Struggling between Religion and Spirituality

 Most of us have grown up in a cultural context where religious identity has been a huge anchor for living a good life or a bad life.

Since birth the cast and religious identity of either being Hindu or Muslim or a Christian is a big tag that one carries along all his life and forces one to be in a particular way.

As one evolves and reflects on the baggage of the religious identity or the symbol that comes along. Individuals are moving towards non-religious choices but being more spiritual in their orientation.

Spirituality would mean belief in a superpower. Hope is not a temple or a place of worship. The belief is more in the self who is supposed to live a good, authentic and human life. All the responsibility is not on the gods of whether you are happy or unhappy.

The absence of religious symbol; makes the individual much more accountable and answerable to himself.

However, all cultural festivals revolve around episodes and stories around what happened to specific mythological gods. For e.g. Diwali is a celebration of Ram’s victory over Ravan and his homecoming from Ayodhya. This festival is celebrated as a symbol of the killing of evil against good. All of us relate to this message but have internalized this in our new identity for years together.

But people have now more internalized the message rather than the symbol of god and goddess which exists in temples.

Often times I get pulled between these two choices since I have been born in a Hindu family with a lot of symbols of Lord Krishna and Shiva around me. I still would like to relate to the Gita or the Mahabharata as a source of spiritual understanding rather than something to be recited or read forcefully. 

I would love to understand the philosophy of the symbols that prevails around me but the burden of going to temples make me feel very oppressed and compulsive.

When I hear of blind faith and worship to the gods or goddess I ask myself would I do this or explore the philosophy and spirituality learning that emerge out of those religious symbols or gods.

Currently, I don’t have any murti of god and goddess in my house or a temple that the children can worship. Many times I ask myself am I doing the right thing by imposing my idea or philosophy on the next generation or allowing them to make choices of their own.

I also enjoy putting divas, rangolis, and burst crackers during Diwali. I like celebrating festivals because they have a certain cultural ethos that I have grown up in. I like tying rakhi to my brother on Rakhi Day which is a very symbolic experience. However, I resist going to temples and praying to gods as a compulsion.

Author:-Dr. Nayana Shah (Ph.D.)

           Director, Manthan

             Ahmedabad 

Comments

  1. SudeshnaAugust 23, 2021 at 11:24 PM

    Wonderful dialogue within--- religion has been debated so extensively and has been quoted as the 'opium for the masses' by Karl Marx...
    I agree that we need not believe in the temples/idols blindly-- rather be inspired by a supreme strength that's beyond logic or reasoning.
    I feel that no one can force us to develop our belief systems- you may be an influencer -- but finally people (children) do make their own choices. So don't bother whether you did the right thing or not by not following idol worship- so far you do it yourself- as you are free to do that.
    Yes- imposing one's beliefs by force on the next generation may be re considered. Am sure no one forced you to stop idol worship... so am sure you are also not forcing anyone to be your way. though, people may feel free or feel inspired to follow you/ tread the path set by you.

    ReplyDelete
  2. IndiraAugust 24, 2021 at 6:13 AM

    I guess religion began to ensure we walk the moral path. We are getting aggressive about our own religion and that is dangerous. If only religion can be a purely private affair the world would indeed be a better place

    ReplyDelete

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