TH 27: Religion and Spirituality

Spiritual life is a life dedicated towards God realization or the seeking after Truth and Peace and Bliss. Religious life is however different. It is not so much of a seeking but living according to some belief systems. Sometimes religious life can be a preparation for the spiritual but very often it stops our progress by keeping us tied to certain fixed and limited formulas. We confuse religious practice and rituals with spiritual endeavour. In Indian culture, we have a sublime spiritual rationale for most of our outer religious activities like offering flowers, doing pranams etc and most of us know it, though vaguely. But modern mind is often confused about this. It often regards all such practices as religious whereas the real difference between the religious and spiritual is the inner state and attitude with which we engage with the outer. Offering a flower could be just a ritual if the devotee does not really connect the outer action with his inner aspiration but it can also be a deeply spiritual act when done with a clarity of the symbol and the aspiration in it. Sri Aurobindo says us that human consciousness can enter in Divine consciousness through four doors, – religion, spiritual philosophy, occult knowledge and spiritual experience. Rituals and religious approach can be the first step towards spirituality if a deliberate and conscious inner approach is being adopted.

Recorded in 2009.