Religion and Spirituality

Religion as a Western construct

The very attempt to define religion, to find some distinctive or possibly unique essence or set of qualities that distinguish the "religious" from the remainder of human life, is primarily a Western concern.

It is also the product of the dominant Western religious mode, what is called the Judeo-Christian climate or, more accurately, the theistic inheritance from Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.

The theistic form of belief is based on a dichotomous Western view of religion. That is, the basic structure of theism is essentially a distinction between a transcendent deity and between the creator and his creation, between God and man.

It should be pointed out, that by religion we refer to institutional religion with its quest for values, especially moral values, customs, mythology etc. and what corresponds to spirituality or mysticism is mental discipline, inquiry,  and the quest for ultimate Reality.

Spirituality or mysticism could be treated as a science of consciousness. Science is based on two main principles, the principle of induction, going from the particular to the general.

By studying spiritual experiences of different people one can come to a general conclusion about the nature of spiritual experience and about higher levels of consciousness. The second principle on which science is based is naturalism.

Naturalism holds that the experience of the phenomenon must come from within the system. In order to explain the creation of the universe, the evolution of life and other phenomena, it is not necessary to invoke an extra cosmic being, a creator seated in heaven. According to Vedanta, infinite consciousness, known as Brahman, is immanent in the universe and all phenomena can be explained in a natural way as the manifestation of this immanent principle of consciousness.

Shankara’s view, atman (soul) and Brahman (God) are not mere subjective experiences. The ultimate Reality is one, infinite and all-pervading and is devoid of subjective-objective dichotomy.  He describes knowledge of Brahman (God) as already existing knowledge. Ultimate reality is independent of human thinking and therefore cannot be changed by man. By contrast imaginations, desires, motivations etc. are personal knowledge which are subject to human error and can be allowed, avoided or modified.