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The spiritual revolution in India from the ritual to the spiritual Indian: Factors
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The spiritual revolution in India from the ritual

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Suhani Sharma & Sakshi Mehrotra

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 JOURNAL OF SPIRITUALITY IN MENTAL HEALTH
https://doi.org/10.1080/19349637.2017.1411218

The spiritual revolution in India from the ritual to the

spiritual Indian: Factors shaping spiritual seeking in
modern Indians
Suhani Sharma and Sakshi Mehrotra
Amity Institute of Psychology and Allied Sciences, Amity University, Noida, India

ABSTRACT ARTICLE HISTORY

Religion since the beginning has acquired an indomitable Received 20 July 2017
space in the Indian subcontinent as it served as a psychological Revised 22 November 2017
anchor to the tormented Indian mind, which was amidst pov- Accepted 27 November 2017
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erty and a struggle for freedom. A greater number of educated KEYWORDS

Indians have adopted spirituality as a way of life, and this Religion; spirituality;
paradigm shift in human consciousness is shedding light on consciousness; internal well
the way society is evolving. There is a growing interest in being
changing lifestyle patterns and the use of spiritual tools as a
corrective measure for self-evolution. This article examines the
gradual shift from religiosity to spirituality in India and how it
has shaped the Indian mind’s perspective on internal well-
being.

Introduction
India for centuries has had a rich culture of self-help practices and spiritual
ethos that has enabled individuals to take a respite from the humdrum of life
and seek a larger connection with universal phenomena, which could be
labeled as “God.” Be it respecting the cow, reverence for Tulsi, or celebrating
Indian festivals, all cultural and religious practices revolved around connect-
ing man with nature and finding solace and rejuvenation in this eternal
connection. In the age-old tradition, Indian Temples have been constructed
as consecrated spaces to cater to an unsettled mind or an individual who is
seeking repose from the challenges or the drudgery of life. Worship and
prayer were seen as the only pious and truthful methods in achieving God’s
benediction and realizing our dreams. Hinduism, with the third largest
followers in the world, preached that each individual has a soul that is a
reflection of God, and it is in this realization the true human salvation lies.
Bhakti yoga, Karma yoga, and Jnana yoga were paths delineated for this
realization. Since the average householder could not completely commit to
either of these processes, temples were created for people to access energies

CONTACT Suhani Sharma suhani.9991@gmail.com; Sakshi Mehrotra smehrorta3@amity.edu

© 2017 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC
 2 S. SHARMA AND S. MEHROTRA

and revitalize their systems. It also provided meaning and order to events in
life and faith found a greater influence than the intellect.
With the advent of modern technologies and industrialization, man
became more “scientific” and skepticism was found to be a tool to “under-
stand” the presence and relevance of religion and God. With faith losing its
throne to intellect and globalization arriving with consumerism as its even-
tual output, the concept of independent thinking and nuclear family systems
started being the new norm. It no longer took a village to raise a child.
“Independence” came to be valued more over codependence, with the Indian
culture experiencing a paradigm shift from a collectivist mindset to the
individualistic mindset. The psyche of the Indian mind inflicted with war
famines and the horrific suppression of British Raj experienced a defragmen-
ted sense of survival and freedom. However, Gandhi’s message of peace with
its spiritual values of nonviolence and equanimity pervaded and united the
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country to its ultimate redemption. Finally, at the stroke of midnight, under

fresh leadership, India regained its sense of composure with chasms in the
harmony of its geopolitical history. A generation spent its lifetime in acquir-
ing government jobs that were stable enough to raise a family or spend days
deciding between leftist and right-wing ideology. Stability and independence
became the primary marks for judging self-progress. After nearly 70 years of
independence, the modern man has no memory of the struggles his pre-
decessors had taken up as they dreamt for a better India with their children
tasting freedom to decide their course of life and usher in India’s state of
economic independence. Today we have more material wealth than any of
our generations together could have imagined and more access to technolo-
gical advancement than ever before, and yet with as many possibilities comes
as many problems. As stressful lives and diseases are on the rise, more people
are looking for tools for internal well-being and transformation. It is impor-
tant to reflect on the past as it shapes our future. It becomes imperative to
understand the place of religion and spirituality at that moment and how
these institutions have evolved as a way of life in the Indian subcontinent.
These reflections are an indication of the metamorphosis of the Indian
society and the human psyche, which has grown from survival-based living
to striving for breaking internal barriers of self-progress.
The present article sheds lights on the various factors that have caused a
rapid interest in spirituality and what is particularly causing people to adopt
it in huge numbers. But foremost, let us understand what we mean by the
term “spirituality.”

What is spirituality?
Spirituality is a nebulous term that holds a subjective meaning for different
people. It is a broad concept that engulfs many perspectives. The word
 JOURNAL OF SPIRITUALITY IN MENTAL HEALTH 3

spirituality is derived from the Latin root spiritus meaning “breathe” or “life”
with the Latin spiritulis designating simply a “person of the spirit.” Currently,
spirituality has often been used interchangeability with a holistic, positive,
and supportive view of life. There now is Eastern and Western spirituality,
women’s spirituality, New Age spirituality, secular and esoteric spirituality,
interfaith and ecunumerical spirituality, and children’s spirituality. The topic
of spirituality is linked with many concepts of health and well-being such as
spirituality and aging, spirituality and health, spirituality and gender, and
spirituality and human well being. Spirituality has also gained popularity in
the sphere of business, economics, politics, and global leadership as many
gurus in India make their presence in the social and political domains of
public. This indicates the fact that the essence is all-embracing and touches
every aspect of human life from economic prosperity to internal well being.
At the core of spirituality is a spiritual experience that is usually regarded
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as a universal experience that touches all humans. It may be a sacred or

transcendent experience or simply a state of deep sense of aliveness and
interconnectedness with all living and nonliving objects—an experience of a
shared reality.
Some unique definitions of the term spirituality include the following:
According to Mario Beauregard and Denyse O’Leary, researchers and
authors of The Spiritual Brain (2007)
Spirituality means any experience that is thought to bring the experiencer into
contact with the divine or sacred (in other words, not just any experience that feels
meaningful).”

Puchalski, Vitillo, Hull, and Relle (2014) defined it as follows:

Spirituality is a dynamic and intrinsic aspect of humanity through which persons
seek ultimate meaning, purpose, and transcendence, and experience relationship to
self, family, others, community, society, nature, and the significant or sacred.
Spirituality is expressed through beliefs, values, traditions, and practices.

According to Larson, Sawyers and Mc Cullough (1997)

Spirituality has a sacred core that consists of “eelings, thoughts, experiences, and
behaviours that arise from a search for the sacred that involves attempts to
identify, to articulate, to maintain or to transform.

Recognizing that spirituality may include any or several of these charac-

teristics, a number of researchers have proposed multidimensional frame-
works. For Example, Lapierre (1994) identified the following components
to spirituality:
A search for meaning in life 2) An encounter with transcended 3) A sense of
community 4) a search for ultimate truth or highest value; 5) a respect and
appreciation for the mystery of creation; and 6) a personal transformation.
 4 S. SHARMA AND S. MEHROTRA

Since it is challenging to operationalize the definition of spirituality due to

its subjective orientation, Hill and Paragament (2003) delineated the criterion
for defining spirituality:
Spirituality constitutes the feelings, thoughts and experiences and beha-
viors that arise from the search of the sacred (A).
OR
Constitutes the search for nonsacred goals (such as identity, belonging-
ness, meaning, health or wellness) in a context that has a primary goal of the
facilitation of (A).
This definition emphasizes the search for sacred and the nonsacred that is
not bound by means and methods prescribed by religious institutions mak-
ing it different from religiosity. In modern times the emphasis of spirituality
is on subjective experience and the deepest values and meanings by which
people live, incorporating personal growth or transformation. This is usually
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pursued in a context that is separate from organized religious institutions.

Houtman, Aupers and Heelas (2009) suggested that modern spirituality is a
blend of humanistic psychology, mystical and esoteric traditions, and Eastern
religions. Thus, gaining insight into what is spirituality, we begin examining
the causes of the widespread of spiritual revolution in India.

The reasons for the popularity of spirituality

Shift from religiosity to spirituality—the wave of scientific thinking and
rise of secularism
The latter half of the 20th century has witnessed a rise of secularism and a
growing disillusionment with religious institutions in Indian society. The
effect is that spirituality has begun to acquire more distinct meanings and
more favorable connotations separate from religion (Turner, Lukoff,
Barnhouse, & Lu, 1995). Since the 20th-century Indians, especially the mid-
dle- and upper-class Indians, regard themselves as more spiritual than
religious than their ancestors, there is a growing tendency to think that
spirituality is good and religiosity is bad—that tradition is meaningless and
the old ways are irrelevant. Today's middle-class Indian has access to modern
education, which encourages questioning and belief, access to technology and
media, and feels a general discontent with religious fanaticism and idol
worship. As Paragament (1997) stated, “the term spiritual is increasingly
reserved for the loftier\functional side of life.” Religion, in contrast, is now
more often identified with rigid or “formally structured” religious institutions
that often are perceived to restrict or inhibit potential. Since scientific think-
ing and secularism has became popular, the universal appeal to religious
practices has declined. This change in perception could also be attributed to
the reason that religion for the modern Indian has been lost in ritualism.
 JOURNAL OF SPIRITUALITY IN MENTAL HEALTH 5

According to Miovic (2004):

Religion is usually understood to mean a prescribed set of beliefs about the nature
of divinity and moral injunctions for how to lead a good life, combined with
specific cultural values and rituals for translating that belief system into practice.

This set of practices, such as regular Kirtans and temple worship, is missing
from the modern Indian’s life as religious practices are seen as inconvenient.
Fasting has disappeared, as feasting is difficult to forgo. Also, since here we
are only considering the case of the modern Indian who resides in metro-
politan cities, religion is often contained in rituals or practices that are not
palpable to the city dweller who feels that time is not their best ally due to a
disruptive work–life balance. Moreover, belief in supernatural forces or
divine power is not easily acceptable to the educated Indian as they now
question why countless prayers remain unanswered and why people who go
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to temples are also the people who burn temples in riots. How can we love
the creator and destroy his creation? Adopting an extremist view and a black-
and-white approach to any particular faith or ideology is now abominated
with the rise of education and economic standards. Research has also indi-
cated that religious fanaticism and religious practice is associated with poor
health outcomes as individuals or groups succumb to the influence of
regressive cults, refuse curative or preventive medical treatments based on
religious beliefs, or perpetrate terrorist acts in the name of religion (Koenig,
McCullough, & Larson, 2001). Thus, these could be the plausible explana-
tions of the rational mind’s resistance towards following a particular religion
with fanatic observance of its rituals.

The spiritual but not religious population

With the growing disconnect with religion and ritualistic practices there has
been a growth of a generic spirituality as more and more and more number of
people proclaim, “I am spiritual but not religious,” or, “I am not religious, but I
am very spiritual,” a phenomena researched in the American society as well
(Boehme, 2015). Spirituality seems to capture their outlook of self-growth and
transformation as noted by various scholars including Baker and Smith (2009),
Lim, MacGregor, and Putnam (2012), and Vargas (2012). A similar shift is
observed in the Indian society as well, as we large number of people proclaiming
themselves to be spiritual and disenchanted with the religious institutions.
However, since spirituality has different meanings for different people, it is
pursued in many different manners. Nancy Ammerman (2011), in her
research, categorized four broad but not exclusive categories of spirituality:

● The theistic group: The theistic group consists of those who believe in idol worship. The
practices in the theistic tradition center around developing a deeper relationship with a
deity that may lead to spiritual encounters. For most in this group, religion and spirituality
 6 S. SHARMA AND S. MEHROTRA

are tied together and are expressed in their actions of selfless service for others by being a
member of these organized institutions. An example of these could be the International
Society of Krishna Consciousness.
● The extratheistic group: The extra theistic group does not believe in idol worship and
external rituals and prayers, but instead believes that God resides in everything and strives
for finding this divinity within the Self is the quest of spiritual evolution. For this reason a
sense of reverence and respect is emphasized in God’s creation by valuing nature, good
books and knowledge (music, arts, and plays), and by igniting the spirit of community
living and sharing our gifts with mankind. An example would be the Arya Samaj in India
who follow the Vedas and do not believe in idol worship and God’s reincarnation.
● The ethical spiritual group: The ethical spiritual group emphasizes on living a virtuous life
that espouses compassion and kindness and altruism for others and giving selfless service.
These values are independent of doctrine and emphasize living the right life than pursuing
God and following religious rituals.
● The belief and belonging group: The belief and belonging group regards spirituality to be
embedded in religion. They understand it from the perspective of the presence of God, and
believe in the teachings of the God. A fitting example of this group would be any religious
organizations in India.
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There is also the emergence of interspirituality that has become popular in

some sections of the Indian society, especially in the upper-middle class,
where individuals espouse and practice multiple faiths. Examples include
Sikhs adopting Buddhist chanting and Christians following the Hare
Krishna movement.
With the rational and skeptic mindset, religion has paved way for spiri-
tuality for the modern Indian who is searching for tools to work with self-
actualization and growth. However, those who have taken this course often
use the word “spiritual” to refer to the more subjective and psychological
range of experiences that they may have with respect to the ultimate nature
of consciousness and reality (Miovic, 2004). One renowned definition of this
widely used term was given by Koenig et al. (2001) regarded spirituality as a
“personal quest for understanding the answers to ultimate questions about
life, about meaning, and about relationships to the sacred or transcendent,
which may (or may not) lead to or arise from the development of religious
rituals.”

Rise of neo middle class

With the rise of the neo middle class India has turned into a major market
economy, increasing the consumption and spending capacities by 3 times of this
strata over the past 10 years. This has allowed people to have the luxury to pursue
spirituality. If gadgets couldn’t give us a direction in life, maybe gurus can.
However, the quests for inner meaning in life can only be undertaken when
the basic survival needs of food, water, and shelter are met. Once met, only then
an individual is receptive towards a spiritual transformation. One cannot expect a
beggar to aim for salvation. However, reaching the pinnacle of success and
acquiring material wealth may not deliver the eternal peace and contentment
the human spirit strives for, as observed in the rich and affluent societies.
 JOURNAL OF SPIRITUALITY IN MENTAL HEALTH 7

Self-Transcendence
Need to find identity and
meaning beyond self.

Self-Actualization

Fulfilling one’s potential

Esteem
Need for achievement,
competence, and independence

Love/Belonging
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Need to love and be loved: to belong and be

accepted

Safety
Need to feel that the world is organized and predictable

Physiological Needs
Need to satisfy hunger and thirst

Figure 1. Maslow’s hierarchy of needs with self-transcendence at the top.

Realizing one’s potential is not enough—the need to find an identity and mean-
ing beyond the self is also a legitimate yearning. This progression begins from the
physiological to the transcendent has been recently added to the Maslow’s
hierarchy of needs of human motivation (Figure 1). The theory now recognizes
that self-actualization was not the pinnacle of individual human achievement,
but rather self-transcendence. Not an elevation of the self, but a subverting of it.
Achieving self-actualization means resting comfortably inside the boundaries of
human psychology—accomplishing what is knowable and testable—while self-
transcendence means pushing beyond those boundaries of self actualization.
Whether through spiritual meditation, self-denial, or more recently through
technological means, challenging the definition of consciousness to expand
into new areas of knowledge — beyond self-knowledge — may be the ultimate
stage of human development (Bradford, 2016).
This natural progression towards the transcendental has occurred as
India’s economic prosperity has improved in comparison to the preindepen-
dence era and thus more number of people are looking towards spirituality as
their survival needs have been fulfilled.
 8 S. SHARMA AND S. MEHROTRA

Nuclear families: The breakdown of Indian families

India has long been a land of collectivistic family systems, which is presently
changing as a greater number of couples are opting out of joint family
systems and are choosing to formulate nuclear family systems. Presently,
nearly 70% of Indian households have a nuclear construct, representing a
13% increase over the past two decades from joint family systems (Singhi &
Jain, 2016). However this does not mean with fewer people, there are fewer
problems in the families. Family disputes, divorces, urban loneliness, depres-
sion, and anxiety coupled with external stressors of traffic, pollution, over-
crowdedness, stress-related diseases, and lifestyle hazards are at an all-time
peak. This is making people yearn for their own zen state of inner peace and
tranquility amidst the chaos and pressure of modern life. Spirituality has
found to reverse the deleterious effects of a stressful life. As research has
found, those high on spirituality have greater satisfaction and more social
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contact (Ellison & George, 1994), are more positive in their thinking (Peale,
1952), and are more hopeful (Sethi & Seligman, 1994), which become the
critical resources for self-reliance and resilience.
Another benefit that seems to impact the psychological well-being of the
followers is volunteerism. In this respect, spirituality opens doors for social
expression and social dimensions, as it involves people of the same spiritual
faith to formulate into organized social units that collectively work towards
individual spiritual evolution through the propagation of various spiritual
messages. The values engendered by spiritual involvement and volunteering
such as love, compassion, charity, benevolence, and altruism may help to
successfully cope with the debilitating, anxiety, stress, and depression in
current times. Research has also indicated that spiritual and religious invol-
vement may promote certain behaviors or attitudes that increases happiness,
satisfaction, and general well-being (Koenig et al., 2001). However, this
diligent commitment to volunteerism comes from a strong identification
with a guru or a central philosophy that drives the seeker to deliver beyond
what is expected without financial gains.

The role of spiritual gurus

There are multiple factors contributing to the organized ways in which the
spiritual movement has spread in India, such as the likes of Sri Sri Ravi
Shankar and the Art of Living Foundation, with 300 million followers in over
150 centers around the world; Buddhism’s Soka Gakkai, which has impress-
ively organized its groups or chapters in over 300 towns and cities of India,
and the school that draws inspiration from the humanistic life philosophy of
the Japanese Buddhist sage, Nichiren Daishonin (1222–1282) from Japan.
Central to this philosophy is the belief that a fundamental change in a single
 JOURNAL OF SPIRITUALITY IN MENTAL HEALTH 9

individual can bring about a great transformation in society. At the core of

the movement is the spread of peace and realizing our own Buddhahood. But
why suddenly a large number of people across diverse socioeconomic and age
groups suddenly drawn towards these schools of practices? It is perhaps these
spiritual groups and communions that are held that bind the individual to
the philosophy and practice. They have served to fulfill the ever-increasing
vacuum in Indian nuclear families, which have largely become fragmented
and contain weak social ties. These spiritual schools of practice seem to strike
an internal chord with the masses that naturally draws them towards it.
Additionally, the positive identification of the follower’s with the guru and
the belief system is the connection that is often reiterated by the followers.
This becomes the psychological and emotional anchor for which the spiritual
seekers possess a longing. These very anchors might be missing in the
seekers’ lives, which triggers the motivation to walk this path with a guru’s
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guidance. Devoting and surrendering to the guru’s methods, the follower’s

strong identification with the institution and these practices provide a foun-
dation for exploring the spiritual dimension. Hence, these spiritual organiza-
tions have been particularly effective in guiding massive crowds and building
a cultural ethos of self-transformation.

Technology and spirituality

With the beginning of the “Fourth Industrial Revolution” and technology
being embedded within societies and even human bodies, the human con-
scious experience is undergoing unprecedented accelerated change. This
phenomenon was described by the founder and executive chairman of
WEF, Klaus Schwab, at the 2016 World Economic Forum in Davos as a
technological revolution that will fundamentally alter the way we humans
live, work, and relate to one another. Two decades earlier we couldn’t have
imagined the remarkable impact of technology on the average Indian. The
total number of Indians with access to a cellphone is already close to a
billion. The total number of people in the country today with Internet access
is already over 300 million—the size of the U.S. population. Over the next
decade, this number is expected to rise to by over 800 million. However, the
basis of every technological advancement is a collective up-gradation of
humans and their potential to strive for the ultimate, which is self-transcen-
dence. As Nichola Bradford (2016) noted:

Our technological journey toward self-transcendence is the singularity, an event in

which human biology and computers become one. Integrating hardware and
software into the flesh and mind of our bodies represents an opportunity to
literally overcome our present physical limitations.
 10 S. SHARMA AND S. MEHROTRA

With artificial intelligence mimicking super consciousness, the matter

then begs the question: What about human evolution and its ability to
keep pace with these rapid changes that have been making life fast paced
and complex?

The benefits of spirituality

Practicing spirituality has delivered many benefits to its followers. This has
been supported by various researchers that have reported a positive corre-
lation between spirituality and mental well-being in both healthy people
and malfunctioning populations such as those encountering a range of
physical illnesses or psychological disorders. The studies indicate that
spiritual individuals tend to be more optimistic, have a greater social
support, and experience higher intrinsic meaning in life, strength, and
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inner peace.
Spirituality has proven to impact many spheres of internal well-being by
the following studies. Spiritual well-being, existential well-being, and spiritual
outlook showed a strong inverse relationship with negative moods, suggest-
ing that spiritual value may influence psychological well-being (Fehring,
Brennan, & Keller, 1987). Further, Corrington (1989) conducted a study of
the relationships between level of spirituality and level of contentment with
life. He found a direct, positive correlation between the two constructs. Apart
from changing negative mood states, spiritual practices have also shown to
positively impact the treatment of mental disorders. Kabat-Zinn et al. (1992)
found out that spirituality has a positive role in coping with anxiety disorders
and is found to be beneficial in the treatment of schizophrenia and other
psychoses. Spirituality offers meaning and purpose to an individual’s life
allowing him to emerge confident and experience the profoundness of
existence (Elkins et al., 1988). Since spirituality has proven to reveal many
benefits, it attracts the masses to embrace it in their daily life. Moreover,
following a spiritual school also provides the seeker an internal validation
that comes from the spiritual practice. The spiritual practice (meditation,
chanting, or prayer) often becomes the panacea for the seeker to use in order
to overcome internal obstacles to evolve into a higher consciousness. This
emphasis is laid on taking responsibility for the outcomes in our life and
changing our self-defeating behaviors through spiritual growth.

Why are we suffering our growth? The cosmic explanation

As reiterated earlier, India has been a land of collectivistic ideology and
places importance on encasing the individual in the social, the micro in the
macro, and the particular in the universal. From the Hindu perspective of
spirituality, Aham Brahmasmi (I am the universe) dictates that there is no
 JOURNAL OF SPIRITUALITY IN MENTAL HEALTH 11

Outer Physical, Vital and mental

Inner Physical, Vital, Mental Inner most physical, vital

and mental sheath

PURUSHA

PSYCHIC
BEING
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PRAKRITI

Figure 2. The concentric system. Source. The Concentric System.

Note. Adapted from “Sri Aurobindo and the Future Psychology, Page 200. ” Dalal, A. (2007). Sri
Aurobindo and The Future Psychology. Puducherry, India: Sri Aurobndo International Center for
Education.

difference between species and objects, living, and nonliving. There exists
only one sole being, one sole existence which embraces all beings, including
living and nonliving, and which in spiritual realization is experienced as the
one self of all things and creatures. But in ordinary experience, we experience
the world in plurality of beings and things existing outside what we felt to
our self. This is because the purusha or the true self, which is one with the
universal consciousness, identifies itself through ignorance with prakriti
(nature), its outer instrumental nature made up of body, life and mind.
This identification of the purusha with the prakriti has led to the formation
of an ego within us—physical, vital, and mental—which gives us the sense
that we are separate from the rest of the universe (Figure 2). In ordinary
words, the moment we begin compartmentalizing life and people into our
likes and dislikes and use “logic” and ratiocination as methods of self-inquiry,
we will always alienate ourselves from the universal truth that we are all the
same divine energy and it is in this realization that the true spiritual trans-
formation occurs. As Sri Aurobindo stated:
The further goal of spiritual evolution beyond liberation consists in the transforma-
tion of the instruments of the spirit—mind, life, and body—so as to establish the
spirit of kingdom on earth. It is when the outer being is unified and governed by the
psychic being that the transformation of mind, life, and body becomes possible.
 12 S. SHARMA AND S. MEHROTRA

Suffering arises as a result of this ignorant belief that we are separate from
one another which alienates us from the truth, that we all share the same
comic consciousness and that true happiness lies in realization of this uni-
versal truth. A disregard of this understanding is apparent in the modern
times, where depression has become an epidemic and the emphasis on
material life is pushing individuals to the edge. The effort is more to become
exclusive than inclusive in nature. Since happiness is seen as an outside job—
merely being a by-product of individual action that brings in wealth and
success and differentiates our social status—a greater number of rich and
wealthy are finding themselves in depression. This economic well-being may
not be bringing the necessary grounding and foundation for which every
human being longs. Since reality and life are also rapidly changing than it
ever has in mankind, people are looking for psychological anchors to provide
them with the necessary social and emotional anchoring that brings them to
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internal peace and happiness.

So how do we enhance our experience of our life and yet not fall in the
trap of the hedonistic life? As reiterated by several spiritual gurus, if we want
to really enhance our experience of life and imbibe spirituality then we need
to love and accept everything around us. Which means going beyond our
likes and dislikes and breaking away the self-imposed limitations on our
potential that are reflections of our ego states such as fear, anger, jealousy,
ignorance, and apathy.
As Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev (2013), a spiritual guru and founder of Isha
Foundation reiterated:

One simple thing every human being has to do is, make your sense of involvement
indiscriminate. If you look at a person, a tree, or a cloud, you are equally involved.
You are equally involved with your own body and the breath. If you have no
discrimination as to which is better, and you are equally involved with every aspect
in life, then you will be constantly spiritual. Nobody needs to teach you what
spirituality is.

A similar view is endorsed by Nichol Bradford, who is quoted as saying,

“Human problems still remain to have human solutions.” Overcoming the
narrow confines of the self may be as simple as giving yourself over to
others: their dreams, their goals, and their passions. By doing so, you
become one with them. When we arrive at this stage of mental equanimity
and internal bliss (the state of satchidananda), we can then say that we
have been on the path of spiritual evolution and reached the stage of self-
transcendence.
Thus, in the light of the previous discussion it becomes apparent that well-
being is the one thing that spirituality can always deliver to one who has been
a faithful follower, no matter how dire the human predicament may present
itself. However, we must understand this wellness in the deepest sense, not a
 JOURNAL OF SPIRITUALITY IN MENTAL HEALTH 13

superficial one of ease; luxury; comfort; and absence of work, challenge, or

pain. As we go through the vicissitudes of life, we come to realize that instead
of finding anchors in our jobs, relationships, and other external factors we
must strive for our spiritual evolution to be free from mental and physical
deterioration. This journey perhaps begins when we truly understand the
message that the only way out is the only way in.

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