How does spirituality increase happiness and productivity?

Spirituality has the power to transform us. It can change the paradigm of life. Spirituality opens the doors to a life of Everlasting Peace, Divine Love and Eternal Happiness. It can help us experience the ultimate happiness — a state of SatChitAnanda - wherein we experience Divine bliss, an ecstasy unknown to the common man, because we live in Consciousness of the Truth. The path of spirituality is such! It helps us overcome ignorance. It helps us to be enlightened about the truth of who we are, about life, and about God.

Many people confuse spirituality with religion. Spirituality, we must understand, is beyond religion. Religion can begin our journey to God, but spirituality concludes it. Thus, religion is only the kindergarten of spirituality. It teaches us the basics of God. It only introduces God to us but to realise God, we have to evolve, grow and go to spirituality.

Spirituality is the science of the Spirit, the Soul, the Atman. The Soul is what gives us life. It is the energy, the life force that gives us breath. At death, there is no breath. A dead body has no Soul. Spirituality, therefore, reveals the truth. It makes us discover who we are. It leads us to self-realisation, our true reality – that we are not this body that we appear to be. Neither are we the mind and ego that thinks it's ME. We are the Divine Spirit, we are the very God we seek! It helps us to realise that God is not a person like us, God is a power, God is energy. God is SIP, the Supreme Immortal Power! Today even science admits that every cell of human existence is energy.

Spirituality, thus, leads us to the realisation of the truth — it leads us to self-realisation, to God-realisation. It liberates us from all ignorance; from the myths, the superstitions, the lies we have learned over the years. God is nameless and formless. God is a Power that is Supreme and Immortal. God is beyond human comprehension. We realise that the world is just an illusion. It is a projection, a drama. We are just actors who come, perform our parts and go. With this realisation, we learn to enjoy the show, realising that nothing is real.

Nothing, thus, affects us. We remain peaceful and calm. We also realise that whatever happens in this world, or whatever unfolds in our life is because of our own Karma. When some tragic events unfold, we rejoice, we celebrate realising that some of our negative Karma is being settled. Material pursuits no longer interest us.

We realise that they can never give us true happiness. Whatever we do, we do as an instrument of the Divine. Even if we are engaged in so-called worldly activities, it is not because of greed or selfishness but for the greater good of mankind. It is to build faith, and bring people closer to God. To help people live in the light of the truth, peacefully, blissfully, with meaning and purpose. With spirituality, we transcend the body and mind; we let go of the ego.

We are liberated from the triple suffering — from the pain of the body; the misery of the mind —stress, fear, worry; and the agony of the ego - anger, hate, jealousy. We realise we all are the Divine Soul. There is no you and I - we are all the Atman, the Soul, a part of the Divine. There is a sense of non-duality, oneness, universal brotherhood.

We love one and all recognising and realising the Soul in all. We treat each other with reverence and love. In fact, we realise that everything is a manifestation of the Supreme Immortal Power, SIP. We are free from all negativity — negative thoughts, negative emotions, negative actions. We live with love, trust, hope, faith, acceptance, surrender, courage.

The mind does not control us. We live in the state of thoughtlessness, of Consciousness. It brings out not only the best of humanity, but our inherent Divinity. In such a state of awareness, realisation, not only is there tremendous unending joy, but we are Divinely inspired because we are always connected to the Divine, the source of our existence!