The struggle between Spirituality and Religion III

This is the third and last post of an article intended to help understanding the phenomenon of spiritual groups, something that is increasing its influence in the world today.



Which one is the best?

Because of the way my grandmother brought me up, I really never liked religion. Even my effort to read the Bible was more out of a spiritual need, not because I valued the religion I was born in.

It took time for me to appreciate religions as they are. I have discovered they are necessary as they give people comfort and hope, something so important nowadays. That does not happen often with spiritual groups. I remember my sister observing the difference between people going to our mother’s church, a Japanese religion called Messianic, and people coming to the Brahma Kumaris, where I myself attend. She simply said that people who go to my mother’s church are people suffering in deep need, whilst people who come to Brahma Kumaris were people who seemed to be OK…

And it is true. In most spiritual groups, people’s needs are deep in the soul and they are encouraged to be better and to make more effort in life, but externally they are not in a bad shape, while in most religions, people receive something that make their hearts content, no need to make extra effort.

When I myself have developed spirituality, I had a big shift in my own perception about religion. Religions are good, they are excellent and needed. Just look at the religion I was brought up and the works by people like Mother Teresa or a friend of mine, Sister Alba, who give their lives to the poor; without their existence and the religion that supported at least their ideas, poor people would have a very sad life.

Spiritual groups are also good, but what they do is totally different. The intention of their existence is to help people in their change and coping with the change in the world. It is not much about producing a new Mother Teresa, but it is about helping people to change so that they can have the qualities Mother Teresa had in life.

People who engage themselves into some spiritual group hardly would accept to engage into a religion, and those who are fully committed to a religion wouldn’t engage themselves into a spiritual group. But I personally feel both may live together. At least, spiritual people and religious people can share their points of view and strengths, and help each other. This is a unique time in History when people’s minds are open.

Spirituality and religion, both are good on their own accord. Both are needed. It is time to stop the struggle and to accept the religions and the spiritual groups according to their specialties.