I am not an admirer of the word `spirituality' which is often being bandied about by people having religious agenda. That word kept coming to my mind tonight after I gulped two drinks (Mallu style, of course) at a party I would have otherwise skipped had it not been for virtues of socialising. I liked whisky but the crowd was boring and I felt like a pigeon among the cats (or is it the other way round?). I never drank so fast, fastidious as I am in both my choice of company and drinks. On my way back home, my mind appeared to have stuck to that word I hate. Then I tried to divert my sudden obsession with `spirituality' by thinking about my best friend's recipe for making instant biriyani. That recipe defies all formal recipes that you find in cookery books. Her reciple conjures up a biriyani that exists in the realm of imagination. As perfect as it should be. May be in Plato's Republic.
I felt that there is spirituality involved in making the sort of biriyani that she makes. The inner and instinctive understanding in a person who makes biriyani (or any other food item, for that matter) of proportions of its ingredients is spiritual and I use the word for want of a better word. Okey?
So what exactly is spiritualiy? I don't know. But that question raises a series of other questions. Is spirituality the sole monopoly of religions? If it is, which religion has greater claim to spirituality? Who will be the arbiter who can testify to that claim? If somebody can answer these questions, pleaaaaaaase do it. If my questions sound silly, blame the whisky and not me.
3 comments:
It's definitely the whisky which is to be blaimed. The subject of spirituality exists only in a vaccuum. It has no meaning. It has nothing to do with religion either.
Dear whisked friend, religion has its good and bad points. Most attributes of our character is predetermined through centuries of religious understanding. It is when we compartmentalise it into 'your religion' and 'my religion' that all rationalism ends and you drown yourself in an identity crisis.
Just remember that more than ninety eight percent humans on this planet are believers - in one way or the other. It is a few who can remember their R's (read Rationalism) in their daily lives. And that makes the whole difference.
Excuse me, you are cleverly evading my questions which are not as silly as I feared. Your 98 per cent figure is nothing but exaggeration having no support of facts. A 2004 survey by the Pew Research Center showed that in the United States (you cannot expect such surveys in India), 12% of people under 30 and 6% of people over 30 could be characterized as non-religious. Rationalism is not the privilege of a few as you wish it is. I challenge you to answer my questions first.
There is a lot that is different in being non-religious and being rational with a capital R. Not all people who profess to be irreligious are rational in their thinking. The other side of the coin is also true at times. Those who are immensely religious may turn out to be extremely rational in their daily lives.
You know, there is a quaintness about the word atheism. It is rather meaningless too. This is a word that can be tagged along with words like, spinster, prostitute, etc. It gives off a twang of obscuratntism. So people jump up automatically to refuse to be so. Thus your survey report cannot be termed conclusive. Scratch them some more and they will tell you that they don't walk under a vertical ladder, they stop and let others walk after a black cat has crossed their paths, they furtively look at their clocks before leaving home and many more such superstitious things.
My family as you know have a modern approach to almost every issue. Now let me show you some chinks in their armour.
Our own Hitler(read German sis) is all things modern, but when it comes to 'what stars foretell' she goes all gooey and quotes from her star reports for the week with elan. Bubbles has changed tracks often enough in the past, when confronted with girlfriends who used to be believers to the core some were hard core Catholics - who believed that if you dug the earth right in front of you, you could reach hell. He started lighting lamps when another of his girl friends told him it would do HIM a world of good.
My mother is a super example of a person who is rational to the T -sorry R, though I have a nagging feeling that she refuses all this nonsense, because she is basically lazy. I do one better than that - I refuse to pray, not out of stubbornness, no simply because I know that god cannot be reached, though I light the lamp for my 'religious' hubby for his prayers.
It is another story altogether that as soon as he is in his clinic, all his prayers vanish and he dons the mask of rationality. Till today I remain steadfast on to my rational thinking - that is as far as my knowledge is concerned. It has'nt changed in the last twenty seven years. Now you might ask, why 27? My answer would be that it is as far as I have remained married - into a family of believers. I am passive by nature, but strong in my convictions. Even a dozen miracles will not change my stance, because I know that miracles also do happen - not because god has interfered, but nature just weaved a fantasy of its own.
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