Beyond the obvious - Part 2

What Spirituality meant to me back then: The only (thankfully the only) occasion when I had had anything to with spirits in my childhood was when an over-inquisitive bunch of us purposely missed our van after school and stayed back to play the coin game where you invoke a dead soul and pose questions to supposedly get answers from the spirit. We did get what we then thought were answers and very disturbing ones at that. It had us all scared to death. We shrieked out loud, threw the sheet and the coin and ran for our lives! This is what happens when kids don't behave themselves, act ultra-smart and dabble into things they shouldn't.

...and what it means to me today: Today, spirituality means something completely different from some crazy voo-doo stuff that I thought it was. Put simply, it just means to me, connecting better with oneself through better awareness of the self, guided in part by a certain faith - blind or otherwise.

What God meant to me back then: That person, whose temple I could visit with grandpa. Grandpa'd ask me to close my eyes, pray for what I wanted n voila! when I opened my eyes, it would be right there before the God's idol. It was only many years later that it dawned on me, that it was just a silly ploy of grandpa's: he knew I'd always pray for nothing other than chocolates each and everytime we went, he'd get some with him, place it before the idol when I closed my eyes and conned me into believing it was God who granted my wishes!

...and what He means to me today: I don't know whether to call myself a theist, an atheist or an agnostic but I do believe in resting my precious faith n trust in a supreme force more than I can in most people around! I do pray for a few minutes every morning as a matter of habit. That apart, I do of course say special hellos to Him when Im going through those ultra-good times for which I have to thank Him and ultra-sad times when I need someone's neck to wring!

All in all, there's a certain serenity and genuineness about having those lil informal conversations with God in any way one wants to, without really forcing oneself into following the written-in-stone and cast-in-iron rules/methods for praying that each religion imposes on members of its community, whichever the community may be. That's precisely what I mean when I say 'spiritual but not religious'!

For any fourth person (the other three being I, me and myself of course), doesn't it seem abhorably quirky to witness a girl (aah no, the 'woman' can wait. 'Girl' will do for now) my age, to be rambling about religion instead of rave parties, to be tasting spirituality instead of spirits and to be discussing God instead of guys!?! Errrr wellll, bbye, Im off to a party. As for the spirits n guys, ye all can have it; they aren't my cuppa tea :)

Quote for the day:
For me, the spiritual quest will be a life-long work in progress.
~ Dan Brown