If you are an ecstatic soul you don't see the spiritual and religion as two different things, instead, these are two separate ways by which one can achieve their ultimate state which people called as- God, Creator, Shiva, or whatever highest you wanna call it.
Religion is a path of devotion where one is blindly committed towards the worship of the divine whereas, on the other hand, the spiritual journey is of seeking, it is about truth and based on the concept of what you experience only that needs to be considered as life.
According to Google, religion is:
the belief in and worship of a superhuman controlling power, especially a personal God or gods.
and spirituality symbolizes:
the quality of being concerned with the human spirit or soul as opposed to material or physical things.
Ancient times - Religion:
In earlier times the religion was not a system - [ generally, nowadays people follow as if it's an organization] because it is necessary to understand that in historic times the devotees worshipped their god or deities as a devotion; as worship in which they dissolve themselves; offering and dedicating their life to the God by a choice and not because they are born in that religion.
Ancient times - Spirituality:
Precisely, there's no specific period of time written in old scriptures about when this concept of spirituality boomed into human beings, although if one has read the book: Adiyogi: The Source of Yoga by a mystic Sadhguru, in which it has been described that when Adiyogi or the first yogi came upon the land of this planet, he offered ways to attain Mukti, samadhi or nirvana...... to the seven sages. And further, the disciples of the Adiyogi shared the given teachings and knowledge throughout the globe.
Religion and Spirituality are not like two different corporates, in which a fellow needing to follow one, rather these are methods to reach one's ultimate nature, to make the impossible happen; to count the infinite; to get out of this trap of birth and death.
There are ways in which these two methods diverse from each other:
A religious person is extremely faithful and has a deep sense of trust in their deities or God whereas a spiritual seeker is committed to his actions and dedicated to his work. It's like;
If a 12-year-old boy visits the temple of Shiva and demands that; " Oh My Lord, the great of greatest, the god of all gods, I want to have a big house, fulfill my dream". This boy has enormous faith in what he is demanding and also to whom is asking.
Thus no matter what his wish would definitely be fulfilled, it might take 10years or 100years but his devotion would work for him.
Religion:
A religious person doesn't think scientifically [ when I say scientifically, it means drawing conclusions about everything and observing every aspect through logic].
Therefore to be religious is to be faithful, and to be devoted.
In the Bible verse; Matthew 7:7-8
It is written that;
"Ask, and it will be given you. Seek, and you will find. Knock, and it will be opened for you. For everyone who asks receives. He who seeks finds. To him who knocks it will be opened"
In the Era in which we are living, very few people nowadays are religious. Religion is not just about visiting temples, doing puja, chanting mantras regularly, or performing rituals; of course, this is part of it but if a person says I am religious what it significantly means is; he's devoted and has a strong faith in every aspect of life, no matter what the situation is or what his financial-social-emotional-psychological condition is, he has a strong belief in his devotion of work.
In today's world, people take few steps in any field or industry and then change the direction because they don't have faith and devotion of process, rather they want fast results due to which they are depressed and complain by making judgments about life.
Therefore, as I mentioned religion is not about becoming rather it's about being; one cannot say I will become trustworthy and faithful instead they say I am devoted. If you are a believer you are religious in the sense you have faith in God, Allah, or the Almighty.
Spirituality:
Spirituality is about seeking, it demands commitment, dedication, and passion. Spirituality is about knowing what existence and life are, it's not some rocket science of doing some occults or using magical powers or something like an alchemist, it's about living and aspiring differently.
Don't think it's complicated, see for example;
If your write articles or blog daily, it's natural that sometimes when you are extremely happy a good article is established and when you are sad or ill, the blog may not be that productive. This significantly means that you are ruined by your emotions and feelings, whereas a spiritual perspective will conduct this differently because the individuals on the spiritual path pursue to control their thoughts, emotions, and life energy and thus they approach the same things but in a different manner.
On a spiritual journey, an individual has mastery over his thoughts, emotions, and life-energies, through which an individual can manifest whatever they want in their life. Spirituality is about inclusiveness or to be precise it's about experiencing life as just as it is not, which means when you see for instance; a book, most people would look at the number of pictures, others would see the number of pages or the width of the book and very few would go for the content or the knowledge, but at every level, the book is classified according to the person's needs or what he desires and according to his education.
Above all, a spiritual aspire doesn't just go by pages or pictures, or text rather the seeker just goes with the flow of what it is. To be spiritual, one needs utter stillness, immense curiosity about knowing which is paradoxical to what we refer to in religion, which is about believing.
If you want to know the depth of water you can't just watch the ocean and figure it out you need to dive in it and find out, hence religion and spirituality are ways to dive, and ultimately you have to experience it.
Thank you, Pirates
Be Ecstatic!
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