Being spiritual is knowing your power and the purpose of your existence. Spirituality goes beyond the expression of religion and religious practices. You are spiritual when you experience your own being and also when you feel the agony of others. You need to help people to be spiritual.
A couple of years ago, I saw an unknown person in Kolkata distributing clothes and blankets to the homeless poor living on footpaths in midnight. For me, that person is spiritual. It is immaterial whether he goes to the temple, mosque, gurudwara or church. Spirituality is common to all religions and is a power that resides deep within the human existence. Religion teaches what is wrong and what is right but spirituality is beyond this sense of right or wrong. Spirituality synchronises you with the Universe. You do not need to follow rituals or wear any particular attire to be spiritual. Rather, you have to understand what you are and explore the purpose of your existence. Spirituality is the quality of being concerned with the human spirit or soul as opposed to material things.
Religion teaches but spirituality is to know. One might define this spiritual experience as pious and one that resonates with the core qualities of humanity. Religious acts often lose their essence. For example, a religious preacher promises to distribute food and alms to the needy in the presence of a political personality. That political personality is late in attending the programme and the preacher stalls the programme, waiting for the arrival of the politician. The programme might get media attention but it cannot be termed a spiritual programme. The act of that unknown person, distributing blankets to the needy in midnight in Kolkata is actually spiritual. He might have spent much lesser but his actions reflect true spiritual qualities.
Being spiritual is actually being human. It is about touching the lives of fellow beings in a positive way. Spiritualism is about knowing the meaning of your existence. Spirituality is beyond religion. It does not contradict religion but it is not the same either. Spirituality is not so much about practising religion as it is about understanding religion. Spirituality is a personal experience, a perennial chain of emotions and feelings that connect an individual to the world, to humanity and to the universe.
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