Is spirituality all about running after all kinds of divine knowledge and meditation or is it something else. Are we not missing the wood for the trees?

Being spiritual to my mind implies tranquility(peaceful and happy) and equanimity under all circumstances. One can infer therefore that anything that is not illegal and immoral but leads to peace, happiness and mental harmony and balance is a spiritual tool as it leads towards spirituality.

There is one incident that happened in my life which stimulated me to probe what real spirituality was all about. I had attended Vipasana meditation course which is a ten day residential course during which one is not supposed to talk with fellow participants. On the 10th day, a poor man walked up to me and told me that he had really attained spiritual bliss during the course. He said however that he is out of a job and what is the point in doing all this mediation as long as he continued to be out of a job. If only his job problem was solved, he would be really relieved. Strictly in this context, meditation is merely a palliative and not a cure. It can only give temporary relief; it is not the real or permanent solution which is what really matters.

Looking at my own situation, I attended the course because of being a career misfit and an Insomniac. The insomnia problem got permanently solved but I continue to be a job misfit as a result of which there are concentration problems and therefore have to continue to meditate. If I had been in a job of my liking, I may never have any need to do so much meditation in the first place. The great spiritual leader Osho also stated that if you are continually distracted, it shows that you are not interested in the subject in the first place. Even if the extreme job misfit does one hour of meditation rigorously in the morning, what is the point of that one hour of meditation if it is to be followed by ten hours of misery during the day.

Is real spirituality about solving the problems or going on talking about the soul and the divine self. I am not doubting usefulness of that knowledge but that to me is reactive spirituality as distinguished from proactive spirituality which is really about solving problems. Mother Teresa was more spiritual in that sense compared to other people who only talk about spirituality. Just as in business management the focus is not on cutting costs but generating revenue, in spirituality too the focus should be on solving the problem rather than talk about soul, god, spirit, mind, meditation and the like. A well known mediation expert stated once that doing meditation alone is not enough. To cite another example, if a poor student does not try to improve his performance by studying but goes on meditating to feel better, it is hardly going to make any difference. Therefore, more attention should be paid to actually resolve the conflicting problem or issue. On the other hand, just accumulating a lot of knowledge does not make anybody spiritual because knowledge is food for the Ego and that goes against the very essence of spirituality.

Dhirubhai Ambani has said in the book "Business Maharajas" how he wished he could do social work but did not really have the time. He was glad though that his progress benefited a lot of people materially. No less a person than Swami Vivekanand had praised the material prosperity of the west and said that one should not make a virtue out of poverty. To that extent, even Dhirubhai was a practical spiritualist.

Talking of practicality, I know businessmen who dread expanding their business because they are not sure that there payments shall always be met. In the United States, there is a credit history of everyperson which determines his creditworthiness. Nobody fools around with it as everything operates on credit. Such a history can easily be bought for a few dollars. Why can't such a system be followed in India? How can anybody remain peaceful and happy when the fundamental laws itself leave a lot to be desired. A few years ago,an Indian magazine brought out an entire article on some stupid and obsolete laws. Why can't such laws be repealed. Spiritual literature also talks about catching a problem at its root and catching a problem while it is small. If you don not do such things doing Yoga and meditation is clearly missing the woods for the trees.