There are some who are spiritual. There are many who would like to believe they are spiritual. Between these two sects the common man very often gets mauled. The problem is it is rather difficult to differentiate between a truly spiritual person and the idiot who professes to be one. Both look alike, behave similar and talk the same spiritual gibberish, very often mouthing strange words that make little sense to us common folk, who is trying desperately to keep spirit and thyroid together.

So in the larger scheme of things, stuff like lust, wrath, sloth, theft, are concerned, both the truly spiritual and the absurdly counterfeit, walk and talk the same language. Bloody hard to differentiate the corn from the chaff, and the worst part of it all is that very often the pseudo types are not putting up an act…the poor bastards are convinced that the sun shines out of their posterior.

It is mainly in the details where one realises the difference between the chap who is spiritual and the sap who would like to believe s(h)e is spiritual.

So first and foremost, what does being spiritual truly mean. According to me, and trust me, I have been wrong so many times that there should be a new word created just to define my idiosyncrasies, being spiritual, means to operate from the Oneness of the Spirit.

And what does operating from the Oneness of the Spirit mean? Well, when one lives with the complete belief and conviction that each one of us, every living organism that sighs with the throb of life, has come forth from The One and thus Oneness rules, then one begins to operate from the Spirit.

Why The Great One decided to self create and then worse, go about creating mankind, is an answer that I am certain The Great One is not going to be able to convincingly provide. S(H)e has really messed up here but I don’t want to get various parts of my anatomy in a twist, wondering why somebody in the stature of God, could do something so dumb witted, as to go about creating mankind and then put us through His or Her laws of karma and all the goofy stuff, only somebody smoking truly heavy duty herbs could have gone about; so we shall proceed with the other stuff worth rambling.

 Thus for me, all those who believe that each one of us has gushed forth, like a bull in heat, like a spark from the Great Fire, and thus, each one has the Great Fire cruising through our very soul, and if we have come forth from the Great Fire, each spark has embodied within itself the Great Fire, and thus the Great Fire has the same DNA as the confused spark and thus the Great Fire and the truly disgruntled spark are One.

Being One, each living organism has come forth from The One, and thus each living organism has the same Fire cruising through and thus each one of us are in reality One in various disgruntled disguises.

Thus, for me, spirituality means Oneness and when you operate from the Spirit, never forgetting that eventually only Oneness is true and everything that creates shadows and duality are false, then I would like to believe that the individual has begun the walk on the spiritual path. Mouthing words of wisdom thus need not qualify or quantify you into my vision of spirituality, as if you are operating from duality and not Oneness, then there is something within you that doesnt have the larger good of all creation, past, present and future in mind as when you operate from Oneness, you have in a second, put your allegiance in The One and all that which The One stands for.

Thus, a truly spiritual person first and foremost, according to me, understands this essence of Oneness and understanding this Oneness, begins to operate from the Spirit and not from the tangible body or physical elements that surrounds one.

 Now when you operate knowing that only the Spirit is real and all else a mirage, then one’s priorities too change and with the change of priorities comes forth compassion and largeness of heart.

A spiritual person is large of heart (nowadays very large of body too), for the simple reason s(h)e has realised the futility of possession and ownership, as both possession and ownership create duality and are transitory while giving and sharing are the foundations of all that which is noble and divine, leading one to experience various sensations, ranging from bliss to bankruptcy.

Thus, according to me, all those who unify and share, operate from the oasis of spiritualism and all those who divide and hoard operate from the abysses of duality and self-centeredness and wherever there exists just the self, there cannot exists a holistic environment of Oneness.

Now if you are still awake, let us proceed into the tangible stuff that earmarks the true essence of spirituality and that I have realised, is in the small things of life; the little things that kind of in a very subtle way show to one and all whether you do walk the talk and whether the walk is taking you up to the zenith or into the valley, via various confusing by-lanes, into the bowels of hell.

The problem is that most of us have been given the larger picture by our parents, our teachers, our so called moralists and the little things that matter equally have been waylaid on the pathway to The One.

We have been constantly told not to lie, not to steal, abstain from wrath and lust. Great. If you have been able to do all this, send me a mail, as to how. Good for you. You are on the path. Big time.

But for me, it is the little stuff, that is equally important. In every given day, how many times do we abstain from gossip and slander and prejudices and forming judgments is equally important and it is in these little things, inconsequential to most people, where the real spirituality of an individual shines through.

Don’t get me wrong. The big stuff is equally important.

We are a community of gossip mongers. We like to feel good about ourselves and the easiest way to feel good about oneself is by putting somebody else down, through small talk or petty thought. In a day, how many times do we through action, thought and word, slander somebody else, is as important as whether you have indulged the big boys of sin.

Time and again Baba Sai of Shirdi as also other Giants, have commented on the pitfall of slander and gossip and backbitting, is something we need to take heed of and realise that these little things, are as important as the other stuff written in various commandments.

We have a tendency to put people down, pass comments on others, their way of life, thought, dress sense, speech, weight, lingo and yes, their flaws, that invariably we too are getting waylaid and losing focus and creating a sense of duality and thus straying from the path of Oneness.

The path of Oneness means coming from compassion. Compassion means coming from an understanding that each one of us is a strange blend of past life karmas, DNA and upbringing. Thus, to judge somebody without understanding the combination and blend each individual is constituted off, is not only unfair but very prejudicial and childish. Hate and jealousy can be disguised in various layers of ignorance and very often, we indulge in the looseness of talk, that takes us away from the higher peaks of spirituality into the abysses of pettiness and duality.

The path of Oneness is the path of taking one and all along with us, in spite and despite, whether they think, act, speak, dress, conduct themselves, like you do. Our issue is we want all to confirm to our way of thought and life, and whoever is not in confirmation with that, is wrong.

Spirituality means liberating oneself and others from darkness, not being engulfed by the chains of prejudices and duality and duality comes forth in little things as much as it comes forth in big stuff. Oneness does not mean each one of us be alike but it means no matter the differences we all are one as we have come forth from The One.

The moment we start judging, passing lose comments, putting somebody down by slander or backbiting, we are losing the plot. We have gone astray. Yes, we may not be indulging in the big stuff that all the Books and our elders kept warning us to avoid, but we still are far away from the embrace of The One as we are spreading duality and not Oneness.

According to me, we can only merge, when we are in the same state as when we ventured forth from The One. We were pure. Now whether the strain of lust, wrath, or the little stuff, like gossip and slander and being judgmental stick to our aura, we are far away from the pristine state that we came forth from; and whatever keeps us away from merging, one will always keep coming back to work out our weakness and more times we come back, the chances of us falling deeper into the mire of maya and ramifications of our free will and accumulated karma and other things only increases; thus be vary of the big stuff but work on the so called inconsequential things, as eventually only a state of pure nothingness is going to take us back to our original state and it will be a crying shame that one is prevented from experiencing that state of Oneness over silly stuff like gossip, slander, back-bitting and being judgmental.

Be blessed.