Are you spiritual or religious? (The difference is big) || Acharya Prashant, with XLRI (2021)

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Video Information: 02.07.21, XLRI- Jamshedpur (an Online discourse), Greater Noida, Uttar Pradesh

Context:
What is the relation between spirituality and religion?
Is religion important to human being?
How to understand the religion?
Has religion really been successful in its purpose?
Is man better off without religion?
What is the role of religion in a man's life?

Music Credits: Milind Date
~~~~~

Transcript

00:00I feel that spirituality is, I mean, or rather religiousness is conceptualized as spirituality

00:10in the current time. So people, they, on the crux, they are religious, but they try to

00:15believe that they are spiritual, while these are very, very different things. Religiousness

00:19is pretty rigid, while spirituality helps us or kind of sets us free. So how do I try

00:27to bring this thought process from a religious mindset to a spiritual mindset? How can I

00:32influence others to do so? Or is it even required or can they avoid it? Religion as it is commonly

00:38practiced is very outward looking, very, very outward looking. How? It looks at others,

00:46it looks at the past, it looks at practices and it says, I will do all those things. It

00:55looks at particular books, it looks at everything outside of the looker. It need not be like

01:05that. Religion in its classical definition is not this, but unfortunately this is the

01:13way religion is practiced nowadays. In fact, religion has been practiced this way more

01:19or less throughout the course of history. So that's religion. There are these rituals

01:24that have been followed since 2000 years and I am following them. You are not looking at

01:29yourself, you are looking at past and ritual and forefathers and all that stuff. I am Hindu

01:35or I am a Muslim or I belong to this sect, I have that belief, so I'll do all these things.

01:42That particular temple is great, so I am going to that particular temple. That particular

01:48Guru is wonderful, so I am approaching that. So that's religion. Spirituality though really

01:56it is the center of religion, yet it is very distinct from religion. Spirituality looks

02:03at oneself, spirituality keeps all this external business aside. Spirituality says, but before

02:10I look at anything, I have to ask, who is looking? Before I say anything about anything,

02:21who is this I that says anything? Is that not the first question? You see, one can not

02:29be completely sure of anything. I am looking at the screen right now, maybe I am dreaming,

02:36why is it not possible? Tell me, maybe you don't really exist. There is at least a marginal

02:45possibility, when you are in your dreams, aren't dreams all too real, as real as this

02:55moment right now. Is that not the case? So you can never be sure of what is happening.

03:02Let's say you are a religious person and you say, such tradition has been followed

03:07by my community since so many years. Now, how do you really know? How can you be sure

03:12that this tradition has indeed been followed in this particular way? You cannot be sure

03:16of anything. You cannot be sure of your thoughts, you cannot be sure of your beliefs, but there

03:23is one thing that you can be sure of, that if there is thought, there is a thinker, that

03:31if there is suffering, there is a sufferer, that if there is a question, there is a questioner.

03:37So you, this entity that asks, listens, suffers, feels confused, falls, rises, this entity

03:47is the only thing you can ever be sure of. Everything else might be a mirage, a dream,

03:54an apparition, you don't know. That's the point spirituality starts from. Spirituality

03:59says, I'll start from the point, the only point I can be fully confident of and that

04:05is I. About everything else, I'll be a little skeptical. I'm not rejecting everything else.

04:13I just want to doubt. I want to question whether things really are as they appear. But before

04:22I say whether this thing is really as it appears to me, I have to test my eyes. This thing

04:29comes later, my eyes come first. When you cannot look at this towel properly, do you

04:36go and get this towel tested or do you go and get your eyes tested? So that's the difference

04:44between religion and spirituality. Religion is just too much concerned with the towel.

04:53Spirituality says I need to get my eyes tested, the I need to be tested. Are you getting it?

05:03So though really spirituality is at the center of all religion, religion is the circumference,

05:13the periphery that is supposed to gradually draw the religious one to spirituality. But

05:24that often not is the case. One gets caught at the periphery. One remains at the circumference

05:30all his life. In fact, one starts resisting the center itself. There is often a great

05:38conflict between the spiritual mind and the religious mind. In fact really spiritual people

05:45have been badly persecuted by none other than religious people. The Sufis for example and

05:55even in India, if you are really a spiritual person, then you will find that the community

06:03that opposes you the most is not of atheists. It is of religious people. They will be the

06:13ones who would be opposing the really spiritual person the most, which is an unfortunate thing

06:18because the way religion was designed, it was designed to gradually make a person spiritual.

06:27Today the situation is that these are not in sync or harmony with each other, rather

06:35these two have become greatly separated. Some fundamental questions that you need to ask

06:45maybe a religious person, maybe they might work, depends a lot on chance and your effort

06:50and the intensity. Having done all that you have been doing all your life, are you really at peace?

07:05Because that's the only thing that you want. You say, if you are at peace, do you really

07:13need to follow any religious practices? If you are joyful, then the ultimate has already

07:23been achieved. Then do you really need to remember and chant verses? You don't, right?

07:33So have you really achieved something in the moment of your crisis? Does your religious

07:43practice really help you? Do your beliefs really stand the scrutiny of time and circumstances?

07:58But there has to be a sharp and smart occasion to do all those things, as this is strike

08:08the iron when it is hot. So it is only at certain opportune times that you can ask these

08:16questions, otherwise usually the traditionally religious mind is just too unavailable to

08:25any kind of enquiry. After listening to all this conversation, I had a very basic question

08:32and when it comes, again it comes to the religion versus spirituality debate. So when it comes

08:37to religion, we can say that, who created us? There is a question. So religious people

08:42will say God created us. There is someone who is up there, he created us like that.

08:46But what is the real answer for that in spirituality? And again, why are we here? What are we doing here?

08:57Are we really anywhere? First of all, let me answer that. The religious person says,

09:04who created us and what is the purpose of this life? Do you see the implicit assumption here?

09:12First of all, it is believed that you exist. When you are confident that you exist, you

09:18ask who created me? Who created my body? Who created the trees, the rivers, the building,

09:25whatever, the entire universe? And when you are confident that you know what life is,

09:33then you ask what is the purpose of life? So the religious question is based on some

09:41very dubious assumptions. The spiritual approach is far more rigorous. The spiritual mind does

09:50not ask who created us or who created me. The spiritual mind asks, do I exist at all?

09:59If I exist at all, only then the question of my creator becomes relevant. For the creator

10:07to be there, first of all, there has to be the creation, right? Now you do not know for

10:13sure whether even the creation exists at all or it exists in the way you does, you think it does.

10:26Okay, take this example. I am drunk, let's say, and I ask who created these eight fingers?

10:39I am drunk and I am asking who created these eight fingers? Now should I answer this question

10:44or should I first look at my own state? The religious mind does not understand that it

10:49is drunk and is asking about the fingers that do not exist at all. Does the world even

10:56exist in the way you think it does? In your life, has anything ever been, even one single

11:03thing ever been the way you have thought it is? Are even your parents really the way you

11:12take them to be? Are even you, the person you think you are? So we do not know anything

11:23for sure. When we do not know anything, then we have to focus on the knower. Let me first

11:31of all look at the knower, correct him, liberate him, purify him, only then I am entitled to

11:36talk about anything else. Otherwise, I am taking undue liberties. The eighth finger.

11:45And when nobody is able to tell me who made the eighth finger, then I come up with a story.

11:50One day, God after his lunch was in a particularly bad mood. So he called his pet dog, clip this

12:00tail and with the tail he made my eighth finger. And religious literature is agog with

12:08such stories, is it not? This happened, that happened, then God did this, then God did

12:15that and finally man was made. Spirituality does not live in stories. Spirituality is

12:21extremely rigorous, very very rigorous. It is more scientific than science itself. It

12:32says wait, before I answer the question, may I please ask who is questioning? It starts

12:45from there and believe me, it ends there as well. It is so rigorous. It has no scope

12:53for entertainment. It does not allow you to roam astray and talk about this and that,

13:03this planet, that planet, this seed, that food, this particular auspicious day, sun

13:10and moon and then thousand other things. Spirituality has nothing to do with all that.

Are you spiritual or religious? (The difference is big) || Acharya Prashant, with XLRI (2021)

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