Vipul Agarwal, Delhi, 19 August 2026
The five elements, Prithvi, Jal, Agni, Vayu, and Aakash, are the fundamental components of the whole of creation. We encounter their creation in so many different forms. Some of the forms frighten us, while we fall in love with some others. We enjoy an evening on the beach, looking at the ocean’s water as the wind blows slowly. But if the wind blows fast and takes the form of a hurricane or tsunami, the same water and wind become quite dangerous, and we want to get out of the place. We categorise it as a disaster. A little excess of energy below the surface shakes all the buildings, and we call that an earthquake. Drizzling looks very pleasant, but when it rains heavily, it turns into a flood. What looks very attractive can turn into disaster with a slight “mischief” from one of these elements. But, at the same time, if we examine the cosmos, new stars and planets are always the result of that “mischief”. What appears to be a disaster to us is actually nature’s mechanism for new creation.
The same five elements work inside us. So many clouds keep floating in our Aakash in the form of different thoughts. On a clear day, we have fewer clouds in the sky and on a rainy day, we have more of them. Sometimes, we are happy looking at these clouds because they look beautiful. At other times, they look gloomy. Sitting in the morning, having a cup of tea, and reading the newspaper, we think of the good old days, and the memories of childhood friends fill our brain, just like some beautiful clouds making the sky very attractive. We enjoy those memories, and while enjoying those memories, we get a call from parents about the demise of a close relative we are quite attached to. The entire sky turns gloomy. The attractive clouds disappear, and now the sky is filled with very dark and dense clouds, and a cloudburst may happen any time. The same space looks very gloomy and depressed. What changed? The space? No, the space remains unaffected.
What is spirituality? Is it about ignoring the dense clouds in the sky? Is it about a belief that nothing will happen to us, even if there is a cloudburst? Belief that nothing will happen to us is just an escape. It’s not reality. We believe in something because of our inability to accept reality. That does not lead us anywhere. At best, somebody may die without crying because he may have a very strong belief that nothing will happen to him due to the cloudburst till the last breath. I don’t think that can be the purpose of spirituality.
Is it about turning our attention away from the cloudburst and focusing on the beautiful clouds rather than at some other place? That means whenever we get to experience pain, we concentrate on the pleasant things. When there is pain in one part of the body, we should take the attention away from that part of the body and concentrate on the healthy part of the body. Is that ever going to happen? Never. We may sing a devotional song and remain immersed in that song for a few moments or a few hours, but as soon as we get out of that, the pain will return. The gloomy clouds are still there. How much can we escape from that?
Spirituality is none of these. Rather, spirituality is just a little zooming out. When we zoom out, we can see that in the same sky, there are beautiful clouds in one place and dense clouds in another. We can also see that there were beautiful clouds on the sky some time back, and it is full of gloomy clouds now. We can see that different types of clouds keep forming and keep disappearing. We realise that nothing is permanent and everything keeps changing. When we see it, we don’t get fixated on a particular cloud, whether beautiful or gloomy. It does not mean that we will surrender to the cloudburst and will accept death. Spirituality is not surrender to death. Rather, when we zoom out, we understand that the Sun may not be visible to us due to the cover of the clouds, but that does not mean that the Sun does not exist. That zooming out helps us see reality from a wider perspective, and we get to see so many different possibilities that may not be visible to a clouded mind. That develops faith, not belief. A faith that there is something larger which we don’t know yet, and the “weather of the day” will keep changing, bringing many new possibilities to participate in the play of life.
