5 Myths Spiritual People Have To Deal With

Say the word Spirituality and mental images of babas or gurus with ashrams in exotic locations
and an army of loyal followers pop-up. Thanks to mass media propaganda, most peoples idea of
spiritual people is that babas or monks, who force you to turn vegetarian, leave alcohol and
smoking, and practice yoga and meditation daily all to mint millions of dollars worth of money from
you (Sounds more like my gym trainer!).
This is why its very difficult for most people to imagine spirituality as something so simple and yet
so practical that it can be implemented in our daily living. Whats more, most people who dont
practice spiritual discipline such as Reiki, Transcendental Meditation, etc. lose the gift of
spirituality - Simple yet practical living, due to thousands of misconceptions they have.
Here are some real-life examples:
The agnostic friend: "Oye saale tu spiritual hoke daaru pe raha hai!
The new office colleague: Oh so you are a spiritual person..Thats so cool aap toh
relationships mein nahi believe karte hoge?
The non-spiritual parent: Saara din meditation karne se life sort out nahi hogi. Kuch kaam bhi
karlo!
So to help my fellow less evolved beings (pun intended :P) understand some practical aspects of
spirituality, heres a list of the 5 most common myths that people have about Spiritual People and
their reality:
Myth #1: Spiritual People Don't Get Angry
Myth: As a spiritual person I am not supposed to get angry or sad, I am supposed to be calm and
relaxed all the time. How can I get angry and yet be spiritual?
Reality: Spirituality isnt about the absence of emotions; its about not identifying or holding onto
them. So if you get angry - you dont stay in a perpetual state of anger, you feel the emotion
completely, disassociate from it, let go and move on.
Myth #2: Being Spiritual Means I Cant Smoke or Drink Anymore
Myth: If you are a spiritual person, you dont eat non-veg, drink alcohol, smoke or even date. (Yes I
am just going to go and meditate in my cave now!)
Reality: Spiritual people drink, smoke, make merry, and even eat non-veg. Yes certain spiritual
disciplines like sadhus and monks do advocate abstinence from these things, however for most of us
we dont have to leave anything. Thats because spirituality is about detachment not renunciation.
In simpler terms, it means have fun drinking, but dont identify yourself with it, if you need to
reduce it/or give it up for your benefit or someone elses benefit, you can.
Myth #3: Spiritual People Are Very Religious
Myth: If you are spiritual, you must be a very religious, and you must follow a lot of religious
rituals. (Yes I have my own moonlight cult!)
Reality: I am spiritual but I eat fish on Tuesdays. I get haircuts on Saturdays, and the only reason I
will feed a dog or a cow some food is because I love animals, not because my Rahu or Ketu is
imbalanced.
Unlike, religion which has a certain set of religious beliefs and practices, spirituality is
individualistic. You can chant and be spiritual, you can make love and be spiritual (Tantra), you can
follow reiki practices and be spiritual. You can be Hindu, Muslim, Sikh, and Christian and be

spiritual. In fact traces of spirituality exist in every religion. In Islam, the Sufism sect is the
spiritual sect Think Khwaja Mere Khwaja. Similarly, the Indian Ocean song Kandisa is another
spiritual song which praises God as the divine from the Syrian Aramaic Church in Kerala.
Myth#4: Spiritual People Have To Believe In Karma and Reincarnation
Myth: You need to believe in karma, past lives, and aura, etc. spiritual mumbo jumbo to be
spiritual.
Reality: You honestly dont need to believe or know your past lives, in aura energy fields, etc. to
be spiritual. If you are living in the moment and enjoying life, you are being spiritual. If you are
living with the intent to do whats best for yourself and others, you are being spiritual. Its just that
simple!
Myth#5: Spiritual People Meditate for Hours Daily
Myth: I cant be spiritual because unlike you I cant meditate or chant daily. Its too difficult and I
dont have time.
Reality: People believe that to be spiritual you need to meditate and you need to meditate for
hours daily. Who has the time to meditate daily for hours? Whats the point of sitting still?
The bottom-line is people can be spiritual without having to meditate for hours. Meditation is
simply one of the techniques to help you calm your mind so that you can focus and achieve a state
of total focus and immersion and become present to the moment (Although meditation has a much
deeper meaning than that which is beyond the scope of this article).
One of the best mythical examples of being in this state of total immersion is Lord Shiva. In his
Shiva form, he is conventionally meditating and completely immersed in it. In his Rudra form, he
is fighting demons and completely immersed in it. In his Shankar form, he is attending to his
family and completely immersed in it. And in his Nataraj form, he is dancing and completely
immersed in it.
Like any new skill that we learn, its harder in the beginning and we need to invest more time and
effort, however, after a while, even 10-15 minutes of meditating is enough. The benefits - You are
calm and more focused on the things you love doing. You can let go of things and emotions easily.
You slow down and relax more. And who doesnt want that in todays fastpaced life?
Thats the beauty of Spirituality which, I believe, we all have done at some point of time in our
lives, just we were never aware of it.