Spirituality is the ultimate method of living as it can bring peace and prosperity to the world.
This way of living is possible and also essential for humans on earth.
But interestingly, we can find very few people who live spiritually in the society around us.
As per rough statistics, only one person among thousands tends to have a spiritual awakening.
Among thousands of those who have this inclination, only very few put effort into achieving enlightenment.
Only a few among thousands who put in consistent effort can attain it.
So we can be sure that there are always a certain number of spiritual people, but only a few try to practice it.
The method of practice and the time spent in the process decide the success of the spiritual journey.
In a simple sense, spirituality is where a person is aware that the materialistic life is temporary and that there is something more to life.
They tend to believe in some superpower ruling the universe. They may tend to seek him or even instead try to relieve themselves from life burdens.
As per Hinduism’s concept of rebirth, those in spiritual life wish to get out of this birth and death cycle. Others tend to achieve enlightenment with the spiritual path.
Different types of spirituality
As per the Bhagavad Gita, there are basically three kinds of spirituality.
Though the paths are different, all the spiritual people have similar characteristics. Get an idea of the features of people with spirituality and religiousness.
Devotional
- This is the easiest and sweetest mode of the spiritual path.
- The person on this path enjoys his life by spending time with his god or almighty. He prays, begs, and cries out of emotion in front of his god.
- He gets wisdom just by his attachment to his god and does not need to rely on books for that.
- His spiritual growth is related to his life activities, which he performs out of pure devotion, and he often tries to pray to god.
- He may even live his life without any worldly pleasures. Some of the spiritual greats in history who followed this path used to write songs in praise of God. Or else they used to serve in his temples or do odd works like cleaning streets, etc., in the name of god.
- The people with this sort of spiritual path are very few and sometimes lose their focus based on the society or environment around them.
For an idea of what devotional spirituality is, check out the Gospel of Ramakrishna.
knowledge-based
- This is one of the kinds of spirituality where the practitioners tread the path of knowledge and personal experience.
- Here, one attains spiritual progress through the gain of wisdom.
- These persons are opinionated and learning. They rely on books, the teachings of others, and also self-experience in climbing the ladder of the spiritual path.
- For them, practices like Japa (recitation), meditation, yoga, and fasting are the tools for progress.
- They may not be religious, too, but they respect all the living beings around them, are kind, helpful, etc.
- They tend to find a master or guru to help in their path of spiritual progress.
- This path of spirituality is followed by many, and it is quite common.
- Since they are teachers and also groups, one can easily get into them and make their way.
For more information, you can read Raja yoga and Jnana yoga
Duty based
- This is based on karma and is an interesting path where you live your life normally but have a spiritual tilt.
- You will carry out your duties as a child, family man, employee, etc., without favorable expectations from the end results.
- Here, the person believes he is born for some duty and takes up responsibilities with heart. He does not worry about the benefits of his work.
- He is calm, always dutiful, and alert. He takes care of his mental and physical health to meet everyday challenges.
- He avoids the wrong company or the path of injustice.
- Unlike the other two types mentioned above, he tends to have a family and takes care of them as well as his parents.
- This path is one of the hardest as the practitioner tends to get into worldly life like grief, material pleasure, etc.
- It is one of the scarce methods followed.
You can get a better view from the book Karma Yoga.
Features common to all types of spirituality
- Have core belief that life is temporary and have to pass.
- They would be kind and helpful
- Tend to treat everyone equally and respect others.
- May desire pleasantness and do not desire riches and worldly life.
- Love peace and tend to have peace in life.
- They are also charitable and can relish poverty as a gift.
- Appraoches everyday challenges with open mind.
