Are You Religious or Spritual, or Atheist or Secular, or What?

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The book, more than a philosophic endeavour, elaborately and meticulously discusses a vibrant thought Are You - Religious or Spiritual, or Atheist or Secular, or What? for our deep contemplation and action, and suggests means to address the challenges that crop up in our spiritual life in a simple and lucid style. It is focuses on those persons who seek to learn about and understand the multiple forms of religious or spiritual or secular life. It aims to foster mutual understanding, communication and dialogues between persons having different religious, spiritual and secular orientations, and calls for a peaceful coexistence of people of different world views. In the present world spiritual scenario, it suggests a spiritual alternative of letting go with love and compassion, which is highly appealing. Also it gives an overview of the major religion of the world, keeping in mind both religious and non- religious people and persons from all walks of life. The unique feature of this volume is its down to earth practicality and simplicity in introducing, analysing and guiding its readers when dealt with a complex topic of religion and spirituality.

Sushil Kumar Srivastava, a graduate mechanical engineer, was a former Member of Institution of Engineers, India; a Member of Fluid Power Society of India; a member of a few committees of Inter Plant Steel Standards, India. After retirement from service, Srivastava took up writing seriously. He has also authored Corporate Governance of Universe (co-author Manorama Srivastava); Healing by Reprogramming of Instinctive Mind (co- author Mangla Prasad Srivastava); Wonders of Prana Healing (co-author Mangla Prasad Srivastava); Interview Skills; Career Inter- views; Tribology in Industries; Career Counseling and Planning; Maintenance Engineering: Principles, Practices & Manage- ment; USA: Study, Job and Immigration Made Easy; Career Counseling; Maintenance Engineering and Management; Study and Immigration in USA; Industrial Maintenance Management and Oils, Lubricants and Lubrication. Mindfulness Meditation and Mental Well-being (co-author Mangla Prasad Srivastava) is his forthcoming title. Also, he has presented scores of articles/ papers on various topics in national and international forums.

THE title of the book appears to be somewhat confusing or irrelevant to many of us as most of us see everything in the world through materialistic lens. True, we live in a materialistic world, but we should know that "Our true identity is spiritual and not physical", i.e. we should not believe that we are only bodies, born to die and that death of the body is the end of us. We are multidimensional spiritual beings. The law of karma clearly lays down that death does not end the chain of life and birth. In whichever activities we engage ourselves, the body is not the agent but is only an instrument for activities. The agent is the soul that dwells in the body and it does not die when death takes place physically. Without going into the debate of "theory of reincarnation", one thing is sure that we, the humans, are not just "bodies", born to die, i.e. to look each and every aspect through materialistic lens, but we have something more fundamental and distinctive in our life. Having known that we are not just a physical body, comes the question of spirituality and religion. Does it really matter if we are spiritual or religious? If we seek out the original meanings of the terms "religious" and "spiritual", we will find that they, once, described the two different paths to the Divine. When it comes to divinity, one is not actually religious, but is a number or a person only. But later emerged bewildering diversity of the ways people carry on religious life - the diversity not only between religions but also within any one religion. The more we dig into the subject, the more we realize that the loss of original meaning (different paths to the same Divine) affected the happiness of the millions of people around the world and still affecting. Today, religion is not merely a private affair; it matters socially, economically, politically and militarily. This led to people focusing greater attention on atheism, spiritualism and secularism. However, caution should be exercised to the impact of the dark side of spirituality, atheism and secularism in the life of individuals and communities especially in the world characterized by globalization, materialism, and religious and cultural diversity. Today's increased use of social media, mass media and technology (digital and mobile) in our life has resulted in newer and newer formulations and interpretations of religiosity, spirituality and secularism, and that increasingly blurs the boundaries between the terms religious, spiritual, secular and atheist. However, the expansion of these media also provides a greater diversity of choices for consumers of religion/spirituality/secularism, more so in industrial societies. The book tries to tell what these mean for us and how we proceed to overcome the problems. The main purpose of this book is to assist its readers' efforts to understand the diversities between these, assess their position and set their goal to come into right relationship with, what we understand to be, the Ultimate Reality. The book is written for persons who seek to learn about and understand the multiple forms of religious or spiritual or secular life in a manner as free as possible from the ulterior motives, distorting prejudices, and misleading preconceptions and source of information about them. More than simply promoting understanding for its own sake, the book aims to foster mutual understanding, communication and dialogue between persons having different religious/spiritual/secular orientations.

**Contents and Sample Pages**