How important is spirituality in your life?
For this we first need to understand the meaning of Spirituality.
Many people spend their life simply pondering the question of spirituality. As per one survey, about a quarter of adults in the USA feel more spiritual than religious โ but what does that really mean?
I have spent a lot of time trying to decipher what spirituality means to me.
In Sanatana dharma (Hinduism), we call it โฤtmagyฤnโ. ฤtma here means โselfโ, and Gyฤn means knowledge, i.e. knowing oneself. So it is about finding oneโs true nature and living by that nature is Atma Gyan (Hindi: เคเคคเฅเคฎเคเฅเคเคพเคจ Gujarati: เชเชคเซเชฎเชเซเชเชพเชจ). Living as per oneโs true nature or dharma is about being spiritual.
There is no like-for-like word in western philosophy that is equal to ฤtma Gyฤn. There is a word, self-realisation, but the meaning of โselfโ is very different in eastern philosophy.
Some read this as ฤtmฤ (เคเคคเฅเคฎเคพ / เชเชคเซเชฎเชพ) instead of ฤtma (เคเคคเฅเคฎ / เชเชคเซเชฎ), which means soul and not self, interpreting it as the knowledge of the soul (เคเคคเฅเคฎเคพ-เคเฅเคเคพเคจ /เชเชคเซเชฎเชพ-เชเซเชเชพเชจ). This is possibly the reason why โฤtmฤgyฤnโ is mapped to โspiritualโ, as it has the root word โspiritโ (เคเคคเฅเคฎเคพ / เชเชคเซเชฎเชพ) in western civilisation.
In short, as per the Eastern philosophy, being spiritual is about living as per oneโs true dharma.
Dharma is very much about oneโs duty. A soldierโs or a warriorโs duty (dharma) is to protect the weak, and it is ok to kill the oppressor. However, the doctorโs duty (dharma) is to save lives, even when the patient is a well-known criminal. They both have different roles or dharma.
Every individual has a true nature within themselves, and the person should choose the job he enrols into as per his/her basic nature. The balance of oneโs life is disturbed if that individual tries to play a role that is not per his/her dharma, i.e. playing out of position.
Spirituality to me is about knowing and understanding my own self, and living as per my true dharma.
The above excerpt is from one of my blogs, a recorded conversation, where I and my daughters were trying to understand the meaning of Spirituality. To read the full blog, you can find it here: What is Spirituality?
Bhavin Shukla 
Leave a comment