One of the most successful spiritual writers of our time, Mr. Deepak Chopra has beautifully explained this concept in a few words:
“Religion is a belief in someone else’s experience.
Spirituality is having your own experience.”
A Look at Religion:
- Religion is belief & practice in a certain defined set of thoughts, rules & customs with primary purpose of helping people live their lives with defined beliefs & ideology. These set of beliefs change from place to place & its customs are tailored to the basic needs of people in that region.
- Religion involves looking outward for one’s own acceptance.
- Social acceptance is one of the key factors in a religion’s growth. The shared set of religious beliefs within a community act as a social lubricant and oil the machinery of society to run smoothly.
- Conventions & social dogma are an integral part of the religion.
A look at Spirituality:
- Contrary to religion, spirituality is the practice of looking inside oneself for one’s own acceptance.
- An individual is not confined by a set of rules to define oneself. It is boundless, without any rules & without any promise of punishment or reward. All it offers is abundant inner happiness & serenity.
- The very foundation of spirituality lies in the positive basic human emotions like love & happiness. There is no place for fear in the realms of spirituality.
- Meditation, relaxation & concentration are integral parts of spirituality.
It is completely & entirely true that an individual might not share religious beliefs with the society but might still be a deeply spiritual person. An individual being does not necessarily require a religion to be spiritual. Whether one follows a certain religion or not has nothing to do with one’s spirituality.