend a lifetime scaring others, how not following the traditions will get them on the wrong side of God and how God would punish them for being disobedient.

Hindus believe that there are thirty three crore i.e. 330 million Gods. Everyone has their favourite God that they believe is their saviour. Nothing wrong with that. However, criticizing someone's choice of God and imposing them to alter their faith is blasphemous. Some say that performing a particular God’s ritual could be inauspicious. How can any God’s ritual harm you if done with clear conscience, good intentions and pure heart? If God does not discriminate among people, why should we? Have we become more superior to God that we can pass judgements on which God to pray to and which to avoid?

We pray to God to grant us all the goodness of life - health, wealth, safety, approval, love, self-esteem etc. It is said that God resides in each one of us. If we ignore the God within us and get wrapped up in religious doctrines, we defeat the purpose of reaching out to God. We are ordinary people, not saints. We do not have the spiritual powers to access if our prayers are going to be answered or not. If we pray with persistence, clean heart and well-meant intentions, our troubles do not go away; but we do gain courage and direction to meet them head-on.

I have often encountered atheists. They claim that they do not believe in God. I would want to ask them - do you believe in the fact that you are alive? It takes more than a miracle or timing for a healthy baby to be born. Not believing in God is like denying your own existence! God is formless, attributeless and omnipresent. We, as common people, can never understand his depth. On our part it is sufficient to know that he will never abandon us. He will walk with us every step of our life. Understanding this simple fact of life, in my opinion, is the true essence of spirituality.

Read this poem titled Footsteps in the Sand by an Anonymous Poet that has inspired me in the challenging days of my life:

One night a man had a dream.

He dreamed he was walking along

the beach with the Lord.

Across the dark sky flashed scenes from his life.

For each scene, he noticed

two sets of footprints in the sand,

one belonging to him and the other to the Lord.

When the last scene of his life flashed before him,

he looked back at the footprints in the sand.

He noticed that many times along the path of his life

there was only one set of footprints.

He also noticed that it happened at the

very lowest and saddest times in his life.

This bothered him and he questioned the Lord about it.

"Lord, you said that once I decided to follow you,

you'd walk with me all the way.

But I have noticed that during the most

troublesome times in my life there is

only one set of footprints.

I don't understand why when I needed you most

you would leave me."

The Lord replied "My precious, precious child,

I love you and would never leave you.

During your times of trial and suffering,

when you see only one set of footprints in the sand,

it was then that I carried you."

Epilogue:

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