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Religion, philosophy and spirituality
Religion is a man-made institution. It usually addresses the spiritual and
social aspirations of the people at the time of its creation. Like its
makers, it has its great insights and its blind spots.
Over time, like all human institutions, all religions accumulate redundant
practices and processes. Unlike other institutions, attempts to update and
reforms old practices and processes in religion are resisted with great vigour
and even labelled as "anti-god" !
Ofcourse, there are a number of "religions" that do not believe in God at all -
such as Buddhism and Jainism.
Philosophies are developed to
answer spiritual / intellectual enquires. They often use terms and
terminologies that are rooted in the "here and now". Hence, to understand
them, you almost have to understand the context and "time" when these
philosophies were developed.
They also reflect on the individuals who created these and hence are very
"personal" to their founders. Hence, the same question(s), asked at the
same time, can have very different answers. This does not make one
philosophy any more right or wrong than another, it simply reflects on the
likes, dislikes, view point, life-experiences etc of the individual
philosopher(s).
Spirituality is very personal. It answers the inner call of the
individual. Spirituality can be as numerous as there are life-forms in the
universe. Spirituality generally leads to inner contemplation. This
usually leads to personal feeling of peace and completeness.
Generally, we can group some of these spiritual aspirations together and people
than form loose knit communities where people have similar questions and more
importantly - similar answers. When these "communities" have powerful,
inspirational "leaders", they usually form "religion".
Hence, spirituality
and philosophy can lead to formation of a religion, but, religion, being a
human institution, doesn't always lead to spirituality.
© Bhagwat [email protected]