TH 81: Spiritual Life and Religious Life

There is a difference between religious life and the spiritual life. Generally we take birth in a family with certain belief systems. We take them to be the only way of life or even the best way. This belief helps in creating for us a psychological comfort zone but interferes with the deeper seeking for Truth. Spirituality begins when we begin to seek consciously and chose the path we must travel to find Truth consciously. Of course one must have faith that it is possible to find, that there is something worth all our efforts. But this faith is different from a fixed and often narrow belief system provided as a ready made replica of fit into our understanding. Religious life is often trapped in rules and rituals, often contextual but continued unthinkingly out of fear or as a means of pleasing God. But the practices of spiritual life, its proscriptions and prescriptions have a rationale and are not rigid chains of thought. Its purpose is to eventually set us free from Ignorance, free as the Divine is free even though He is ever engaging with creation all the time. Spiritual life has to be chosen consciously, every individual has some aspiration and according to the aspiration, his path opens. The rules are self imposed here according to the inner need and stage of growth.