Spirituality – a word which is often used not only by spiritual talkers, but our grandparents and parents too. You must’ve heard your grandmother talking to you about spirituality and otherworldliness at some point of time in your life. So, what is spirituality?
The definition of spirituality is broad and has changed over the years. It is a point of time, when a person recognizes that there is some spirit, energy, universe, light or whatever, beyond oneself. In simple words, spirituality is realising that something much more is out there, more than you, the society and the world.
But often, Spirituality’s meaning is misunderstood and considered as performing humungous rituals to please God. But wait, what is God? God is nothing big, but one’s own conscience. Spirituality is not doing mere rituals or costly offerings to God. It is just thinking about God and offer whatever you can with love and devotion.
Let me tell you a folklore from the Purana of Lord Shiva.
There once lived a sage in a forest. His name was Veda. He claimed to be a great devotee of Lord Shiva. He had established Shiva Linga in the forest. Each day, Veda would bring fruits and some food cooked by him, offer it to the Linga and offer his prayers to Lord Shiva. In the same forest, there lived a hunter named Bhilla. He too, was keen to serve Lord Shiva. Daily, he would hunt any animal and serve it to the Linga and thank Lord Shiva for giving him a peaceful and happy life. Seeing Bhilla’s devotion, Lord Shiva felt pleased and would wait for Bhilla every day. Bhilla and Veda never met. But, when Veda came back in the evening, he noticed that his offerings lay scattered and a little bit of meat lay near the Shiva Linga. “Who does this??” wondered Veda. One day he decided to catch the culprit red handed. So, he hid behind a tree and waited. As usual, Bhilla came, gave his offering to Lord Shiva and went. Veda waited for some more time, only to see Lord Shiva appearing in person and accepting Bhilla’s offering. This angered Veda. He asked Shiva-
“O Lord! What is this? He is a cruel and evil hunter, yet you appear before him and accept his offerings. I have been making offerings to you for several years, and not once you have come in front of me to accept my offerings! This is unfair. I am disgusted at this partiality. I am going to break this Shiva Linga with this stone!”
Lord Shiva replied:
“Do it if you must, but please wait until tomorrow.”
Veda did as said and the next day, came to give his offerings to the Lord. There, he saw traces of blood on the Shiva Linga. He carefully washed away the blood and gave his offerings and prayers. After some time, when Bhilla came, he was horrified to see the traces of blood on the Linga. He thought somehow, he was the reason behind this and blamed himself for this unknown transgression. As a punishment, Bhilla took an arrow and started piercing his own body fiercely. Now, Lord Shiva appeared before both of them and said:
“Veda, now do you understand the difference between you and him? You have given your offerings, but Bhilla has given me his whole soul. That is the difference between true devotion and rituals.”
Veda was thus humbled.
From this, it is obvious that there is a major difference between true devotion and just giving offerings and performing rituals.
But these days, especially among the Gen Z’s, being spiritual has become something uncommon and out of place. They misunderstand being spiritual as being old fashioned. They are not aware of the essential meaning of spirituality and feel irritated when they are called in for participating in any puja or ritual. They think all these spiritual activities are unnecessary and don’t care about what is happening around them. Therefore, they start to forget and avoid noticing the various aspects of our culture and heritage.
As I said before, being spiritual is realizing that there is some energy above you and you’re not the ultimate here. When a person is spiritual, he/she automatically becomes humble. Being humble is one of the “MISSION IMPOSSIBLES” today and to make it “MISSION POSSIBLE” spirituality is the key.
Another aspect is, it might sound cliché, but yes, being spiritual also in a way, protects one from any kind of bad vibrations and thoughts. As you constantly think of the spirit above you, you become more confident and less vulnerable. This improves your character and you won’t feel afraid to take any decisions on your own. You will become more assertive, which is now becoming one of the survival instincts of human kind.
This concept is subjective not only to a specific sect of people, but all of the living beings in the world. God is not subjective to a sect of people. God is one and for all living beings. So, everyone can be spiritual, thinking of God in their own way and of course, experience a change in their life.
That’s all for today my dear readers, and all I have to say is, be spiritual, be happy!
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