Finally, I managed to pull in Swami The Rationalist to an area where I could take on him so confidently - Spirituality !

That day Swami’s room was scarcely lit - as always. But it didn't stop me from ascertaining the silhouette of that familiar wavy gray hair and off-white kurta. Swami doesn't like too much light. He never does.

While asking questions this time, my voice was rather shaky, for some reason. I might be so excited about the subject.

“Swami, listen carefully. Is any life without spirituality worth living ? What is man without a soul ? Sorry to say this, but your philosophy of considering humans as a mere collection of molecules is not only rubbish , but is sort of intellectual arrogance. “

Answer was interrogative: “Will you please tell me what spirituality is ?”

Bewildered, I searched for words. But swami himself came to my rescue :

“I don't know what spirituality means to you. It's a very weird and complex term, and is highly subjective. This extreme subjectivity associated with this word has been endorsed by even its prime proponents. So, let me first discuss the most universally accepted version of spirituality and evaluate it.

 The history of spirituality may be something like this: For centuries, the cognition had flummoxed genuine philosophers as well as religious manipulators. While the normal thinking process was found to be in response to sensory perceptions and acquired learning, the processes too complex to interpret were attributed a state of mind that could be "reached" by systematic harnessing of cognition.

Now, here comes the interesting point. The normal thought-process is so mundane it was not bracketed together with the "sublime cognition". Even though it is a very simple logic to assume that both the basic and controlled thought-processes are just different statuses of the same attribute of a live human ( we call this attribute mind ), the latter, due to its complexity, managed to put on a sort of hallow of romance around it. This sublime cognition thus demanded a new name and it did get a new name - spirituality !

The word spirituality is related with the theory of "spirit". The theory is simple and have an astounding universality and acceptance among religions. This theory, putting simply, says that "spirit" is said to be instilled into life-forms by of course, the super-natural. This spirit is responsible for keeping the life-form alive and thinking. As you are familiar with the computer jargon, you may roughly draw some parallel with the "server-client" paradigm here. Spirit, according to this theory, acts as an agent of the super-natural inside the body, and it makes it think the way it needs to.

While one can not easily "feel" the presence of spirit inside him during a normal thinking session, he can do so by the a systematic and meditative process - how cute ! The fakers were simply cashing in on the infinite possibilities of human mind !

“If there is no “spirit”, then where do all these feelings come from ? ”

”Let us leave the world of fiction and get into the realm of reality. Even from the time of Democritus, there were other pursuits going on braving the metaphysical onslaughts. You would be surprised to know that Democritus, way back in 4th century BC, actually proposed that thinking and perception are nothing but " the properties of matter put together in a sufficiently fine and complex way" , and not due to some external forces putting "spirit" into the body. This theory is not very different from the most realistic explanation of cognition that exists today. It is just that it has been proved beyond all conjectures.

I don't think I should detail that any further. We are living in an age where highly complex phenomena like extra-sensory perception and out-of-the body experiences are scientifically or even empirically explained. We will come back to this later.We now know that hallucinatory experiences can be brought about through direct stimulation of the exposed brain, as in cases of local cortical arousal under the neurosurgeon's stimulating electrode.

In short, for a human being, spirituality is hard-wired. It is all about stimulating some portion of your brain. Yet - spiritual experience is as pleasurable as sex and as natural as breathing. It is not the proverbial ‘enigma wrapped in a riddle inside a mystery.”

“ Swami. My worry is this : can your rationalism provide even an ounce of the inner-peace and tranquility, as against the profoundest of them that a simple session of meditation can offer ? "

" I am afraid we are harping on much regurgitated subjects. I hate to do this. Science vs. Religion or Religion with and without spirituality and all that stuff. But yes, some subjects are ever-green and incessant. So let me try to make my stand very clear about this timeless issue as well.

You are quite right. Meditation in any form , may it be a prayer or a concentration-practice-session , does make positive effects on one's mental state. The issue is in calling this as religious spirituality and clubbing it with ritual- ridden religions.

But , wait - is religion really necessary to do this stimulation ? Is meditation is a monopoly of one or more religions ?

The guidelines of today's religions , as I see it, can be categorized broadly into four categories. ( You may call them as pillars of religious restrictions or something - swami laughs). I may be oversimplifying , but I sure I am very close to reality :

Theological - what should come to your mind when you hear the word "God"

Behavioral - what you should do daily /monthly/ annually being in that religion , coupled with dress codes and all that.

Communal - who are your friends and who are not

Spiritual - when, how and where you should do your prayer

The degree of importance of each of these guideline categories varies from one religion to another. That is not my area of interest here. What you have to keep your focus on is my short description of the "spiritual” type. They just ask you when, how and where you should do your prayer (Buddhism may be an exception. I will come to that later).Nothing more. Nothing less. If somebody tries to add something more to ritualistic spirituality, that is distorting the truth.

To me, spirituality is the pursuit of your existence. It is everything you think and dream. It is your memory and intelligence. It is your conscience and subconscious. It is you minus your body.You got the clue here ? A man is doing service to his spiritual self when he thinks about himself and his existence.Thus spirituality has more to do with science than with religion ! Inconceivable , but a fact !

Religions explore a meager fraction of the grand terrain of spirituality. They scratch on the surface. But since they were really the first ones who taught you how to scratch, they are still synonymous with spirituality.

Next :          Spirituality minus religion: Is rational spirituality possible ?