Vida Samadzai, actor

My Spiritual High

Varsha Naik

Vida Samadzai, actor Religion is spiritual and spirituality is religious. One tends to be more personal and private while the other tends to incorporate public rituals and organised doctrines passed down through the years. There is a bit of a confusion between them and one and the other are not distinctive. They are all points on the spectrum of belief systems known as religion. I was born in an Islamic family and country and believe in the Almighty, but my major religion is humanity. Do good to others and you will receive good. Neither religion nor spirituality is better or worse than the other though some people try to pretend that such a difference does exist. It all depends on your point of view and your practice. I mostly like to go by logic and science but my main focus is to help people around me — be nice and kind to them all. Religion and spirituality pair up differences, but at the same time they are just terms and words. The boundary between religion and spirituality is fluid. Rather than a debate between religion and spirituality we can think of the difference between human religion and divine religion. Whether religion is good or bad, really depends on how it is practised and lived. It is on an individual’s belief system. There have been great saints that have attained the fruits and realisations of a mystical approach to God by following religion. This includes Sufi saints like Rumi, Hafiz and Attar and Christian mystics such as Teresa of Avila, St Francis of Assisi. Each religion has produced spiritual seekers of the highest order. “Spirituality feels that all religions are valid; like the analogy of many paths leading to the same goal. Spirituality embraces all the world religions, but at the same time, is not constrained by any religious dogmas or forms. We believe not only in universal toleration, but we accept all religions as true. As different streams having different sources all mingle their waters in the sea, so different tendencies, various though they appear, crooked or straight, all lead to God.” — Swami Vivekananda — from Speech at World Parliament of Religions (1893)