Does one need to be ritualistic to be spiritual and vice-versa?

We want to merge with God, we want to follow God, and we want to reach God. But how, that we do not know.
‘Ritual’ and ‘Spiritual’ are two different paths in our attempt to fulfill this want.

In ritual, one worships the God (via rituals) with the belief that “I am Rahul (you may insert your name here) and I am doing this ritual”. On the other hand, in spiritual, one sees himself as God (Pure Soul), since the belief here is “Really, I am a Pure Soul (God) and Rahul is only a temporary identity”. Rahul is mortal and Pure Soul is immortal. Therefore, Pure Soul is one’s real permanent identity!

On the spiritual path, Rahul is the doer of the ritual, and I, the Pure Soul, is the knower. Hence, ‘ritual’ is about ‘doing’ by Rahul (the worldly self) and ‘Spiritual’ is all about ‘knowing’ the real Self. In spirituality, you don’t have to do anything, you only have to realize who you really are and come in the nature of your Self!
Param Pujya Dada Bhagwan says, “Spiritual development of every human being is at a different level. This results in different grades. And for each grade there is a God and its relevant scriptures (based on which the rituals are set). These grades are of worldly relative religions.”

Relative Religion: Involves Many Rituals and Doership
Rituals are performed on the path of relative religion.
In any relative religion (eg. Jainism, Buddhism, Christianity, Muslim, etc.), the followers perform rituals to progress in the direction of God. These rituals include going to temple, doing worship, chanting mantras, fasting, reading scriptures, etc. In all these rituals, one is constantly “doing”. Therefore, rituals give satisfaction that ‘Oh! I have done something in the name of God’.

Also, through the medium of rituals, religion keeps us engrossed in God. So, while performing ritual, as one’s mind is focused on prayers and positive thoughts, it brings him peace inside. But if the mind is somewhere else, it fetches no good results. Eg. While in temple, one could be worrying about what if someone steals away my new footwear? When this happens, the rituals lose their meaning.

Moreover, owing to doership, one binds new karma. So while performing any ritual with a positive mindset, one binds good karma. But doing so, if one gets angry or anxious for some reason, one could blindly end up binding enormous bad karma.

Real Religion: A Spiritual Path without Rituals and Doership.The real religion is to know the real Self. Spirituality means to progress on the path of the real religion.It means realizing answers to questions such as: Who am I? Who is God? Where is God? Who is the doer? What is Karma? Who made the Universe? What is a Soul? If God is the creator of the world, why do tsunami, earthquakes and diseases happen in this world; why are people in stress, tension and misery? Lord Krishna, Mahavir, Rama, Lord Shiva – they achieved something beyond intellect, beyond ego and beyond all rituals; that’s why we are praying to them as God.

So, what is that thing that they achieved? Can we achieve that thing too? How?
To find these answers and to strive to attain that thing that our Gods whom we worship attained, is in fact the real religion. And to understand the knowledge of this real religion is the ultimate purpose of our life.
So who can give us these answers? With whose help can we fulfil the ultimate purpose of our life?

Every person can be spiritual if they can find the right Spiritual Master.It is because Gnani Purush (Spiritual Master) is the one who is able to make us realize our Self. Self-Realization is the real thing that is to be attained in this human life. Parma Pujya Dada Bhagwan was searching for this thing since many lives. And He got Self-Realization in 1958. He not only attained the experience of the Pure Soul but he also discovered Akram Vignan, the stepless path to Self-Realization, whereby Self-Realization could be directly given to multiple people across the world.

He would always say - May the world attain the happiness that I have attained. I am living in ultimate happiness and peace, 24 hours a day; others should have that too. If everyone is Self-Realized, then everyone can be free of sadness, sorrow, grief and misery. They can live happily ever after.

Before He attained blissful death in 1988, He blessed his two-committed devotees Pujya Niruma and Pujya Deepakbhai to continue imparting Self-Realization to the world. Pujya Niruma had a blissful death in 2006. And presently, Pujya Deepakbhai is the Spiritual Master, who imparts Self-Realization (Gnan) to every seeker who is keen to attain the knowledge of the Self. You do not have to change your religion or your Guru to attain this Self-Realization. You do not have to pay money or anything to attain this either. It is just about attaining the right vision with the grace of the Spiritual Master (Gnani Purush)!!!

To conclude,
Religion and Spiritualism are two different things. In religion, you achieve some good things and leave bad things. While in spiritualism, there is no achievement of good or bad. You become totally separate from all of the good and bad and you become the Pure Soul.

In reality, you are a Pure Soul. Your Soul has always been pure, it never becomes impure. Only thing, you have to get the realization that “I am a Pure Soul.” Unless and until you attain Self-realization, you cannot attain liberation. Right now, whatever you know about yourself is not the real Self, it is all the relative self. And it is this relative self that performs ritual.

Transcending from the relative self to the real Self is spiritual. Rituals are for worldly development. But one who is seeking liberation and nothing but liberation need not get into ritual; such person should directly seek Gnani, attain Self-Realization from Him and embark on the path of spiritual.

To know more please visit: https://www.dadabhagwan.org/path-to-happiness/spiritual-science/who-am-i...