Spirituality & Religion

Today while I was reading the newspaper I saw some post from one of the Religious Leader claiming that their Religion is more Spiritually related. I know every Religion claims to be based on Spirituality. Actually, Spirituality and Religion, both are very interconnected terms. Sometime one is for taken as the second. In earlier days the way to attain spirituality was through the following of the guidelines given in religion, but laterally it has derived itself apart from religion. I think this association of both in earlier days still misguide some. In the words of Yogi William Irwin Thompson, “Religion is not identical with spirituality; rather religion is the form spirituality takes in civilization.”

What is Spirituality? Everyone have their own answer for this although all of them lead to one common point, the point where one achieves a true peace of mind of oneself. Spirituality for me means an ultimate or immaterial reality, an inner path enabling a person to discover the essence of their being.  I t is a source of inspiration or orientation in life.

Now another important question, what is religion? This one is easy to answer but very difficult to understand due to its depth and wide range of belief. Religion can be said as the path for the search of God and His grace. It is based on traditional ways and guidelines laid by our ancestors to be followed by the followers of that religion.

Thus, on the basis of above wordings we can come across to a point that there is existence of many different “spiritual paths” – emphasizing the importance of finding one’s own individual path to spirituality. One might say then, that a key difference is that religion is a type of formal external search, while spirituality is defined as a search within oneself. The experience of ‘spirituality’; the human emotions of awe, wonder and reverence, are also the province of the secular/scientific, in response to their highest values, or when observing or studying nature, or the universe.

Although, this post of mine will not be able to answer all of the questions and doubts of everyone as both Spirituality and Religion are very wide topics and their knowledge is non-ending. Even the Gurus are in search of their complete knowledge but have never succeeded to know all. Please give your valuable views and suggestions to lighten more on the concept you believe is correct of the two. Please pardon me if I have unknowingly hurt anyone’s feeling or belief and correct me if I have said something wrong.