Are Religion and spirituality same?

Question (Q): Acharya Ji, what is spirituality? What is the difference between religion and spirituality?

Acharya Prashant (AP): Fundamentally there is no difference, no difference at all, but at a practical level a difference seems to arise and the difference is, that religion assumes an organized shape. Even spirituality can become organized but, religion is much more prone to organization. In that sense, religion becomes a condensed, frozen, very set pattern of beliefs, rituals, festivals, and such things. Spirituality, thankfully, is more free and fluid but essentially both are the same because the end of both is the same. Both are to take the mind to its Core, to Peace. Spirituality assumes a much more open and accommodative route, religion gives a much more planned and organized route. So you could say that Truth or Peace is at the center. Spirituality is a small circle emanating from that center and religion is a much bigger circle around the same center. So spirituality and religion happen to be concentric and yet spirituality is much nearer to its goal than organized religion is.

Q: Acharya Ji, what is the universal essence of all religions?

AP: The universal essence of every religion is the universal thirst of every human being. Why do religions exist at all?

Religions exist for people.

Even if one religion or many religions say that they are based on the revealed word of god, to whom and for whose sake is God supposedly revealing his word? For the sake of the people, right? Even if God is sending down his prophets, messengers, books, and avatars, or even if his own son, it is for the sake of the people, the population, the men and women of this world.

So obviously, the purpose of religion has to be the same as the purpose of human life. The purpose of religion has to be exactly that which every single human being craves for. And what is it that we crave for? What is it that we ultimately want? It’s a certain rest, it is a certain closure. We want to come to a very secure sleep, we want to come to a point of relaxation. That relaxation, in different contexts, is variously described as freedom or liberation or realization or peace or joy. So that is what all religions are aiming at.

All religions want to give the human being that which he so desperately aspires for. But just as human beings are very different, even as their ends, even as their ultimate ambition is the same, so that explains why organized religions emanating at different places, and at different times and in different contexts have to be necessarily different. If all human beings were the same, then no two religions would need to exist. But human beings vary a great deal, so the form and the structure of religions is also bound to vary a great deal.

But all variations are superficial. As you go deeper into the human psyche the variations start getting annulled and you find more similarity rather more oneness emerging. Similarly, when you dig deep into any religious fold you find that the differences between the various religions start decreasing, and what gradually shines forth is a oneness of purpose. That oneness is the goal of religion and of human life.

Q: How would you describe death and life circle and liberation?

AP: How do you feel when you are sleeping and you are shocked into waking up? It is not pleasant. Once you are in a settled and relaxed state you do not want change. In fact, even when you welcome change, you welcome it so that you can change into a relatively less changeable state. You keep moving so that you reach a point from where movement is not necessary. Every new beginning is a shock and a tension. The proof is that you ultimately want to come to a point where all beginnings become needless where no new beginning is needed. Doesn’t that happen between lovers? You move on relationship after relationship but your desire is to ultimately find someone you don’t have to ever leave. You don’t want to begin once again, don’t you? You want to come to a full stop. Even if you break-up and move into a new relationship, what is the whole movement for? The whole movement is ultimately to enter a place that would be final.

Beginnings are sometimes necessary but always a bit of a hassle. Had it been in your province you would have eliminated all beginnings altogether. Same with endings; whenever something ends it is a bit of a jerk, a shock to your desired eternal sleep because you did not begin anything ever to end it. You always want to get into something that would never end. Look into the things that are valuable to you. Do you want them to end? Whatsoever is valuable in your life, you desire it to continue eternally. And if there is stuff in your life that you deliberately want to end then that stuff is anyway not joyful, or is it? It is not joyful, therefore, you want it to end. And if there is any stuff in your life that is worth anything, then you wish and pray that it remains. It never ends. So, endings too, make the inner being nervous.

What then is liberation? Liberation is to come to a point, or get hold of something, or drop something, become immensely big, or reduce totally. Describe it whichever way you would, and stop, that is liberation. You begin so that the beginning is final, it doesn’t prove to be final, it ends. You end but the end is never final so you again have to begin. And all the beginning and the ending is for a certain purpose. Liberation is to achieve that purpose. Liberation is to hit the existential jackpot. Liberation is to say, “I finally cracked the game”. You are trying, trying and trying and all human effort and movement and strife, this whole universal drama is actually nothing but a desire for liberation. One tries this one tries that, this house that house, this book that book, this profession, that way, this man that woman.

One does not do 'things'; one is just trying to be liberated. And in this quest for liberation, it is unimaginable how many bondages we keep entering.

Man never took on a bondage but for the sake of liberation.

Had liberation not been so very dear, attractive, real, convincing we would not have been in so many bondages. Liberation is so very compelling that you are prepared to be in shackles and tolerate and tolerate and never stop trying.

Q: Acharya Ji, what is your role as a teacher in today's modern world?

AP: The modernity of the world is the most recent act and scene in the eternal drama. Scenes change, the drama continues. What is it that you call as modernity? Certain philosophies prevail, certain ideologies become dominant, technology comes to a certain point, man starts living, moving, eating, talking, in a certain way, society and economics organize themselves in a certain way. This is what you call as modernity. These things are just scenes. Scenes change with the blink of an eye. What is that does not change? The fundamental thirst of the mind for liberation does not change.

Today you are talking to me and there are all these fancy gadgets to support you. There are lights, air conditioning, and such things. A thousand years back when you were talking to me there was no such equipment around but the questions were the same because these questions pertain not to that which is time-bound, but to that which is timeless. Will time ever touch your urge for timelessness? Only the surface has changed, the clothes have changed, language has changed, the makeup has changed. The one sitting within has not changed. And I am not talking of the soul or the Atma . I am talking of the discontentment, the restlessness that man is.

If we could have another fancy gadget here, a little fancier maybe, let’s say a time machine, I would have loved to take you to the age of Jesus or to the age of Buddha or Ashtavakra or even prior to that, to the age of the Rishis of the Upanishads . And I would have shown you that man was struggling with the same inner disquiet then as he is struggling today because man is man, clothes change.

Acts and scenes change, the theme of the drama does not. It is a very coherent play.

Some love to call it the ‘theatre of the absurd', yet it is very consistent and homogenous. It is an existential play with a very committed theme that never deviates, right? And these same questions will remain topical and pertinent even 2000 years from today, well that is if anybody survives to ask these questions.

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