By Robert Clements
A Bloody Ireland or Peaceful India..!
Every part of Ireland was beautiful to me last week as we drove through the country, with its lush green farms, long winding, narrow country roads, and folklore that still lived in the minds of locals we met in pubs, taverns, restaurants and churches. But even as we saw what God gave the Irish, we also heard about fights they had in the name of God.
It was only in the late nineties, after thousands had died through bullets and bombs that a brokered peace was established ‘twixt the two warring religious sects, both believing in the same God, but each believing their method of worship was the best. Against this bitter background I attended an interfaith gathering promoted by the Inter-Religious Solidarity Council and what I saw was a way we as a country, even though being cleverly seduced into communal destructiveness, could escape this evil and come together as one nation, with different religious ideologies.
I heard different religious heads from Hinduism, Islam, Christianity, Bahai faith, Zoroastrianism, Jainism, and others with rationalist perspectives, share their approaches to the Divine.
What struck me was that all religions spoke of peace, oneness, acceptance and inclusion and no discrimination to be shown to someone of another faith. Swami Dayadhipanandaji of the Ramakrishna Mission for one, spoke about this aspect found in Swami Vivekananda throughout his life. Salim Khan spoke on forgiveness, and one speaker Dr Noumaan amazed me as she said that ‘according to the Holy Quran, the diversity of the human race in the forms of tribes, religions and nations was a deliberate act of Allah, so that human beings got to know each other’
Another aspect I saw as co-organiser Irfan Engineer so succinctly put everything together at the end, was that the idea of service, brotherhood and love stood out in each religion; a common thread.
As I walked out and nearly got into the Swamiji’s car, which was the same model and colour as mine, making me smile and realise we shared similar tastes about comfort despite any religious differences, I remembered Ireland, peaceful serene, and exceedingly beautiful, except for the bold brutal strokes of bloody red that tarnished it’s past. Why, I wondered, did we fight for our different ways to the divine, when these paths were made for those who walked in peace?
And as I drove back, my driver wondering, I’m sure, why I was so silent, I realised that what political leaders picked up and exploited from religions was religious customs and culture, and not any spiritual awakening. Those who promoted violence in the name of religion, had never felt or known spirituality ever, whereas what I had seen and heard from each speaker was deep spiritual emphasis, each faith offered.
Your acceptance, dear reader, of spirituality will take us to a united India, or be led by political leaders to the bloody evils that plagued lovely Ireland! But even as I say these words, I can hear many of you asking, “What is true spirituality?” and “How will people know whether I am spiritual or not?”
I believe that real spirituality doesn’t stay hidden within oneself but can be seen and felt by all those around you. Here’s the thing; when God dwells in you your behaviour changes, and you start developing the characteristics of the divine.
Now the Divine has many characteristics so I’m going to mention just two of them that others should start seeing in you.
The first is empathy.
Empathy is the ability and willingness to fully understand another person’s experience and connect it to your own—for example, rather than seeing an irritable co-worker as a nuisance, you may recognize that they are reacting to stress in the workplace. Compassion is the practice of responding to this realization with kindness—because you understand why the coworker is in a bad mood, you respond with extra patience and listen deeply when they complain, rather than snapping back.
Andrew Weil, author of Spontaneous Happiness, describes empathy and compassion as “learnable skills that can bring greater happiness into your life and improve all of your relationships.” They are important to spiritual development, he explains, because they help you get out of self-centered ways of thinking and help you make connections with others. There are many ways to develop your sense of empathy and compassion, including:
Listening deeply and prioritising what the other person has to say above what you yourself would like to say.
Taking others’ perspectives into account. In addition to simply listening to others, open yourself up to imagining what it would be like to be in their shoes. How would you feel if you were in their situation?
Look for the good. Positivity researcher Barbara Fredrickson recommends boosting compassion by actively considering others’ positive qualities. Encouraging yourself to acknowledge the whole picture of another person will help you see them as a complex, dynamic human who is worthy of kindness and compassion.
Which means you stop thinking of people around you as ‘others.’ If you do, then there’s no spiritualism in you.The next characteristic is forgiveness. You will stop harping on mistakes that were committed and instead start understanding why they were committed. An example I very often talk about is that of a Man on the cross, beaten, speared, humiliated, and dying, and instead of calling to His father in heaven to take revenge, He cries out, “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do!”
That means we do not have ‘memorial days’ to remember past hurts, but learn to forgive and move on.
Yes, if spirituality was imbibed in our country, we would all be able to live in peace and reject this false culture of what comprises religion that is being bandied.
We have a choice to fight on the basis of religious culture and become an Ireland, or become deeply spiritual, and make India great..!
The Author conducts an Online Writers and Speakers Course. For more details send a thumbs-up to him on WhatsApp 9892572883 or [email protected]