Perspectives of Urban Indian Adults on Spirituality and Religiousness: Similarities and Differences with Western Literature

Abstract

Hundred adults from Mumbai, representing both sexes, and a variety of ages, religions and occupations, were each asked to share their perspective on what it was to be spiritual and what it was to be religious. We analyzed their open-ended descriptions using qualitative data analytic strategies. The most prominent characteristic of being spiritual identified was transcending a particular religion and abstracting universalities across religions. Other examples of themes characterizing a spiritual person were: observing and experiencing unity between self and others, experiencing equanimity or inner peace, and being guided by the spirit of a religion rather than the letter. The most recurrent motif with regard to being religious was belief or faith in one religion, more specifically one’s own religion. Another example of a theme extracted was that being religious is practicing the rituals and rules of a particular religion. Some of the themes characterizing a spiritual person were counter-opposed to those characterizing a religious person, a few themes were qualitatively independent, and some were consonant. The similarity as well as distinctiveness of these findings with regard to Western literature is addressed. Conditions under which spirituality and religiousness can be overlapped versus polarized are discussed. It is concluded that inclusive conceptions in religiousness bridge the distance between spirituality and religiousness.