What is Spirituality?

Is spirituality something crazy, or is there a scientific basis to it? I believe Raja Yoga meditation, which is part of our subject matter under spirituality, is both a science and an art. And I believe the basis of science is art. Because even though science is based upon formulas which can be rationally explained, I don't think there can be any more scientific advancement if there are no imaginative, intelligent people to do PhDs. So, science, even though it is taking us to the frontier, the basis of science is philosophy. Because philosophy being part of art, is part of imagination.

It is absolutely important for us to understand that there is a need to integrate the artistic and the scientific elements in our living, in our thinking, in the way in which we understand scientific theories, and in the way in which we understand artistic things. I believe if an artist is organized, he or she can make more money. But if a scientific person doesn't have an artistic sense it may be difficult for him or her to progress, to continue his or her line of imagination, use scientific theories and applicable scientific formulas. So, when we talk about spirituality there is a need to understand the scientific basis for spirituality.

Spirituality is a science that deals with the spirit. Spirit not in terms of the 'spirits', but in terms of the spirit within. We understand that we have both body and mind. Body is something that we see, it is outward, it is faculty driven, there is no problem in terms of understanding the existence or the purpose behind the need for the body. But when we talk of mind, there are many theories that explain mental phenomena. Nobody denies the existence of mind, even though it is a subjective matter, not objective as the body is.

But, continuing that line of existence from the body, which is material and which we can see and touch and smell and perceive easily, through the mind, which is a little more subjective even though its purpose and existence is not questioned, we go deeper, and come to what is called the spirit or soul. Soul is the life of life, it is the cause of life, life does not exist without the soul. The soul leaves the body when the body can no longer support life. This may sound theoretical, but nevertheless, I think they are fascinating theories, theories that should arouse our curiosity to start the fundamental search for what brought us here.

There is also this theory of impressions. What we are today is a result of what we have been in the past. Many only extend it to the time of our birth when we talk of heredity, inherited qualities, and environmental qualities. And, we stop there. We do not want to extend the analysis much deeper. Science itself goes only to the extent of saying that the personality and the character we have today is because of our genes, our heredity and environment, our culture and traditions.

I have been personally observing twins. Are they similar? Are they identical? If so, in what respect are they identical? Are they identical in terms of their appearance, or are they identical in terms of their thinking processes? Is there total identicalness in terms of their behavior? Definitely not! All of us know that science says that twins come from the same egg and sperm but somewhere along the line, these two people, who came out of the same thing, seem to behave differently, seem to react to things differently. They were brought up in the same traditions, with the same parents, and in the same childhood environment. After forming all these impressions, so to speak, which are confined to heredity and the environment, there still are differences in the way in which they behave, in the way in which they react to things, and the way in which they perceive things. To me that difference is attributed to only one thing: the impressions that are carried by the spirit, by the soul. The soul is eternal. The soul is something which is trying hard to free itself of the impressions.

Here we have to understand the relationship between the soul and the mind. The soul, on the one hand, has the indestructible quality or characteristic of trying to free itself, of trying to expand itself, of trying to delimit itself. So, that is the characteristic of the soul. And, then there is the mind which has a free will portion, which is connected with the ego, and gets the initial impulse from the soul, and also sends back the impressions that we have formed through the mind to the soul. This explains the difference between twins in terms of their reaction patterns. On the one hand, the soul has this indestructible quality, but on the other hand it seems to be helpless, because it has no choice but to receive the impressions that the mind has passed on.

So here, there seems to be some disharmony developing. The soul has this indestructible quality and characteristic of evolution, whereas the mind may not recognize this quality of the soul. And because of that, it may not pass on conducive impressions back to the soul. Until the time the mind recognizes and starts cooperating with the evolutionary impulses that come from within us, there is more and more movement towards this potential disharmony.

Unfortunately, life is a one way street. Life is like time. You just go once, one-way. You cannot return and go back to 1860 to relive your life. And an opportunity lost is an opportunity lost. But it is not so much, if at any point in time we are able to recognize and understand the experiences that we have gone through. Life is an opportunity to lead our lives correctly to the extent that one day we will be able to form that impression which is conducive to the indestructible quality of the soul.

This is what spirituality says: Use the mind, but recognize the quality of the soul. Use discipline to promote the cause of the soul. Use the same mind to accept that the experience of suffering is nothing more than an experience to learn. Spirituality, which is a science that explains the cause and effect relationship between soul and mind, has to be given due importance in our day to day life. And here, when we talk of impressions that we formed, consciously or unconsciously, knowingly or unknowingly, which go back, travel back through our unconsciousness to the soul, and come back as our reaction patterns when the environment presents itself, this gives the scientific basis of our existence. If we have to form such impressions which are to be conducive to that quality of the soul, then we have to think of that impression which is going to do that. Meditation means to continuously think of something, or to rest upon one thought. We have to pick a thought to mediate upon, which will be conducive to promoting that quality of that soul. So, this is where the scientific basis of the need to meditate comes from.

Raja yoga meditation, which gives a lot of importance to the mind, says that you start meditating to become divine. That which becoming you don't regret, or becoming which there is no contradiction between what you have become and what the soul wants you to become. It is a progressive approach towards that retention of harmony, or that regaining of the integration of body, mind and soul. So, in raja yoga meditation we meditate to become divine. Is the quality of the soul to become divine? Perhaps!

We have to now understand the soul in terms of divinity. Divinity can be explained in terms of the furtherance of human qualities. All of us would like to be loved, all of us would like to love, all of us would like to be kind, and would like others to be kind to us. If this is so, then we should start forming those qualities ourselves. We have to become that--that which is divine, and which is totally consistent with what we expect from others. There is a harmony, which is a foundation for the whole basis of meditation here.

I'm happy to say that even though we all wonder and worry if meditation is scientific, if spirituality is for the intelligent people, all of us go looking for love, looking for kindness. This explains the reason why what we search for through our intelligence need not necessarily be what we look for. Here also there is this dichotomy or disharmony in what we are going after and what we are looking for, in simple terms. It again comes down to this process of integration.

Spirituality is the science of integration, which integrates the purpose of life with the search and activity of life, which integrates the quality of the soul with what the mind should aspire for, which integrates what we expect from others with what we are ourselves becoming. So this is the foundation of spirituality and this is what raja yoga meditation as a practice offers.

Victor Kannan is the chief financial officer for a computer company.
He has been practicing Sahaj Marg since 1982, and resides with his family in Atlanta, Georgia.