The Globalization of Spirituality

I have pondered the question many many times and came up with the same answer that a human being has absolutely no reason to be `good`, unless he believes in God. Therefore, if one does not believe in God, the so called spirituality is absolutely an unreasonable human trait. Even Budhism, allegedly the world`s only atheist religion, could not do away God for long or that of dogma of reincarnation. Today a Buddhist is good because he believes in the dogma of reincarnation. So what are we left with; Choppra? What he tells you basically is what happens to you in afterlife, without mentioning God. Ask him this simple question - how does he know about afterlife.

Instead, we the colonized are flattered that ‘our’ culture is being globalized.


You get flattered and you get to wear pants...

So you gave the west deepak chopra and the west gave you pants...all in all, an awesome bargain for you...

Will have to read the article a few times over to see what the central message here is. At first reading, it seems to be a very Islamic article - where human ideals like inclusiveness are rejected for their own value, but are taken up under the overarching doctrine of temporal necessity that must shape shape all Islamic interactions with non-Muslims.

Good to see muslims finally waking up and becoming spiritual. Too much kneeling and bobbing can be injurious to your spirituality.

Dear Saima Shah,

The original official translation (till the mid 1980s) of the word Unity, Faith and Discipline was : Itehad (Unity), Tanzeem (Discipline) and Faith (Yaqeen-e-Muhkam - firm belief in yourself)

In the mid 1980s, faith was translated as Imaan as in belief in the religious sense.

But since this is such an issue what about the more obviously ``Ram Rajya`` in practice and what of half naked witchdoctors invoking religion and running on an ego trip and acting like spiritual dictators ... that is the anti-thesis of any positive spirituality if you ask me.

-YLH

I recall a cartoon piece (Hagar the Horrible)

`It`s like pasta, it`s messy but yummy.`

I rephrase that line:

`It`s like pasta, it`s messy but yummy in parts.`

No offence meant.

oh la la ! someone could smell some smoke over here.

Saima

Sorry, You failed to make one solid point. Very unimpressive article. This article is written in haste.

You lack goal orientation adn goal directedness. You are all over the place, but, as a matter of fact, you are No where.

Regards

(New-age spiritualism has made fantastic inroads into our mind-spaces in the last few years. So, what is spiritualism doing in the midst of the most intense materialism human history has ever witnessed?)

What was the point ?

Very confused article. Are you against philanthropy or against pop-spirituality? If it`s the latter, then I have to agree with you- in this day and age, giving credence to the astrologers, tarot-card readers, feng shui consultants and what-have-you is plain stupid. It panders to the scared superstitious child in us, and that`s just not healthy.

But if you think Warren Buffet giving away 31 billion of his hard-earned dollars or Bill Gates trying to change lives through his foundation is to be tarred by the same brush, you`ve lost me. Completely. However cute your sardonic references are, it makes no sense to me. If someone is doing good, any good, that`s better than not doing it. simple as that.

And frankly, analysing Maslow`s theory is first-year B-school stuff. It`s almost embarrassing to see it posturing as an opinion piece.