Lately, I have started to wonder whether the tools for professional success are the same as those required for spiritual success. Knowledge, hard work, perseverance, ambition, expressiveness, and tenacity are well-known, well-documented ingredients of success in the business world, but are they enough to grow in the spiritual realm? In search of an answer, I embarked on an endeavor to read about those people who, in my view, have reached the pinnacle of this vast, invigorating, mystical, and intricate world of spirituality. To initiate my journey, I did not had to look beyond our great nation, India. Although the geographical boundaries of a country are defined and well marked, the “spiritual boundaries” of a nation, like India, are limitless and permeate the vastness of the universe.
This ancient civilization, spanning more than five thousand years, has produced some of the most profound thinkers in the world. These thinkers have impacted the lives of millions of people not only in their country of origin, but their thoughts have touched the “soul” of scores of people around the world. I think the three most thought-provoking and inspirational spiritual philosophers that the subcontinent, once called “sone ki chidiya”, has produced are M.K Gandhi, Swami Vivekananda, and Guru Nanak. Reading and learning about them made me draw a few common grounds that connected their thoughts and ideas. The bedrock of these eternal ideas that changed how an ordinary Indian views religion, society, and spiritual progress stands on a common platform. Some of the commonalities where the minds of these three great “spiritual giants” meet are:
A modern view of religion: “The Story of My Experiments with Truth” is one of the most uplifting books that I have read in my life. In one of the instances mentioned in the book, Gandhi describes his experience of visiting the Kashi Vishwanath temple situated in the “holy” Indian city of Benares. His spiritual expectations were devastated in observing the uncleanliness and chaos in the bazaars leading to the temple. The noise, the swarming flies, the slippery lanes made his stopover “perfectly insufferable”. No wonder that the unkempt shrine made him question “how Indians could successfully manage self-government if they could not even keep their most sacred places of worship clean and peaceful.”
If one studies Swami Vivekananda in depth, one would be enlightened by the fact that the “reverent monk” was one of the biggest critics of the social evils and rigid rituals of Hindu society in particular and Indian society in general. He famously gave the term “Kitchen religion,” which he associated with “don’t- touchism”, which, in his own terms, was “the obsession with ritualistic purity, such as what to eat or touch, rather than spiritual depth”. In this context, he went even further and stated that many Indians have taken their faith to their kitchens and made “cooking utensils” their religion. In a gist, he harshly censured the existing religious dogmas in Indian society and placed enormous emphasis on internalized spiritual growth rather than just blindly following the nonsensical practices in one’s creed and belief system.
Although founder of Sikhism (one of the youngest religions in the world), and its first Guru, I prefer calling Nanak the “Guru of the entire humanity” rather than just a Sikh Guru. There is a narrative from his “Janamsakhi” (literally meaning birth stories) when he was lying down with his legs towards the “Kaaba”. When an offended Arab priest objected to this perceived “blasphemy,” Nanak calmly replied, asking the priest to turn his legs in a direction where God does not exist. This reflects how shallow the conviction is of those who find God only in a few man-made structures. Nanak’s message was vividly that God is omnipresent.
Another notable incident from his life was when he visited Haridwar and on seeing people throwing water eastwards towards the rising sun. Upon his inquiry, people told the Guru that they are quenching the thirst of their ancestors who live in the heavens towards the east. On hearing this, Nanak entered the Ganges and started throwing the water towards the west. Baffled with this act, people asked him why is he dousing water in that direction. The Guru replied that his fields in Punjab were in dire need of this water. With even greater perplexity, priests started laughing and said how can the water go that far. Nanak, with all his calmness and composure replied that if the water can go millions of miles towards the heavens in east, it could surely reach his fields just a few hundred miles away. The “first master” was a proponent of sensible thinking and was a champion of religious unity. This reminds me of the following famous adage:
“Nanak Shah Fakir – Na Hindu Na Musalman”
In essence, what connects these aforementioned episodes is that each of these figures of titanic spiritual strength critiqued the religious dogmas that existed in the society during their lifetimes. I have a firm opinion that reform, whether it is personal or societal, cannot be implemented without critiquing one’s own set of principles and practices. In other words, constructive criticism opens doors for reforms and reforms in turn provide an innovative and modern alternative to existing inflexible doctrines.
The views and perspectives of these three leaders make an incision into our doctrinaire Indian society, where people follow religion with an unquestioning mind. In my own humble experience, I have seen people making a trade or a business deal with their God. The mode of worship that largely exists in our society is just ringing bells in the places of worship, reciting scriptures, or rotating prayer beads, and that too is geared towards the fulfilment of their personal objectives. Although, there is nothing immoral in that but it certainly cannot lead to a spiritual enlightenment. On the contrary, the lives of these three great men introduces us to a path where the true form of worship is the one which is tied to public service. “Sewa parmo dharma” is the highest duty and way towards spiritual elevation.
Being an agnostic, I am still skeptical as far as the existence of the “almighty” is concerned, but what I am unequivocal about is that if there indeed is a superpower, then the ledger on which his evaluation of our lives would be based would not be as to how many times we have recited a “mantra” or visited a place of worship, but on how many destitute lives we have impacted and changed. In a spiritual journey, one should free himself from the shackles of following a rigid methodology with absolutely no rational basis and adopt an experimental mindset towards enlightenment.
Unbounded Intellect: I have a strong intuition that God (if one exists) does not like people who worship him out of fear but would appreciate those who could intellectually argue with him. Intellect is after-all the biggest and greatest gift of the “Lord” to homo sapiens that distinguishes him from the animal world. On these lines, a related parallel that I draw is that all three luminaries were well versed in the philosophical texts and religious scriptures that belonged to the ideologies of different societies and sects than their own. This confirms to my personal belief that in order to understand religion and spirituality at its core, one has to dive deeply into the unbiased and unfeigned analysis of all the major religions and prominent thinkers of the world. Let’s take the case of Swami Vivekananda. It is well documented that while in college, he thoroughly studied Western philosophers like Immanuel Kant and Herbert Spencer. He was also well versed in the holy scriptures of Christianity and Islam.
Same was true of Gandhi. Although during the days he thought his life was ending due to an illness , he regularly listened to Bhagwat Gita, he possessed intense knowledge of the world religions and even believed that he has made the religions of world his own. I regard Gandhi as one of the most erudite Indians of all times. Not only was he widely read, but as a copious writer, his legacy also includes a tome of published work. Similarly, when we talk about Guru Nanak, it is believed that during his youth, he “soaked” himself in the study of both Hinduism and Islam. He was also a great poet. In the words of Khushwant Singh, “Nanak was a poet of uncommon sensitivity who could turn his pen from gentle satire to rapturous praise “. The nucleus of my argument being that in order grow spiritually, it is vital to have an understanding and an appreciation of all major faiths in the world. This provides an intellectual depth and in my modest opinion, intellectual growth and spiritual upliftment are mutually inclusive.
The philosophy of detachment: This is the most challenging but at the same time, an absolutely essential ingredient of attaining spiritual awakening. As per Bhagavad Gita, “Detachment is engaging fully with your duties while remaining free from anxiety of the results”. As per the same sacred book, detachment is like a “lotus metaphor, being in water but being untouched by him”. In my view, reaching this state of mind is tantamount to reaching an emotional state which is extremely arduous to achieve in our contemporary “dog eat dog” world. However, all the three foregoing spiritual philosophers I discussed about led their lives free of attachment and through their works, showed the world how to conquer this formidable “demon” of attachment that resides within our hearts.
I have just initiated on my spiritual expedition and my steps and efforts are still at a very nascent stage. However, as I set out to this life long voyage, I have found these three spiritual philosophers who can become my beacon of light towards this demanding yet exhilarating journey. In that regards, I quote this relevant “doha” from the great Kabir:
“Guru Govind dou khade, kaake lagun pay.Balihari guru apne, Govind diyo batay.”
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