What
is spirituality? From the Christian point of view
it is that dynamism by which the human spirit is sought
by the divine and in its turn seeks the divine.
Inorder
to help the human being in his quest, God sent his
only truly begotten son Jesus Christ to show him the
simple way to the divine. Spirituality is love in
action. It is the antidote to death and misery that
otherwise seems to permeate this world. In that sense,
spirituality is Eros, which helps us to counter the
forces unleashed by Thanatos. But Eros is not physical
love: it is love transformed by compassion.
The
human problem is exentuated by the fact that Logos
dominates our world. Words tend to analyize and divide.
The intellect is also to adapt at emphasizing differences
rather than similarities. The intellect, thus misguide
by Logos, commits excesses, which can only be counterd
by synthesis provided by spirituality.
But
love alone cannot liberate us. Love without action
merely leads to an enlargement of the ego. When we
indulge in love and action that is spirituality.
There
is an apocryphal story that illustrates this. A master
was sitting with his disciples. He posed a question
to them: "Tell me, when exactly can you say that
the night has turned into date?"
The
first disciple said, "Master ! When I am able
to look out of the window and look at those two trees
and start distinguishing that this is a mango tree
and the other is an apple tree, then we can say that
the night is turned into day."
The
second disciple said,"O Master ! When I see an
animal pass by and say with clarity whether it is
donkey or a horse, then we can say that the night
has turned into day."
They
looked expectantly at the Master. He said, "Not
so, my young ones! It is when a women passes by and
you see that she is your sister and a man passes by
and you see that he is your brother then we can really
say that the night has turned into day."
The
first and the greatest commandment is to love God.
But the commandment that is of equal importance is
the one that says,"Love thy neighbour as thyself".
On the basis of these two Commandments, all the other
commandments rests.
Jesus
teaches that if you go to the altar to make an offering
to God and suddenly remember that you are not reconciled
with your brother, leave the offering there. First
go and make your peace with your brother. Only then
will an offering to God make sense. Thus it is more
important to love and abjure hate than to pray to
God. You can be reconcile with God only if you are
reconcile with man.
We
should all understand that what are today accepted
as universal values like Baba's basic values of truth,
righteous conduct, love, non-violence and peace. First
started as sectarian values and gradually began to
be accepted by all and became universal. That will
teach us to respect what appear to be sectarian values
today and will help us to appreciate the good points
of other religions.
We
must also declare that the Godmen of each religion
are equally available to every buman being on this
earth. Each one of us should be at liberty to pick
out whatever appeals to us from the teaching of a
Godman, whatever he may belong to.
