Importance of Spirituality in the Modern World

Reflection Questions:

• What is the Role of Spirituality in the Modern World?

• Why Should We Distinguish between Religion and Spirituality?

• How can We Practice Spirituality in the Modern World?

In this day and age of high-tech innovations and digital solutions, people find themselves at a crossroad of paradoxes. While technological advances have made life easier in many ways, they have also challenged us to find ways to remain relevant in a globalized economy. While the widespread surge of social media has successfully connected people all over the world, it has also resulted in increased loneliness at an individual level. As the material opulence of people seems to increase, their inner resources seem to deplete due to lack of guidance on ways to make life more meaningful. There has never been a greater need than now to connect with a higher source of consciousness to know one’s true identity and understand the purpose of life. Swamiji beautifully says that our soul yearns to connect with something sacred and higher than us because we are not material beings seeking a spiritual experience, but spiritual beings who are living a material experience in this world of Maya. For this reason, spirituality plays an important role in this modern world characterized by digital devices and tools that provide instant gratification of sensory pleasures. 

What is the Role of Spirituality in the Modern World?

All major religions believe that human beings are a conglomerate of two distinct entities – the material body and the divine soul. The soul is a fragment of God, and its constitutional nature is to seek bliss from its infinitely blissful source. However, due to ignorance and the influence of the all-powerful Maya, souls falsely identify with the material body and indulge in sensory pleasures for immediate gratification. We need to take time to ponder over critical questions such as “Who am I? What is my purpose of my life? Where will I go after death?” Searching answers for these questions will automatically steer one toward the path of spirituality.

The modern world is superficially enchanting and provides abundant opportunities for material enjoyment. We are constantly bombarded by external stimuli from social media, television, internet, movies, and other people that influence our thinking and actions every minute. We tend to prioritize these mundane activities of life rather than spiritual practices such as sadhana (i.e., devotion to God) and seva (i.e., service to God and Guru) that uplift our soul. We make excuses of not having time to practice spirituality. However, it is not the lack of time, but failure to accord importance and prioritize spirituality over other mundane tasks, that is an obstacle for progress on this path. Thus, we pursue fame, power, money, talent, good looks etc., hoping that these allurements will make us happy. However, our Vedas repeatedly emphasize that chasing worldly happiness is like chasing a mirage; no matter how much we search in the material realm, we will never obtain the divine bliss that the soul is seeking. This is because the soul is seeking unlimited, infinite, and ever-lasting happiness, whereas all material pleasures are limited, finite, and short-lived. God is the source of infinite and eternal happiness, thus when we attach our mind to Him, our divine soul will experience divine bliss that it has been seeking since endless lifetimes. Spirituality teaches us to understand this basic principle, enabling us to determine our true priorities in life.

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Why Should We Distinguish between Religion and Spirituality?

At the forefront of all differences, it is critical to understand that the practice of religion involves external rituals whereas the practice of spirituality is internal in nature. External rituals, unless accompanied by the mind’s attachment to God, is a mere physical drill, whereas spirituality is the internal connection of the mind to all things divine. Spiritual practices involve simple things like devotional chanting, hearing or reading divine knowledge of the scriptures, and meditating on the names, forms, virtues, pastimes, abodes and saints of God. The goal of these practices is to attach the mind to God/Guru. ... Click here to read more.

How can We Practice Spirituality in the Modern World?

1. Obtain True Knowledge. The practice of spirituality begins with the knowledge that we are the divine soul rather than the material body. Then, we need to develop faith in the spiritual philosophy and practice. The modern world is firmly grounded on establishing beliefs based on evidence of causality. However, spirituality is an inner experience and modern material instruments of science are not sophisticated enough to prove the existence of the soul objectively. Thus, initially one must take a leap of faith and make an effort to believe and start practicing spirituality based on the teachings in the Vedic scriptures. 

2. Repeated Contemplation. We need to repeatedly contemplate to convince our mind about the true sources of happiness. The Bhagavad Gita and various scriptures tell us to establish a sadhana routine to remember God and Guru through meditation or roop-dhyan in isolation. This will help us to block out worldly consciousness from our mind and strengthen our devotional sentiment...Click here to read more.

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