Spirituality
Spirituality [for the masses]
What is spirituality? Spirituality in general are just any practices that enables a more content and fulfilled life. Being content, enables clarity, which means efficiency. Whatever endeavor you undertake you will have many times more progress than you would have without spirituality. This is because your mind is at its best (without the weight of other noise/interference in your head).
Spirituality is about growth, which implies change. We, as conscious self-aware beings, have the ability to control that change, that inner transformation. No change. No growth. If there is no growth, then one remains prone to the same discontent tomorrow as they were yesterday. The same mental agitations, chatter, noise — which leads to numerous psychological ailments – fear, worries, depression, anger, jealousy, insecurity, desire, etc. The very fact that 16 million people go to practice yoga, shows the immense desire to change and to grow for the betterment of their lives. Spiritual growth is about a re-write your psychology, bit by bit. You will know you’re going in the right direction when you feel increasingly content, calm, fulfilled, and at peace.
It also makes one compassionate or benevolent in ones own way (according to ones temperaments and material constituents). Like helping the poor, or creating great works of art (music, poetry, literature, dance), or great spiritual works. Any work, when done charitably is humanitarian (sweeping the floor, protecting a tree, fighting for a cause, teaching a student, writing a book,…).
Even great saints differ dramatically in how their spirituality manifests – Ammachi, Ramana Maharshi, Ramakrishna, Vivekananda, Thiagaraja, Arunagirinthar, Buddha, Aghoris, Siddhars, Samanars, Rishis, Shamans, etc. Each was dramatically different in their own way. For some it might look like their spirituality did not manifest in any way humanitarian. Some just lived and died in caves meditating and reaching their goals. According spiritual tradition, these people, contribute as well: they have an effect on the fabric of the universe surrounding that area, constantly feeding and replenishing the desire for spirituality, for seeking Truth, in that area. Spiritually receptive beings, including plants and animals sense the spiritual energy in such areas. Is it a surprise even today, that in no other country than India, thousands of people (whose names and lives we may never know) take to the extreme spiritual path of yogis. Which brings us to the subtopic, the Yogi.
Spirituality [for the Yogi]
Having said that, the serious spiritual aspirant does not follow any “spirituality”. The true seeker risks the danger of spirituality becoming an intellectual preoccupation, just another vanity like religion. A true seeker of truth will discover that sooner or later, and when he does, he will move on. To become a yogi. He will move beyond the need for any sort of scaffolding or crutches like “spirituality” to support him. Worst thing that can happen is to get trapped in it. Like religion, it stifles one from asking critical questions and from doing real meditation. Without either you have nothing to act on, and your pursuit for truth becomes a wistful preoccupation; just another illusion just substituting for another.
I believe in spirituality in the way of the original Hindu thinkers, in particular the darshana of yoga. That is, the science of yoga and applying it to life. To me yoga is: yoga + karm + critical thinking + bhakti.
Yoga by itself will not get us anywhere, unless it is applied to life, as in karm (to act) or to engage in life with the sword of yoga. Karm when undertaken with yoga leads to outward expansion which bootstraps your inner growth (and automatically dispenses with the need for too much reflection). In fact I’d say it accelerates your inner growth far more than doing yoga without karm.
Just as a picture is worth a thousand words, so also life experiences. This is also one of the essential messages of the Gita as well: to act (as in to engage it in action, in life) armed/tempered with yoga. To be clear, this doesn’t imply uninhibited sensory engagement of life as in the materialistic slogans, “enjoy life to the fullest”. The key is that it has to be tempered by yoga (yoga + karm + critical thinking + bhakti). That is, every act, every decision, and even every thought, is subject to observation. The mind observing the mind.
Where does bhakti come in? If you take bhakti in the context of karm, i.e. putting it in action… it becomes a heart-centered or universe-centered approach to life. Just like engaging yoga in life, engaging bhakti in life requires you to carry over the same universe-centered exhilaration you get from say reading a piece of bhakti poetry or a particular raga, into life, instead of confining it within the walls of worship. In a society that is intellectually-centered and fast paced it can be tricky to be metaphysically-centered without looking lost or disinterested in the material pleasantries of life. Karm is about engaging life, and bhakti is about engaging the moment. Engaging is via karm, experiencing via bhakti. I’m using bhakti in a much broader sense than it was intended; or maybe it was intended that way.
Where does critical thinking come in? I believe that critical thinking (and to be an independent thinker) has two purposes. First it is needed to take yoga and put into action, to engage it, in all walks of life with effort. Secondly it serves as the critical feedback loop for you to refine your yoga / path further. For how else would you know, without testing it? this comes from engaging in life. The intellect serves as a guardian, like the hood of the cobra covering the siva lingam.
I feel all the siddhars and aghoris were independent thinkers. They did not follow any “religion” or even a “spiritual path” (these words didn’t even exist back then), but approached it from first principles, from acute experimentation and observation (not reflection or brooding) at the level of yoga + karm + critical thinking + bhakti.
Footnotes
- If one is observant enough, one comes to realize that inner growth and its corresponding outward expansion, never really come from yoga alone (nor meditation, intellectual reasoning, or reflection), but from life experiences, tempered with the astute insight/guidance of yoga.
- But what about yogis? It seems like they reach great spiritual heights without any karm or acting. But in actuality they do act — the act of making the choice and by engaging yoga in their life as a yogi.
- Sometimes the question arises (from an ascetics perspective), why would one even want to experience life? isn’t it all about detachment? well my answer is that by experiencing via some form of yoga, we gain more compassion and understanding. As for detachment, this sort of experiencing of life via yoga+bhakti is itself detached, just as acting in life via yoga+karm is detached; anything done with yoga is automatically detached — even if it seems attached to the outside observer. Attachment/detachment is a whole can of worms for a later blog.
- People have different approaches to engaging yoga, depending on their strengths, deficiencies, and needs: bhakti (devotion), karma (action), jnana (knowledge), raja (meditation), or any combination thereof.
- The serious spiritual aspirant moves in a direction where instead of seeing oneself just playing out his role as just another cog in the cosmic wheel, he becomes the wheel itself.
- The danger of religion (as opposed to spirituality) is that it makes us into beggars. People end up sitting and pontificating in front of their Gods, instead of taking responsibility for their actions and putting the effort required to enact the change they hope to find.
- On a personal note: with every year that passes by, I’ve adopted this technique myself, especially at work (refer to article on application of yoga: bhakti+jnana+karm). You can motivate any work by calling up a piece of bhakti poetry or a line from the Gita or some sutra — which instantly transports you elsewhere (if you’re not into bhakti you can use some other form of yoga, like pranayama). And with the other hand one can go forward wielding the sword of knowledge and doing your work . It gives you focus, efficiency, productivity.