What is Spirituality?

Defining what is spirituality is not a simple task, as people since times immemorial have perceived it from different angles. This is why the meaning of spirituality has evolved with time. However, spirituality is science due to which its definition should be scientific.

Knowing the Soul and walking towards it is Spirituality

Eating, drinking, going to work, earning money and so on are all worldly activities. While indulging in corruption and dacoity, looting, hurting people and harassing people are irreligious activities; doing puja, chanting, worshipping, fasting, and donating food and money are all religious activities. They are not spiritual though! So, what does spirituality mean?

To leave the bad and come to good is called religion, while to know the Soul is called spirituality. When one comes out from the lust for temporary things and realizes the eternal Soul, it marks the beginning of spirituality.

Neither Good nor Bad, Spirituality is about Purity

• To move from the bad towards good is religious consciousness, and
• To move from the bad and good towards purity is spirituality or the ultimate consciousness.

A religion gives us the knowledge of what is good and what is bad. It teaches us to quit doing bad and adopt what is good. However, for enjoying the fruits of these good karmas, one has to take rebirth. This process of birth and death itself is painful.

Moreover, the fruits of merit karmas, in the form of materialistic happiness, are by their nature temporary. Thus, one feels dissatisfied, craves for more happiness and looks for another source of happiness. This continues for countless lives.

On the other hand, spirituality gives us permanent happiness. It imparts the knowledge of that which is pure, your Soul (the real Self). It teaches us to go beyond both good and bad deeds and remain in the never-fading bliss of Pure Soul. This breaks the cycle of birth and death.

While religion makes us leave the bad and adopt the good, spirituality takes us towards purity. Spirituality liberates us from all worldly bondages by teaching us to go beyond the duality of good and bad and experiencing the Pure Soul.

Suppose there is dirty water coming from a tap. To make it drinkable, applying a couple of filters is sufficient. We can then use this clean water for our daily purpose and live a good life. However, if we want to separate hydrogen and oxygen from this water, we need the help of a scientist who would say, “You did make the dirty water clean. But you have to go beyond this.” Thus, we have to still go further if we want to achieve the pure elemental form of water, i.e., hydrogen and oxygen.

On the other hand, if we directly separate hydrogen and oxygen from dirty water itself and analyse it, would the hydrogen and oxygen be impure? Not at all! They are found totally pure. Hence, between so many impurities too, an element always remains pure! Similarly, the Soul within the body, regardless of the bad or good deeds done, has always remain pure. This forms the scientific core of what is spirituality.

Knowledge of the Eternal Element is called Spiritual Science!

Once we understand that the Soul is an eternal element and it is our own Self, and if (on separation of the elements of Soul and matter) we realize that eternal element, then our worldly problems and puzzles can be easily solved.

So, Param Pujya Dadashri has given us this spiritual science! The worldly science is a totally different thing. It is materialistic, while this is spiritual science, as it is based on the eternal element, the Soul. Lord Mahavir, Lord Krishna and Lord Rama were all spiritual scientists. These scientists realized the eternal element, experienced the same and gave their disciples the knowledge of the same.

Spirituality means to tread on a path where one Realizes the Self

Param Pujya Dada Bhagwan attained Self-realization in 1958. Since childhood, He was searching for answers to who is governing this whole universe, who am I, who is the doer behind all that is happening and how was this world created’. In 1958, upon attaining Self-realization, He got solutions to all these spiritual questions.

He also attained special spiritual powers to impart the knowledge of the Self to those who came seeking for it. It is the same knowledge of Self-realization that Lord Krishna gave to Arjun. In the quest of what is spirituality, we get knowledge of two fundamental things:

• Who am I?
• Who is governing this world?

Upon acquiring this knowledge, we get solutions or keys to solve all our worldly problems, and consequently, we start getting free from unhappiness. Whatever problems we are suffering from are due to Self ignorance. Once we know in reality, ‘who am I and who is the doer,’ then automatically whatever suffering has come due to ignorance can be dissolved. Hence, this is spiritual science!

Spirituality is to know that ‘I’ am not the doer but the knower of the doer!

Param Pujya Dada Bhagwan says, “Worldly life is based on action and spiritual life is based on Knowing - one carries out the activity whereas the other keeps ‘Seeing’ it.  The ‘doer’ and the ‘knower’ can never be the same; they are always separate. They were separate; they are separate and they will remain separate.”