Yesterday was a momentous occasion – one that will be remembered as a defining moment in the history of humanity.
And why is it so?
Religion is a personal matter. Something that we believe in (or don’t believe in), something that gives us some of the answers that we so desperately seek – something that gives us hope when there is none, and something that gives us a moral compass so that we live together in a society bound by common values and sensibilities.
But people often mix religion and spirituality.
Spirituality is again personal, but it is an experience. Actually, it is the seeking of an experience of liberation. It is the seeking of internal peace, of eternal peace.
“It is insight into the nature of reality (darśana), or experience of reality (anubhava). ”
S. Radhakrishnan
Contrary to popular belief (and pun unintended), faith is not part of spirituality. The seeker ask questions of everything he sees, hears, experiences and grows from the answers, or continues to search for them. As Sadguru once said – we ask a thousand questions. Even the devas were not spared – when they came down to earth, they had to answer question after question – nothing was taken for granted, not even divinity.
After all, the biggest question-answer session in history is the Bhagavad Gita.
And Bharatvarsha has always been the land of spirituality, not religion. This is why there are so many devas – because we have always seen divinity in everything and everyone. This is why we bow down to all the forces of nature, animals, plants, even rocks…everyone has the freedom to pursue their own line of seeking – even atheists are part of Sanatana Dharma since they are seeking answers in the freedom from seeking itself!
But for hundreds of years, we have been put into containers – of caste, surnames, dogmas and what not. There is no ism in Bharatvarsha – Hinduism is a word coined by the Brits since they wanted to have a collective for the thousands of paths that seekers took in Medieval India. Of Sanatana Dharma was born Buddhism, Jainism, Sikhism and many other smaller paths – each maintained the base and flowered differently. Yet they form part of a common stream that is Sanatana.
Yesterday was a turning point in this journey – a turning point moving away from being in containers, to rediscovering our spirituality. You may see an idol of Sri Rama there, but it’s not all – after centuries, we have rediscovered our common purpose, our common journey towards a higher goal. The faith in Sri Rama is the starting point, for everyone needs one – but the goal is to rediscover our spirituality, together.
And I don’t mean only Hindus – everyone in Bharatvarsha is joint by this common thread – a land where seeking was welcome, whatever you sought was not an issue. Yesterday was the first day of another 1000 years…for it was a thousand years back that we lost the track that we just rediscovered.
Yesterday was the first day of hope that evaded us for so long – and you know that faith can move mountains. We don’t aim to move mountains – we aim to build a country that can act as a beacon of hope for humanity. Let’s start contributing – let 17% of humankind move towards a higher level of awareness, so that the rest can follow.
Let us start our march towards collective greatness and individual moksha – liberation.
Jai Shri Rama!