What Is the Meaning of Spirituality?

Someone sent me an email and asked, is there anything like
spirituality? This is like asking whether there is anything like
rationality or intelligence or love. Of course spirituality is real.
The question is how you define it.

Etymologically spiritual means anything that relates to spirit or soul and not to physical nature and matter.

For a Christian, spirituality means having an intimate and personal
relationship with God who exists outside of the creation and has
revealed himself in the form of a man in the person of Jesus Christ,
like sun shining in a mirror.

Non-religious, secular people define spirituality in a humanistic
term. They emphasize on morality and qualities such as love, compassion,
tolerance, forgiveness, responsibility, and concerns for others, and
“aspects of life and human experience which go beyond a purely
materialist view of the world without necessarily accepting belief in a
supernatural reality or divine being.” 1

So a basic definition of spirituality is the quality of one’s
sensitivity to the things that are not of material and corporal nature.
Eating, drinking, physical comfort and sex are functions of the body,
whereas love, fairness, compassion and kindness are faculties of the
spirit. These are qualities that cannot be directly perceived by our
senses but they can be felt powerfully and whose effects can be deduced
or inferred by our observations.

For most people, spirituality means focusing on “the inside of life.”
This definition is more or less accepted by people of all faiths and no
faith.

Basic to this understanding is the premise that we regard humans, and
perhaps the rest of creation, as something more than just matter. It
presupposes that there is a reality in every living being that is
immaterial, invisible and beyond our present knowledge. There is
something in us more than what we can perceive with our senses. We are
not the same person as twenty years ago. Every cell and every atom in
our body is changed and yet I am still the same person and you are the
same. There is something constant in us. That is what we call “I.” The
attributes of this “I” change, but the “I” itself does not change.

Will this “I” perish after our body stops functioning or will it
survive it? Is it a function of the body, like light in a lamp, or a
component of it, like electricity? If it is a function then it is fair
to say that the function ceases when the instrument stops working. But
if it is a component, one can argue that it can survive even when the
instrument is no longer working. Electricity exists even when the lamp
is burned. Let us not get into this subject now. Firstly because it is
complicated and secondly because I don’t know the answer. And let us
say this “I” is our spirit.



What Spirituality Is Not

I don’t expect to understand spirituality in a rational way. If
spirituality is defined as love, compassion, tolerance and sacrifice,
there is little room for reason to explain it. A person who jumps into
an icy river and risks his own life to save the life of a stranger is
not acting according to reason. This person’s action can only be
understood spiritually.

James Martin in his book “My Life with the Saints,”
published in 2006, narrates a story about Mother Theresa. A man saw her
cleaning the wounds of a leper and said, “I wouldn’t do that for a
million dollars,” Mother Teresa replied, “Neither would I.”

Mother Theresa’s action cannot be explained rationally. But it can be
understood spiritually. She did this for love. She said to the man,
“But I would gladly do it for Christ.” She saw Christ or God in that
leper.

There is no way to explain this rationally, but it cannot be
dismissed either. It inspires us, uplifts us, moves us and makes us
better.

In his first letter to Corinthians (2:14) Paul wrote, “The man
without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit
of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them,
because they are spiritually discerned.”

If this passage is to explain the love of Mother Theresa for the
leper, it makes perfect sense. What she did can only be understood
though spiritual discernment. But if we take this passage as a license
to believe in any gobbledygook, any absurdity and nonsense then that is
not spirituality. It is foolishness plain and simple.

Let us take the example of the story of the creation in the Genesis.
The literal interpretation of that book goes against science, reason and
commonsense. It is foolishness to accept that explanation as how the
world has come to be. That story is proven wrong. Love and sacrifice,
although cannot be explained rationally, don’t go against it. So let it
be clear that by spirituality we don’t mean stupidity.

If we were to accept anything that goes against reason “spiritually”,
meaning. uncritically and blindly, then how can we distinguish truth
from falsehood? How can we reject the absurd claims made by Muhammad,
or any other impostor? Shall we believe in his Mi’raj, or his other
absurd claims? If not, why not? If every nonsense claim is to be
accepted “spiritually” we are left with no tool to separate the wheat
from the chaff and differentiate between truth and falsehood. Belief in
absurdity is not spirituality. There is nothing spiritual in being
stupid.



Is Spirituality in Harmony with Reason?

True spirituality is never contrary to reason. You need to have an
understanding of art and beauty in order to appreciate a symphony or a
painting. Likewise, you have to have spiritual awareness in order to
perceive the harmony of the universe.



Human’s great minds were often spiritual people. In his book, Einstein: His Life and Universe
the author Walter Isaacson writes, “It may seem logical, in retrospect,
that a combination of awe and rebellion made Einstein exceptional as a
scientist. But what is less well known is that those two traits also
combined to shape his spiritual journey and determine the nature of his
faith. The rebellion part comes in at the beginning of his life: he
rejected at first his parents’ secularism and later the concepts of
religious ritual and of a personal God who intercedes in the daily
workings of the world. But the awe part comes in his 50s when he settled
into a deism based on what he called the “spirit manifest in the laws of the universe” and a sincere belief in a “God who reveals Himself in the harmony of all that exists.”

Einstein’s Jewish parents had become completely Germanized and
secularized. They did not keep kosher or attend synagogue. His father,
Herman, referred to Jewish rituals as “ancient superstition.” So when it
was time for Albert to go to school, they sent him to one that was
closer and did not care that it was a Catholic School.

As the only Jew among the 70 students in his class, Einstein took the
standard course in Catholic religion and it was then that he fell in
love with Jesus. Decades later he said, “I am a Jew, but I am enthralled
by the luminous figure of the Nazarene.”

When he was 10, someone gave him science books which he read with
breathless attention. By the age of 12 he rejected God altogether. He
later wrote, “Through the reading of popular scientific books, I soon
reached the conviction that much in the stories of the Bible could not
be true. The consequence was a positively fanatic orgy of free thinking
coupled with the impression that youth is intentionally being deceived
by the state through lies; it was a crushing impression.”

Einstein did, however, had a profound faith in, and reverence for the
harmony and beauty of what he called the mind of God as it was
expressed in the creation of the universe and its laws.

In a dinner party, when Einstein had turned 50, a guest expressed a
belief in astrology. Einstein ridiculed the notion as pure superstition.
Another guest stepped in and similarly disparaged religion. Belief in
God, he insisted, was likewise a superstition. At this point the host
tried to silence him by invoking the fact that even Einstein harbored
religious beliefs. “It isn’t possible!” the skeptical guest said,
turning to Einstein to ask if he was, in fact, religious. “Yes, you can
call it that,” Einstein replied calmly. “Try and penetrate with our
limited means the secrets of nature and you will find that, behind all
the discernible laws and connections, there remains something subtle,
intangible and inexplicable. Veneration for this force beyond anything
that we can comprehend is my religion. To that extent I am, in fact,
religious.” (Isaacson)

When asked whether he believes in God, Einstein responded, “I’m not
an atheist. I don’t think I can call myself a pantheist. The problem
involved is too vast for our limited minds. We are in the position of a
little child entering a huge library filled with books in many
languages. The child knows someone must have written those books. It
does not know how. It does not understand the languages in which they
are written. The child dimly suspects a mysterious order in the
arrangement of the books but doesn’t know what it is. That, it seems to
me, is the attitude of even the most intelligent human being toward God.
We see the universe marvelously arranged and obeying certain laws but
only dimly understand these laws.”

I call myself an atheist. It is not that I don’t believe in God. I
don’t believe in the god that is being taught to us. When Galileo
rejected the geocentricity of the universe, he did not reject the
universe; he rejected people’s understanding of it. Likewise, I reject
peoples understanding of God. In reality, my god is not much different
from the god of Einstein, although I believe I am more of a pantheist. I
don’t seek God in religious texts, in churches and temples. I seek IT
in the melody of life – in the faces of little children, and not just
human children, children of all creatures. God for me is in anything
that emanates love. IT is not in the skies; it’s right here inside every
person and every animal. To quote Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, We are
not human beings having a spiritual experience; we are spiritual beings
having a human experience.










Like the rays of sun shining in different objects and reflecting back
differently, everyone is born as a manifestation of God reflecting IT’s
light differently. I see God in every living being and because of that I
value life. I think respect for life is an essential ingredient of
spirituality. In one interview, Bill Maher was asked how he can
reconcile his support for abortion, which is a liberal cause with his
support for death penalty, which is a conservative cause. He said, life
does not have much value, even dogs can do it (give birth to living
beings). I wish I could ask him whether he thinks that his life also has
no value or is it just the lives of others that are worthless.

For me life is the most precious thing that exists. Look at the
vastness of the universe and the small size of the Earth in it. As far
as we know, the Earth is the only place where life can exist. Anything
which is rare is precious. Nothing is rarer than life. There are dead
suns that are made entirely of diamond. I am not talking about
mountains of diamond. The whole damn star is made of diamond. Other dead
stars are full of heavy metals including gold, platinum and silver.What
is scarce is life.

People often misunderstood or perhaps deliberately misinterpreted
Einstein’s religious beliefs. So in the summer of 1930 he composed a
credo titled, “What I Believe.” He explained: “The most beautiful
emotion we can experience is the mysterious. It is the fundamental
emotion that stands at the cradle of all true art and science. He to
whom this emotion is a stranger, who can no longer wonder and stand rapt
in awe, is as good as dead, a snuffed-out candle. To sense that behind
anything that can be experienced there is something that our minds
cannot grasp, whose beauty and sublimity reaches us only indirectly:
this is religiousness. In this sense, and in this sense only, I am a
devoutly religious man.”

This did not satisfy those who wanted a straightforward answer as to
whether Einstein believed in God or not. Orthodox Jewish leader in New
York, Rabbi Herbert S. Goldstein, send a very direct telegram to
Einstein: “Do you believe in God? Stop. Answer paid. 50 words.” Einstein
used only about half his allotted number of words. It became the most
famous version of an answer he gave often: “I believe in Spinoza’s God,
who reveals himself in the lawful harmony of all that exists, but not in
a God who concerns himself with the fate and the doings of mankind.”

Although he rejected the orthodox interpretation of God, Einstein was
consistent in rejecting the charge that he was an atheist. “There are
people who say there is no God,” he told a friend. “But what makes me
really angry is that they quote me for support of such views.”

Unlike many atheists of his time and our time, Einstein never
denigrated those who believed in God; instead, he tended to denigrate
atheists. “What separates me from most so-called atheists is a feeling
of utter humility toward the unattainable secrets of the harmony of the
cosmos,” he explained.

“In fact, Einstein tended to be more critical of debunkers, who
seemed to lack humility or a sense of awe, than of the faithful,” Writes
Isaacson. “The fanatical atheists,” he wrote in a letter, “are like
slaves who are still feeling the weight of their chains which they have
thrown off after hard struggle. They are creatures who–in their grudge
against traditional religion as the ‘opium of the masses’– cannot hear
the music of the spheres.”

To avoid any misunderstanding, he also emphasized, “The main source
of the present-day conflicts between the spheres of religion and of
science lies in this concept of a personal God.”

Einstein, did not believe in supernatural. “For some people,” writes
Isaacson, “miracles serve as evidence of God’s existence. For Einstein
it was the absence of miracles that reflected divine providence. The
fact that the world was comprehensible, that it followed laws, was
worthy of awe.”



Spirituality in Islam

Now that I gave a brief description of spirituality it becomes clear
that Muhammad had no understanding of it. He had no appreciation for
life. He killed anyone who was not useful to him. If they did not
believe in him, if they did not help him to conquer and loot, or if
they did not work for him as slaves and dhimmis, he got rid of them.

His celebrations of festivities require spilling the blood of
animals. What kind of god is this that demands blood to be pleased? I
respect Hinduism because it respects life.










Muhammad’s afterlife is this-worldly. In his paradise, people are
rewarded with carnal pleasures such as gluttony, debauchery and
coition. There are no libraries, museums or art centers in his
paradise. The poor man could not envision the joy of reading and had no
understanding of finer things in life. He was only aware of the
sensations in his penis and his belly. His hell is also a physical
place where his detractors are tortured and roasted and are made to eat
pus. The words spiritual and spirituality do not appear in the Quran,
not once. Isn’t that incredible? Muslims seek spiritual guidance from a
book that does not mention that word at all. Imagine you want to learn
golf, and buy a book that does not mention golf anywhere. I don’t know
how much you Muslims want to fool your selves, but that is what you are
doing. The concepts of love, compassion, tolerance, forgiveness and
responsibility were also alien to Muhammad. He could only understand
obedience. He was indeed a man with a very underdeveloped and primitive
mind.

For the Sufis, this represented a problem. Instead of accepting the
fact that Islam is completely bereft of spirituality, they claimed that
the Quran has two contradictory meanings. One its outer meaning, (the
shell) which is its apparent meaning and the other, which is entirely
different, is its inner meaning (the pith) that can be understood only
by those who are spiritually purified.

This of course became another source of power and self glorification
for some to teach others how to interpret the hidden meanings of the
Quran. They formed schools, collected disciples and called themselves
saints and holy men – men specially endowed with insights that ordinary
people did not possess. In reality they were a bunch of charlatans
deceiving others. There is no secret knowledge in the Quran.

The Sufis were opposed and rejected by the majority of Muslims as
heretics. They were accused of twisting the meaning of the Quran. The
argument presented by the Sufis is flatly rejected by the Quran itself,
which repeatedly claims to be a “clear book” (5:15) “easy to understand”
(44:58 , 54:22 , 54:32, 54:40) “explained in detail” (6:114), “conveyed
clearly” (5:16, 10:15) and with “no doubt” in it (2:1). The author of
the Quran wanted it to be read and understood literally. Any
interpretation of the Quran that is not consistent with its apparent
meaning is to be rejected. Sufism is not Islam. It is a heretic faith
and a deception. If Muhammad were alive, he would have burned the Sufis
just as he burned his followers in the mosque of Dhu Awan because
someone told him they are interpreting the Quran in their way and don’t
believe in Jihad.

Spirituality is therefore, many things. It can be the sense of awe
vis-à-vis the universe (Einstein), or it can be reverence for life
(Jainism). It can mean communion with God (Christianity) and it can mean
service to fellow beings (Mother Theresa). And it can mean nurturing
love, compassion, kindness, forgiveness, responsibility, sacrifice and
fairness (Buddhism and humanism). Being spiritual means
being an evolved human. It means being aware of good and evil and
choosing good over evil. Attaining spirituality should be the main goal
of every person. As a spiritual person you transcend names and can see
good wherever it occurs.

Richard Dawkins believes no one who believes in God should be elected
as the president of the United States. He prefers Obama, despite him
claiming to be a Christian and believing in God, because he knows that
Obama’s faith is a fake like his birth certificate. Dawkins prefers a
conman, one who will bankrupt America and bring chaos to the world to a
good Christian even though the Christian is more qualified.
Qualifications don’t matter, says Dawkins, it is the belief, or rather
disbelief that matters. This is not spirituality to me. This is Islamic
thinking that I rejected a long time ago and will not accept it in the
guise of atheism. If you are not fair, you are not spiritual. If you can
see goodness in others and appreciate their value irrespective of who
they are, their belief, their gender or race, then you can call
yourself spiritual – an evoled human.

There are many paths to spirituality. Islam is not one. Anything
that makes you a better person is a spiritual path. The more you immerse
yourself in Islam the darker your soul becomes. Born to carry the light
of God, once you start following Muhammad, you become evil. Your
thoughts become demonic. The hatred of your fellow being fills your
heart, leaving no room for love. You become the manifestation of Devil.
Even the faces of the very devout Muslims show that evilness. Amazingly
people become ugly when they become devout Muslims. I don’t know how to
explain this rationally but it is an observable fact. Just look at the
faces of the terrorists. These are the most devout Muslims. Or look at
the faces of the leaders of Islamic parties. There is something very
evil in their eyes. Islam is an anti-spiritual creed. It does not make
you a better person. The more you follow it the worse you become. It is
a creed that makes monsters out of angels. If I believed in Satan I
would say Islam is Satan’s plot to destroy this world and take everyone
to hell.

Spirit is something which u cant see but exist...as simple as that...