When I was asked to write about practical spirituality, I thought that do we have different flavours of spirituality? Is there is something called theological spirituality or ideal spirituality? I believe that answer to this question is No. There are no types of spirituality. Spirituality is itself practical and anything which is not practical does not fall under the domain of spirituality. Before we go ahead, let us find out the dictionary meaning of spirituality. A simple search on google tells us that Spirituality means the quality of being concerned with the human spirit or soul as opposed to material or physical things. I somehow agree with the definition by google. Anyone spiritual gives priority to spirit or soul over material stuff. The spiritual one believes in the concept of soul and understands that it is not other people or material responsible for his happiness, well being and solace. One rather understands that there is something called peace which is part of ownself. Peace or solitude is the inert nature of the soul and it is permanent until one changes its focus to materials. The spiritual one understands that none of the material around him is the source of happiness and sorrow. In the above context “material” refers to both worldly pleasures and people in our lives.

He understands happiness and sorrow are crest and trough of a wave known as life. In life, events are continuously happening around us and our definition of these events make them crest and trough. Any unwanted event like a loss is a trough of the wave while the desired event like securing a job, a tender or good marks can be defined as a crest. Don’t be fooled by someone who says that he is not impacted by life’s events because nature created us in such a way that all these events do impact each one of us. In fact, at times our reaction to such events are actually nature’s response to make us free of the event’s impact. Like crying in sorrow actually, relieve us from despair and other reactions such as anger etc. have been created to help us. If this is true then how a spiritual one is different from a non-spiritual human being.

The difference between spiritual and non-spiritual is of awareness, acceptance and balance. Let’s elaborately discuss these traits.

Let’s go back to the definition of spirituality – it says concerned with the human spirit. I would say spiritual one is not only concerned about human spirit rather concerned about the spirit of everything. Spirit behind any rule or law which is followed in the land, the spirit behind any action he takes or someone else takes and spirit behind any belief prevalent in society. He does not simply accept beliefs, laws and any trash rather try to understand the spirit behind them. He doesn’t need to understand everything in the world, he is not a genius who can understand all complex elements of the world rather he is the wise one who understands his limits but without going to detail try to understand the spirit behind those complex elements which can affect him. He does not care about stuff he believes is irrelevant even if it is the current rage. Let’s take an example regarding donation. Every religion and community believe that donating for the needy is a righteous act however the spiritual one will try to understand that what should be donated and to whom it should be donated. He will not tangle himself in various rituals of donation rather after understanding the spirit behind the donation, he will donate. He will not stop here, he is concerned human spirit too, he will also understand that good deed like donation can also lead to birth and boasting of a subtle ego, he is always aware hence get to know the effect of an act on his consciousness. Since he is aware, he can get rid of such shortcomings which can lead to the creation of an illusion, a false self-image. A spiritual one never assumes rather always keep introspecting himself and never ties himself with any self-image or definition.

So what needs to be accepted here? The spiritual one is always curious and open to new knowledge but he accepts that he doesn’t know everything, though the soul is agreed to be part of limitless, however, he is limited by his body, he accepts that he is not perfect and can do mistakes. Since he does not have any self-image or definition, he accepts humility and can apologise even when he is mistaken. He accepts that he is equal with others even despite his economic well being or caste or nationality or wisdom or knowledge. He accepts every condition, every situation and every outcome he faces in his life and not just suffer or crib when things are out of control. He accepts his actions, he accepts courage and acts when it is right to act despite numerous adversities. Above all, he accepts the will of the god.

The spiritual one understands that this world survives on the balance. The earth maintains a balance while revolving around the sun. It does not go further far or nearer to the sun to sustain life on the planet, nature survives on balance. From trees to honey bees to humans, nature survives on balance. Even humans need a balance of work and relaxation in life. He understands that balance is required in the diet, balance is required in sleep, balance is required in earning & spending. Spiritual one is not a man of extremes, he is never extremely happy nor extremely sad. He accepts all emotions, live them and yes do give response as per emotions but never let them reside within himself permanently. For example, spiritual one will get angry whenever required or maybe as a response to the situation yet anger will vanish away. At times, he uses anger to show his strong disagreement, sometimes a response to an event but this does not lead to the manifestation of hatred for someone or judgement of a situation as unrequited. He maintains the balance of his mind and consciousness and does his best to maintain the balance of everything in life including relationships, wealth, hard work and leisure. As I mentioned above, he remains aware or vigilant of events around him and affecting him.

Are religion and spirituality the same? If not, can one be religious and spiritual at the same time? These are not simple questions and everyone may have their views about it. As far as I understand that religion is about faith, set of rules, rituals and beliefs common for everyone, at least common for a community whereas spirituality is more of an individual belief. Religious beliefs are not available for scrutiny, neither open for modifications even the basis of many rituals and beliefs are not known yet people are following them. Religious beliefs are often interpreted by a religious leader who may not always be of analytical point of view which leads to just spread of the word and not the spirit. Interestingly, none of the religion as practised today is not initiated by the saint or messenger himself. He just taught and propagated the word along with spirit and not rituals but once they are gone, their followers started organized practices, which may be to keep knowledge preserved but with time, changes have been done in religious practices and slowly spirit behind the word got lost. All these make religion an unfertile land for a spiritual one. The spiritual one will move beyond religion practices and will try to understand the spirit behind religion. He may or may not keep himself limited to one religion only however still would find connection with the highest power the same old ways he learned following his religion.

A religious person may not be spiritual but a spiritual one must have been religious at some point of time in past. He must have practised or read or must have heard about religious concepts which inclined him towards spirituality. The concept of the soul came from religion or for Indians it is in culture but to move ahead one must have some encounter with religion, maybe a short stint though.

In the end, I have to admit there can exist different definitions of spirituality because spirituality is an individual practice, I don’t want to impose any definition because if we limit spirituality in definition, it will lose its spirit. However, I firmly believe any definition should be tested if it has above-mentioned traits or not. Being a seeker, I am open to feedback, please share if you agree or especially disagree as it may give me material for introspection and correction.