Inner Truth: Is Religion different from Spirituality?

The word religion comes from the Greek word religio, which means ‘to reconnect’—to reconnect our hearts, our consciousness, with God. The word Yoga means exactly the same—to reunite the atma with the Paramatma, to reconnect our consciousness with the Supreme, and to reconnect our consciousness with each other through our connection with God.

Religion is the path of purification. We understand that love of God is dormant within the heart of everyone. The mind is like a mirror. When you look in a clean mirror, you see yourself. But if the mirror is covered with dirt, dust, pollution, and all sorts of other coverings, all you see in the mirror is the dust, the dirt and the pollution—and you think that’s me. Similarly, when the mind is clean, we see Krsna, the all beautiful all loving object of our love, and we see our own eternal soul as the lover of Krsna. But when the mind is covered by arrogance, greed, envy and passion, we think that’s me.

What is religion? Real religion is about awakening love of God. And the first commandment of the Bible is to love God with all our heart, mind and soul. Krsna tells in the Bhagavad Gita, “Abandon all varieties of dharma, and just surrender to me.” What is ‘surrender to me’? It doesn’t mean surrendering in defeat. The mother surrenders to the baby? In the middle of the night when the mother is sleeping and the baby goes aaahh… the mother surrenders to the baby, she gets up to take care of the child. That’s not surrender of defeat, that’s the surrender of love. Unselfish love is to surrender in love to God and be an instrument of God’s love in this world; that is religion. That is the spirit, that is the essence of religion, and that is the essence of spirituality.

As far as the various rituals are concerned, when we become attached to those things and forget what it is for, it becomes what we today know as religion, where there are so many differences. What are we doing pooja for? Do we really know what it is? It’s meant to tune us into the grace of God. It’s meant to help us focus on the divine power of God’s love. And why do we study scriptures? The purpose of studying scripture, the purpose of pooja , mantra , yantra , tantra, mudra, the purpose of all these things is to clean the mirror of the mind and reconnect us to the divine grace.

Becoming religious is about becoming saragrahi. Saragrahi means one who seeks the essence; that is real religion. When I was living in Patna, I was 20 years old. There was another man who was over 85; his name was Narayan Prasad. Everyday about 11 ‘O clock in the morning he took me to his best friend, Mohammad. Interestingly, Narayan Prasad would speak to him about Bhagvad Gita, Mohammad would speak to him about the Quran, and I would speak about all the different stuff that I knew. One day I asked Narayan Prasad, “How is it that in a place like India, where there is so much conflict between Hindus and Muslims that you and Mohammad are best friends and you are sharing each other’s scriptures like this?” He said, “If a dog has a master, the dog will recognize the master in whatever way the master dresses. Sometimes he may be in a suit and tie, sometimes he may be in t-shirt and jeans, sometimes he may be wearing a dhoti or a lungi , sometimes he may not be wearing anything, but the dog will recognize. If we cannot recognize our beloved Lord when he comes in different times, in different dresses, with different names, then we have much to learn from the dog.” Even though there may be differences, if we seek the essence, we will understand what we really have in common, and then there is no difference between spirituality and religion.

The author is a spiritual guide. www.radhanathswami.com

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