Columnists
Religiosity & Spirituality
I J SINGHby I.J. SINGH
If I have learned anything from participating in a myriad of interfaith conferences, it is this: Most religious people, in their saner moments, cheerfully concede the common universality that underlies the different faiths of mankind.
Buddha was so moved by suffering that he walked away from his regal life. Think of Jesus who personified humility and charity, Mohammed who forgave his mortal enemies, Nanak and his successor Guru-founders of Sikhism who laid their heads on the line to protect even those who were not Sikh.
It seems to me that the essential spiritual message of the Masters was to discover the divinity that is inherent within each of us, and nurture it such that it comes to define our lives. This universal connectivity is what I would call essential spirituality.
Speaking of the expansive diversity of creation, the tenth Sikh Guru-prophet, Gobind Singh, said:
"As out of a single fire,
Millions of sparks arise;
So from God's form emerges all creation
Animate and Inanimate."
Akal Ustat, p 87
But, even though humans are spirit born people, the Spirit of God does its work through our communal and societal existence, as well as through institutions. Spirituality, too, becomes institutionalized and then it morphs into religion. And God only knows how many religions there are, with perhaps as many more to come.
Predictably enough, institutions develop fences around them. I know good fences make good neighbors but they, along with the shadow of institutional religion, also stunt the quest for spirituality in life. Often fences become walls. Religiosity thrives and spirituality declines as walls become stronger and higher. When walls are such that one may neither look through them, nor climb over them, spirituality is suffocated. The life of interiority that should be the foundation for the exterior life slowly dies, to be replaced by a life of dogma and doctrine.
While spirituality objectifies the universe within us, religiosity defines the world around us. Spirituality speaks of the values that make us what we are. In religiosity, buildings, edifices and artifacts - the pride of exteriority - thrive. How then can universal connectivity survive?
As someone once said, "Between neighbors there are walls that must be shattered, and lines that must never be crossed."