Why People Become Religious Only When They Grow Old?
                            It is well known fact that as the people grow, they become more spiritual This is also proven by scientific studies. A study conducted by the Gallup Organization, on behalf of The Baylor Institute for Studies of Religion and the Baylor University Department of Sociology revealed that people between the ages of 18 and 30 are "three times" more likely to have no religious affiliation than those aged 65 and older.

The younger generation finds it extremely difficult to believe on something that they can’t see and logically understand. It is no wonder then the older people often find it difficult to relate to the younger generations as their thoughts are quite different than those of the younger generation. Often they use their authority to force the younger generation to follow the "right path". However such attempts are not successful in the modern time. So often the parents instead of understanding the reasons call the younger generation material, corrupt, sensual, and disobedient. The younger generation calls it "generation gap".

It is, therefore, necessary to understand the root cause of the faith that becomes so important in the later part of human life. If only younger generation can understand the "reasons" for spirituality, they can perhaps have no problem in leading a more happy and healthy life.

The Evolution of Human Beings

In order to understand this mystery of faith and spirituality, let us first understand the relationship between the body, senses, mind, soul and Spirit or God. Gita (III 42-43) explains the relationship in the following words.

The senses are superior to the body. Above the senses is the mind, above the mind is the Intelligence and above the Intelligence is God. Thus realizing God to be superior to intelligence, control the body by the soul and destroy lust, the eternal enemy of man.

Thus every human being evolves from the stage of body to senses to mind to soul and finally to the stage of the spirit. This evolution can be slow or fast, yet happens in the life of every person in the same order. In Indian philosophy, the salvation of man is nothing but the realization of the state of God or Spirit. Once a person attains this stage, he become free from the cycle of birth and death and never take birth again in this world. We shall try to understand the evolution of the spirituality in human being from this basic principle.

Infant State: When Body is everything

In the lowest level of evolution, the infant consider himself to be the center of the universe as the world seems to revolve around him. His requirements are driven purely by the needs of the body. He cries when he feels hungry or wet his cloths. He has no sense of taste after many months of his birth. All its requirements are based on the signals of the body. The body is the mind of the child. He seeks comfort of the body and sleeps for most of the time as sleep is the most comfortable state of body. The infant is ignorant of the knowledge of the world and his nature seems to be the nature of darkness or ignorance.

Childhood: The Rule of Senses

As an infant grows to become a child, gradually his sense perception becomes stronger. Senses are like the eyes of the body as the sense organs are the input organs for the person. A child likes the foods and drinks that are good for the taste buds and hate the food that are not tasty. He touches the object that is pleases the skin cells i.e. soft objects. He loves bearing cloths that are bright and appeals to the eyes. A child has no time for sleep till he is completely exhausted as he gets greatest satisfaction in the engagement of the senses. The control of body becomes gradually weakens and the person care less for the body and more for the senses. A child is always active and running around. However the mind of the child is still evolving and the child is least concerned about the concepts or achievements that are unrelated to senses based on the perception of mind.

Youth: When Mind Rule Supreme

As a person advances in his childhood and enters into the stage of youth, the mind becomes stronger. Mind provides the primary understanding of the world to the person based on the knowledge acquired from books and elders. He receives such knowledge in the schools and from their parents and considered them to be truth without question. His mind is filled with this artificial model of the world and he amends himself to fit into this model of the world so as to make himself most successful or desirable by the world.

A youth can sacrifice his most desirable food if that makes him or her better looking (even if it makes him less healthy). The worldly logic and reasons fills the mind of a youth. He wants to succeed and get appreciation. He works hard to look good and achieve more and more in this world. He works hard to get higher marks in the class as he start feeling the satisfaction of mind.

Most of the actions of a young person are driven by his mind that is based on logic and reason. For him, the world is definable and understandable. He feels that he could achieve anything by personal effort and hard work. His mind is fresh and cant accept anything without logic and reason. In short, at this stage mind rules the person and spirituality seems like myth.

Adulthood: The Awakening of Soul

A person reaches to the peak and physical and mental growth by adulthood and reaches to face the world independently. When a person enters into the real world and apply the theories developed by his mind during youth, he often fails to get the results as predicted by these theories. It is in the early adulthood that a person learns that everyone does not follow the rules that are valid in theory. He thus continuously changes his perception or model of the world so as to succeed. The easiest way to learn new knowledge that is never taught in the schools and colleges is from others. He often copies the successful people to achieve success in life. Yet even those models fails as the things are continuously evolving in the world and the same person can never hope to encounter same situations and person as another person. Here starts the role of intelligence.

Intelligence can be defined in simple words as "the ability to comprehend; to understand and profit from experience". By another definition, "Intelligence refers to the various verbal and nonverbal skills and aptitudes one uses to cope with, interact with, and manipulate the outside world."

Intelligence is an inherent capability of a person to deal with this world. It is the capability that enables a person to see relationships between divergent realities and divergent incidents. Intelligence connects the individual person with the rest of the world.

The intelligence of a person helps him discover himself and through the self discover the world. Through individual intelligence a person connects to the cosmic intelligence and finds the solutions of the problems that has no precedence. This he acquires the true knowledge that comes without any external teaching. In the word of Galileo Gallilei,

"You cannot teach a person anything; you can only help him find it within himself."

The discovery of the self is the discovery of soul as the soul is the very essence of the person. At this stage a man understand that he is unique in this world and the source of his happiness lies in him and not outside. He is situated in self and enjoys the self.

The Age of Wisdom

Intelligence helps the person solving the real life problems and succeeds in life. Through the knowledge of self, a person understands the others self. Thus by understanding the mind of others, one can achieve success in the world. However, even at this stage, a person is devoid of happiness as he still live for the self and does the work for self satisfaction. He may have acquired a lot of fortune and position in the society, yet he does not have lasting happiness.

At this stage, a person realizes the interconnections of all the souls of the world which is understood in religions as God, Universal Soul (Paramatma) or Spirit. At the spiritual stage of evolution, a person sees God in everyone and everyone in God. Since God is present is him also so at the stage of spirit a man become closest to God. Thus he can see himself in everyone and everyone in him.

At the spiritual stage of evolution, the distinction of "self" and "others" disappear as everything in the world become complementary to each other rather than different from each other. The whole world seems like one organism and each individual like a cell of the body. Hence, an spiritually involved person understand that by doing good to others, one is actually doing good to self only as everything in this world is nothing but the extension of the self. This is the stage man evolves to the level of God and he can really understand God as rightly said by a Christian Heretics in Third Century, "If you dont make yourself equal to God, you cant perceive God."

............TO BE CONTINUED.......