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78 : Śramaņa, Vol 61, No. 3 July-September 10
the knot of the ego-sense in the form of 'T' and 'Mine'."3 This approach towards 'Mokşa' or salvation has been analyse by the late Prof. R.K. Tripathi of Banaras Hindu University in his paper entitled 'Spirituality from the Indian point of view.' It points out the common and essential feature of different kinds of spirituality, it brings the vital importance of spirituality, it distinguishes the inner aspect of spirituality from the external forms and it recognizes also many forms of spirituality."
It may be emphasized here that spirituality is a method or a 'Mārga' as we call it in India. In this sense, "it is primarily a way of life or method or discipline with the necessary implication that there can be many methods and disciplines and not only one, although the goal is one. "S When this is forgotten and the method is mistaken to be the thing itself, there is fanaticism, narrowness, and dogmatism. If we want to avoid bigotry and fanaticism and we do not intend to ignore other religions and traditions, it is necessary to accept a pluralistic approach. Precisely here comes the relevance of plurality of paths-i.e. paths of the Bhakti (Devotion or Love), Jñāna (knowledge), Karman (Action), Yoga, the Buddhist way, the Jaina way and so on.
Different methods define their goals differently in terms of salvation, Mukti, Nirvāṇa and īśvaraprāpti etc. considering life after death. But something may happen here and now if we take recourse to any of these methods properly and sincerely and the immediate objective may be defined in terms of realization of permanent peace.
Empiricists may discover the cause of loss of peace in external circumstances; the moralists may see the cause as vice or sin. For the spiritualists the source of disquiet is something internal, the ego. It is the ego that isolates and separates us from the 'Plentitude' and causes the rise of a narrow sense of self-interest and selfishness, for it is the ego which passes for ourselves. Our life remains nothing but the life of ego all the time seeking self
