Spirituality – a word that many people connect with eastern religions, polytheism and often enough also with different sects and their gurus. Okay, the audience reading this article might protest and say that these all are clichés, prejudices and unjustified assumptions. But let’s face it, the average person does have associations which go in this direction if they hear the words spirituality or esoteric.
Yoga has already managed to jump out of this field of obscure and somehow mystic subjects and practices due to the healthy benefit of the physical exercise and mental relaxation which even top companies nowadays accept as part of a healthy lifestyle and recommend to their employees. And this is how even top managers enjoy going on yoga retreats in India even though they don’t have any other connection with the culture or religion of this country.
As soon as it comes to the philosophical part however we reach into the same area: gurus, spiritual leaders, disciples and sects. You cannot blame these people, they have read enough horror-stories in newspapers brainwashed communities and they saw on TV how millions of people carry gold to their guru whom they believe to be an incarnation of the Almighty. Maybe they even have an acquaintance or a former friend who left behind his ‘normal’ life to join this kind of group. Let me ask you now: is it really unfair of these people to have an uneasy feeling about spirituality if that friend just vanished out of their lives from one second to another with the reason that his guru doesn’t like this friendship? I don’t believe so!
If you really try to find out more about today’s gurus, you will find that is doesn’t seem to have changed much with the development of science. Okay, now that guru has a website, but he still makes his followers and disciples believe that he is God, that he can materialize things just like God, that he knows what will happen to you in future which only God can know or that he saw what happened to you in a past life which again is something that only God would know. And this is how people like to follow. Swami Balendu stated very nicely in his personal online diary that these disciples seem to him like sheep. Why? Because they feel good that they don’t need to think, don’t need to see where they are going and what they are doing, they only need to follow their guru.
It is nice because it takes all responsibility from them. No decisions to take, nothing that you can do wrong. Is this modern thinking?
No! We urgently encourage everyone, every single person around the globe to take his own responsibility, to take his own decisions and to act with full consciousness! Be yourself, it is okay if something goes wrong, you are just human and mistakes happen! Have confidence in yourself! You don’t need a guru and nobody to follow, your spirituality lies within you and you are God within yourself. This is spirituality!
And you see, this is how spirituality comes into your daily life. Into each person’s daily life, if he thinks about it or not.

Author's Bio: 

Ramona Meisch is Swami Balendu's wife and Senior Manager of http://www.jaisiyaram.com. Together with him as his family she welcomes visitors to their Ashram in India for Ayurveda Yoga Holidays, Ayurvedic Cooking Retreats and more: http://www.jaisiyaram.com/ayurvedicyoga.
Swami Balendu writes his daily diary, a comprehensive resource of topics as Yoga, Ayurveda, Indian and Western Culture, Religion and God, Love and Sex and of course Relationships on http://www.jaisiyaram.com/blog
After having lived the life of a guru, he went into a cave for meditation for three years and 108 days. When he came out he decided to leave his guru life and travel to spread his message of love. He also runs a school for poor children in India.