You kept Gods and Goddesses in Temples.
Even in Islam, they go westward, pointing towards Mecca, worshipping the Kaaba stone, (a small stone building inside the Great Mosque at Mecca).
Is it not a Murti (idol)?
So the Gods, the worshipable Gods, are outside, in religion.
Spirituality says, “He is Antaryamin (one who dwells in your heart).” Look within yourself.
As a child I worshipped Lord Shiva.
Then I took up Lord Krishna’s worship, Ganesha, and Hanuman.
And then my father used to send me for two years to a Mosque and I had learnt how to recite Quran, how to do even the
Azaan (the Islamic call to public prayer in a Mosque).
I used to do five times a day, do Namaz Islamic worship or prayer).
I can recite Qira’at (readings and recitations) also.
A’uzu bil-lahi minash Shayta, I mean, I can have good dialogue with maula, any Maulana (a Muslim revered for his religious learning and piety) also.
But I did find so many limitations with these religions, because everyone is trying to prove that their approach is
better than somebody else's approach and they keep fighting.
I belong to a small village where there was so much of peace.
But whenever these Temples and Mosques were built, they started fighting amongst each
other and the whole peace was lost, you see.
The cause, again, was the religion.
Religion divides people.
Spirituality, having experienced Godliness in everything, unites people.
So, this is the major difference.
In religion, okay, when you have knowledge, you can recite so many Qira’at, so many verses from Quran,
so many verses from Gita, a Hindu would recite.
Okay.
These are all recitations, these are all knowledge.
But one says “God is everywhere”, or “Khudah woh Rahman hai, all merciful”, this is knowledge.
But experience?
To feel that God is everywhere, that God is all-merciful, all-potent, omniscient, everything,
this knowledge has to be translated into experience.
And that happens only in spirituality.
Your experience starts with spirituality.
In religion, it is very limited that you kept the God outside yourself.
You kept Gods and Goddesses in Temples.
Even in Islam, they go westward, pointing towards Mecca, worshipping the Kaaba stone, (a small stone building inside the Great Mosque at Mecca).
Is it not a murti (idol)?
So the Gods, the worshipable Gods, are outside in religion.
Spirituality says, “He is Antaryamin (one who dwells in your heart).
Look within yourself.
Experience that Presence within yourself.” In religion, while I was in religion, I would worship,
I would do diya (lamp), agarbatti (incense sticks).
Or when I used to go to Mosque, I used to do namaaz two or three times, or five times sometimes, namaaz.
I used to feel happy having done that.
The day I missed it, I felt bad, “Oh God might punish me.” This fear was always there in me
that if I do not do this today, what may happen?
And it was limited to two or three times a day, few times a day.
Spirituality demands something else.
Spirituality says, “God is within you and you better have your attention towards that
inner presence of God, 24 x 7, all the time.
And it happens very naturally.
You do not have to make efforts in feeling the presence.
You see, the biggest problem with Hinduism that came after the Vedas were not understood properly, and
during Vedic period, what had happened during then?
People were of very pure nature at that time.
They could feel the presence of God everywhere, even in trees, in skies, in rivers and mountains.
That is why they praised these natural things so much.
But when the humanity declined, became more, I would say , grosser and grosser, the presence
or the experiences were lesser and lesser.
So they started substituting such things, worshipability in Temples So, Temples came into being.
And what was there earlier during Vedic time, remained a philosophy.
“God is in the sky, God is in the rivers, God is in the mountains, in the trees – so many things.
Even before you experience God in all these things, you began to claim that God is in such things.
That is the biggest problem.
Before you even arrive at your wealth, or your richness, or your success, you started declaring, which is wrong.
What is wrong with Islam and other monotheistic religions, like Christianity, Judaism and Islam?
These three, they are monotheistic religions.
And they all said, “We are the best.
No one is better than us.” They started excluding others: “You are not the same as us.”
So these are some of the major problems with religions, you see.
They become too egoistic.
Hinduism, before even arriving at Godliness, you start claiming that, God is everywhere and I
worship God in everything.” That is another problem.
Spirituality will not allow you to claim such things, unless and until you experience it yourself.
Once a day Pooja will not be enough, because God is within you.
He is always witnessing you.
While in religion, they keep the God outside you, “Yeh baad mein dekha jayega. (let us see later on)”
So I mean, there are so many subtle differences.