Spirtual Learning curve

April 08

I happened to visit Chhatarpur mandir (A holy temple in New Delhi) the other day.A person like me in a religious place is a shocker in itself, i was just accompanying a
Religious friend who was hard bent to visit it.
During our short stint there, I saw millions of devotees standing in long never ending queues
to get a glimpse of their god's shrines and idols.
Being true to my nature, I started a rather controversial discussion with my friends inquiring
the importance or the need to hurt oneself in long queues. I asked them 15 days ago this
place was as empty as a hollow tree, with no body in vicinity of 2kms to be seen, why didn’t
people visit their respective gods then, and now since its navratara time there are 3 hours
long queue to get a glimpse.
We also talked about people going to vaishnodevi on foot and at times body crawling all the
way from Delhi. Is it that more you hurt your body, the closer you are to your god?
My religious friend in defense said, there is a time and place to do everything, he said you
go to a bathroom when nature calls and you don't pee anywhere else but a bathroom similarly
you go to a religious place to worship (and not worship anywhere else) and you go on
Specified dates when it makes the best impact.
Although I didn't say anything there (to avoid any rift and tension) but it got me thinking
about the narrow and standardized thinking people have regarding religion.
Now I m no Spiritual guru by any stretch of imagination however my life learning say that
Spirituality is a journey not a destination. Its a way of life, how you conduct yourself in
Day-to-day activities. He said there is a place and time for everything, now something like
Spirituality is not a thing its like life line of human cycle, it won't be an exaggeration if
I say its like oxygen to human beings. Now you don't go to any place (oxygen chamber) at any
Specific time to fill the tank to last the whole day, you inhale it all the time, similarly
Spirituality is a spontaneous expression; you feel it all the time. Just to quote Osho here
he said, meditation is nothing but finding perfection in your daily work. Once you are
Totally engrossed in your work and when you try to better yourself with every next activity
you will realize that you are improving by the day and that you have attained spirituality.
Spiritual Learning curve of different people is different and is based on a lot of external
factors like surroundings, education, books they have read, family values etc and at
Chhatarpur the other day I realized that the majority of our Hindus are at the infancy stage
of it. and after 1000 s of years of religious history that is a sorry state of affairs.
You are all welcome to add your thoughts and comments.