Our elders and grandparents always used to pray. They would follow traditions and be typically God-fearing. God always played an important role in their lives. So much so that in many households the food prepared was first offered to God and only then consumed by the family members.

God played the role of an anchor in times of crises and of a provider in times that were tough. God taught them to trust in a higher power and to believe that there was someone taking care of them. God taught them faith.
For some people all the above still exists. But for a majority of us, some part of that definition has changed. We do believe in God and his supreme powers yet our focus in life has shifted drastically to materialism. We believe in God till he is the provider. The faith that we have in God is now not as strong as it was earlier. We have made it very conditional.
With the many new discoveries and growth in the field of science and technology, we have started trusting technology more than we trust ourselves. How many of us remember more than five phone numbers by heart? Earlier we remembered most landline numbers but now we just feed the numbers into our phones. Growth in any field is brilliant provided we don’t let any other aspect of our lives suffer because of it.
Globalisation has brought in a lot of economic reforms but it has also taken away our focus. We are more materialistic and
are losing touch with ourselves. Faith is lost and so is the trust in ourselves and others. In such a situation we need something higher to fall back on and spirituality provides that solution.
Spirituality is not new. It is the science of connecting or reconnecting with ourselves. It is the inner path, the journey within, discovering the true essence of our being, understanding the values and principles that we stand and live by. Spirituality is a way of life just like religion. A few differences being that in religion we worship God in all his forms and in spirituality we bow down to the God within. In the spiritual understanding God exists within each one of us and we need to connect with him through various methods that we believe in. Some follow the route of meditation, some believe in understanding themselves through various other practices like prayers, contemplation and introspection.
Religion is created by humans but spirituality, they say, is inborn. Each one of us is born spiritual. Religion is also a part of spirituality. Religion usually has a set path whereas spirituality is more eclectic. The deeper purpose of both is the same: to connect us with God.
Globalisation has brought with it many changes. We have improved our work culture and ethics in many ways. With all this lifestyles have also changed and been adapted by us. The drawback is that we have not chosen wisely while adapting to the global world. Everything has become very centric to the self. Most decisions and relationships are based on what yields the highest growth personally and professionally rather than what it does to you as a family unit. Faith and trust have very little value today. Materialism ranks higher than personal relationships.
The West has had its influences. And somewhere along the way we have lost touch with our own traditions. However, we are slowly turning our attention back to spirituality. The increase in the number of diseases and the utter materialism around has almost forced us to reconnect and probably helped us regain the faith and trust in the goodness of life and the goodness of people around us. It is spirituality that suits us in today’s times. Since it is as eclectic as we want it to be and the principle of no rigid rule helps us remain connected to it. Today, when our lives are primarily governed by questions, the best place to seek an answer is from within.

The writer can be reached at mallikabhatia.com