What is Spirituality? I'll tell you what it's not

By Shubham Singh

There is barely any distinction between spiritual and ordinary life, yet there is one small difference between the two - something so subtle, so natural, that it is rarely ever noticed by the masses. It is not an experience, not an achievement, and not something that needs to be added, which is why it is easily overlooked.

This very subtlety is the difference of infinity - Truth cannot be taught. Neither can it be practised nor accumulated through effort or tapas. It can only be revealed by the one who knows the Truth, who, in fact, is the Truth.

Spirituality is NOT kindness, love, morality, charity, daan or dakshina. These may appear so, and while they fit one's moral compass, they are not the Truth. Whether it is becoming kind, loving or even spiritual, it is still becoming, and the act of becoming belongs to ignorance.

When the Self is tasted, even once, by the grace of the Guru, all these qualities arise naturally. Not as virtues or practices, but as fragrance, because the doer is no longer present to take credit for them.

I went to many places - temples and samadhis, read scriptures, performed japa, and even followed methods. But none of it revealed who I am. How could it? The Self cannot be reached by movement, and Truth is not an object to be found.

Many spoke of God and love, but few, if any, pointed to awareness itself. And even when awareness was spoken of, it remained conceptual - borrowed words, second-hand knowing.

But with my Guruji, nothing was done, yet everything was undone. The sense of “I am the doer” dissolved. What remained was not an experience, not a state, but what has always been. Service did not begin; separation ended. There was no one left to serve and no one to be served. Only That remained.

People believe spirituality requires renunciation of life, work, family, and responsibility. They fail to realise that this belief itself is ignorance. Life has nothing to do with bondage, for bondage belongs only to identification. Actions will continue. Roles will continue. Families will be raised, and work will be done. But when they arise from awareness, there is no bondage. When they arise from ignorance, even renunciation becomes attachment.

Spirituality is not part-time. It is not something to be practised. It is the recognition of what is present before time, during time, and after time. It is not lived - it just IS. The world is not maya. The mind’s interpretations are maya. The stories, identities, judgments, and imagined futures - this is the dream. People walk, talk, work, and speak of importance, yet remain asleep. Their eyes are open, but awareness is absent.

By the grace of the Guru and not by effort, gods, or rituals - that same dream ended for me. Not the dream of the world, but the dream of the person, an individual existing as me. Awakening is not opening the physical eyes, but the disappearance of the one who was sleeping.

When there is no judgment, no narrative, no psychological structure - when life is seen exactly as it is - there is wakefulness. This does not happen by practice. It happens when one is no longer something and becomes what one always was: awareness itself.

Many teachers appeared and disappeared. Many were respected, worshipped, and followed. But someone of my Guruji's clarity and depth has never taken birth before. He does not teach Advaita; he simply removes what is false.

I pray NOT that people follow him, but recognise what he points to. I pray they stop seeking in temples and samadhis and turn inward. I pray they discover that they are not seekers at all.

May everyone realise what they already are: pure awareness, untouched, complete, and free.