“Religious Views: I’m spiritual”

Most profile pages on social networking sites these days carry this particular response, to an admittedly personal question. ‘I’m spiritual’ seems to be the hep thing to say, the politically correct thing too. Most ‘secular’ people would rather be called spiritual than assert any inclinations towards religion. Perhaps in these times of religious fanaticism and the skepticism any religious identity is subjected to, being ‘spiritual’ and not ‘religious’ is a clever standpoint. It conveys a secular orientation that steers clear of any leanings towards religion as an institution. One wonders then, whether this situation is snowballing into a phobia, an unfounded aversion to religion altogether. Spirituality is of course believed to be linked to a healthy, wholesome living. For many who live life in the fast lane, it is a make-believe source of comfort, one step to ‘save the soul’ in this stampede called life.
Religion in this scenario is relegated to a position of an unwanted tag of identification. Worse still, in this process it is left to be distorted and manipulated by a handful of fanatics who then claim a monopoly over it. Religion thus turns into an overpowering force beyond the control of ordinary, normal people. It is used as a tool to serve the personal ends of a small group. Quite a potent tool, too.
Given such distortions that the concept is subjected to, it is hard to recognize religion as a potentially positive force in one’s life. Setting aside the common markers of religiosity like praying and fasting (which do lend a certain kind of order and discipline necessary to life, but never mind), religion is a system beyond these tokenistic features. It is a whole way of life, if perceived in its holistic sense. It is a system that is not limited to abstract notions of love, harmony and piety, it goes on to provide a clear roadmap, answering all those ‘how to’s and ‘where from’s. For instance, it takes care of every aspect of one’s daily life- right from personal care, relationships, eating habits to communal living and even civic sense. As a system of values, religion provides a positive context for an individual’s life, prescribing the protocol for the individual’s interactions and for the society as a whole. Compared to these features of religion, spirituality appears to be slightly more abstract, though it is a necessary part of religion itself. Claims to piety and religiosity have been subjected to skepticism in this age of critical thinking, and rightly so. All institutions need to be revised over a period of time, to check unwanted elements that seem to get attached to them. Religion, like civilizations, evolves with time. It must be given its fair chance to survive in its true form.
The new age idea of spirituality fulfills certain purposes today, but at the same time, religion might also hold solutions. Instead of the off hand ‘I’m spiritual’, a chance should be given to ‘I’m spiritual and religious’. Religion has undoubtedly been the most inflammable issue in world history. It is one institution that is tainted with the blood of millions killed in its name. But that divisive force masquerading as religion must be shunned and disposed of. There might just be a religion beyond the politics of power that the world has seen for centuries. It must be given a life rope to hold on to, because it might just hold the key to many of the problems that societies today are grappling with.

Jagged Pieces

Tonight I am this sky
Darker than the inky sea
Not seen, not heard in a million years.
Darker than this emptiness
This hollow, shriveled self.
I am all the stillness outside
I am all the darkness in my veins

Groping to hold on to something
My fingers clutch the bitterness, so cold
It swallows me whole, yet it is elusive.
Now one image to behold, just this once?
No! A million shards it is.
Jagged pieces, each one a souvenir of an affliction
One failure after another,
Despair leading on to despair.
Hacking my soul with the sharp edges
Clawing at this self I had made
Piece by piece,
Illusion leading on to illusion.
I’m wretched now, bleeding a black blood
That runs in a burning river
Viscous, acid, poisoned.

I sit in this hell,
Is it the darkness or am I gone blind?
A hell beyond any hell.
And I wait.
Maybe I’ve been waiting all along
Maybe everything, everyone is waiting for that End
Some more deceived than the others,
But all like me, worthless dust
Raised to selfhood, yes, but dust nontheless.