religion and spirituality

Curiosity about origin of mankind, other life and  universe is the mother of spirituality and religion. Since time immemorial, people wondered how the universe came into existence; what sustains the universe, who created life earth, stars, planets, plants, trees and fruits; why all these were created at all and above all what is the purpose of human life.  .

These questions were in mind of people all over the globe. They came out with answers. The views of the learned men on spirituality and mysteries of universe were codified and written as books. The lifestory of these learned persons and their views and advice were formalized as religion.

It  is beyond doubt that views on any topic are not uniform and there is always room for discussion and further probing for truth. In fact, this  is recognized in fields of study like physics, chemistry, economics, political science etc. However, the same principle is not followed in  discussion on religious  and spiritual matters.  Even if the views on spirituality are same in essence, there can not be uniformity in style of language and expression. Even these differences are  sufficient to demarcate one community from other.

We do not have communities based on differences in views on matters of science. There are divergent views among scholars of psychology, sociology, economics etc. But we cannot even imagine communities based on differences between scholars. It is not understood why we should have different communities based on thoughts of spirituality and religion.

Moreover, the members of religious communities are not really conversant with their own religion. The entry in a religion is by accident of birth in a religious community  and not by conscious thought. 

All should make serious attempts to shed their narrow closed boundaries and join broader stream of entire human race in matters of spirituality. There should be open, free and frank discussion .on topics of spirituality and religion. There is no reason why anyone should be a compulsive believer in thoughts of his own hereditary religion. When we believe in all matters after conviction, there is no reason why we confine ourselves to our own hereditary religion in matters of spirituality.

We should take steps to differentiate between community and spirituality/ religion. In fact, it will be appropriate that religious community limits itself to matters of inheritance of property, marriage and divorce and social customs only. Spirituality and study of universe and nature should be impartial and freed from narrow sectarian clutches of  religious communities.