Spirituality, from pooja room to board room

By Poojya Sri Sri Ravi Shankar
Spirituality has been sleeping at the altar and in pooja rooms, books, and places of pilgrimage for too long. Now it’s time for it to come out to the boardroom, factories, business places, parliaments, assemblies, hospitals and labour unions. The value system which has been cherished in India for centuries has been dormant, now it is time to bring it back to real life.

People who believe in values often go into a sort of moodmaking without realising the ground realities. The challenge is to integrate it into the complex structure of socioeconomic diversity that the world is today. The so-called champions of culture have done far too little to combat the challenges of modern society where societal and domestic violence are on the rise as are depression and suicidal tendencies. Spirituality is ‘Bhava Roga Nidhan’, the remedy for all worldly ills. We need to get out of the blame culture.

The value system has been living in seclusion for decades since Mahatma Gandhi’s demise. It is spirituality that brought freedom to the country and it is spirituality that has woven the diverse fabric of the country.

Make spirituality an attitude and not just a practice!

A practice is always bound by time but an attitude gets woven into that time.A practice is limited to occasions and to time and has a time-bound impact which wears off after a while and has to be revived. But an attitude gets woven into your life.

It is easy to adopt spirituality as a practice but it takes courage and (maturity/understanding) to have it or build it as an attitude. Maturity brings attitude. One contention against spirituality is that it can only be practised in a society where people are sensible and sensitive, not in a competitive and cut-throat one.

It’s a Catch 22 situation. Unless you introduce spirituality, society cannot become sensitive or sensible. Perhaps that’s why the ancient saying ‘Dharmo Rakshati Rakshata’. Dharma will protect those who protect the Dharma. If society upholds spirituality, spirituality will uphold the society.