Religion and Spirutuality are they different ??
I recently faced a question in a public discussion
regarding the ritualistic worship that most of us do!
it set me thinking..
Be it any religion.. why are ve so particular abt the rituals.. be it The Sunday mass,namaz or sandya vandanam! y is it we are consicous abt these rituals..
are rituals the shortest way to the Supreme...
well i truely feel.. any religion dictates the way of life.. it merely uphold as to how life can be righteously tread! these rituals are a few disciplinary measures flavoured with the essence of Faith!i dnt mean to say that the flavour is here to instill fear!! but its here to instill habit!
so how can the Supreme be realised!
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4 comments:
Religion, and spirituality are different. Religion without spirituality is meaningless, and most of the religions today are therefore meaningless. The relationship between the two is like the one between the body and the soul. The soul can exist without the body, but the body is dead without the soul.
One must understand the true purpose of these rituals. As you have said, it does bring in discipline, and I think, it is meant for that only. Before the mind gets trained, it needs to be trained to get trained. In other words, it needs to be disciplined.
Rituals also to an extent orient our thoughts towards the Supreme, if they are done in earnest. Not like how the groom repeats like a parrot what the Vadhyar says in a marriage. A certain amount of involvement is needed. It so happens that when there is involvement, one begins to understand the meaning behind it. Some elementary questioning would lead him to find more.
Just as lessons taught in school cannot be useful, unless the student is keen, so cannot these rituals be useful ultimately, unless we, who adopt these rituals are keen. It is just a stage one has to cross through in one's journey towards the Divine.
After all, you wouldn't loke to remain in class 1 all your life, do you?
Religion and Spirutuality are they different ??
Yes they are.
Let me take carnatic music as an example explaining this concept.
Case 1
a student when goes to lean carnatic music, the guru first teaches the plain small akaram. to clear the voice of the sishya. then he proceeds with the basic details like what is the maning of aakaram, eekaram, what is gamakam, what is thalam, what is ragam, what is arohanam, what is avarohanam, what is janta etc. all in theory.not at the same time but when ever requrired.
Then he starts with sarali varisai, janda varisai, etc then to geetham. varnam, keerthanai. in the mid of keerthanai, they teach how to identify the raagam, how to subsititute swarams for the lyrics, how to substitute aakaram for the swarams, how effectively gamakkam can be given, when gamakkam should not be given (for SA & Pa no gamakkam should be given) then the sishya becomes a versatile singer or musician. then he tests himself and discovers many new experiences
Case 2,
The sishya listens to music, learns himself without following any of those specified in case i (eg. S.P.B) he sings and expreinces new discoveries and he too becomes versatile singer
now in both the cases the objective is to become singer,
now for a human born in this world, his ultimate aim of the soul is to reach the paran jyothi. Paran joyti could be reached in self discovery, controling heart by mind and concentrating on one thing, i.e. supremacy, god. A inner heat is generated by pranan because of this concentration and starts melting the soul. the soul then gets liberated from the body and reaches the paranjyothi. Untill the soul liberates, it takes rebirth.
Let me link the above two cases to the life of soul.
The case 1 is like doing rituals, and by doing the rituals one attains a state where he starts discovering himself, from that point of time, he is renuciating the religion and enjoys sprituality.
The case 2 is of no religion, no rituals but from the early point onwards starts realising the self and goes straight into sprituality. A maturity level has been reached for him to realise self without even practising any rituals.
when ever a person in case 2 slips, he may come to case 1 for reference to get the maturity level back.
rituals are the lader to help us to reach the level of maturity to understand spritualism
religions instill discipline in ones life through the rigorous practice of the rituals...And self-discipline is one of the noblest virtues, through which anything you wish can be attained..even the supreme.
spirituality begins where religion ends... couldn't have explain better than karthigeyan abt. religion and spirituality...
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