Experiments with Religion and Spiritualism

Posted on May 09, 2020 by Harsha Vardhan (Founder Director & Trainer)

You are born into a religion by the virtue of your parents’ religion. It is obvious that you are born into one but not essential that you die in the same. You may even choose to be agnostic, atheist, apostate, proselyte, skeptic or a free thinker. No religion has remained homogeneous. All developed into sub categories and variants -each trying to hold on to their turf and defending their own flock while constantly debating and literally fighting each other.

A placard said “Follow Your Religion, Love Everybody”. Ironically the opposite is true. Religion is the root cause of most violence in the world. It is often advised never to discuss religion or politics with others if you want to have good terms with people.

Why does something supposedly pious and peaceful lead to most acrimony? My experiments with religion, from early in life, started with the ‘Arya Samaj’. Those days I thought it belonged to the cognizant and mindful ones who could see beyond temple bells and statues. Those who could value the power of mantras over a sacred fire and were socially more responsible, excluding and cutting out the needless rituals, thereby making it more scientific and yet part of Hinduism. Then I went to a military style boarding school forgetting all my exposure to it relegating it to the back of my mind.

As I passed out from school and college, religion to me was only an identity one must have. A customary group one must belong to. I had no clue in younger days as to what’s to be done in the name of rituals. I was wonderstruck each time a ritual was handed to me and my roving eye would look for clues.

As I matured into my thirties I could see that religion has become groupism. It is just the numbers game. None of the rhetorically loud people had ever studied their own religion in-depth. Some people would become incharge of some temple Samiti using every trick in the book and it was amusing to see how they wore it on their sleeves for social validation.

None of them had ever exerted any noticeable effort to study the religion (although Hinduism is too vast to be fully understood in a lifetime). It was hard for me to fathom how God could be limited to a temple statue accompanied with some rituals and an even longer wish list for God to fulfill.

Humans coagulate fast. They form narrow identities immediately with the group in the vicinity of like-minded groups. Religion is like cocaine. It makes people stick around very fast. Since there is a God factor associated with it, giving it a pious overtone and thereby making it colossal.

I escaped to spirituality. It was more inclusive and expansive beyond the periphery of religion. It was experiential and I could see changes in my consciousness. I could feel evolvement and could understand religion better. I could find unity amongst religions. It became easier to discriminate between the needful and the needless. The intuition blooms, detachment creeps in and a slow withdrawal from worldly desires sets in. A day comes when those very things start happening to you which have been mentioned in the scriptures. That is the time when faith in the teachings strengthens.

One red flag however, does show up everywhere. Those who make an informed decision to dive into spiritualism, again fall into the trap of a fresh identity. Something they had originally escaped from. In the name of a Path and Guru brothers/sisters, techniques; exclusivity is born again. If you are not one of them then you are not them. You are someone else. Though you are welcome to be like them.

Each place is busy herding and defending their flock. Tying the devotees down into manufactured rituals that are typical of their path. There is a constant process of indoctrination through those methods just as the horse must wear blinkers to keep moving straight. Running a pious ashram is not always the same as faithfully walking the spiritual path. It is a challenge to remain unaffected with self-interest. Humans, till they are 'Jeevan-Mukats', will remain humans.

For true spiritual progress, it is very important to be faithful of the teachings rather than the teacher and the personalities. Be like that honeybee which only picks the nectar from a whole gamut of things and flies away. Populism should be shunned. The social entrapments emanating from spiritual circles can put you in a cage again. Keep experimenting. Keep exploring. A Yogi never sets up permanent camp... and once the road is known... walk fast... and preferably alone or with a few. Time is short in a lifetime.